With its new IT campus located in Stuttgart, the Bosch Group has opened a centre of competence that is dedicated to the coordination of global IT activities at Bosch.
Around 2,000 of the operating unit’s 7,500 associates work at the state-of-the-art campus, which is set to further accelerate Bosch’s transformation process into an IoT company.
Prof Stefan Asenkerschbaumer, deputy chairman of the board of management of Robert Bosch GmbH, said: “Web-enabled products and data-based services are making an ever-stronger contribution to our growth.
“Accordingly, the role our IT plays is also changing. In the past, the unit’s main focus was on expanding Bosch’s global IT infrastructure, supporting users, and providing PCs and monitors.
“But today its tasks increasingly include promoting the advancement of innovative IT and software solutions.
“The campus is our new central hub for the development of digital business models. It combines the best of both worlds: the products and experience of a technology company that has been an established presence for decades, and the dynamism of a young IT company.”
Dr Elmar Pritsch, chief information officer and head of IT at Robert Bosch GmbH, said: “Our IT is going from cost factor to core competence. It is becoming part of the product and its accompanying services.”
Bosch has reported that it has set itself the goal of making every new electronic product connected and developing related services by 2020.
To make it even easier to achieve this goal, every business sector will place its digital activities in the hands of a business chief digital officer in the future, who will work with his or her partner in IT at Bosch to launch new innovation projects that will subsequently be implemented by globally networked teams.
The close relationship between IT and specialist departments will help further accelerate the development of data-based business models and reduce time to market.
