As an industry pioneer, Siemens AG is on a journey of constant transformation to better serve its employees and customers. In 2020 they set out to overcome a pervasive IT challenge that hinders most digital transformation initiatives: the disparity between business demand for new software and what IT can deliver.

Five years later, Siemens has mobilized thousands of employees to contribute to software development projects with the Mendix low-code platform – resulting in more than 1,000 value-add applications delivered. Throughout this journey Mendix has become more than a standard development tool; it has also:

• Transformed from a C-level sponsored adoption program to a self-sustaining IT service.
• Inspired and upskilled a new generation of the Siemens global workforce.
• Brought new software ideas to life in remarkably short timeframes.
• Empowered IT and business teams to work together harmoniously towards common goals.

Making the leap from tens to hundreds – and now over 1,000 – low-code applications is no small feat. Siemens has evolved its approach to managing this vast portfolio of solutions and contributors over time. Looking back, the team shares strategies for executing a transformation of this scale within a diversified global enterprise.

Technology Aligned to Business Strategy

When Mendix was first introduced at Siemens the initial goal was to increase internal awareness and broaden its adoption. As the strategic purview of Mendix evolved, so did the roles of team members like Lena Hermle, the head of low-code and no code operations at Siemens.

“I went from managing the Mendix@Siemens adoption program and being very involved in the day-to-day details to ensuring a smooth transition from a program with central financing into a self-sustaining IT service,” said Hermle.

“This included introducing a charging model so that they service can stand on its own and ensure that Mendix is scaling into the Siemens strategic initiatives. Now, my focus is on providing technology guidance for the Siemens businesses and defining the overall low-code strategy,” she continued.

Siemens has always had a reputation for innovation, evolving from a traditional manufacturing conglomerate to a multi-faceted leader in automation, software, and mobility. As the organization moves into its next iteration as ONE Tech Company, their Mendix strategy is to accelerate innovation, increase growth, and improve customer focus,

Turning Ideas into Business Outcomes

Delivering 1,000 Mendix applications reflects the culture of innovation within Siemens. It is not just about a technology capability – it demonstrates the willingness to foster and grow 1,000 great ideas into solutions that improve business operations.

Their Mendix applications touch every part of the organization, from finance and HR to manufacturing and supply chain. Furthermore, these applications operate harmoniously with other core systems in the Siemens IT ecosystem such as SAP, Snowflake, AWS, and Siemens Xcelerator products.

For many teams, Mendix applications have become the central location to carry out their work more intelligently and efficiently:

• The HR One Stop app centralizes employee documentation and notifications of leave in one easy-to-use employee portal.
• A Pricing Excellence Tool (PET) streamlines special pricing requests for the sales team, acting as the single source of truth and integrating with Siemens’ CRM and SAP.
• Train Control Data Hub provides centralized project information, from product sale to warranty, for the train control department, and is integrated with Snowflake, Microsoft Dynamics, and SharePoint.

Innovation on the Shop Floor

Mendix has also become an agent of change across Siemens’ global production sites. “Factory digitalization is a huge area of opportunity where we can accelerate the creation of prototypes, increase interoperability, and streamline reporting with Mendix,” said Kirchner.

Material Supply Manager is one patented solution that uses IoT sensors and visual planning to handle material flow throughout an entire factory, reducing manual and repetitive employee effort.

In another site, a Stencil Ordering application replaces email and paper processes with a digital solution. This application is fully integrated with SAP, Siemens Teamcenter, and electronic design automation (EDA) tools to provide consolidated information for suppliers that provide stencils for printed circuit board manufacturing.

“Factories don’t just run on the huge and super complex applications. They also need small and medium-sized solutions that make their day-to-day work more efficient,” said Kerstin Rissbacher, Siemens IT’s Mendix DevOps Center Lead.

Mendix can help us in all these areas because we can develop in a fast and cost-sensitive way – which is a priority for any factory,” said Kerstin Rissbacher, Siemens IT’s Mendix DevOps Center Lead.

In some cases, it is the seemingly simple applications that end up making a huge impact. The ReviewTool application, which allows users to upload, review, and release documents, was originally created for a single factory to manage work instruction documents. Other teams across manufacturing, marketing, and HR had a similar need – and now the application is used by nearly 10,000 people.

Increasing Efficiency with Intelligent Apps

In the age of AI, Siemens is using Mendix to accelerate their experimentation and implementation of AI-powered applications.

