April 30, 2025, India:Schneider Electric, the global leader in the digital transformation of energy
management and nextgen automation, has launched the Open Automation
Movement, a bold initiative aimed at liberalizing industrial automation and
making it more accessible through Open, software-defined automation. The
software-driven, vendor-agnostic automation solutions from Schneider Electric
enable industries to move beyond rigid, closed systems, empowering them with
plug-and-play capabilities, seamless data flow, and greater operational
flexibility. By embracing open automation, industries can enhance performance
and agility, driving greater engineering efficiency and future-proofs
operations for maximum effectiveness and innovation, marking a significant
step-change in how industrial systems are designed, operated, and
optimized.
This movement
by Schneider Electric is a nationwide call to action, bringing together
industry bodies, industry leaders, engineers, developers and other stakeholders
to create greater awareness and adoption of open, software defined automation
as customers strive for greater operational agility, digital transformation and
sustainability acceleration in India.
Highlighting
the importance of this initiative, Deepak Sharma, Zone President - Greater
India, MD & CEO, Schneider Electric India, said, “The key to unlocking
India's Viksit Bharat potential lies in the bold shift towards intelligent,
sustainable, and future-proof industrialization. Our call for Software-defined
Open Automation is more than a technological advancement; it's an invitation
for India Inc. to break free from the limitations of the legacy systems and
embrace a new era of liberalisation of industrial automation backed by
interoperability, vendor independence and enabling robust data extraction.
Thus, we provide the connectivity needed for advanced analytics, both at the
edge and in the cloud. We believe this is the bedrock upon which India will
build its thriving Industries of the Future, where software empowers
unprecedented agility and scalability.”
India's industrial
revolution, crucial for its global economic ambitions, demands a break from
legacy automation. The outdated infrastructures, characterized by single-vendor
lock-in and complex maintenance, impede the operational resilience,
flexibility, and data transparency demanded by today's market. Recognizing the
importance of this critical juncture, Schneider Electric's Open Automation
Movement aims to be a catalyst for this industrial transformation, by creating
a robust ecosystem involving industry leaders, policymakers, engineers, and
developers, all committed towards democratizing automation. The cornerstone of
this movement is Schneider Electric’s EcoStruxure™ Automation Expert (EAE),
a solution that fundamentally decouples hardware from software, facilitating
flexible system design, faster integration, and effortless scalability.
"This
isn't an incremental improvement; the move to Open, Software Defined Automation
is a fundamental revolution in industrial operations," states Arvind
Kakru, Vice President, Industrial Automation, Schneider Electric India.
“With EcoStruxure™ Automation Expert, Schneider Electric is architecting truly
interoperable and modular systems that shatter vendor dependencies, accelerate
engineering, and seamlessly bridge the IT-OT divide for optimized lifecycles.
Open Automation is the catalyst empowering India to forge resilient, efficient,
and sustainable industrial ecosystems, where digitalization drives precise
control for radical energy reduction. By orchestrating industrial systems and
enabling robust data flow for advanced analytics, we're simplifying complexity
and aligning with IT standards to boost performance and resilience. Our core
principles – application-centricity, seamless IT/OT integration, and
asset-centricity – deliver superior efficiency, resilience, and reduced total
cost of ownership."
Elaborating more on
this initiative, Rajat Abbi, Vice President- Marketing, Schneider Electric
India, states, “Through this initiative, we are demonstrating our strong
commitment and responsibility towards liberalizing industrial automation.
Through the Open Automation movement, Schneider Electric is leading the charge
in empowering Industries to become bolder through flexible and future-ready
operations. We will be using all relevant marketing touchpoints to take this
campaign to the market and demonstrate the true benefits of switching to the
open, software defined automation.”
Schneider
Electric is working closely with stakeholders from key sectors for this
movement including Water & Wastewater, Consumer Packaged Goods, Food &
Beverage, Life Sciences and many more. Leading industry players have joined the
movement already, reflecting strong momentum across the Industrial landscape.
The Open, Software defined Automation Movement will also play a key role in
supporting small and medium enterprises by offering them access to flexible,
cost-effective technologies that were once out of reach due to vendor lock-ins
and high infrastructure costs.
About
Schneider Electric
Schneider’s purpose
is to create Impact by empowering all to make the most of our energy and
resources, bridging progress and sustainability for all. At Schneider, we
call this Life Is On.
Our mission is
to be the trusted partner in Sustainability and Efficiency.
We are a global
industrial technology leader bringing world-leading expertise in
electrification, automation, and digitization to smart industries,
resilient infrastructure, future-proof data centers, intelligent buildings,
and intuitive homes. Anchored by our deep domain expertise, we
provide integrated end-to-end lifecycle AI-enabled Industrial IoT solutions
with connected products, automation, software, and services, delivering digital
twins to enable profitable growth for our customers.
We are a people
company with an ecosystem of 150,000 colleagues and more than a million
partners operating in over 100 countries to ensure proximity to our customers
and stakeholders. We embrace diversity and inclusion in everything we
do, guided by our meaningful purpose of a sustainable future for all.
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