Siemens builds digitalisation hub in Singapore

Article By : Siemens

The hub is planned to house 300 'digitalisation' experts by 2022 who will be working on developing, testing, and commercialising innovations and future-ready digital solutions.

Siemens AG has set up a Digitalisation Hub in Singapore where it plans to develop innovations for the Internet of Things (IoT) and Industrie 4.0 collaboration with customers in Southeast Asia.

Together with Singapore's Economic Development Board (EDB), Siemen's Hub will focus on the country's efforts to become "smart nation," utilising Siemen's IoT operating system MindSphere to drive digitalisation.

The Hub inauguration was celebrated at parallel events in Singapore and at Siemens' headquarters in Munich. Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and the President and CEO of Siemens AG, Joe Kaeser, unveiled a plaque in Munich to mark the Hub's opening. Singapore's Minister for Trade and Industry (Industry), S. Iswaran, opened the Hub in Singapore together with the CEO of Siemens Singapore, Armin Bruck.

EDB Chairman Dr. Beh Swan Gin said, "We are proud to partner with Siemens in its new Digitalisation Hub which will support Singapore's move to become a Smart Nation. Leveraging Siemens' MindSphere operating system, this Hub will create new opportunities for businesses to tap onto the country's rich digital ecosystem to co-develop innovative digital solutions in the Industrial IoT space."

Figure 1: President and CEO of Siemens AG Joe Kaeser with Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.

Starting with 60 specialists from a variety of disciplines, the Hub team is expected to grow to 300 by the year 2022. It will bring together data scientists, solution architects, software engineers, system experts and domain specialists from the urban infrastructure, industrial and healthcare sectors. They will develop, test and commercialise innovations and future-ready digital solutions.

Three new agreements with Siemens

To mark the launch of the Digitalisation Hub, three collaboration agreements were signed with Singapore organisations.

Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) will partner with Siemens to create and showcase data-driven innovations for urban infrastructure, such as innovative mobility solutions based on self-driving vehicles, and advanced data analytics for optimising the performance of green buildings.

SP Group, Singapore's sole transmission and distribution utility, will collaborate with Siemens to build an energy management software platform for SP's 24/7 control centres, to help with planning, surveillance and predictive maintenance of Singapore's electricity network. They will also create a multi-energy urban microgrid solution to help consumers save energy and cost.

Singapore Technologies Electronics Limited (ST Electronics) and Siemens signed a partnership agreement for co-creating and proactively marketing innovative digital use cases in the field of transportation, including roads, harbours, airports and mass transit. The focus is on applications and solutions for connectivity, cybersecurity, data convergence, analytics and contextualisation. These applications will use MindSphere to enable expansion into further market segments.

With its Smart Nation initiative, the Singapore government aims to create a digitally networked environment throughout the country. Focused on five fields—transport, household and environment, productivity, healthcare and aging and the public services sector—the initiative is billed by the Singapore government as one of the most advanced urban development projects in the world.