Siemens Reports SaaS Business Growth; Enhances Xcelerator-as-a-Service

During its annual Siemens Media & Analyst Conference (MAC; which incidentally had been sidelined during the peak of the pandemic), Siemens Digital Industries Software reported that its move to a software-as-a-service (SaaS)-driven business is advancing. Cloud-specific annual recurring revenue (ARR) exceeded $200M at the end of Q1 FY2022, translating to 6% of total ARR, according to Siemens experts who spoke during the event, April 6-7 in Detroit.

At MAC, Siemens also highlighted how various select companies of varying sizes use Siemens’ software to create and build a comprehensive digital twin to digitally transform and tackle global challenges. 

Specifically, the company announced that it has expanded Xcelerator as a Service, adding NX X, cloud-based computer aided design (CAD), to the platform.

“Last year we announced our transition to a SaaS-led business and introduced Xcelerator as a Service. Siemens is transforming our business, so we can help our customers transform their industries, making our portfolio easier to access, more open, and integrated,” says Tony Hemmelgarn, CEO and president, Siemens Digital Industries Software. 

Xcelerator is Siemens’ integrated portfolio of software, services and an application development platform that is built to assist companies of all sizes create and incorporate digital twins that yield new insights and automation levels. Xcelerator as a Service (XaaS), according to Siemens, is made to offer more accessibility, scalability and flexibility, with a subscription offering that uses cloud computing to put forward new capabilities across the Xcelerator portfolio to help speed digital transformation for Siemens’ customers. 

Several company use cases were expounded on at the 2022 MAC.Two such examples, Italian startup Nemo’s Garden and autonomous ocean data collection specialists, Saildrone, are tapping into Xcelerator as a Service to boost their development efforts and innovate faster. 

Further, automotive original equipment manufacturers like Hyundai Motor Company and Kia Corporation and Daimler Truck selected Siemens’ Xcelerator as their platform as they pursue carbon-neutral futures, according to Siemens.

“When I first saw Siemens’ digital twin technology, I was mesmerized. Nemo’s Garden is a one-of-a-kind system and we need to adapt to each environment where it is to be installed. If you can model that environment virtually before you start, you can foresee the challenges and address them in the best way,” says Luca Gamberini, co-founder, Nemo’s Garden.

Diving into the details, the company has greater understanding of water flow around the biosphere shapes, stress points on the structure surrounding the biospheres, and how temperation, solar radiation and the like impact plants. Gamberini attributes this greater understanding in large part to the digital twin's ability to replicate the system that the startup is developing.

Siemens adds design and engineering software to Xcelerator as a Service with its new NX X, a solution that blends capabilities of Siemens’ NX software, centralized storage capacity and native collaboration delivered through hosting partners. With NX X, software upgrades, backup and hardware requirements are managed by Siemens and its hosting partners, ensuring software is updated and running on the latest hardware, the company reports.

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.