Cloud-based management in operational technology

Siemens and ServiceNow will work even more closely together in the future. With a cloud software service across a digital platform, companies must achieve efficiency and transparency across all OT devices used.

(red/cc) Siemens Digitale Industries and software provider ServiceNow announce collaboration to support industrial customers in digital transformation.
Specifically, the topic is transparency in the management of industrial assets. Delivered via a digital platform, Siemens’ SaaS solution aims to allow discovery and management of all operational technology devices used in order to simplify and automate their operations.

Industrial ecosystems to improve integration between IT and OT
This should ensure complete transparency of the status of all OT devices in the entire network, regardless of manufacturer or device type – and with just one tool. This functionality expands NowPlatform’s digital portfolio of ServiceNow software specialists, which already provides IT asset management.

With this expansion, Siemens and ServiceNow are meeting their customers’ mutual need for transparency throughout the entire store. This is intended to prevent accidents in industrial facilities that could disrupt the production process. The tool also allows you to plan service tasks, identify potential vulnerabilities, and dispatch service personnel without any manual effort or additional time. “From now on, OT assets can be managed with the same flexibility and interoperability as IT assets,” Siemens and ServiceNow said in a statement.

New opportunities for new business models
“By combining ServiceNow’s IT expertise with our OT knowledge, we realize the convergence of IT and OT and enable speed and scale for our joint customers,” said Dirk Didaskallo, CTO, Siemens Digital Industries. “We are witnessing the merging of the physical and digital worlds, and the convergence of IT and OT is a prerequisite for making this happen,” adds Karel van der Poel, Senior Vice President of Products at ServiceNow. Digital transformation creates “new opportunities for new business models, and Siemens and ServiceNow support their customers in this regard.”

Through this partnership, Siemens and ServiceNow want to strengthen the industrial ecosystem to accelerate the digital transformation of industrial customers. Scalable cloud services extend the Siemens Xcelerator digital business platform and the interoperable portfolio of industrial processes X. The areas mainly addressed are production engineering, implementation and optimization. “Siemens is integrating IT and software capabilities to make production processes more flexible, more autonomous and better tailored to people,” says Siemens.

red/cc, Economic Edition web article, December 8, 2023