To meet evolving global challenges, AVEVA software leads the way in building a new paradigm of industrial intelligence. Based on the AVEVA Connect open platform, it realizes the effective management of engineering data and operational data, and establishes the digital twin model covering the whole life cycle and comprehensive visual analysis application for industrial enterprises.
In January 2023, Schneider Electric completed the acquisition of 100% of AVEVA Software, announcing that the world's leading industrial software company is fully integrated into the Schneider Electric family. At about the same time, Schneider Electric announced the appointment of AVEVA CEO Peter Herweck as the company's new CEO, with Caspar Herzberg, formerly AVEVA's COO, succeeding Peter Herweck as AVEVA's new CEO.
This means that Schneider Electric has taken software and digitalization to an unprecedented level, offering a total solution for cross-industry operations and energy management through deep integration with AVEVA software. For AVEVA, the new leadership of the global executive team is an opportunity to reshape its strategic vision of "building a new paradigm of industrial intelligence" and accelerate customers' journey towards efficiency and sustainability.

In this context, AVEVA's initiatives in the Chinese market have become an important part of the company's development. At the 2023 China User Conference, Ms. Cui Jingyi, vice president and general manager of AVEVA China, pointed out in an interview with e-works, "We attach great importance to the Chinese market and are full of confidence in the Chinese market. In addition to the latest technology, products and classic cases of AVEVA software in the world, the first time without reservation to introduce to China, but also follow the principle of local conditions, according to the pain points and needs of Chinese customers, cooperation with local partners to provide vertical industry solutions, continuous exploration and practice, to solve practical problems in China."

With the deep integration of AVEVA and Schneider Electric, the software gene of AVEVA has been integrated into the DNA of Schneider Electric's sustainable development.

In 2017, Schneider Electric acquired about 60% of AVEVA for £3 billion; 2021 AVEVA acquires OSIsoft, a leading industrial data management platform in the United States; In September 2022, Schneider Electric launched a takeover offer for AVEVA's minority shareholders, which valued AVEVA at approximately $11.9 billion, marking the growth of the software company from the CAD center of the University of Cambridge into an industrial software giant worth more than 10 billion dollars. In January 2023, Schneider Electric completed 100% ownership of AVEVA.

Harpreet Gulati, senior Vice President, Global Head of Information Management at AVEVA, explained the relationship between the two companies at the press conference, noting that "as a wholly-owned company of Schneider Electric, AVEVA will continue to operate independently. Schneider Electric is one of the most sustainable companies in the world, and we have great respect for their industry experience in the supply chain, so we will reach out to new business segments through the Schneider Electric network, which is one of Schneider Electric's strengths and an important partnership arrangement for our Go-to-market."

He introduced that in terms of technology, Schneider Electric has obvious advantages in the power and energy industry, especially in the fields of power transmission and transformation, micro-grid, etc., and the industrial intelligent software and platform that AVEVA is good at can draw on Schneider Electric's strengths and complement their strengths. In addition, the two sides have a lot of cooperation in the field of sustainable development, and jointly bring relevant technologies to the market.

In fact, since 2018, AVEVA software has been actively integrated with Schneider Electric, in addition to a large number of synergies in the business, and at the same time, AVEVA software and Schneider Electric's original software have been opened up at the product level to achieve the full life cycle technology empowerment from design, operation to optimization.

Cui Jingyi added, "Taking the current very hot technology direction - green hydrogen new energy as an example, AVEVA has a very close cooperation with Schneider Electric. Schneider Electric has a wealth of industry knowledge and an experienced implementation team in the green hydrogen new energy industry. With the help of AVEVA Process Simulation software, we can better promote the development of the industry."

Embrace intelligence and build a new paradigm of industrial digital transformation

AVEVA has been applying technologies such as cloud, Industrial Internet of Things, artificial intelligence and virtual reality to the enterprise business to help companies improve business agility and operational sustainability, and gain the flexibility needed to adopt these new technologies.

Mr. Harpreet Gulati said: "AVEVA is leading the way in building a new paradigm for industrial intelligence in response to evolving global challenges. Based on the AVEVA Connect open platform, it realizes the effective management of engineering data and operational data, and establishes the digital twin model covering the whole life cycle and comprehensive visual analysis application for industrial enterprises. In addition to supporting AVEVA's own applications, the platform also supports third-party applications and promotes the leapfrog development from digital twins to digital enterprises through the establishment of cooperation across the entire industry chain."

