DT and Software AG team up to launch IoT FTW

Deutsche Telekom has partnered with fellow Germans Software AG in a bid to boost both company’s IoT offering.

They’re even calling it ‘IoT made in Germany’ as it combines the Teutonic virtues of DT’s enterprise customer unit T-Systems and its Cloud of Things offering, with Software AG’s Cumulocity IoT platform. The resulting combined forces are expected to expand the empires of this business axis to the rest of Europe, the US and who knows where else.

“We’re delighted to be extending the reach and capabilities of our Cloud of Things IoT platform alongside our partner,” said Adel Al-Saleh, CEO of T-Systems and Board Member of Deutsche Telekom. “Software AG’s technology is critical in enabling us to scale an already successful service and introduce new functionality, giving us the confidence to move into new sectors. Our strategic partnership will help us continue to drive innovation and provide the best possible platform and services for clients, both from the enterprise sector and Germany’s world-leading Mittelstand.”

“This is a new way of partnering and co-operating to offer complete IoT solutions for the real-time economy,” said Sanjay Brahmawar, CEO Software AG. “With Deutsche Telekom as our strategic partner, we will offer the most competitive platform. Customers can simplify their IoT and integration needs with self-service analytics and gain insights to accelerate their businesses for the fully connected future. We look forward to scaling this partnership and making it a global success.”

You can see the two of them chatting about their grand plan while sitting on a small sofa, under a tree, by a river, in the video below. As is so often the case with these kinds of corporate partnerships it’s all about scale, synergies, TAM and that sort of thing. It always looks great on PowerPoint but the practicalities of getting two separate organizations to collaborate constructively often lead to disappointing outcomes.