Robert Bosch Engineering and Business Solution India, the subsidiary of Bosch GmbH, has developed an independent unit to handle its business of non-Bosch customers. This entity, called Software and Digital Solutions or SDS, would focus on providing software and digital services in the areas of digital enterprise, engineering R&D, new age technologies.

Dattatri Salagame, President and MD, RBEI India says, “Our restructuring initiative started in Q2, 2020. For us it is more about being able to anticipate future demand and be where we are needed. This change we are putting in place now is one of the largest changes that RBEI has undertaken since its inception, around 25 years ago."

One of the aspects of the restructuring was to look at how RBEI can be best positioned in terms of competencies, business models, capability, working engagements and scale, so that it continues to play a dominant role in product engineering at Bosch.

Dattatri further adds, “We want to take on a global leadership and responsibility role. In such an evolving face of tomorrow, there are two key areas where Bosch Software and Digital solutions aims to help our customers accelerate the Connected World to their benefit. One is to help build ‘Enterprises of the Future’ who have real-time and integrated views across the manufacturing life-cycle. The second is to build ‘Products of the Future’; they will be connected, providing real time feedback and an immersive customer experience linking the customers and partners and providing transparency across the ecosystem.”

Alongside, Dattatri also prefers to tap into opportunities that are in the market and says, “The scale of this effort is strategic, and will be delivered through our SDS unit. For a Center that was previously a R&D center, this is a huge step, and is indicative of the enormous opportunity we see out there for our skill set,”

Dattatri also states that while the key focus would always be to provide engineering solutions and designing Bosch products of the future, but now they are implementing a model to reach out to the external market in newer forms of businesses where the classical business units do not reach. However, the scale of this effort is strategic, and would be offered through the new Software and Digital Solutions unit.

He continues, “One such instance is the healthcare industry. We have made good inroads in the healthcare sector…for instance our hemoglobin monitoring solution is winning recognition for both its design and usefulness in the US and also in Europe.”

The need to create a special division has also propped up due to the rapidly changing technology landscape. However, the world today is rapidly transforming to a connected, digital ecosystem with everything being very closely knitted - products, businesses and stakeholders.