Mr. Böhrer, you have been on the market with your virtual PLC for a year now. How is business going?

Böhrer: We are still convinced that the idea of offering a cloud PLC as software as a service is the right one. However, we are still a few years too early to implement this idea consistently. The current trend is to implement cloud technologies primarily on edge servers in companies. Keyword: virtual edge. - And we are now responding to this.

You are responding in such a way that ...

We are expanding the topic of 'virtual', if you like. And in addition to the cloud, we are also focusing on the 'edge' field of application. In other words, we are responding to virtual by granularizing our offering. In other words, we are now expanding our portfolio to include the three product packages Logiccloud Control, Logiccloud virtual factory and Logiccloud 365 (see box).
As far as edge is concerned, we have analyzed the use cases of edge-based virtual controllers and found that there are two points that are decisive for their use. Firstly, the installation and overall setup of virtual controllers is too complicated and requires too much IT knowledge to date. Secondly, the hardware requirements are too high and there is no cost benefit. That's why we put a lot of effort into making the setup as simple as possible and the hardware requirements as low as possible.

What does that mean in concrete terms?

The user develops their automation solution in the cloud with the Logiccloud Engineering Portal, tests it in the cloud and then downloads the solution to the edge device with just a few mouse clicks. Monitoring is also carried out in our engineering portal. Importantly, the edge device does not have to be constantly connected to the cloud, but can simply be connected for service and updates.

If you are now focusing on the edge environment, you also need hardware on which your product runs.

Absolutely. This is where we rely on partnerships with companies such as manufacturers of control systems. We recently became a WAGO IoT partner, and further partnerships will follow shortly. The fact is that almost every hardware manufacturer today has Linux-based routers, gateways or controllers in their portfolio. The hardware often already has management software on board. We then adapt our deployments so that the installation and setup works smoothly for the user. As I said, the software is always the same, we just adapt the installation. This creates a win-win-win situation for users, hardware manufacturers and us.

What does the sales responsibility look like here?

We operate differently to other soft PLC manufacturers. On the one hand, we act as a kind of wholesaler: we buy the hardware from the manufacturer and sell the complete solution to the users. On the other hand, we also sell our virtual PLC via other marketplaces.

Does this mean that your business model is now changing fundamentally?

Our business model originally only consisted of SaaS. But with Logiccloud Control - i.e. Logiccloud on the edge hardware - we have also introduced purchase licenses. The engineering portal is still free of charge. For our OEM products, we agree an individual license model with customers.

Logiccloud at the SPS 2023: Hall 6, Stand 241H