Schneider Electric and Accenture build a digital services factory to speed development of industrial IoT solutions and services

New capability aims to reduce time between product ideation and market launch from three years to less than eight months

HANOVER and PARIS; Apr. 26, 2017 – Schneider Electric and Accenture have completed the development of the Schneider Electric Digital Services Factory, a ‘virtual’ factory that enables Schneider Electric – the leading global specialist in energy management and automation — to rapidly build and scale new offerings in areas such as predictive maintenance, asset monitoring and energy optimization.

Staffed with professionals from Schneider Electric and Accenture, the Digital Factory gathers data from the millions of connected assets across Schneider Electric’s infrastructure and customer sites to speed the development of new services, from ideation to industrialization and market launch.

The collaboration is part of a five-year contract that Schneider Electric awarded to Accenture in January 2016 to support the ongoing roll-out of Industrial internet of things (IoT)-enabled solutions and digital services.

The Digital Factory provides a range of services, including generating and incubating new ideas, designing and testing potential offerings, and deploying and scaling solutions, as well as providing the analytics and IoT capabilities to accelerate development of the new services.

Having helped develop the Digital Factory through strategic and technical consulting and change management services, Accenture is providing a range of services around innovative ideation and customer-centric solution development, business model development and analytics, and the “New Digital Service Lifecycle,” which combines customer analytics with agile, iterative service development and delivery.

“We are driving the digitization of our businesses, and the Digital Factory will significantly speed up our efforts,” said Cyril Perducat, executive vice president of IoT & Digital Transformation at Schneider Electric. “With new capabilities like analytics, design thinking, rapid service prototyping and iteration, we are now able to bring new services to market much, much faster.”

Accenture research shows that while industrial manufacturers believe that digital technologies are vital for their future, they risk losing market share and profits because their levels of digital adoption and their ability to innovate is low. Two-thirds of industrial companies that Accenture surveyed said they are feeling the impact of digital disruption, but half of them are not yet comprehensively investing in this area as part of their overall business strategy.

“Schneider Electric is aiming to cut the time from product ideation to market by 80 percent,” said Karim Chaabouni, a managing director in Accenture’s Industrial practice. “They want to deliver innovation at every level – from connected products to network edge control to analytics, apps and services. With Accenture’s help and the new factory, they will be able to that.”

The Schneider Electric Digital Services Factory is part of Schneider Electric’s programs around the recently launched IoT-enabled, open and interoperable system architecture and platform called “EcoStruxure,” which leverages technologies including the IoT, cloud, analytics, mobile and state-of-the-art cyber security to deliver added value around safety, reliability, efficiency, sustainability and connectivity to Schneider Electric’s clients.

*Accenture is attending Hannover Messe, Germany. The company is offering daily topical panel sessions with IIoT experts, keynote presentations from leading academic and business figures, and real-life applications of digital technologies for industrial companies for a range of scenarios, from greater operational efficiency to new revenue streams and analytics-powered insights. Accenture is located at DIGITAL FACTORY, HALL 6, BOOTH K45.