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Siemens Building Technologies
acquires Building Robotics Inc
Milestone accelerates
innovation capacity
Zug, Switzerland and Oakland, Ca (USA)
Copenhagen, Denmark
Siemens Building Technologies division is setting
a further milestone in smart building solutions by
acquiring Building Robotics Inc., a market leader in
the fast growing digital workplace experience app
domain.
Milestone Systems aims to increase innovation capac-
ity by 45% by 2019 year-end and deliver on its prom-
ise to develop unique innovations that will meet fu-
ture market demands in six key long-term innovation
areas. These innovation investments will take place
in multiple locations between Copenhagen, Sofia and
Barcelona.
Headquartered in Oakland, Cali-
fornia, the start-up achieved its
leadership position by developing
a simple-to use app that enables
people to take control of their
environment. Building Robotics,
Inc.
is best known by the name of
its core product, Comfy.
Building Robotics Inc. will be
a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sie-
mens Industry Inc. and continue
to operate as a vendor-agnostic
platform provider. The two co-
founders CEO Andrew Krioukov
and CTO Stephen Dawson-Hag-
gerty will remain in their current
position in the management team
of Building Robotics Inc.
Both parties have agreed not
to disclose any figures. Closing is
expected in the third quarter of
2018.
"This move further strengthens
our leadership position in smart
buildings," said Matthias Rebellius,
CEO of Siemens Building Tech-
nologies. "With the Comfy app
we will bring a consumer-like ex-
perience to commercial buildings
that simplifies the interaction with
buildings to increase employee
productivity and engagement."
Through the Comfy app,
Siemens Building Technologies
will connect people, places and
systems" to create amazing work-
place experiences putting people
in the centre of a building.".
Comfy directly integrates with
existing building automation,
IT networks and IoT systems to
provide on-demand control and
smart automation, all within a
single intuitive app. At a time
when smart technology is becom-
ing a must have in the office, em-
ployees can use the app to make
immediate changes in temperature
and lighting, book rooms and
desks, and provide feedback on
their space.
The objectives of this investment
are to increase development capac-
ity of disruptive innovations within
deep driver integration, advanced
rendering, IoT and metadata
sources, online services, advanced
data management and Milestone
Systems' platform software devel-
opment kit (SDK). The results of
which, the company says, will ac-
celerate Milestone System's leading
position in enabling the processing
of video and data from solution
partners who use neural networks,
deep learning and AI technologies.
"Market trends are changing
at accelerated rates towards device
aggregation, artificial intelligence
and visual intelligence augmenta-
tion. We believe that by increasing
our development capacity within
these disruptive innovation areas,
Milestone Systems
will be able
to enable our partners with new
market growth opportunities," said
President & CEO Lars Thinggaard,
Milestone Systems.
According to The World
Economic Forum, more than one
trillion sensors will be connected
to the Internet by 2022. Alongside
the development of these market
trends, the demands for smart
solutions and machine learning
technologies increase. Executives
expect Internet of Things (IoT)
and AI to bring about the biggest
change; 73% say they are invest-
ing in IoT and 54% in AI (PwC
Global Digital IQ Survey). As
part of the long-term innovation
investment, Milestone Systems will
partner with leading technology
companies on the development
of Imaging of Things frameworks
to connect, aggregate and secure
the ecosystem of IoT devices and
frameworks.
"Milestone Systems wants to be
part of every video installation in
the world. To do this, we must be
able to offer the most innovative
video technology platform which
can enable our partners to address
the wide range of challenges that
our end-customers are facing.
We want to push our technology
beyond security in areas such as
smart buildings and cities where
our video technology can play a
vital role," says Chief Technol-
ogy Officer Bjørn Skou Eilertsen,
Milestone Systems.
Business PeoPle
Head of product and
marketing at Hanwha
Chertsey, Surrey (UK)
Hanwha Techwin Europe has
recruited Uri Guterman to take
on the newly created role of
Head of Product and Marke-
ting.
Uri will be working clo-
sely with Hanwha Techwin
Europe's Country Managers
and other key stakeholders
to drive the implementation
of the company's B2B chan-
nel programme. He will also
be responsible for developing
strategies and driving program-
mes to help win additional new
business across Europe.
Uri brings to Hanwha Tech-
win a wealth of product mana-
gement expertise accrued over
20 years at a European level
and 10 years experience of the
video surveillance industry. With
a proven track record of being
a high energy team player and
with the ability to lead and si-
multaneously manage multiple
projects, Bob (H.Y.) Hwang, the
Managing Director of Hanwha
Techwin Europé, believes Uri
could not be joining the com-
pany at a better time.
"We will be able to put Uri's
talents to good use as we look
to focus on future growth opp-
ortunities made possible by
our investment in outstanding
new products and technology
partnership based solutions,
which incorporate cutting edge
technologies".
Uri Guterman.
Milestone Head Office building in
Denmark.
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2018-08-30 14:15