2March 2016
CeBIT 2016 (14–18 March, Mon.–Fri.):
CeBIT-Trendspots: A glimpse of what exhibitors are bringing to Hannover!
Issue 2
On 14 March, CeBIT will open its gates in Hannover, with a host of companies eager to showcase thousands of innovations from the digital world. The CeBIT Trendspots offer a little taster of what you can expect to find at the fair. This is the second issue,more are set to follow, right up till the start of the fair.
When your gut feeling is spot on
Students of interaction design at Osnabrück University of Applied Sciences are exhibiting wearable devices at CeBIT 2016 – including an accessory that brings a whole new meaning to the phrase “tightening your belt” and a scarf that will warm your heart as well as your neck.
During CeBIT 2016, the students from Osnabrück will be at the Lower Saxony pavilion to exhibit “calm technologies” and their potential applications. These are devices and services that expand our sphere of communication in an understated way and interact with us more discretely than blaring smartphone ringtones – but are no less helpful for it. In fact, quite the opposite – the wearable devices developed by the interaction design students condense complex correlations into one clear signal.
The best example is Bob the Belt. If you like to tell people you’re “tightening your belt” when you want to save a few cents, you should give Bob a try. This smart belt keeps track of its wearer’s account transactions and draws itself tighter with each debit. The students reckon Bob’s silent but heavy hint will help make wearers more aware of their spending habits and therefore more careful with their money, or money that has been entrusted to them. For instance, taxpayers’ watchdogs could surely put Bob to good use!
Another of the wearable devices aims to up the user’s feel-good factor. The project, dubbed “Remember the warm times”, centers on a scarf that emits heat whenever the wearer goes somewhere someone previously messaged them “warm wishes” via a social network. All it takes is an app that filters the relevant information and sends it to the scarf. The creators behind “Remember the warm times” want to use this spontaneous feedback to give owners of their nifty accessory a feeling of being close to somebody. And perhaps that’s not a bad idea when nobody’s around to give you a hug.
HochschuleOsnabrück, FakultätIngenieurwissenschaften und Informatik (49076 Osnabrück, Germany), Hall 6, Stand A18, partner of the Lower Saxony Ministry for Science and Culture
A law firm in your pocket
RAMICRO GmbH & Co. KGaA, the specialist in solutions and services specifically for lawyers and notaries, is unveiling its RA-MICRO Go app at CeBIT – turning smartphones and tablets into superb “legal assistants”.
Berlin-based RA-MICRO’s software is the most successful computing solution for lawyers and notaries on the German market. By optimizing organizational structures and working conditions, it already boosts the efficiency of more than 65,000 workstations and a good 15,000 law firms. The company is now taking the next logical step and launching RA-MICRO Go at CeBIT 2016 in Hannover. This app for smartphones and tablets could prove to be the perfect tool for lawyers and notaries when they are out and about.
The RA-MICRO Go app is designed to turn smartphones and tablets into electronic “legal assistants”. And it works a treat even as a standalone app when RA-MICRO is not installed at the office. Having said that, it offers even better performance and benefits if it can utilize interfaces to share encrypted data and files with RA-MICRO software back at base. The full package ensures all the legal procedures can be properly synchronized.
RA-MICRO GmbH & Co. KGaA (10789 Berlin, Germany), Hall 4, Stand A25
Belt and braces
NovaStor is presenting live demos at CeBIT 2016 of its NovaBACKUP Cloud Port, the ideal counterpart to local backups, to show how this new cost-free cloud backup software can help system houses take the first step toward managed backup services.
When it comes to backing up data, selecting the right strategy is one of those decisions that can make or break a business, as irretrievably corrupted data sets or – worse still – losing data altogether are certain to cause a catastrophe. NovaStor GmbH from Hamburg has built up a strong reputation since 1993 as a top-notch provider of backup and restore software. The company is showcasing its NovaBACKUP Cloud Port at CeBIT 2016 in Hannover – an industry first that not only enables system houses to offer cloud backups independently from third parties, but also adopts a hybrid backup strategy that combines local and external backups for sustainable security.
Thanks to NovaBACKUP Cloud Port, NovaStor partners can provide local cloud backup services at short notice that meet the needs of SMEs as a reliable alternative or complement to exporting data backups to RDX systems. All local backups of PCs and Windows servers can be directly hooked up for cloud backup using NovaBACKUP. All the system house needs to do is set up NovaBACKUP Cloud Port, which takes next to no time. It’s up to the IT service providers themselves whether they back up their customers’ data on a server of their own or in a data center of their choice. What’s more, the software license is completely free of charge for authorized NovaStorValueCREATE! partners. With NovaBACKUP Cloud Port, NovaStor GmbH gives its partners free rein when it comes to business models, thus ensuring that IT service providers are in full control of their customer relationships.
