The cluster is considered the “Silicon Valley” of Europe and extends across the centers Darmstadt, Kaiserslautern, Karlsruhe, Saarbrücken, and Walldorf. In six projects, both the cluster itself (management, networking, international presence, continuing education and training, exploitation) and the technological and methodological research and development of software solutions for the digital enterprise shall be advanced. These projects alone have a total volume of over 80 million euros. Some of the other goals include the training of 5,000 specialists within 5 years, the founding of 30 companies in the core area of the cluster, and the settlement of leading foreign companies in the cluster region. With this funding by the Federal Research Ministry, the partners intend to further develop Europe’s largest software cluster into a technology center with global significance. This decision by the federal government will strengthen the software industry in Germany. Current studies predict 430,000 new jobs in the software industry by the year 2030. Already today, software is considered a key technology for increasing value and productivity.

Prof. Dr. Dr. h. c. Dieter Rombach as the speaker for Kaiserslautern was in Berlin on Monday to present the cluster to the “Spitzencluster” selection committee. Rombach’s comment on the positive decision made by BMBF: “Once again, the IT hub Kaiserslautern is involved directly in a strategic funding project of the federal government. The fact that it was our “Spitzencluster” model that was chosen is due not least to the renowned partners from our region.”

As far as the scientific side is concerned, the regional cluster does not only include Fraunhofer IESE, but also Fraunhofer ITWM, DFKI, and the Department of Computer Science at the University of Kaiserslautern. In addition, many software and user companies are involved, such as Insiders Technologies GmbH, John Deere, Netbiscuits GmbH, proALPHA Software AG, SIEDA GmbH, SmartFactory KL e.V., as well as STI e.V. Kaiserslautern.
The cluster is open for additional SMEs; this network will be organized via STI e.V. Kaiserslautern.
Rombach continues: “We will all profit from this decision, since this international beacon will also contribute to an increased visibility of Kaiserslautern as a science, education, and business hub.”

The ministry has organized this competition in order to strengthen Germany’s innovation policy. Partners from science and industry shall be empowered to realize their ideas faster in new products and services and to make better use of their existing strengths. In the software cluster, both the major German producers of enterprise software, namely IDS Scheer AG, SAP AGm, and Software AG, and over 350 small and medium-sized enterprises from the enterprise software domain, such as IMC AG, Seeburger AG, proALPHA Software AG, and intelligent views gmbh are represented.
The three leading computer science research centers (DFKI, Fraunhofer, FZI) and the renowned computer science departments of TU Darmstadt – represented by the LOEWE Center CASED –, of TU Kaiserslautern, of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, and of Saarland University will contribute their competencies in research, development, and education to the cluster. In the long term, the “Spitzencluster” wants to become the globally leading technology center in the area of emergent software for digital enterprises. Already today, the region is known as the “Silicon Valley” of Europe.

Emergent software dynamically and flexibly combines a multitude of components from different manufacturers in order to better fulfill the highly complex requirements of globalized enterprises. This software dynamically adapts to the requirements of the market as well as those of the business environment, supports complex and dynamic enterprise networks, and enables innovative services in the future Internet. The principle of emergent software is considered a key innovation for the digital enterprise and for the Internet of the future.

The goal is to enable the transformation of companies that so far have only been using IT as a tool to support their traditional processes into completely digital enterprises. In the future, both the national economies and the prosperity in our industry- and service-oriented society will depend on how well companies can position themselves as digital enterprises.

Quotes
Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Wahlster, DFKI: “The “Spitzencluster” will create an enormous thrust in our three Living Labs when it comes to the practical implementation of our research excellence into disruptive product functions, and will thus make ICT as the no. 1 innovation driver the turbocharger for new economic growth.”

Prof. Dr. Dr. h. c. Dieter Rombach, Fraunhofer IESE: “The quality and quantity of research competence and software companies that is unique in Germany and in Europe has the potential of achieving a leading international market position for innovative business process software on the basis of emergent principles.”

Dr. Volker Zimmermann, IMC AG: “The “Spitzencluster” software reflects the trend towards enterprise solutions that no longer come from one manufacturer, but rather from providers jointly offering their solution as a service. For IMC as a medium-sized enterprise, this is an opportunity to accelerate its collaboration with other “hidden champions” and global players.”

Peter Gérard, IDS Scheer AG: “We are very happy that we have managed to convince the selection committee of our long-term cluster strategy. Like the other companies involved, IDS Scheer has also been very eager to use systematic research and development as well as the networking of knowledge and skills to create the basis for faster and thus more successful realization of innovative products and services on the market. We will now gladly face the challenge of realizing our ideas and concepts in the planned “Spitzencluster” projects.”

Jörg Kleinz, intelligent views gmbh: “Funding for “Spitzenclusters” is an important prerequisite for software innovations for digital enterprises and for the optimal inclusion of the important contributions offered by small and medium-sized software companies. The software industry is one of the drivers of the future for our country, and is leading in the area of enterprise software. As a small company, we are particularly happy to be able to offer our contribution on the strategy board of this project. In addition to offering our semantic technology, we also see our task in representing the view of SMEs.”

Prof. Dr. August-Wilhelm Scheer, BITKOM: “The expansion of the internationally competitive software cluster is a basic prerequisite for creating internationally competitive units.”

Werner Ernst, proALPHA Software AG: “Business processes that are becoming ever more complex must be able to automatically adapt to changing conditions. The event-controlled proALPHA workflow management is an excellent basis, but it can only have its necessary effect on the basis of global standards. Cooperative collaboration of medium-sized enterprises such as proALPHA with research institutes and the big players in the domain in the context of such “Spitzenclusters” is one of the necessary prerequisites.”

