French industrial group Schneider Electric has hosted more than 5,000 customers, partners, and influencers at its latest Innovation Summit on April 5-6 at Paris Expo Porte de Versailles. The event brought together Schneider Electric experts and world-leading industry thinkers to share insights and bold ideas on the challenges and opportunities of Powering the Digital Economy In its second year running, this year's Innovation Summit World Tour has included 20 events across the world, double the 2017 programme. The Paris event has been Schneider's largest ever, and the company showcased its latest developments to EcoStruxureTM, its IoT-enabled, plug and play, open, interoperable, architecture, and platform. EcoStruxureTM delivers enhanced value around safety, reliability, efficiency, sustainability, and connectivity. EcoStruxureTM leverages advancements in IoT, mobility, sensing, cloud, analytics, and cybersecurity to deliver Innovation at every level, from Connected Products, Edge Control to Apps, Analytics & Services. EcoStruxureTM has been deployed in more than 480,000 installations, with the support of more than 20,000 system integrators, connecting over 1.5 million assets. Three major EcoStruxure developments were announced at this global premiere: EcoStruxure Power: the next generation of Schneider Electric's IoT-Enabled platform and architecture for electrical distribution was announced, dramatically strengthening power management capabilities for customers to improve operational efficiency and reliability. New user applications (EcoStruxure Power Advisor), edge control management software (EcoStruxure Power Monitoring Expert 9.0 and Power Scada Operation 9.0), and connected products (Prologic ION9000 Meter and Easergy P3 Protection Relay) were announced. EcoStruxure Building: this smart, collaborative platform and architecture designed for buildings delivers maximum building efficiency and increased people comfort and productivity. EcoStruxure Building will benefit from new user applications (EcoStruxure Building Advisor), a new edge control application (Ecostruxure Building Operation 2.0), as well as new connected sensor products (SmartX IP Controller MPx and SmartX Room Sensors). EcoStruxure Asset Advisor: the new version of Schneider Electric's equipment monitoring services application brings a much-needed cloud-based, data-driven 24/7 predictive service for business continuity in electrical distribution and critical data center assets. Bold ideas for the digital economy "The world is changing at an unprecedented rate driven by a booming digital economy. Technologies such as the Internet of things (IoT), artificial intelligence and big data analytics are making companies more efficient and innovative, boosting their competitive advantage," said Jean-Pascal Tricoire, Chairman and CEO of Schneider Electric. "As a responsible industry leader, we need to demonstrate how our innovations help our customers and partners make a successful digital transformation in energy management and automation. Our technologies, built on EcoStruxureTM, harness the power of digitization, enabling our customers to become more efficient, safe, reliable, connected and sustainable – leaders in the New Digital Economy." Tricoire added. During the two-day event, customers attended Strategy Talks on topics as varied as "Redefining power distribution", "Intuitive manufacturing, thanks to digitization" and "Reinvented buildings." The company has also conducted more than 15 Expert Learning Sessions with its customers and partners, delivering concrete customer successes and solutions and interactive discussions between participants. Finally, a 5,000 m2 Innovation Hub demonstrated the wealth of Schneider Electric's software, solutions and services. The Hub also housed a Partner Village featuring the company's network of technology partners and start-ups.
