Evonik is setting aside €100 million (US$ 1.13 million) for digitalization and is also entering into a strategic partnership with IBM and the University of Duisburg-Essen aimed at advancing digital change in the chemical industry, according to the company. By providing the financial means and establishing new strategic partnerships, the specialty chemicals company says it expects to strengthen its position in the digital world.
Chief Digital Officer Henrik Hahn says, “By the year 2020, we aim to see around €100 million going into development and testing of digital technologies and the development of digital skills. It’s not just about data and technology, but especially about new business models, solutions, services for customers, and training qualified staff.”
The IBM partnership will allow Evonik to benefit from technologies and projects spearheaded by IBM, such as cognitive and cloud based technologies including blockchain, IoT and Industry 4.0, according to the company. The partnership also reportedly allows Evonik to tap into IBM’s R&D achievements such as quantum computing.
Evonik and IBM are set to co-develop their first pilot project, a Cognitive Evonik-specific Chemical and Life Science Knowledge Corpus based on data analyzed by IBM Watson Explorer and Watson Knowledge Studio. Watson Explorer is IBM’s cognitive search and content analysis platform; Watson Knowledge Studio is the company’s cloud-based app that enables developers to identify relationships in unstructured data and can be used in Watson Explorer. The resulting insights will be made available as a Digital Advisory Services and for efficiency improvements, according to Evonik.
For more information, visit: www.evonik.com