Introducing Siemens Canada 

Siemens Canada is a technology company focused on industry, infrastructure, transport, and healthcare. From more resource-efficient factories, resilient supply chains, and smarter buildings and grids, to cleaner and more comfortable transportation as well as advanced healthcare, the company creates technology with purpose, adding real value for customers since 1912. As of September 30, 2021, the company has approximately 2,500 employees from coast-to-coast and 24 office and production facilities across Canada.

At Siemens, at a global level Sustainability has been at the forefront of their journey, emphasized by recently hiring a Chief Sustainability Officer. For Siemens Canada, they believe in balancing people, profit and planet in order to help Canada. 

“At Siemens Canada, we have a clear commitment to think and act in the interest of future generations of Canadians” - Faisal Kazi, President and CEO, Siemens Canada Limited

The Challenge

Siemens Canada faced a unique challenge that required a unique solution. They were looking for a way where they could implement technology in a non-profitable way, that would show benefits within the sustainability sector. This benefit would be gained by the company and employees by showcasing the sustainable differences between fossil fuel and renewable energy resources. The challenge was to find a system that could truly expand on the capabilities of the existing platform, DesigoCC. By layering a Mendix application on top of this core system, new functionality could be added to showcase existing data in a meaningful way for the everyday user. Originally, users were unable to see how much positive impact was coming from a solar panel called the Smart Flower, nor the data grid, e-car chargers of their efficient HVAC system. A solution that would bring transparency, awareness, and engagement around these items could help build an understanding of how impactful choosing a sustainable alternative to fossil fuels can be and generate action. 

Seeking to focus specifically on sustainability, that is where Siemens Canada decided to create a custom application with Sustaira. With Sustaira already leveraging their leading low-code platform, Mendix this ability to expand on their existing systems made the solution simple. 

The Solution

As Sustaira’s first official project, a native mobile application was created to solve the challenges Siemens Canada was facing. This application provides a space where users can log in and view information in real-time from the DesigoCC platform thanks to a custom integration Sustaira built. This data displays information from the Smartflower, datagrid, e-car chargers, and HVAC system. With this data, the Mendix mobile application Sustaira created displays statuses, alarms, and calculated data analyses to the user. Users are able to interact with the connected data sources to view data in different configurations. Users can view real-time comparisons between the renewable energy sources and the fossil fuel sources. 

“Typically, back end systems like ERP and Building Software are too rigid to customize or further innovate. With Sustaira and Mendix, we can rapidly create innovative solutions on top of these systems focused on engaged sustainability and creating more awareness.” - Sustaira Project Manager

An upcoming phase of this project will be additional functionality around electric vehicle charging stations. The goal being, If a user plugs in their electric vehicle to a charging station, they can open the app and see the status of that station update and start showing the connected data flow. This could even prompt a user to move their car once charging is complete. Users can see life charts of the solar power generated from each smart flower, as well as the draw from the connected systems that use this power. Each battery on the microgrid will be available to view the current input/output, as well as some analytics on estimated time to be charged or depleted. 

A next phase of this project speaks to the core of what Sustaira does. Smart Building Software is often seen as a system of record. If we look at the Sustaira Sustainability Circle, you can see that the platform acts as a smart layer on top of these more rigid core systems. 

Sustaira offers a broader portfolio going beyond Environmental reporting, also addressing Social and Governance topics. A concept called the Sustaira Sustainability Circle represents all the application domains, including goals and KPI tracking, data aggregation and awareness, actions, results & rewards, and digital reporting. With Sustaira the customer gets one flexible sustainability and ESG app layer on top of all its internal and external data sources.

Just like expanding on Siemens core platform and adding functionality to what already exists, Sustaira can extend easily with innovative web and mobile applications focused on interactive and engaged Sustainability. Grow from data aggregation and reporting, into taking action, and then move into seeing results, reaping the rewards, and even gamification to make sustainability truly engaging. 

Delivered Value:

• Native Mobile Mendix application 

• Direct integration to DesigoCC

• Live insights into core data; Smartflower, HVAC, Datagrid, and E-Car Chargers

• The ability to showcase data in a meaningful way

• Foundation for the next phase, e.g. electric vehicle charging insights.