Siemens is working with US software firm ServiceNow to offer a software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution to identify and manage operating technology (OT) devices in industrial settings. The solution is designed to help enterprises manage new industrial-grade IoT, Wi-Fi, and 5G devices from a central cloud dashboard. “OT management is 10 years behind IT management,” said Siemens; the new project will seek to address this lag.
The solution sees Siemens integrate the ServiceNow’s data analytics software platform, called Now Platform, with its own cloud-based OT device management software – to “unleash the power of artificial intelligence and analytics” on shop floor process and automation systems. Siemens said the software enables enterprises to retrieve data from data silos, and put “IT and OT convergence into practice”. It will bring “transparency” to industrial asset management, it said.
A statement said: “It makes the status of all OT devices across the network completely transparent, regardless of manufacturer or device type, using just one tool. This functionality extends the NowPlatform, which already provides management of IT assets. With this expansion, Siemens and ServiceNow are addressing the need of their shared customers to increase transparency across the entire shop floor.
It went on: “As a result, incidents that could disrupt the production process in industrial plants can be prevented. The tool also allows for planning service tasks, identifying potential security vulnerabilities, and dispatching service personnel without additional manual or time costs. OT assets can now be managed with the same flexibility and interoperability as IT assets.”
The service are part of Siemens’ own Xcelerator digital business platform and Industrial Operations X portfolio, which presents automation solutions for production engineering, execution, and optimization.
Dirk Didascalou, chief technology officer in Siemens digital industries division, said: “OT management is 10 years behind IT management. ServiceNow has already mastered IT asset management – and this partnership means opening our ecosystem and leaving behind the silos… We are putting IT and OT convergence into practice and enabling speed and scale for our shared customers.”
Karel van der Poel, senior vice president of products at ServiceNow, said: “The digital transformation of manufacturing processes is happening at a rapid pace. We are witnessing the fusion of the physical and digital worlds, and IT and OT convergence is an underlying enabler. That digital transformation brings new opportunities for new business models and can help increase productivity significantly.”
The pair are showing their work at SPS 2023 in Nuremberg, in Germany, a key date in the German firm’s trade show calendar. They said they will “work more closely together in the future”.
System integrator NTT announced a deal 12 months ago with ServiceNow to introduce an “AI-enabled end-to-end workflow automation platform” to its private 5G proposition. The idea is enterprises will be able to migrate business processes onto the cloud using ServiceNow’s cloud platform, which incorporates some machine learning into workflow management, and set their cloud-based private 5G system from Celona to plug more effectively into their operations.