NovaStor GmbH (22041 Hamburg, Germany), Hall 2, Stand A41
The 4th industrial era
IT service provider Materna from Dortmund is at CeBIT 2016 in Hannover to showcase solutions for essential IT automation steps that help deliver an agile and efficient digital factory fit for Industry 4.0.
The digital deluge flooding every sphere of our lives has also swept into the headline of CeBIT 2016 in Hannover “d!conomy: join – create – succeed”. This process – predicted to herald the fourth industrial revolution in manufacturing – places relentlessly increasing demands on IT organizations. At the same time as coping with large volumes of data, they need to get faster and improve their flexibility, reliability and efficiency. The most important tools that will help them do that include cloud computing and the automation of IT processes. Materna GmbH from Dortmund is showcasing a range of solutions at this year’s CeBIT in Hannover for anyone looking to boost the efficiency and agility of their IT processes through automation.
The company is unveiling the Datacenter Transformation consulting package at CeBIT, which it uses to evaluate IT organizations – focusing on process and organization consulting, architecture analysis and security – in order to produce prioritized recommendations for implementing the necessary transformation. And when a specific manufacturer has already been selected, Materna can help launch the rollout in tandem with the transformation process. As a result, companies can achieve tangible results and start to build up experience in running an IT-led factory right from a very early stage. Materna supports BMC, Hewlett-Packard Enterprise, IBM, Microsoft, ServiceNow and OpenStack technologies and can work with all the popular cloud providers.
Materna GmbH Information & Communications (44141 Dortmund, Germany), Hall 7, Stand C17
A small box doing big things!
ThinPrint, a leading international supplier of print management software and services, celebrates the world premiere of the ThinPrint Hub at CeBIT 2016.
ThinPrint, an internationally patented technology that has been constantly evolving for 15 years, has made ThinPrint GmbH, a wholly owned subsidiary of Berlin-based Cortado Holding, the world’s leading supplier of print management software and services. Whether printing from traditional PCs, mobile devices, thin clients, virtual desktops, or from the cloud, over 25,000 companies across all industries and of all sizes optimize their printing infrastructure thanks to ThinPrint. The latest addition to the ThinPrint family – the ThinPrint Hub – is being unveiled to the world at CeBIT 2016 in Hannover.
The familiar ThinPrint Engine still provides simple centralization for print management, but is now complemented perfectly by the new ThinPrint Hub, which takes over the effortless distribution of the pre-installed ThinPrint Client throughout the entire company. Once connected via a network cable, the ThinPrint Hub can be configured centrally via the web user interface – meaning there is no longer any need for dedicated Windows print servers in branch offices or individual installation of the ThinPrint client on workstations. All the same, SSL encryption ensures that the information in print jobs is totally secure and protected from unauthorized access. Thanks to bandwidth control, compression and print data streaming, users can rely on the same high-standard printing performance, while there are no limits to the number of network printers – regardless of the models and manufacturers involved! What’s more, up to four USB printers can be connected to each ThinPrint Hub as network printers.
Cortado AG (10559 Berlin, Germany), Hall 3, Stand B12
A network plus twice the functionality
The German network specialists from LANCOM Systems are bringing the innovative LANCOM LN-830E Wireless access point to CeBIT 2016 as a flexible all-in-one solution for versatile wireless demands – and just one of a great many new products.
In an ideal business world, network structures wouldn’t just be wireless, they’d also always be up to speed and offer maximum flexibility. With its latest products, German network specialist LANCOM Systems is trying to get us all as close as possible to this ideal scenario. Besides a whole range of other premieres – including the LANCOM Battery Pack, which safeguards an efficient emergency energy supply for business-critical LANCOM network components, and the new LANCOM WLAN antenna portfolio – the company is also showcasing the innovative LANCOM LN-830E Wireless access point as a flexible all-in-one solution for a wide range of wireless requirements – just what the ideal business world wants.
The developers behind the new LANCOM E series access point have succeeded not just in delivering wide-ranging IEEE 802.11ac WLAN coverage, but also in activating wireless ePaper displays and utilizing advanced iBeacon radio technology – all with just one integrated infrastructure. As a result, companies can easily run hotspots for customers and guests and digital signage in parallel, while controlling wireless electronic price tags at the same time. To top it all, the latest-generation LANCOM access point slips all these diverse professional radio applications into a discreet and timeless design.
LANCOM Systems GmbH (52146 Würselen, Germany), Hall 13, Stand C28
Industry 4.0 in Lego format – thanks to the DFKI
Generations of engineers started off with the legendary Danish bricks. And now, the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) is using those same colorful toys to bring futuristic technologies to life in a special Lego showcase at CeBIT 2016 that makes business process management and Industry 4.0 easier to grasp.
The DFKI model explains how flexible manufacturing processes can be planned, managed and analyzed with regard to overall value creation in cyber-physical systems. As part of the German Federal Government’s high-tech strategy, Industry 4.0 stands for smart production systems and represents a very exciting vision. This blueprint sees the world of production – i.e. plant components and products themselves – increasingly intertwined with the virtual, digitalized world.
