Munich, July 26, 2023 – Market research and strategic consulting firm PAC presents its nine-part PAC INNOVATION RADAR “Open Digital Platforms for the Industrial World in Europe 2023”. It is the broadest analysis of the vendor landscape for open digital platforms for use in industrial contexts. In nine RADAR segments, PAC reviews close to 160 platform vendors and evaluates 94 of them in the European market. Across all segments, only 17 players achieved a “Best in Class” rating – Eurotech, German Edge Cloud, Phoenix Contact, PTC, Siemens, TeamViewer, to name but a few.
PAC annually evaluates the vendor landscape around open digital platforms for industrial purposes in the European market. The focus of these RADARs lies on differentiating between different platform concepts and evaluating new emerging topics. The 2023 launch of the Open Digital Platform for the Industrial World in Europe Innovation RADAR adds three emerging topics to the evaluation – sustainability, smart logistics services and industrial metaverse.
Key drivers: IT/OT integration and scaling digital transformation projects
Two trends are the main drivers for digital platforms in manufacturing. First, the convergence of IT and OT, which is in full progress in the manufacturing industry. IT/OT integration always contains the aspect of handling data and/or applications between edge and cloud computing resources. Therefore, digital platforms are the fundament for IT/OT integration projects. As there is no one size fits all, PAC distinguishes between different concepts for different use cases. Second, manufacturing companies need ways to scale their digital transformation initiatives with maximum efficiency. While digital platforms are a key enabler for this, it is not enough to become successful. Manufacturing companies also need a clear strategy and a dedicated transformation team to scale new use cases across the company. Key success factors in this context are workforce engagement and change management. “Digital platforms fulfill a dual purpose – they build the fundament for IT/OT integration and for the efficient scaling of digital transformation initiatives.” says Arnold Vogt, Head of Digital & IoT, PAC. “Scaling digital factory transformation initiatives is key to maximize efficiency gains in production. Execution needs a clear strategy and a dedicated team. As workforce engagement is a critical success factor, change management should be a core component of the strategy.”
New emerging topics – smart logistics services, industrial metaverse and sustainability
PAC is constantly analyzing new emerging topics, adding three more topics to its analysis in 2023:
Smart logistics services: These platforms contain a growing number of IoT-based services to manage vehicle fleets and transportation services. By offering an app store with 3rd party solutions these platforms morph into an open and microservice-based transportation management system.
Industrial metaverse: This RADAR analyzes existing plant simulation vendors and their ambitions to create realistic and real-time interactive 3D models of complex industrial operations (simulation of large production lines, logistics processes, and entire factories) for optimization purposes. Beside the technical challenge of building holistic, real-time interactive, photo-realistic, and physics-based digital twins of industrial operations, there is also the challenge of identifying the appropriate use cases which justify this effort.
Sustainability-related platforms: In this analysis, we focus on platforms that help companies in the manufacturing industry track, monitor and report on their environmental footprint, but also on platforms that support companies in their endeavors to reduce their emissions by implementing core principles of circularity (i.e., reduce, reuse, remanufacture, refurbish, repair, and recycle). As such, we especially look at platforms that include at least one of the following sustainability-related topics: carbon accounting, ESG reporting, and circular economy.
As the topic is highly relevant for the manufacturing sector and other industries, a multitude of different players has appeared on this fast-changing market. The established providers, on the one hand, have been offering their products and services for several years and have deep knowledge on environmental sustainability. On the other hand, the new entrants (some bigger, some smaller) are fighting for their spot. Overall, the market for sustainability-related platforms is fast-paced and continually evolving. We expect there to be quite a few changes to the provider landscape over the coming months and years
More information on the PAC INNOVATION RADAR “Open Digital Platforms for the Industrial World in Europe 2022”: www.pac-radar.com
About PAC:
Pierre Audoin Consultants (PAC) is a content-based company with a consulting DNA. Since 1976, PAC has delivered focused and objective responses to the growth challenges of software & IT service vendors worldwide. We are the preferred partner for European software and IT service companies to define their strategy, strengthen market share, optimise GTM, and help position their thought leadership. PAC is proudly an analyst-lead consultancy spread over multiple locations across Europe. We cover market research for over 30 countries worldwide, delivered through our portfolio pillars Guidance, Insights and Visibility and our renowned research platform SITSI ®. For more information, please visit www.sitsi.com
For further information or queries, please contact:
Share via ...