BlueSAM
Blueprints for Smart Product Architecture Management

The aim of the BlueSAM research project is to provide application-oriented support for SMEs in the development of their own intelligent products at the IT architecture level.
Initial situation
Companies are increasingly recognizing the importance and central role of data in digitization. The useful data does not only come from the directly available internal information sources. Intelligent products, which are the enabler for data collection in the field, serve in particular the realization digital business models or the offering of digital added value to customers. But where large companies have already successfully integrated intelligent products into their portfolios, SMEs are increasingly finding it difficult to gain a foothold in the complexity of the underlying digital architectures.
Solution approach
In the BlueSAM project, FIR and its Belgian partner Sirris are investigating existing IT architectures for the realization of intelligent products in order to transfer them into a reference architecture. With the help of European producing companies and corresponding IT specialists, relevant application fields and the resulting requirements for an underlying architecture are being determined. By comparing the reference architecture of intelligent products with the elicited requirements, use-case-oriented architecture patterns (blueprints) will be identified that specify the demands on the IT architecture.
Expected result
The result of the BlueSAM project is a collection of architecture blueprints for specific use cases of intelligent products, which concretize the requirements at the levels of functionality, technology and processes. Based on this, a methodology for the practical application of such an architecture blueprint will be developed to support companies in building their individual digital architecture.
Benefits for the target group
BlueSAM is designed to enable companies to develop their own intelligent products - even without in-depth IT expertise. SMEs in particular should thus be enabled to independently evaluate the underlying complexity and to specifically address use-case-specific necessary fields of action - such as internal competence development or precise outsourcing.