Siemens Financial Services

Powering sales teams & vendors with no-code apps

Siemens Financial Services (SFS) offers and coordinates financing contracts through a global network of sales reps and vendor companies. With no-code apps, the SFS team instantly enables all salespeople to enrich consulting, close deals faster, and provide answers based on customer-specific financing concepts on the spot.

Challenges: speed of communication and information transfer

Siemens is well known for creating reliable technology used across multiple industries including digital industries, smart infrastructure, healthcare, energy, and mobility.

To deliver its services, Siemens employs a global network of internal and external sales representatives to advise clients on technology and financing solutions for assets that they acquire. This requires the sales reps to have in-depth knowledge and real-time information.

As sales reps are at liberty which financial service provider to choose for contract financing, data is crucial, and training sessions, static websites, and Excel files don’t offer compelling competitive advantages in the customer dialog.

The speed of communication, productivity increase as well as easy access to information are vital for Siemens Financial Services to convince sales reps and their clients. Mobile apps are the best choice. However, there are not enough developers, and IT resources to accomplish this on the scale needed.

Also, development costs for app coding are often too high to achieve a satisfactory return on investment. To maintain its competitive advantage, Dr. Oliver Braitmayer and his team sought new and innovative ways to provide information via apps – in time and budget.

“Open as App is a key value driver for a more digitalized business.”

Dr Oliver Braitmayer, VP & Global Head of Digital Sales, Siemens Financial Services

Solution: no-code apps created by non-tech business experts

By embracing Open as App’s no-code platform, Siemens Financial Services can use no-code apps in its daily business. SFS experts are able to create apps based on existing Excel spreadsheets and share them with the company’s global network of sales reps. The Excel data is hosted and managed in Siemens’ Microsoft 365 environment, and it can be shared via powerful mobile apps that sales reps can use intuitively to drive such tasks as generating financing proposals, reporting leads and prospects, and inspecting assets. Assigned users can access these apps on smartphones, tablets, or in web browsers.

“Thanks to Open as App, we were able to provide a quick, easy, and digital solution to the operating companies.”

user feedback

“With our no-code apps, we will be able to capture leads more efficiently. It will definitely be a time saver and a more efficient way.”

user feedback

To create an app, the Excel data is linked to the Open as App no-code platform. There, the Open as App wizard instantly suggests a suitable app type based on the existing data, logic, and formulas. The design and structure of the app can be customized to SFS’s needs and branding requirements. All features like interactive calculations, charts, input fields, or PDF creation are automatically added to the app. The app and its data source remain connected and are always up-to-date.

Before creating apps on an industrial level, Siemens set up its account on openasapp.com. Roles for app approval, app creation rights, and app user rights were assigned. After an initial confirmation of the account invitation, SFS users are members of groups and get access to apps automatically via the Open as App clients for Android, iOS, or web browsers.

Here are some typical apps that Siemens Financial Services is using in its everyday business:

Finance calculator app: Based on Microsoft Excel, the app calculates financing conditions based on specific customer scenarios. The calculation solution is hosted in Microsoft 365. The result can be printed as PDF and sent by e-mail.

Asset inspection app: Checklist for inspection of machinery and quality reporting on site as part of financing contracts. A list of assets and the required standards is based on Microsoft Excel and hosted in Microsoft 365.

Lead and prospect generation app: Tracking and reporting of potential financing deals within the global sales rep network. By webhooks, information can be added directly into SFS systems, like Microsoft Dynamics CRM, as an option. Check out a sample app in the app section.

“With Open as App, we have increased the productivity and the innovation output in our organization on a global scale.”

Dr Oliver Braitmayer, VP & Global Head of Digital Sales, Siemens Financial Services

Result: leverage productivity and know-how with no-code apps

Siemens quickly rolled out more than 40 apps in the countries where it operates. They enable sales deals, facilitate asset management, and provide on-the-spot marketing information by apps. SFS thus reaches out to vendors and their customers in a fast, easy, and user-friendly way.

The non-technical staff creates apps that exactly fit the business needs. Multiplying the resources for digital innovation and increasing the speed of delivery. The SFS business apps are instantly available on all platforms – iOS, Android, or the Web. Testing is reduced to a minimum as the Open as App no-code app platform provides a reliable standard for app features, approval, and distribution channels.

“The integration of Open as App into Microsoft 365 helped us to avoid security and data protection issues from the start. This way, we can benefit from the power of no-code apps but keep working with data in our original IT infrastructure.”

Dr Oliver Braitmayer, VP & Global Head of Digital Sales, Siemens Financial Services

The existing finance solutions in Microsoft Excel are shared securely – with user-friendly functionality and full control of users and data. If needed, data can be collected by the app and safely integrated into the SFS business systems via Webhooks.

“Thanks to our international community, we create transparency, share knowledge, best practices, and common challenges. You can find us on Yammer or join any of our activities.”

user feedback

SFS apps save time and enrich client consulting. Yet, the no-code app creation also inspires innovation. Any authorized employee can put their ideas into practice. To boost innovation, even more, SFS has set up design round tables where business experts can network and share ideas (and of course apps).