Mr. Greising, Flecs is still a very young and small company. What are the reasons that the Open Industry 4.0 Alliance, OI4 for short, has now entrusted you with the leadership of such an important working group?
Samuel Greising: We started exploring the topic in the late summer of 2022 and realized relatively quickly that our views overlap considerably. Above all, this includes an open and transparent process and an exchange with other platforms and companies. In addition, we have already gained a wealth of experience with Flecs on the topic of app marketplaces for industry and the provision of this software on PLCs or industrial PCs. We wanted to contribute this experience to the working group. So in the fall of 2022, Ricardo Dunkel, who was leading the working group on an interim basis, actively approached us and asked whether we could imagine becoming an OI4 member and at the same time taking over the leadership of the "Application Management" working group. We then sealed the deal with a handshake at the SPS in November. The OI4 has recently had good experiences with the drive and pragmatism of young companies in its own ranks. At the same time, this is also the expectation we have of ourselves: the aim is to generate usable results more quickly, which can then be communicated to the outside world. We have therefore been leading the working group together with Heisenware since January 2023.

Originally, OI4 wanted to create a community store where all members could make their apps available. What has become of these plans?
The plans have now become a usable platform on which OI4 members can test their apps. During the OI4 Knowledge Camp at Multivac in February, we were able to demonstrate live how an app provider can publish their app there. We then did the same for the Flecs Marketplace and the Siemens Industrial Edge Store. From this, we were able to deduce what the similarities are and where the differences lie. The group included device manufacturers, app providers, store operators and end users. Everyone was able to present their point of view, and this happened in a surprisingly open way. I was pleasantly surprised myself. This is also entirely in line with our own company goals: The user should be free to choose the best solution. With the help of open standards, we will be able to generate open solutions that allow users to choose the best solution from a wide range of options.

You talk about how app providers can offer multi-platform apps. Does this mean that you don't assume that there will only be a few stores for the industry?
Even if there are only a few stores, the friction for the app providers must be minimal. Otherwise it is not interesting for them to offer their solution there. In the mobile app sector, most developers are already complaining about having to publish for iOS and Android. What we are currently experiencing is perhaps an overshoot in terms of the number of stores. It sometimes reminds me of the mid-2010s with the IIoT platforms. Back then, there was also a belief that only one or two platforms would ultimately prevail. This has not actually happened. There is no dominant platform. Some are doing really well, others have had to close their doors and others have drifted into a niche. That's why we don't speculate on what might happen in the future, but try to grasp the current situation as well as possible and quickly create direct value - keyword "time-to-value".

What is the working group's roadmap for 2023?
Based on the last workshops, we are publishing a recommendation for app providers on how they can prepare their apps in order to gain access to the OI4 members' stores as easily as possible. In a second step, we want to set up further sandbox stores in addition to the OI4 Community Store. These are isolated stores of the respective operators where new apps can be tested. If an app provider wants to, they can already take the first steps today as part of a 30-day evaluation of Flecs. As soon as this is complete, we want to actively approach app providers and encourage them to take part. This will then take place around SPS 2023.

When doyou expect to see concrete results?
The first concrete results have already been published in the form of an app manifesto. Now we need to refine this further and push ahead with the sandbox stores. I expect to see concrete results before the summer break. We also need this in order to be able to advertise the call-to-actions for app providers at the SPS in November.