APC 2015 Annual Report Download - page 30

2015 REGISTRATION DOCUMENT SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC28
OVERVIEW OF THE GROUP’S STRATEGY, MARKETS AND BUSINESSES
1RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT
>
5. Research & Development
Innovation is the key to our company’s growth. Schneider Electric has had a history of innovations in the past 100years.
During 2015, the Group worked on a new strategic plan for R&D based on the following ideas:
• R&D Projects to have a better distribution of long term, medium term, and s hort t erm
•Investing in a s maller n umber of Big Bet Strategic Initiatives
•Practicing Open Innovation with Universities, Startup Companies, Suppliers, and Customers
•Creating a uniform R&D structure and a Technology Community to share best practices about innovation, and leveraging
common platforms
•Improving Ties between R&D and Marketing
•Incubation of New Businesses
•Improving the R&D Footprint and R&D Talent in a Global Company
The Group accomplished many « fi rsts» by implementing technology anticipations in effort coordination, by confi rming
a set of Big Bets grouped into six Strategic Disruptions through Upstream offer & Technology innovation portfolio
reviews:
•Internet of Things (IOT) Services through our Connected Products
•Software Defi ned Automation
•Digital Customer Experience
•Embedded Computing Platform
•Micro Grid including Energy Storage
•Cyber Security
As a technology company, Schneider Electric is constantly seeking to leverage technology advances to deliver truly
innovative solutions that improve the daily life of people and the effi ciency of companies, while constantly improving
the effi ciency of its R&D.
5.1 Leveraging technological advances
Emerging trends that appeared in the last fi ve years, like the
Internet of things («IoT»), digitization and IT/OT convergence, are
now shaping Schneider Electric’s R&D strategy and investments.
They are impacting the way products and systems are architected,
developed, delivered and serviced, with signifi cant value added for
our customers.
Digitization and IoT
In addition to b eyond personal devices, IoT present s a huge
opportunity in industrial systems. It enables signifi cant increase in
the number of measure and control points and, as a consequence,
allowing for maximum energy effi ciency and optimized asset
availability and performance. Since 2000, Schneider Electric has
invested in research programs to develop ultra-low power, wireless
« pervasive sensing » devices, some of which have already reached
the industrialization phase, just in time to contribute to such
solutions.
Sensors working up to ten years off a button- size battery while
transmitting data over wireless «mesh» networks are now available.
Their lifetime cost is up to ten times lower than classical wired
sensors and will revolutionize the way buildings and factories are
monitored and controlled. Other wireless, energy harvesting self-
powered sensors measuring both the temperature and the power
intensity, and complying with the tough mission profi le imposed
by the demanding environment of our customers are about to be
launched on the market.
All of the smart sensors rely on technology platforms providing
proven components whether for the physical measure, data
processing, power supply or harvesting and wireless transmission.
On the latter topic, long range radio technologies like LoRa and
SigFox have received a specifi c attention over the last two years
leading to the fi rst deployments by the end of 2015.
R&D efforts are now focusing on the ease of deploying and
running large networks of such sensors and the scalability and
security of the infrastructure needed to harness the data coming
from these networks. The cloud based Digital Services Platform,
was developed by Schneider Electric over the last four years to
address these two challenges. Dozens of pilots are underway with
business units and external partners, leveraging a library of analytics
modules developed in the context of the Operational Intelligence
program. Using mobile technology, the insights delivered by these
analytics are packaged into simple, yet powerful, «context aware»
applications. Thanks to geo-localization, the information can literally