Léo Apotheker, SAP:
“Funding “Spitzenclusters” is the right approach to strengthening Germany’s technological competitiveness and thus to creating sustainable growth and jobs that will remain secure in the future. The fact that the successful cluster “Software Innovations for the Digital Enterprise” has won the competition by the federal research ministry is particularly gratifying, since this serves to emphasize the strategic importance of enterprise software in a globally networked business world. Innovative software supports dynamic processes and ensures transparency for all areas of a company and across company borders. The cluster thus offers a large potential for the entire economy in the Internet society.”

Bernd Seeburger, Seeburger AG: “This project is of particular importance for SEEBURGER AG, since it will not only strengthen the region, but can also result in a signal effect on the national level. Particularly as a medium-sized enterprise, where existing resources are quickly limited, we here get a good opportunity to receive new innovative impulses in collaboration with research institutes and software manufacturers.”

Karl-Heinz Streibich, Software AG:  “I am very happy that we have won the “Spitzencluster” competition by Federal Research Minister Annette Schavan. It has always been our goal to make our software cluster known globally in cooperation with all partners from industry, science, and government. I am sure that we can reach this goal with the support of the federal government. Examples such as Silicon Valley or Bangalore show that especially in the IT and software industry, internationally leading companies emerge from clusters. The process of consolidation on the software market is in full swing. Clusters and alliances offer a solution for strengthening the European software industry. The software cluster is thus an indispensable part of a successful policy of innovation in Germany.”

Press Contacts:

German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI)
Reinhard Karger, DFKI, +49 (0)681-302-5253, reinhard.karger@dfki.de

Fraunhofer Institute for Experimental Software Engineering IESE
Alexander Rabe, Fraunhofer IESE, +49 (0)631-6800-1002, alexander.rabe@iese.fraunhofer.de

IDS Scheer AG
Irmhild Plaetrich, IDS Scheer, +49 (0)681-210-3680, irmhild.plaetrich@ids-scheer.com

SAP AG
Hilmar Schepp, SAP AG, +49 (0) 62 26-74 67 99, hilmar.schepp@sap.com

SEEBURGER AG
Konstanze Prinz, SEEBURGER AG, +49 (0)7252-96-1117, k.prinz@seeburger.de

Software AG
Norbert Eder, Software AG, +49 (0) 6151- 92-1146, Norbert.Eder@softwareag.com

Technische Universität Darmstadt
Jörg Feuck, TU Darmstadt, +49 (0)6151-16-4731, feuck@pvw.tu-darmstadt.de

Software Cluster “Software Innovations for the Digital Enterprise”

The Goals: Digital enterprises operate in highly flexible, Internet-based enterprise networks and dynamically align their business models and processes with these: All data about processes, equipment, and resources from the real world of the enterprise are available for planning, controlling, and optimization purposes at any time, dependent neither on time nor on location. The goal of the software cluster is to enable the transformation of an enterprise into a completely digital enterprise, where ICT is the essential driver for product and process innovations. Studies predict 430,000 new jobs for the software industry in Germany by the year 2030. Some of the other goals of the software cluster include the training of 5,000 specialists within 5 years, the founding of 30 companies in the core area of the cluster, and the settlement of leading foreign companies in the cluster region. On the basis of current figures, this would lead to investments of at least €300 million.

The Way: In six projects, the software cluster will develop concepts, technologies, and business processes for emergent software – an innovation leap in the area of enterprise software, which is one of the most important areas of the German economy. Emergent software dynamically and flexibly combines a multitude of components from different manufacturers in order to fulfill the highly complex requirements of digital enterprises. The realization of the cluster’s goals will require joint efforts by industry and science as well as cross-organizational collaboration within the software cluster.

The Region: The software cluster is distributed across the centers Darmstadt, Kaiserslautern, Karlsruhe, Saarbrücken, and Walldorf.

The Partners:

Strategy Board: DFKI – German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence GmbH, Fraunhofer Institute for Experimental Software Engineering, IDS Scheer AG, IMC information multimedia communication AG, intelligent views gmbh, proAlpha Software AG, SAP AG, Seeburger AG, Software AG, Technische Universität Darmstadt

Industry & regional IT networks: CAS Software AG, Competence Center Computer Science, ConWeaver GmbH, Corisecio GmbH, CyberForum e.V., Dacos Software GmbH, 1&1 Internet AG, EUROSEC GmbH, IHK Darmstadt Service GmbH, Insiders Technologies GmbH, John Deere Werke Mannheim, KOBIL Systems GmbH, mineway GmbH, Netbiscuits GmbH, Ontoprise GmbH, SIEDA GmbH, Sirrix AG, STI Software Technologie Initiative Kaiserslautern e.V., Technologie-Initiative smartFactory KL e.V.

Research & development: DFKI - Innovative Retail Laboratory, Research Center for Information Technology at the University of Karlsruhe, Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Graphics Research, Fraunhofer Institute for Secure Information Technology, Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Mathematics, KIT (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology), University of Kaiserslautern, Saarland University

Project Duration: 5 years (start 04/10 - end 03/15)

Funding: Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), total volume approx. € 88 million.

Central Contact Person:
Gino Brunetti
Manager, Software Cluster Coordination Office
Software-Cluster/CASED
Mornewegstraße 32
64293 Darmstadt
Phone: +49 6151 16-70821
Fax: +49 6151 16-4825
gino.brunetti@cased.de

Website: www.software-cluster.org or www.software-cluster.com