Providing Apps¶

The Marketplace is the central platform for exchanging edge applications with your end user. The following process guides you toward successfully publishing edge applications through the Marketplace.

App Seller Approval¶

To qualify as an Industrial Edge app partner, the following criteria have to be fulfilled as a pre-condition for publishing applications on the Ecosystem.

Explicit end user need for the app as well as use cases
Domain expertise in a specific industry
Regional market expertise (for example, app provider from Europe for Europe)
High maturity state of the app and/or compliance with Docker architecture
Ease of use for end user (self-service app vs. configuration services)
Willingness to pilot, incubate, and familiarize oneself with the Ecosystem Cornerstones
Available resources that cover all product lifecycle stages (for example, pre-sales or service phase)
App was tested and reviewed by Industrial Edge Test Center (App Testing and App Review)
Successful technical (App Review) and commercial product onboarding (Product Onboarding Criteria)
Compliance with and signed Marketplace Seller Agreement and Ecosystem Agreement
Compliance with supported business models (App Types and Licenses)
Accepted Marketplace listing and services (commission on app sales and membership fee)

App partner who fulfill all affiliation criteria are granted the right to publish their apps on the Industrial Edge Hub and Marketplace.

Seller Registration¶

The Marketplace Seller Agreement regulates the rights and responsibilities between you as a Partner and the Marketplace. Accepting and signing the Marketplace Seller Agreement is a prerequisite for seller onboarding. During seller onboarding, we onboard you as a merchant of record with our payment provider and run background checks to ensure that only trustworthy parties make it into the Industrial Edge Ecosystem. Other relevant terms are displayed in the Marketplace Terms of Use, Universal Customer Agreement, and Supplemental Terms for Industrial Edge Products.

Product Onboarding¶

Product onboarding is separated in two streams: commercial and technical onboarding (see App Review). Commercial onboarding takes place in the Industrial Edge Seller Portal and includes all commercial information and the product detail page for your application. In the next section, the deliverables for a successful Marketplace Product Onboarding are described.

Product Onboarding Criteria¶

End users should know what they can expect when they use an app. It’s therefore important that all apps and their associated listings reflect the actual offering and user experience, which is ensured by defined minimum standards on our side. For successful onboarding on the Marketplace, the following deliverables are required:

Commercial Onboarding¶

The Marketplace Seller Agreement is accepted
The Adyen Sub-Merchant registration is completed
The Know-Your-Customer (KYC) process is completed
The order sheet (Marketplace transaction and membership fee) is accepted

Marketplace Onboarding¶

Product presentation for the Marketplace is prepared in English and German or local language (icons, text, videos, prerequisites, price …)
Additional supporting documents are prepared (EULA, hardware demands, release notes, user manual, public Application Programming Interfaces (API) specifications)
Information about the Product (Supporting offline usecase, Data-Domain into which the application will be integrated)

Legal Onboarding¶

Ecosystem Agreement is signed
Product-specific Terms & Conditions (T&C) (EULA) are provided

Technical Onboarding¶

The Industrial Edge system setup is complete and the app is successfully deployed
Potential use cases and end user benefits are described
Additional documentation for final testing is provided
If additional hardware is required, that information is shared
The app is published in the Industrial Edge Hub (Product Selling)

The next section describes the criteria for a successful Marketplace listing.

Marketplace Listing¶

The Marketplace listing is an application’s first showcase to the end user, and so we recommend that providers invest some effort to create a meaningful app listing. The guidelines described below help providers create a consistent representation in the Industrial Edge Ecosystem.

Explicit Offering & App Description¶

The app’s functionality should be clear to end users. Therefore, the app’s functionalities should be explained explicitly in the app description. If an app is described in a misleading way, for example, promoting non-existent functionalities, this may lead to the removal of the app from the Marketplace. Screenshots of an app must visualize the core functionalities of the app. Apps that are published on the Marketplace must be complete and deliverable as specified in the listing. App providers need to inform end user in detail about the services their subscription contains, or if and what additional paid services are available. Major product updates need to be mentioned in the app entry.

Unique and Function-Oriented Name & App Category¶

Providers should choose a unique name for their app by focusing on what the app does (function) and what’s impacted in the end user’s business (object). If the app is industry-specific, supplemental information may be added. The app’s name should have a maximum length of 35 characters. A full name is mandatory unless the name is a commonly known expression in the industry. The term “Industrial Edge” shouldn’t be added, since the Marketplace only contains Industrial Edge Apps. Inappropriate names may be modified by the governance of the Industrial Edge Ecosystem. Providers should select the most appropriate app category for their offering: if there’s an obvious error in assigning the app, the Ecosystem Orchestrator may move the app to a more appropriate category.

The next section describes the available app types and licenses.

