Electrical and electronic systems (Electrical/Electronic/Programmable Electronic Safety-related Systems – E/E/PE) play an important role in our lives and take over important decisions and safety-related functions. Accidents and hazards may arise due to technical defects in control and sensor systems, such as in equipment, vehicles and household appliances. Thus, unsafe electric and/or electronics represent an underestimated risk of life-threats for people.
The worst case is, that electric or electronic product failures cause injuries or even deaths. Thus, and improved safety analysis in system design is strongly required to guarantee the quality and safety of products – especially in transport. In the automotive supply industry, further waves of consolidation are connected to marked growth. This is partly due to a progressive reduction of vertical integration on the part of the OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer), on the other hand, there is an increasing reduction in the depth of development and a transfer of development services to specialized and modular system suppliers.
To speed-up these development services is today not possible because of e.g. missing software collaboration tools to enable a close cooperation between OEM’s and suppliers in particular for those components that influence safety and security. With this project, EnCo Software wants to change this situation through an innovative approach and provide businesses with an intelligent tool for the development process, which integrates all individual tasks/documents and results in development of all components of an E/E/PE systems in one process.
The Cloud-based SafetyOffice X2 (C-SOX) is going to become a standard for cost efficient and secured collaborations of OEM suppliers offering input and design know-how for safety and security requirements in all stages of system development, for all kind of electronic systems and their respective safety documentation.
For society, this means
• Reducing Liability risk: Better engineered and safer products reduce the risk of being sued for faulty products and being faced with large legal and product recall bills as well as having to pay hefty fines to customers and governments.
• Reducing engineering costs: By dramatically shortening and streamlining the engineering process companies can bring new products faster to market. Whilst EnCo Software helps them to safe costs EnCo software also helps them to bring new products faster to market,
satisfying customers’ expectations of shorter product release cycles and staying ahead of the competition with more innovative and safer products.
• Less IT costs: C-SOX will be utilizing modern cloud technologies like Docker or Kubernets. Thus, deploying new versions will become very simple, whether in a private or in the public cloud offering. And all of it, without interrupting users or awkward maintenance windows
• Using AI (artificial intelligence) to build safer products: AI or machine learning algorithm will further improve product safety & security. One of the benefits that can only be achieved in the cloud is to use anonymous data to learn what works and what doesn’t so engineers
can design better products by avoiding mistakes made by others or conceptual design flaws identified by AI. AI creates entirely new opportunities for businesses, i.e. by letting AI design complete products or components, with minimal involvement of engineers further
automating the engineering process. Like AI is set to start writing entire software programs, it is set to engineer entire products.
The overall objective of the project
Objective of the project is the development of a successful concept for the introduction of the EnCo C_SOX solution into European markets. To update the current business Plan, we strive to achieve the following objectives:
• Generation and analysis of three use of cases: OEM + International; OEM + Tier 1; OEM + Tier 1 + Tier 2 for the cloud-based collaboration over organizational boundaries in France, Italy, Austria and Germany.
• Testing pricing model for SOX2-Cloud licensing by questioning the target users in UK, France, Italy, Spain.
• Evaluate the market potential outside the automobile industry (Rail, Medical Tech, Process Industry Air and Aerospace) in France, Italy Austria.
• Updating the business Plan including ROI, risk assessment, and the preparation of a finance and distribution plan.
• Development of a detailed demonstration and testing strategy as well as of a training strategy for Customers.
• Creation of a technological concept for cloud connectivity for different users. Development of a concept for access permission management. Selection of an appropriate security concept to insulate data.
