Pictures of the Future Business Accelerators
A Partner for Ups and Downs
Siemens Technology Accelerator GmbH helps Corporate Technology employees to establish their own companies. Such a partner is crucial to a company's survival in the start-up phase.
En-Ocean's self-powered light switch can even be attached to a tree
Development times and business planning cycles don't always mesh," says Dr. Thomas Lackner, Managing Director of Siemens Technology Accelerators (STA). "That's why researchers at Corporate Technology have sometimes completed a development project with excellent results, only to find out that the Group originally interested in the idea has shifted its investment priorities." However, if Siemens doesn't pick up on a technology, but sees a promising opportunity in the external market, start-up companies founded by former Siemens employees can take over the further development of the concept. "The Groups gladly hand over the technology to another company if they don't want to invest in it for the reasons mentioned and if a business relationship with the start-up company would be of mutual interest," says Lackner.
Big Guide.EnOcean and Panoratio are two of the five start-ups established by STA since 2001. The researchers behind their innovations have two things going for them: They have developed something remarkable, and they have that characteristic known as "technopreneurship" the drive to bring their creation to market. STA sees itself as a guide. "Of course, we make financing available," Lackner says. "But much more important is the additional help we provide."
Adds Andreas Schneider, Vice President Sales at EnOcean, "When you create a company and have to look for customers, financial backers and cooperation partners, you always suffer setbacks. Today, we're strong enough to roll with the punches without any problems. But it was a completely different story at the start."
EnOcean is STA's most successful project to date (see article An Ocean Full of Energy in Pictures of the Future, Spring 2002). The company's basic idea is to intelligently convert energy already present in nature and to use it to transmit radio signals. To demonstrate this concept, Schneider attaches a light switch to a tree and pushes the button; a far-off garden lamp comes on. "The switch doesn't have any batteries," he says. "The transmission module only needs the energy that is released when you flip the switch." Here, EnOcean uses piezo technology; for its sensor applications, it employs small solar cells. Its most recent development is a radio sensor that monitors the tire pressure and temperature in a car. The sensor's power comes from the vibration of those very same tires. "In this area, EnOcean has even progressed further than its business plan," says Lackner. "Its entry into the auto supply business was actually scheduled for a later time."
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. But the road that led to this success was filled with obstacles and potholes. First, the Groups had to be convinced that the move to the market was a good idea. Finally, STA won over the Automation and Drives Group as a strong backer. Joyous times followed as the company gradually took shape. But then the primary customer suddenly backed out, despite a previous commitment from top management.
Overview of EnOcean's development from concept to product
The ups and downs experienced by start-ups such as EnOcean GmbH can be more easily dealt with when an experienced partner
"Nobody saw it coming," Lackner says. "Everyone's belief in the marketability of the entire technology was shaken." But STA stood by this fledgling company in its time of trouble. "We called a crisis meeting and decided to go to ELTEC, a leading trade fair for building technology, switching devices and industrial control systems that is held in Nuremberg," recalls Lackner. The presentation was a resounding success. More than 30 new customers expressed interest in the technology, and EnOcean was officially named the company with the most innovative product at the fair. "It was STA that stood by us in our time of need and pointed the way to the future," says Schneider.
The Right Customer. The newest company STA has taken under its wing is Panoratio GmbH. "The original idea was for the development team to transfer to a Group," explains Chief Scientific Officer Michael Haft. "But that fell apart." Disappointed, Haft and his colleagues called on Lackner's team. A short time later, STA won over German retailer Karstadt/Quelle as a pilot customer. It was just what Haft needed. "The people at STA were open to our ideas," he recalls. "That's important, because when you take over a technology at such an early stage, risk is always involved." Nonetheless, Panoratio's solution turned out to be just what the customer was looking for. "Since then, we haven't suffered any setbacks," Haft says. Projects with Siemens Power Generation and Siemens Health Services are already in the bag, and STA is negotiating with a number of venture-capital providers. "It's going to be a challenge to get capital at reasonable conditions," says Haft. But Panoratio has full confidence in its business partner. "STA brought enormous stability in the early phase," says Dirk Owerfeldt, Panoratio's CEO. "After all, these are professional managers who really know the ropes."
Guido Weber
Panoratio MP3 for Databases
The databases of large retail chains, insurance companies and manufacturers contain mountains of information on millions of customers data that can amount to several terabytes (1,000 gigabytes). But before these data can be effectively used in a marketing campaign, for example, dozens of parameters have to be identified as relevant and linked to each other. Such statistical evaluations are usually carried out by experts in a computer center. But many sales and management employees need up-to-date information right at their fingertips. To make such a service possible, a group of specialists led by Dirk Owerfeldt, CEO of Panoratio GmbH, has developed a type of MP3 for databases. The MP3 process eliminates the signals from music data that are irrelevant to the listener. Panoratio uses an analogous procedure that makes a copy of the database containing only the information that is needed for analytical purposes. This applies, for example, to interrelationships, while the names of people or streets information that takes up a lot of space in a database are not needed. The remaining information is compressed in a new, patented process that allows a lightning-fast analysis to be performed with unprecedented depth on a standard PC. The original terabytes of information are thus shrunk by a factor of millions to between 800 kilobytes and 20 megabytes in the copy. We are now in the area of in-RAM solutions, Owerfeldt says. These are programs that run entirely in RAM during application. Our complete data model is in RAM. This process and the ability to answer questions in real time are two distinguishing features for Panoratio. But the company has markets in mind with even higher demands. Conventional analyses have 15 to 20 parameters. But thats not the case at Panoratio; here, the numbers are much higher. A development agreement with Siemens Power Generation (PG), for instance, calls for more than 1,000 parameters to be considered. To allow plant operations to be optimized, PG evaluates huge amounts of sensor-generated data, Owerfeldt reports. Our customers want to know the optimal operating state under certain conditions and they want this information at the press of a button on a laptop right next to the turbine. In other words, anybody should be able to conduct the query. To prove his point, a smiling Owerfeldt pushes his notebook over the table and asks the interviewer: What is the optimal operating state when the CO2 sensor registers low levels of the gas, the combustion chamber temperature is high and the vibration transducer is reporting no turbine hum?