Content Update Cycle¶

The marketplace entries should be checked regularly for updates. Manually submitted changes can be entered in monthly batches and need to be provided until the 10. of each month. New changes are not accepted until the old change request is live in production. Critical changes such as e.g., regulatory requirements can be added at any time.

App Types and Licenses¶

As of January 2024, Industrial Edge relies on trust-based paper licenses to regulate the apps’ right of use. On the Industrial Edge side, technical integration for the enforcement of the license is still required. In this situation, we recommend doing business only with end users that are trustworthy business partners. Individually integrating and using license enforcement isn’t possible until general Industrial Edge license enforcement is available.

To support the transition of the industry to a Software-as-a-Service business, we’re providing the following business models as one-year subscriptions.

Professional Apps with a One-Year Subscription¶

Professional Apps are the standard Industry Edge applications that are paid for. Associated Professional Apps must have the same scaling mechanism as the associated Free App if a Free App has already been published. Professional Apps must offer extended functionality to Free Apps (e.g. a Free App offers 5GB storage, so Professional Apps must offer more than 5GB). In addition, the binaries of the professional applications must be different from the binaries of the corresponding free application. Professional Apps must cover the App Provider's development lifecycle costs. Professional Apps are only offered as a 1 year subscription license model with autorenewal of the subscription.

Free Apps with a One-Year Subscription¶

Free Apps ease the end user’s decision and pave their way to using Professional Apps. Free Apps need to be offered for zero euros. These apps need to provide value for the end user but should offer a limited functionality compared with the Professional Apps. The binary of a Free App needs to be different from the Professional Apps. Free Apps can only be published if at least one associated Professional Apps is published. The app provider must provide the same end user support as they do for Professional Apps. These apps also need to provide migration functionalities: for example, backup/restore for the transfer of data to a Professional App. An app can be a Free App and an Essential App. Free Apps are only offered as a 1 year subscription license model with autorenewal of the subscription.

Essential Apps with a One-Year Subscription¶

Essential Apps make it easy for our end user to start getting to know the basic functionality of Industrial Edge and the Siemens portfolio. These apps should offer them an initial positive experience with Industrial Edge capabilities. They should also foster the network effect: for example, via App2App communication. In detail: They need to provide the basic connectivity needed to demonstrate Industrial Edge core functionalities and use a Siemens protocol and a maximum of one other standard protocol like OPC UA. These apps can’t be cloud gateways (like Cloud Connector), because they don’t display the core functionalities of Industrial Edge. Essential Apps also provide basic development tools that allow end user to create drag-and-drop functionalities (for example, Flow Creator). Essential Apps shouldn’t have value-add functionalities in addition to the basic functionalities defined above. These apps also need to provide a public Application Programming Interface (API) that can be used by other applications. These apps need to provide migration: for example, backup/restore for the transfer of data to a Professional App. Finally, these apps can’t be third-party apps. Essential Apps are generally offered for free. Essential Apps differ from Free Apps as they will be automatically put into the shopping cart when purchasing Industrial Edge Access, but they can be manually deselected. Essential Apps are only offered with a one-year subscription which renews itself automatic.

License Model¶

All app types are offered with a one-year subscription license payable up front. In the future, other terms will be added. The historically relevant perpetual app license model won’t be promoted or provided. Application licenses will be automatically renewed if not actively canceled by the end user.

License can either be monitored as a simple license, or can be monitored and enforced with three different types: Base, Addons and cumulative Addons.

Once a license model is in place (the app is in "In Marketplace" state), the license model cannot be changed without the Industrial Edge Ecosystem Team getting involved. This should only be considered in an extreme exception, so plan your License system correctly upfront.

Base License Package¶

The Base License has the following characteristics:

It is Mandatory for the software delivery (the user cannot run the application without this license).
It may contain multiple Entitlements.
Only one Base License can be allocated to one running app instance.
A running Base License is the pre-requisite for Addon or Cumulative Addon licenses.

Addon License¶

The Addon License has the following characteristics:

The Addon License gives the user access to new functions / features of the application. It can only be an "On/Off" setting and cannot be quantified.
It must at least contain 1 Entitlement
An Addon License can only be allocated once per running app instance
The Base License is mandatory to for the Addon License to work

Cumulative Addon License¶

The Cumulative Addon License has the following characteristics:

Cumulative Addon License define an by the app developer defined size, unit or amount and is used to increase the limits of a given feature.
It must at least contain 1 Entitlement
One running app instance can cumulative use this license
The Basic License is mandatory to for the Cumulative Addon License to work.

Trial Licenses with Conversion into a One-Year Subscription¶

Trial licenses are intended to allow the customer to try a particular product before committing to a subscription. Trial licenses are not limited in functionality but have a time limit of 90 days. Trial licenses that are not actively cancelled 14 days prior to renewal date by the customer are automatically converted to a regular subscription at the end of the trial period.

