Arvato Cooperating with Smart Home Specialist wibutler

G tersloh: Arvato SCM Solutions is strengthening its activities in one of the largest emerging markets of the future, smart home/smart living, through a minority stake in software and hardware developer iEXERGY.

The goal is to help the smart home market reach a breakthrough with an integrated range of smart home solutions. Powerful partners are banding together for this purpose who have already had initial successes in the smart home industry. Besides Arvato, the Dortmund-based Wilo Group, one of the world's leading manufacturers of pumps and pumping systems, likewise had already enlisted with iEXERGY.

Smart living is one of the biggest emerging markets of the next ten years, explains J rg Dethlefs, Director of the Telecommunication division at Arvato SCM Solutions. Together with iEXERGY and Wilo, we want to be instrumental in helping shape this market, and jointly level the infrastructure for the wide-range entry of this technology in our everyday life.

The integrated services are to help overcome the market barriers that have prevailed to date. The wibutler platform (wibutler is a brand of iEXERGY), consisting of a smart home server, the wibutler operating system for the home and an intuitive app for control, facilitates interoperability and simplicity. Hundreds of products from various manufacturers are compatible with each other straight from the factory, thanks to the support of various wireless standards, among other features. Closed systems, compatibility problems and a limited supply of products are thus a thing of the past. Overcoming these market barriers is our motivation, and the impetus to develop an open platform for manufacturers, explains Arne Feldmeier, CEO of iEXERGY. Arvato is now supporting us as a strategic investor in transferring the already successful model from the B2B market environment into the mass market, in close cooperation with trade. wibutler serves as the neutral common denominator between the various product manufacturers and service providers that's necessary to make the technology accessible to people.

Among the supported products are also the pumps and pumping systems for the Wilo Group's heating, refrigeration and air-conditioning technology. In collaboration with iEXERGY and Arvato, we want to strengthen our expertise in the field of apps and expand our system-related competencies, says Oliver Hermes, Chairman CEO of the Wilo Group. For example, we're currently working on the interaction of our high-efficiency pumps with other components of building automation.

Helmut Kakakis, Vice President of the Telecommunication division at Arvato SCM Solutions, expects an even stronger dynamic from his activities though the new partnership: We're already taking on services for implementing the smart home business model for providers of closed smart home systems. These services include web shop development, online marketing, payment handling including subscription and fulfillment, customer support, installer management, transport management and the complete handling of after-sales processes.

By enlisting iEXERGY, we now have the opportunity to offer our clients an end-to-end (e2e) solution for implementing their smart home business models in the B2C and B2B field. This enables us to take our smart home business to a new level by expanding our service offerings with the open platform by wibutler, including through device administration, data visualization, and integration of third-party suppliers in relation to hardware, software and value-added services, explains Dethlefs.

Arvato SCM Solutions' Telecommunication division expects that - in addition to telecommunications groups - in particular insurers, energy providers, building societies, security providers, but also ambulatory care services will offer smart home applications and services in the future. Kakakis adds, The opportunities are manifold. For example, if users use a control unit that warns about leaky pipes and automatically shuts off the water supply in the event of a burst, they could benefit from more favorable insurance tariffs.

iEXERGY (wibutler), Wilo and Arvato are convinced that their combined expertise places them in an ideal position to make a breakthrough on the smart home and smart living market.

About Arvato SCM Solutions:

Arvato SCM Solutions is an innovative and leading global service provider in the area of supply chain management and e-commerce. Partners come together with industry specialists in the fields of telecommunications, high-tech & entertainment, corporate information management, healthcare, consumer products, and publishing. The company has a workforce of around 14,000 employees around the world who work on services and practical solutions. Using the latest digital technology, Arvato develops, operates, and optimizes complex global supply chains and e-commerce platforms, thereby becoming a strategic growth partner for its customers. Arvato SCM combines human expertise with the right technologies and appropriate business processes to measurably increase the productivity and performance of its partners.

Arvato is a wholly owned subsidiary of Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA.

More information is available at www.scm.arvato.com.

About iEXERGY:

iEXERGY GmbH is a development and consulting company that implements hardware and software projects with a focus on home and building automation. Originating as a spin-off of the M nster University of Applied Sciences in 2012, the company helps manufacturers from a wide range of industries to integrate their products into the connected world. In order to make the smart home come alive, and be usable and simple for everyone, iEXERGY developed the manufacturer-independent and future-proof smart home solution wibutler.

About Wilo:

Wilo SE WILO SE is one of the world's leading manufacture

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