Franz Graser, senior editor of Elektronikpraxis, ventures an outlook on 2017 and spoke with us about developments in the embedded technology sector, among other things. His summary: Despite Trump, expectations are largely positive. And a look into the crystal ball is not necessary to sense a trend.

SYSGO has been on a steady growth path for years. The goal for 2017 onwards is a stabilisation or improvement of the business situation in the focus sectors Aerospace & Defence, Railway, Automotive and Industry 4.0. We already serve these sectors worldwide, although the focus is on the EU - however, we are confronted with increased enquiries from the neighbouring European and Asian regions, so that we will strengthen our international commitment there. Furthermore, topics such as a high demand for safety and security are becoming the focus of attention across industries. Customers are increasingly thinking about new concepts and sophisticated solutions - this leads to an increased demand for creative and professional developers (keyword "shortage of skilled workers"), whom we want to attract more.

For companies that specialise in solutions that have a high demand for security, there are special development and growth opportunities. In addition to the area of security (and the merging of safety & security), two industries will be the focus for SYSGO in the coming years: automotive and transportation. We will not neglect aviation - quite the contrary - but we will continue to develop our RTOS PikeOS especially for the former and clearly address the area of security in addition to safety. The automotive sector is "a matter of course" for us, because the solutions that we already introduced 15/20 years ago in the avionics sector can be transferred very well to the automotive sector today - the difference between an autopilot and autonomous driving is "actually" not that big. Joint standardisation efforts are currently being implemented in both the USA and Europe (EU strategy on cooperative, connected and automated mobility).

And Transportation/Railways: New regulations (ETCS) in Europe are placing increased demands on certifications in the rail sector, creating growing demand for solutions for safety-relevant applications. In addition, there are efforts by the German government to relieve road traffic (heavy goods vehicles), which will lead to significant growth in rail transport in the coming years. And, as mentioned above, security, because the extremely increasing networking of all kinds of devices (cars, trains, machines, etc.) places increased demands on security - No safety without security. Safety is also the motto of our presence at this year's embedded world trade fair, where we will, for example, be presenting live demonstrators on the subject of automotive and aerospace (which we have developed together with Curtiss-Wright, CoreAVI and Renesas).

Looking to the future, the question naturally also arises as to whether rougher waters can be expected for internationally operating companies in the EU following the Brexit decision and Trump's election victory?  The answer: No. It is certainly too early to make a reliable statement here. And both events mentioned have different effects. If the motto "America first" is implemented, it may also lead to a re-focusing of European and non-US companies. In addition, SYSGO products and solutions are ITAR-free and are not subject to export restrictions. We feel the high demand for secure solutions "Made in Germany". Our commitment is appreciated (SYSGO was recently certified according to ISO 27001) - the source code of the project is and remains 100% with the customer.

Currently, this claim is reflected in increased domestic demand. Even though the USA has not been a focus market for us so far, we maintain many good partnerships with leading chip, board or middleware providers. Stable political conditions are very welcome.

You can find the whole interview and the article HERE (German)