Siemens Expands its Low Code Expertise with TimeSeries Acquisition

2021 has witnessed Siemens continuing to build out its technology and vertical market expertise via acquisitions following the purchase of Varian Medical Systems in 2020. In May, the company announced that it is looking to bring U.S. electronic components company Supplyframe into the fold, but the acquisition of application builder TimeSeries in April is the most interesting for manufacturers.

TimeSeries creates apps tailored for workflows in vertical markets based on Siemens’ low-code platform Mendix. As industrial and manufacturing adjust their operating models for the ‘new normal’, having the ability to quickly create apps for tasks, such as smart warehousing, predictive maintenance, and remote inspection (to name just a few), will resonate with firms large and small, driving adoption of low-code platforms.

Founded in 2012, TimeSeries has been developing SaaS based applications tailored for industries such as manufacturing, healthcare and life sciences, energy, and banking and financial services. The company has offices in the United States, Canada, the Netherlands, and Germany.

TimeSeries looks to capture best practices that solve common challenges and then reflect them in app templates which can then be customized to individual customer needs. In addition to templates, TimeSeries provides re-useable components that incorporate AI, process automation, etc., that deliver contemporary user interfaces. The company works directly with enterprises and independent software vendors, helping them with their digitalization efforts based on the Mendix platform. This capability will now be combined with the resources behind Siemens Digital Industries, both in terms of optimizing TimeSeries and Mendix but also commercially, thanks to Siemen’s direct sales teams and partner network across industry verticals.

Mendix is a key pillar of Siemens’ strategy to grow its software revenues (industrial, infrastructure, and mobility software) and underpin the company’s IoT and Digital Services (consulting, app development, cloud solutions). The Mendix ecosystem incorporates sensor data, data integration, automation, AI, application development, and cloud technologies.

As an existing Mendix partner, TimeSeries’ capabilities will be shown and initiatives to develop joint solutions can start straightaway. TimeSeries will fit in well with Mendix’s Incubator funnel methodology for bringing new innovations to market where new ideas are evaluated and shortlisted for inclusion in the incubator, where current ideas support industry specific workflows.         

Siemens is now offering customers applications tailored to specific industries with dedicated clouds for manufacturing, consumer-packaged goods, healthcare, government, and financial services. TimeSeries will augment the templates, workflows, and application services included in each vertical market cloud proposition. The Industry Clouds are not just a location for downloading modules and widgets, as there are connectors to other Siemens applications (NX, Teamcenter) as well as SAP and IBM Maximo. Example templates include field service management, remote equipment monitoring, and supplier collaboration. Furthermore, there’s the opportunity to network with existing customers and industry experts.

While some industries, such as pharmaceuticals, are only beginning to remove paper-based data collections, others, for example the aerospace industry, are more advanced and are supporting technicians with augmented reality platforms and mining operators are investing in both augmented and virtual reality solutions to support frontline workers. As working practices in different industries continue to evolve, TimeSeries and Mendix need to focus on capturing best practices that underpin new designs for the workflow templates and continue to ensure the existing templates remain current. But the templates cannot capture all the nuances of how individual firms operate and so the platforms still need to provide the tools to customize the interface.