The stated objective is that “Siemens AG has launched an open digital business platform, Siemens Xcelerator, to accelerate digital transformation and value creation for customers of all sizes in industry, buildings, grids and mobility. The business platform makes the digital transformation easier, faster and scalable.”

Peter Koerte, the Chief Technology and Strategy Officer at Siemens, recently stated in a podcast, “Xcelerator not only brings all of the critical digitalization components together – the service providers, the software partners and especially the hardware – it also provides both technical governance and interoperable solutions.

You realize this Xcelerator launch is very much for the longer gameplay.

Peter also provided further insights “At Siemens, we serve many different customers. So we are doing this in industry, we are doing this in buildings and infrastructure, and we’re doing this in mobility. And we saw that there is an incredible amount of work that goes into digital transformation and that many customers are coming to us and asking, please, can you help us?”

“The realization was, look, what we want to bring to our customers is solutions that are easy, fast and scalable. And this is what we hear over and over again: you have a bespoke solution that doesn’t work for me”.

The idea is to follow these design principles and provide more tailored solutions.” Peter then went on to explain: “it’s like Lego blocks where you very easily assemble and disassemble, and you just pick what you need. You really can get to these easy, fast and scalable solutions for our customers.”

Peter then explained: “And it’s a complex task. You need to have the hardware; you need to have software; you need services. So nobody holds the key, nobody. So, there you go. You need to have an ecosystem that is orchestrated where you have created a portfolio delivered to our customers or to the customer to solve their problems. And that’s where we realized that Siemens very often already held the key with regards to having some of the critical components already, but not all of them. And so we clearly said, okay, if we can bring them all together: the service providers, the software partners and the hardware – and this is very important, including the hardware – then we can make a big difference.”

The recognition from these positioning statements is that solutions have to be open, flexible, personalized and to be individually customized and need interoperable solutions to clearly work with each other then we come to What Xcelerator intends to provide.

Let’s step back from this terrific set of insights and have a back-to-basics review.

To cater for this strategic ambition, the B2B market needs, first and foremost, a change in emphasis, one of thinking out the evolution of platforms into ones designed to build thriving business ecosystems (B2B enabled) for all to collaborate around and build together.

So what is the Siemens Digital Business Platform?

What if you now reflect on what Siemens is proposing- a more open, collaborative platform, sharing their substantial portfolios, building out an ecosystem of certified partners as well as building out a marketplace of solutions that can be applied across the most significant markets of Industrial application, Buildings, Energy Grids and Transport. A Digital Business Platform that is governed as an intelligent, integrated and orchestrated one, provided in a single source and place but open, collaborative and certified.

So the “What If”becomes clearer in my mind.

The purpose is to create new product services and business models in the solutions provided. Solutions that accelerate revenues drive efficiencies through automation, improve profitability, enhance the customer experience, ensure compliance and link the ecosystem of partners for revenue and operational solution delivery for new client opportunities and improvement. Driving the digital transformation.

It needs to ask basic questions like, “can this proposal overcome the inherent inefficiencies overcome the disruptive traditional forces and present restricted business models?” “Can the solutions enable more sustainable business continuity? Can it change the nature of competitive advantage and shift the present mindset about technology adoption and risk?

Seeing a future and embracing it

Perhaps it is likely that Siemens recognizes where the future of digital transformation needs to go and sees a better approach to this digital transformation through this launch. A view reflecting that digital transformation requires a continuous evolution, fundamentally redefining the business operation and customer experience in highly connected, digital ways across an ecosystem of like-minded solution providers. Siemens, for me, has signalled that they are moving towards a new business model to take them even further as a focused technology company.

Siemens is opening up their solutions, combining these with others so the platform can provide a stronger response, a more resilient, agile, flexible and knowledge intense digital and real-world potential to boost productivity and competitiveness to scale up innovation through a digital transformation.

Siemens has signalled a new journey in a world that seems in a continuous state of flux and needs a more connected ecosystem, portfolio agility and robust, growing Marketplace for all to shop based on the Xcelerator Digital Business Platform (Website here)

So what Xcelerator Digital Business Platform does?

Digital Business Platforms create new digital business capabilities by recombining existing technologies and providing the platform for partners, customers and providers of services to come together and take these often individual solutions into a new level of connection to integrate these technologies, concepts and ideas to create new and disruptive capabilities that accelerate the community and advance the digital transition.

Any platform certainly needs to be of architecturally sound design to maximize the opportunities this recombination offers to digital transformation. Xcelerator is positioning itself to provide that as the platform orchestrator and provide the governance and undertake the lead. Xcelerator can transform.

You certainly stimulate ideas in platforms through engagement and interactions in a community-centric marketplace.

A critical part is to leverage data and as well as exchange ideas, build out software solutions within the collaboration space. Marshall Van Alstyne, who co-authored a great book “Platform Revolution” is the Questrom Chair Professor, Boston University and a Digital Fellow at MIT, commented on the power of leveraging data: “What I think is interesting,” Marshall stated, “is that one of the impediments to B2B [business-to-business] platforms has been [that] we haven’t had the frequency of interaction we’ve had in B2C [business-to-consumer] platforms. Machine to machine, device to device, will dwarf the number of interactions among people. And so, I think we should absolutely anticipate huge transitions towards these platforms and these models………to capture the value created”

Delivering digital transformation easier, faster and at scale

So for me, a strong platform for building out a growing portfolio, connecting an ecosystem and providing a marketplace does offer all involved the opportunity to create, deliver and capture new value in what the platform provides if it applies the governance and design principles, and rigour suggested, is timely and can transform the market dynamics in radically different ways.

Siemens Xcelerator offers the power of the network effect, a growing ecosystem of partners, designers, distributors and customers who can jointly accelerate the digital transformation. Today it is collaborations, relationships, cocreation and customer-centric solutions that change today into tomorrow for a different, connected future.

My third post is the last in this initial series that looks deeper into Siemens Xcelerator and explores “how it does it” coming up next.

 

Disclaimer: This article is published in partnership with Siemens. Siemens is paying for my engagement, not for promotional purposes. Opinions are my own