Siemens AG, SAP accelerate digital transformation with partnership

Siemens AG (Munich, Germany) and SAP SE (Walldorf, Germany) announced on July 14 a new partnership that will deliver integrated software solutions across product lifecycle management (PLM), supply chain, service and asset management. In turn, Siemens and SAP say this will enable customers to form a true digital thread that helps eliminate process and information silos by shortening time to market and incorporating customer insight into product development, drives digitalization and delivers a comprehensive solution for Industry 4.0.

"Digital transformation will be critical for the manufacturing industries to increase productivity, flexibility and accelerate innovation, so companies must come together in new ways to enable the digital enterprise,” say Klaus Helmrich, member of the Managing Board of Siemens AG and CEO of Siemens Digital Industries. “This collaboration is about more than just interoperability and interfaces; it is about creating a truly integrated digital thread that unites product and asset lifecycle management with the business that enables customers to optimize production of products.”

As a first step in the partnership, SAP says it will offer Siemens’ Teamcenter software as the core foundation for product lifecycle collaboration and product data management and Siemens will offer SAP Intelligent Asset Management and SAP Project and Portfolio Management solutions to maximize the business value for manufacturers and operators across networks. Further, both companies plan to collaborate to develop applications from an end-to-end lifecycle perspective to help customers achieve a seamless digital thread that improves overall business performance.

“Combining Siemens’ Teamcenter and SAP S/4HANA enterprise resource planning [EPR] software provides companies an end-to-end process capability from product design to decommission,” says Bob Parker, senior VP of Industry Research at IDC, a global provider of market intelligence, advisory services and events for the information technology, telecommunications and consumer technology markets. “The IT benefits of pre-integration of PLM, ERP, asset management and supply chain applications and the business benefits from having a more resilient response to changing market demand make this a compelling consideration for companies seeking a competitive advantage in the digital economy.”