One of the most differentiating solutions to date is AthenaBot. The application was created for the Siemens security department to assess physical risk factors – such as protests, political conflicts, or criminal activities – that could impact Siemens’ employees and business processes.

Historically, a small team would need to comb through tens of thousands of reports from various sources each year and turn them into intelligence reports. Recognizing the potential for AI to expedite their information collection and synthesis, the IT team developed a Mendix application that uses Azure OpenAI to ingest data from trusted information providers.

The security team typically delivers ~350 reports each year and would spend 8 to 10 hours on each one. With AthenaBot, they have reduced this by 40% – saving over 1,000 hours of work each year.

Leading Through Community and Promotion

“I think what’s unique for the Mendix service – as compared to other services that we offer in IT – is that we’ve taken a holistic approach to this adoption program from the very beginning. Following the Mendix frameworks helped us a lot with our mission,” said Kirchner.

The Mendix@Siemens adoption program closely followed the Mendix Digital Execution framework, which focuses on people, platform, portfolio, process, and promotion. After the program concluded in 2023 the emerging IT service retained the structure and momentum to build on its success.

The heartbeat of the Mendix practice in Siemens is the community – and that group has continued to grow. The IT team holds community meetings, roadshows, and hackathon-style events regularly throughout the year.

To sustain this community engagement, the Siemens team has:

• Been consistent in offering awareness sessions and activities.
• Removed organizational constraints to make platform learning easy to access for all.
• Further personalized learning paths for different segments of the community as it has evolved.

“Awareness sessions are a regular part of our enablement and promotion. We will always promote what is possible with Mendix and how the technology is changing. We also recently started offering sessions dedicated to specific features like AI or the Mendix Workstation App, which have been very well-received,” said Hermle.

Mendix is integrated into leadership development programs and the Siemens “MyLearningWorld” enablement hub – the place where employees seek continued learning opportunities. Siemens IT also keeps a centralized budget for platform enablement, including Mendix,  so that interested team members do not need to overcome administrative hurdles if they want to invest in training.

The results speak for themselves: a thriving Mendix community of more than 10,000 people, with nearly half of them holding the designation of Certified Mendix Developer. “We have such an engaged community and it’s exciting to see that we are still attracting new people who want to become Mendix developers,” said Hermle.

Upholding Governance at Scale

For Siemens, success is not just delivering many applications. It is delivering many applications that meet a high degree of quality, maintainability, and consistency. Today, there are 15 DevOps centers throughout the organization that maintain this oversight.

“We provide guidelines on how to use Mendix, generic modules to support the developer community, as well as architectural oversight. Our architecture team members have detailed insights on what is new in the platform and how we permeate that knowledge throughout the community,” said Rissbacher.

Governance in Siemens touches every stage of the software development lifecycle – from project intake to deployment. Siemens has a decision tree with defined parameters for cases to use – or not use – Mendix vs. another tool.

“We have a general Mendix-first guidance, and we have worked with our enterprise architecture team to establish and uphold guidelines for when to use low-code or another technology,” said Hermle.

To provide the best possible service, governance, and control for all, the team established the MakersHub. The MakersHub is a common entry point for any employee developing a Mendix application. It provides standard resources and connectors, serving as a one-stop-solution for the application lifecycle, from portfolio planning to infrastructure billing.

“The MakersHub has been a trusted and valuable companion for the last five years. It helps my team provide state-of-the-art service for a global organization while offering invaluable insights on how Mendix is growing in the organization. It’s also one of the most proven Mendix applications in Siemens,” said Rissbacher.

Beyond One Thousand Apps

As Siemens continues their transformation journey, Mendix is on board as a copilot to help them reach their destination. Success with Mendix today can be measured by:

• Thousands of hours of employee effort saved on an annual basis.
• Reduced cost and risk associated with shadow IT and third-party technologies.
• Improved software quality and consistency.

Reflecting on the last five years, Hermle and the team share learnings for any other organization that is looking to hyper-scale their development efforts:

1. Have a clear vision: Define what low-code success looks like for your organization and how it will support your business strategy.
2. Don’t neglect the basics: Taking the extra time up front to standardize – whether it’s your design systems, deployment, or value capture – will save you an infinite amount of time in the long run.
3. Invest in your people: They will make or break your success with any technology. Give them the runway to think big and the resources to succeed.