Cyber-physical systems in smart factories are transforming production processes like never before. Flexibility is being dramatically increased, which enables companies to manufacture products on an automated and profitable basis, even when unit numbers are low but the number of product variants remains high. The DFKI Lego showcase at CeBIT 2016 in Hannover takes tractor production as an example. The research center’s innovative scenario provides a clear and accessible explanation of the business process management methods for Industry 4.0, not least because – just like in a real factory – people also have a part to play, in activities such as parts supply and assembly.
Deutsches Forschungszentrum für Künstliche Intelligenz GmbH (DFKI)
(67663 Kaiserslautern, Germany), Hall 6, Stand B48
Helping to clear the air
Everyone knows how the atmosphere at work can turn sour – but what if you could prove it for sure? Of course, there’s always room for interpretation when it comes to judging air quality, but the innovative Foobot on show at CeBIT can now eliminate any doubt.
Today, we spend about 90 percent of our time indoors, where the air quality is often much worse than the “fresh air” of the great outdoors. That revelation prompted Luxembourg-based Airboxlab SA decided to sniff out a solution. Airboxlab was established to find a fast-acting and simple means of detecting indoor air pollutants such as volatile organic compounds, fine particles, harmful smoke and chemical products. After more than two years in research and development, the startup is bringing Foobot to CeBIT 2016 in Hannover.
Foobot isn’t much bigger than a conventional smartphone and comes with an app to sync it with just such a device. The small box can be set up anywhere indoors, where it scans the air 24/7 to detect the fine particles responsible for allergies, for example. It can also monitor the chemical components that can leach out of devices, floor and wall coverings and furniture. What’s more, the super sniffer helps users find the perfect room temperature and humidity level. Foobot's makers say it’s the first smart device designed to help the general public look out for their health and wellbeing this way. After all, Foobot doesn’t just have a nose for good air quality, but the app also offers expert advice to help users improve their indoor environment. Unfortunately, when it’s the boss who’s causing the bad atmosphere at work, not even this smart tool can help!
AIRBOXLAB S.A. (4362 Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg), Hall 11, Stand D65
The analog transformation
At CeBIT 2016 in Hannover, e-ImageData Corporation is revealing how the brand-new ScanPro i9300 microfilm scanner can help bring your microfilm archive into the digital age – with exceptional precision.
Microfilms have been used as an archiving medium for a very long time. Even today, archivists continue to swear by the longevity of the medium. Indeed, it is no coincidence that Germany’s central archives – Europe’s largest long-term storage facility for documents of major national or cultural importance – use 35 mm polyester microfilm. There’s a saying among archivists that sums it all up perfectly – digital for saving, analog for archiving! However, any medium that can’t be read by the naked eye, whether digital or analog, requires special equipment to view and process the content. It’s at this point that microfilm starts to fall behind, with few new machines coming onto the market – reason enough for e-ImageData Corporation to set to work developing the brand-new ScanPro i9300 microfilm scanner. The U.S. company is attending CeBIT 2016 to show how businesses can drag their microfilm archives into the digital age.
The ScanPro i9300 has been designed to read any film material, including blips, regardless of whether they are in standard or proprietary formats. Thanks to a patented technology, ScanPro i9300 finds every blip with astonishing reliability. The scanner’s performance is further boosted by a unique precision film guidance system that carefully controls every single movement of the microfilm so that image searches can be conducted with pinpoint accuracy. The ScanPro i9300 has been designed from the ground up to ensure users can easily view and digitize complete collections of microfilm.
e-ImageData Corp. (Hartford, WI 53027, USA), Hall 3, Stand B02
My dear Watson, do you want to take over?
The IBM highlight at CeBIT this year is the Watson cognitive computing system, developed to understand natural language and provide answers to questions that haven’t even been asked yet.
The highly sophisticated Watson computing system from IBM has been hitting the headlines for a good five years now – along with many a quote from Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes series. And although computers have been completing “elementary” tasks ever since they were first developed, the key “element” of the Watson system goes much further. According to IBM, Watson has been designed to collect and understand all types of data so that it can learn and draw conclusions – in other words, Watson can think. Of course, it is still a long way from independently making important decisions in complex situations, but IBM is at CeBIT 2016 in Hannover to show exactly how far Watson has come.
First launched in 2011, Watson has certainly moved on from its “first of a kind” status to become a commercial cognitive computing system with enormous potential, backed up by a huge range of apps, sample applications and demos from sectors including finance, retail and telecommunications. For instance, CeBIT visitors can see for themselves how Watson is contributing to robot technology – with machines communicating in real time by means of natural human language, thus opening up completely new possibilities for using robots in complex business scenarios. In the IBM demo area, visitors can also explore Watson’s interfaces for application programming and talk to experts about technical issues and various potential applications.