Bits and bytes for more business

Stuttgart – If washing machines and dryers automatically switch themselves on as electricity from the house’s own solar panels becomes available, energy costs can be reduced. If the appliances can in addition be inspected remotely at regular intervals and serviced when needed, the result is significantly lower repair costs. “Services such as remote diagnosis and maintenance only work when products are connected via the internet of things (IoT),” says Dr. Elmar Pritsch, Bosch’s chief information officer. The 48-year-old is responsible for the company’s global IT infrastructure, and a workforce of 7,500. In recent months, the supplier of technology and services has developed and rolled out its new IT@Bosch concept. This novel approach involves more closely linking Bosch’s corporate IT sector with its business sectors. “Information technology is evolving from a cost factor into a core competence. It will make a major contribution to Bosch’s future growth, since it will be part of products and their accompanying services,” Pritsch says. By 2020, Bosch has set itself the goal of making every new electronic product web-enabled, and developing accompanying services.

Information technology is evolving from a cost factor into a core competence. It will make a major contribution to Bosch’s future growth, since it will be part of products and their accompanying services.

Dr. Elmar Pritsch, Bosch's chief information officer

IT customer focus: accelerated projects, shorter time to market

Up to now, the corporate IT sector’s primary task was to extend the company’s global IT infrastructure, support users, and provide hardware such as computers and monitors. In the future, the sector will offer everything that comparable service providers in the market offer: from consultancy to software development and application, to the administration and support of platforms, portals, and operating systems. Its advisory activities will include more support for all Bosch units in developing digital business models. “The tight integration between corporate IT and individual units will help us develop and market data-based business models more quickly,” Pritsch says. “In order to do this, we have to collaborate more closely, efficiently, and transparently within the company.” To enable this, in the future every Bosch business sector will transfer responsibility for its digital activities to a business chief digital officer (BCDO). The BCDOs will work together with their counterparts in Bosch’s corporate IT sector to launch innovation projects. A globally networked team will then be responsible for the project’s realization.

IT portfolio: cloud and ecosystem as cornerstones of new business models

One of the cornerstones of data-based business models and cross-domain applications is Bosch’s own IoT cloud. This encompasses the technical infrastructure, including a company-owned computing center, as well as platform and software offerings for connected mobility, industry, and buildings. Currently, some 70 Bosch applications are running in the company’s cloud. In the future, Bosch’s IT partners and customers will also be able to use the cloud. It is one further step toward an open IoT ecosystem comprising a wide variety of players. “We believe that collaboration with partners is the key to success on the internet of things,” Pritsch says. Bosch is now working on connectivity topics in over 60 partnerships and strategic alliances.

IT employer: help shape future technology in a state-of-the-art working environment

Bosch offers an extremely attractive working environment for IT and software experts, in which innovative formats such as hackathons and innovation hubs foster creativity and support agile ways of working. One example is the Chicago Connectory, which opened in the U.S. city in May 2017. Bosch operates it in partnership with 1871, a consortium of some 500 technology start-ups. The Bosch Group currently employs more than 20,000 software engineers – a figure that is rising rapidly.