SAP, Siemens and T-Systems join forces to accelerate digitisation and sustainability of Dutch industry

On 6 July, during the kick-off event 'Together for Industry 4.0', the three companies explained the cooperation and its ambitions. Through this cooperation, customers will benefit from better and faster results when it comes to digitalisation. This is because of the integrated approach of the three organisations. The organisations are convinced that the cooperation will also lead to solutions from which new standards will emerge, benefiting both the Dutch and the entire European industry.

Dutch industry is looking for opportunities for a sustainable, climate-neutral, circular economy. At the same time, it will have to increase its efficiency and earning capacity in the coming years. This requires both further investments in digitalisation and the need to work together in new ecosystems. The Industry and Energy Summit of March 2021, among others, showed this. Numerous companies are already doing a lot on a small scale. However, the big turnaround to realise a more efficient and sustainable production and logistics chain is still not happening.

Major transformation projects take longer, are more expensive than expected and do not deliver the intended value. Together, the three tech companies now want to strengthen the competitiveness of Dutch companies by accelerating time-to-market, productivity, flexibility and sustainability. The German home market serves as a guideline. The mutual cooperation between the three initiators is also new and is based on commitment, trust and value creation, as it should be in an ecosystem. It is therefore not cast in a contract.

SAP, Siemens and T-Systems see a growing need for smart factory solutions. The market is also demanding more transparency of production processes and logistics chains. With the maturing of the technological components of industry 4.0, such as industrial IoT (IIoT), 5G campus networks, AI & machine learning and both edge and cloud, companies can gain added value. The integration of consultancy, advanced operational technology and IT services from the three collaborating companies enables successful customised implementation and application of the innovative technologies. The aim is to help companies move beyond the pilot phase and reach the level of a concrete, mature and scalable business model with co-innovation and collaboration.

"Customers expect high-quality products to be delivered quickly. That requires optimisation of the end-to-end supply chain," says Rinse Tamsma, Managing Director SAP Netherlands. "That supply chain must be agile, enable interaction and, partly through the deployment of Industrie 4.0, increase productivity. The supply chain must also be designed as sustainably as possible so that climate targets are met. In our view, agility, interaction, productivity and sustainability are the four key concepts. By working together, Siemens, T-Systems and SAP are taking a big step in the right direction," continued Tamsma. "By deploying our products and services in an integrated way, customised digitalisation is within reach. In this way, together we contribute to high customer satisfaction."

"The corona pandemic has once again underlined that companies have a strong interest in scalability and efficiency. So that they can timely anticipate a strong and rapidly changing market. Despite good foundations, this process is currently going too slowly in the Netherlands, we compare with the other top innovative countries. Nobody can do this transformation alone. That is why we are setting an example with this collaboration. With our different backgrounds, we take a piece of complexity away from our joint customers. They can enjoy the benefits of digitalisation faster. From more efficient and sustainable production with fewer production errors to better insight for the internal organisation and customers. In this way, the Dutch industry is prepared for the future." Dirk De Bilde - CEO Siemens Netherlands.

"The starting point is an open collaboration to realise customer goals. This means that other parties can also be flexibly added to the ecosystem. SAP, Siemens and T-Systems have previously proven they can work together successfully. A recent example is Catena-X, where we are already working together to enable secure and standardised data exchange for the automotive industry. As far as we are concerned, this is a role model for other sectors." Sake Algra - Managing Director T-Systems Netherlands.