Here’s How Siemens and SAP Are Leveraging Their Partnership to Boost Medical Asset Management
No man is an island, so the adage goes, and nowhere does this wisdom hold truer than in the world of business. No matter how large or small a company is, it will inevitably rely on the goods and/or services of other brands to make its operation work.
Often, these relationships are limited to simple supplier/customer relationships, such as in the case of field service provision to ensure a factory’s machines keep running through regular service and maintenance. However, sometimes these relationships transform into more formal partnerships where two or more companies come together to operate in mutually beneficial symbiosis.
As one of the biggest names in technology, and particularly healthcare, Siemens fully understands the value of partnerships, as evidenced by the recent expansion of its relationship with CRM solutions provider, SAP.
Siemens
As one of the world’s largest manufacturers of medical equipment and industrial equipment, Siemens is responsible for the ongoing service and maintenance of a great many devices and machines. The management of these assets can be greatly boosted by the kind of customer experience technology SAP brings to the partnership and the recent announcement only serves to cement this benefit.
SAP and Siemens Digital Industries Software announced today an expansion of their partnership that will enable both companies to deliver new solutions for the Service and Asset Lifecycle," said Siemens in a press release. "With an initial focus on discrete manufacturing, Siemens will begin to offer SAP® Asset Intelligence Network, the SAP Asset Strategy and Performance Management application, and the SAP Enterprise Portfolio and Project Management package"
The expanded partnership between Siemens and SAP will make available new cloud-based services which will empower industrial equipment manufacturers and other field service clients to increase critical asset operational efficiency, avoid unplanned downtime, and shorten design cycles in their ongoing asset engineering projects.
Relationship Management
One of the more difficult components of asset management is managing the ongoing relationship between the operator of those assets and their manufacturer. Normally, you procure products from a company and that’s the end of it, but asset management requires that relationship continue far beyond the point of sale – something which can often prove extremely challenging to manage.
However, the renewed partnership between Siemens and SAP will offer solutions to allow design content to be seamlessly shared between operational stakeholders to for form a closed-loop digital twin system. This will, in turn, allow asset operators and managers to collaborate to develop and execute field service plans with a bilateral exchange of information.
"Siemens is helping industrial companies make more confident decisions by closing the loop between IT and OT," said Member of the Managing Board of Siemens AG and CEO Siemens Digital Industries, Cedrik Neike. "Through this partnership we are enabling a true digital thread that integrates real time operations-based data with virtual product and asset models to provide operational insights. This can accelerate digital transformation for industrial equipment owners, operators, and manufacturers who can offer new business models including performance and usage-based cost, and to more efficiently use assets."
Siemens and SAP are two of the biggest players in the asset management and customer relationship management games, respectively. And, while managing the relationships between asset operators and asset managers has often been fraught, if anyone can simplify the process it’s these two.
Digital technology of course lies at the heart of this partnership and the new levels of data sharing these platforms will enable will help drive growth on both sides of the relationship. Communication is key and these platforms deliver that in spades and in a way which spans the entire width and breadth of the businesses they serve.
"Siemens and SAP share a common vision for the future of industrial enterprises," said Member of the Executive Board of SAP SE for SAP Product Engineering, Thomas Saueressig. Through this partnership we can offer unparalleled benefits to our customers by delivering a digital thread across production and supply chains. This will enable companies to improve overall business performance and return on assets. Taking advantage of cloud solutions such as the SAP Asset Intelligence Network to strengthen collaboration and information exchange, together Siemens and SAP can help our customers accelerate Industry 4.0."
Final Thoughts
Keeping medical devices and factory machinery running at optimum effectiveness and efficiency is the stated goal of field service, but there are ways and means to make that management easier or harder. Technology such as that being developed by Siemens and SAP definitely falls into the former category and it will be intriguing to see what these two innovate brands produce next.
Asset management relationships are set to be part of the conversation at Field Service Palm Springs 2022, taking place in April at the JW Marriott Desert Springs.
Download the agenda for more information and insights.