He cited a recent study done by AVEVA Software as an example that engineers spend about 40% of their working time searching for various data, and with the help of artificial intelligence technology, they can save 10% to 15% of their time. According to Harpreet Gulati, this is a significant productivity boost.

To this end, AVEVA has also launched a series of collaborations in promoting the combination of information technology and artificial intelligence. For example, AVEVA Connect enables closer synergies with Microsoft Fabric, Microsoft's data analytics solution. AVEVA Connect and Microsoft Fabric are designed to provide a comprehensive data analytics platform for the age of artificial intelligence. By providing a unified view of data at different stages of the manufacturing process, they can make a significant contribution to green software initiatives, waste reduction, energy savings, and overall efficiency and sustainability.

AVEVA also has a strategic partnership with AIQ, an artificial intelligence company in the industrial sector. The collaboration between AVEVA and AIQ will combine their respective technical expertise to implement autonomous operations for a variety of industrial assets. The aim is to reduce downtime, improve asset availability, minimize manual control operations, enable teams to take proactive, intelligent actions, and enhance and accelerate those actions with autonomous decision support.

Harpreet Gulati said, "Whether it is incremental technology change or revolutionary technology development, we always have another wave of technology. For the manufacturing industry, it is also facing sweeping technological change. So we will actively embrace these new technologies and help them adopt them more scientifically and reliably."

Open platform and grow together with ecological partners

During the 2023 Jianwei Software China User Conference, many partners such as Shanghai Bluebird Mechanical and Electrical, Guangzhou Ceren Automation, Nanjing Qonsi, Wuhan Renaphthalene Technology, Nanjing Xuesi Software have appeared, becoming a landscape of AVEVA Jianwei software ecosystem.

As Cui Jingyi said, "Go fast alone, go far." The establishment of a large and healthy ecosystem of partners is critical and important for an industrial software company like AVEVA."

Cui Jingyi said in an interview, "After the development of the past 50 years, our product portfolio has become more perfect, the coverage of the whole life cycle is more complete, and the partner system has also been expanded with the development of AVEVA software. Now AVEVA wants to build a new paradigm of industrial intelligence, a concept that goes beyond just using software as a tool and a system, but as a larger platform that extends to the entire supply chain, which requires more and more eco-partners to join and collaborate throughout the supply chain."

In terms of number, AVEVA has more than 5,000 global certification partners, and hundreds of certification partners in China. In addition, there are also project partners, and there are a lot of linkage in specific projects and businesses.

Cui Jingyi said, "From a technical point of view, AVEVA Jianwei software has been building an open Platform, so we have been proposing the concept of One Platform, and we can develop some advanced applications and solutions based on this platform; At the same time, we also actively embrace third-party companies and third-party software, and their application software will be convenient to connect with AVEVA's One Platform platform; In addition, we welcome customer-developed software tools that can be grown and integrated on the platform to better serve the specific needs and pain points of verticals."

In helping customers create a "data dual base" process, the role of ecological partners is also indispensable. The so-called data dual base, namely Asset Information Management (AIM) and Operation Information Management center (OIM). First of all, through the diversified products of AVEVA software, we create an asset information management center for enterprises, collect basic data and integrate management, and form a static "twin" data base; Secondly, through the operation information management center, the production process data is analyzed to provide guidance and suggestions on process optimization and production adjustment, so that the static "twin" data base can be moved to support the digital transformation of enterprises.

Cui Jingyi stressed that in order to ensure the freedom of data flow in the "data double base", the integrity, timeliness and accuracy of the data, there must be no information islands. This means that corporate customers, suppliers, and partner systems all need to collaborate on the same supply chain to promote each other and grow together.

She also revealed that in response to the differentiated transformation needs of domestic enterprises, AVEVA Software has optimized all aspects of technology research and development, business model and partner system, and launched AVEVA Flex model in China. By providing customers with a software pool containing all products of the company, it is convenient for them to customize and switch different services according to needs. Build a more flexible business model.