Automatic Renewal¶

To guarantee business continuity, we automatically renew existing licenses if not actively canceled by the end user before the grace period of 30 days before an upcoming renewal. The automatic renewal will trigger a new purchase order and billing process. End users will be informed before the above-mentioned grace period that an automatic renewal will take place.

Payments¶

Generally, all payments that occur through the Marketplace are handled by Siemens and the payment provider. This means the Marketplace takes on overhead by collecting and securing the quoted funds and triggering a payout to an app provider’s bank account at the end of each transaction period.

Discounting¶

The Marketplace doesn’t offer discount options beyond the scale prices based on the number of licenses sold (also known as volume-based discounts). An app provider can define a threshold of purchased licenses that when reached will apply a discount to that offering. Currently, a maximum discount of 30 percent is allowed on applications for sales greater than the threshold.

Refunds¶

In the case of a justified refund, the app provider needs to refund the exact price that the end user paid.

Billing¶

The Marketplace is responsible for billing and all related tasks, including the accurate calculation of regional taxes, applied discounts, and promotions. A summary of each order will be sent to the app provider for controlling and information purposes.

Invoicing¶

Because the Marketplace isn’t legally allowed to create an invoice in an app provider’s name, invoices need to be created by the app providers. After an order has been placed on the Marketplace, a summary of the purchase including the end user’s address, subject of the order, and taxes payable will be sent to the provider. Depending on local regulations, this information needs to be used to create an official invoice for the end user.

Use of Third-Party Payment Mechanisms¶

Using payment mechanisms for software other than one offered by the Marketplace isn’t permitted, because we need to provide a consistent purchasing journey to our end user.

Products and Services in Addition to Apps¶

We want to foster the business of app providers and their interactions with end user whenever it’s reasonable to do so. Therefore, selling products and services in addition to their edge app that increase value creation for the end user are in general allowed.

Products and Supporting Software for Industrial Edge¶

App providers are allowed to sell their own hardware products for Industrial Edge in other venues outside the Marketplaces. App providers aren’t permitted to sell apps or supporting applications for Industrial Edge at a venues outside the Industrial Edge Ecosystem.

Services for the Use and Maintenance of Industrial Edge Applications¶

App providers are eligible to offer intangible services for applications, including consulting, setup, integration, configuration, service, and maintenance through the Marketplace and other channels. Placing offerings in the Marketplace gives app providers the opportunity to offer value-add services and benefit from Siemens’ promotion of these services. Providers can also offer standalone services that employ their domain expertise (for example, as an integrator) without offering an application product. When listing value-add services, the offering should be described clearly and concretely and it must sell for a fixed price.

Alternative Application Delivery Channels¶

In order to provide our end user with safe and trusted applications, certain use cases are excluded from the Industrial Edge Ecosystem.

App files aren’t allowed to be extracted from the Hub, even if it’s technically possible.
App files aren’t allowed to be sideloaded directly on Industrial Edge devices; instead, they should be provided via the IEM.
(Unknown) app files shouldn’t be directly uploaded in the IEM from a provider and then transferred to a end user or even directly sent to a end user.
Finally, apps shouldn’t provide additional functionalities via cloud-based backends through non-Marketplace licensed channels.

These use cases could result in the installation of potentially untrusted and unsigned applications, or they could lead to the use of uncleared and unlicensed intellectual property, which is a risk for companies. Instead, providers need to use the safe and established method for publishing applications, as explained below.

Go 2 Market Enablement¶

The Promo Package is protected by an access code that can be requested from industrialedgeecosystem.industry@siemens.com. The promotion package expires after 1 year and the user can buy it again after 1 year to benefit from an updated package with new applications. The package can be purchased from Siemens Sales and must be purchased on account. The package can only be used for promotional and demo purposes and is not intended for productive use. No new applications will be updated during the active subscription period. It is not possible to change the number of applications. The package includes applications that have passed the App Review process and are already available on the Marketplace. Third party apps can't be included at this time.

Volume Based Discounts for Marketplace Purchases¶

Volume based discounts are only offered through the Marketplace. They only apply to the current shopping basket, which means that previous orders are not accumulated during the purchase or renewal process. The quantity of licenses (= tiers) qualifies for the discount, not the volume of the order. The discount applies to all buyers and not to specific customers or customer groups. Renewals benefit from volume-based discounts based on the latest thresholds per subscription. The discount table and dynamic calculation of applied discounts are displayed to the customer on the product detail page. Custom product pricing automatically disables volume-based discounts. For applications to be eligible for volume discounts, the minimum price is €100 per year. Volume based discounts apply to individual applications. The discount percentages are standardised in pre-defined steps (5%, 10%, 15%, 20%, 25% with a maximum of 30%) and can't overlap. Only 4 changes per year to tier configurations and percentages are allowed, with 10 days notice to App Partner. Tiers per product are the same for all countries and currencies. App Partner is free to choose the tiers and percentages for each of its products according to the above rules.