Interview "BSH - Bosch Siemens Hausgeräte"

What is your name?
Thomas Bühner
Which department do you work in?
BSH EDS EPI@ (Consultant for Unilog Avinci - a LogicaCMG company)
What is your function and your activity within the company / department?
Project leader for "serve@Home Gateway"
What were the deciding factors for seeking cooperation with object XP?
object XP’s experience in a similar reference project in a different branch of industry (Schindler Aufzüge AG, Ebikon) was decisive.
Were there any alternative solutions, such as a different provider or an in-house solution, and why were these abandoned?
For us the availability of a similar, already marketable solution (Schindler Gateway) was decisive. We had already set up a first-generation product using the gateway of a different manufacturer.
Why do you, or rather your company, put your confidence in open source? What are the advantages and disadvantages offered by open source?
I see the advantages of open-source solutions in the area of costs for application solutions. Moreover, open source solutions offer a certain independence from individual market providers. The disadvantages can be found in the area of legal risks such as the risk of losing the rights to your own software through open-source components.
How would you characterise cooperation with object XP in general?
The people at object XP distinguish themselves by being very flexible in our mutual cooperation. The company has high expert competency in the domain of embedded Linux systems, development tools for the latter, in the network domain and in the Java and OSGi domains. Our cooperation with object XP in terms of their work for us is of a high quality; on top of that, they keep to time and price estimates and agreements made and given, which is something I appreciate very much.
What are the advantages and disadvantages resulting from your cooperation with object XP?
We see the advantages of this cooperation in the fact that we can be more flexible in our disposition of resources; and apart from that, object XP has more additional special know-how.
The disadvantage of cooperating with a Swiss company, i.e. object XP, is a comparatively high amount of travelling for face-to-face meetings. However, since BSH tends to make frequent use of electronic communications with international partners (e-mail, electronic document exchange, video conferencing, web-based project support systems) anyways, this disadvantage in our cooperation with object XP plays only a minor role.
In which area/project and in which ways are object XP’s IT solutions/services used in your company?
The project is referred to as «serve@Home» (www.serve-home.de) and includes a complete range of networkable household appliances of the Siemens and Bosch brands as well as their electronic control. Requesting appliance information, actively changing settings or switching appliances on or off from a distance are only some of the core benefits resulting for our customers. The serve@Home system consists of relatively few components that communicate with each other in a fully automated fashion without a single cable having to be re-laid. The hub for this is a gateway: It receives and sends all signals from a PDA or tablet PC via a LAN network (Ethernet) and / or WLAN wireless network, from a mobile telephone via the GSM/GPRS net and from the serve@Home household appliances via the existing electricity cable in the house. The serve@Home system offers the possibility to control household appliances set up for this and other systems (such as light control, heating) simply and comfortably via all kinds of control units. For instance, as a control unit within your home you can use your PC or your PDA. On the road, you can also communicate with the system via your mobile phone or receive alarm messages if, for instance, there was a power cut at home.
Could you briefly describe the specific services within the area/project described earlier that you are using from object XP and which role object XP is playing in this?
object XP provides the operating system (based on Linux) for the (embedded) home gateway and works out an application for monitoring processes and applications within the project described. In addition, they also develop drivers and interface programs for the application.
What is the significance of these services provided by object XP for your company? Could they perhaps be characterised as strategic and pioneering?
Above all, object XP’s services are of tactical significance for us. That does not mean, however, that we are not interested in long-term cooperation in other projects, since we have learned to know and appreciate object XP as a competent and reliable partner.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of object XP’s IT solutions and services?
I’m afraid I don’t know enough about this area to assess it.
How would you assess the degree of innovation of the service used / the solutions worked out?
In the operating system domain, the degree of innovation is state of the art.
I also consider the degree of innovation in the application interfaces to be high. Mainly because the use of OSGi applications and their close tie-ins to operating- system-adjacent components achieved by object XP considerably increases the IT stability of the overall solution.
How would you assess the quality and completeness of object XP’s solutions and services?
I rate the quality/completeness of the activities carried out and the solutions and applications worked out as very high.
How would you assess object XP’s general competency for projects?
This is at a high level. object XP’s employees have the required and necessary competencies.
How would you assess object XP’s competency for solving problems?
The problem-solving competency of the company and their employees is very good. Development orders are quickly designed and implemented.
In your experience, how is the cooperation with object XP, or rather with the employee in charge?
I find our cooperation to be very pleasant and uncomplicated. object XP’s employees also show a high degree of flexibility.
How would you assess object XP’s adherence to deadlines? Do they keep to the promised dates and times?
As I mentioned before, the company and its employees are very reliable in keeping to time estimates and promises made and given. Accordingly, their adherence to deadlines can be rated as very good.
Are you fundamentally happy with object XP as a company und with the services and solutions they provide?
Yes, so far we have been very happy.
Will you recommend object XP further?
Yes, we will definitely do that.
Do you have some general suggestions and requests for any future cooperation?
No, so far we do not have any suggestions or requests. Our only wish is that all should remain as it has been up to now.

Thomas Bühner was interviewed by Christian Neeser in August 2005.

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