My 5 S for future Innovation: Smart, Stacks, Scale, Storage, and Software
Technology is radically altering our need for innovation. We see increasingly innovation is feeding off the “digital response rate”
Connecting technology and innovation is altering how we should re-access organizations ability to build out. We are in the middle of a technological-led industrial revolution It is becoming highly dynamic.
A recent announcement reminded me we are in a changing world where digital and physical are combining in significantly impressive ways. Recently, I got caught up in some announcement by Siemens, where they announced the acquisition of Mendix, the Low-Code providers, for the explicit purpose to combine Mendix with Siemens MindSphere, claiming it has the potential to cover off all elements of the Smart App Stack. That got my attention.
“The bold intention is to create a unified,AI-assisteddeveloper experience with deep integration of the event management, data and analytics services of MindSphere into Mendix, to create the world’s leading Low-Code and (Industrial IoT platform” (Mindex Quote).
Well, statements like this at the very moment of acquisition, always are designed to catch our attention, I mean why else do we have a thriving M&A for businesses than not to claim the inherent sense of the takeover or merger is going to be paved with bold intentions?. Sadly, many do not live up to the promise. Will this one be any different? Early indications might point to it being a successful one.
Why? Well, the confidence comes mostly from the acquirers’ side and that is often a healthier indication. They (Mendix) saw the takeover give them a real chance to accelerate in low-code with stronger R&D investments and geographical expansion. They also saw a combination of Mendix and Mindsphere creating a digital operating system for the physical world into some very different real-time business value and thirdly Mendix gets to develop, build and deeply integrate industry SaaS solution due to Siemens (unprecedented) deep industry know-how, network, and expertise.
What greater validation that this, that this takeover has the “legs to run” was that Siemens offered Mendix a lot of autonomy, significant financial backing and the wish to see the present roadmap deepen, broaden and keep Mendix strongly in a leadership position. Medix will build out their existing IoT and have a parallel “arc” of IIoT opportunity.
Having available a low-code rapid application development platform can change the game for MindSphere. The emphasis on the visual-development process to minimize hand-coding allows for more intuitive ways to build apps. The pressing need for MindSphere was to really build out their Apps Store and having available out-of-the-box templates, widgets, plug-ins, business components and different connectors to emerging technologies allows customers to create their own app solutions. It will attract clients into the platform as the real lasting focus is full app lifecycle support and greater scale for deployment.
So I got interested and turned my curiosity firstly, into a Three Horizon Action Mapping Framework seeing horizon one accelerating what Mendix has, horizon two exploring and combining with Mindsphere and integrating and delivering more IIoT solutions, alongside IoT ones, and horizon three, accelerating into this real-time business value they spoke about.I got a lot out of that mapping that is continuing to take my thinking out.
A new strand of innovation thinking come into view: the one based on digital and technology enabled.
In one recent post I offered up a view on “A Feast of Opportunities for Siemens” I felt we might be seeing a new platform dawn; one of a “Smart Platform, full of smart apps designed to seek out experience, not just data” This is going to be potentially in Mendix parlance: “context-aware”, “intelligent connected” and “pro-active” in intelligence outcomes.
So I have spent a little time on thinking about the place of “Apps” on our IoT journey.
