BASF and SAP will evaluate digital collaboration amongst business partners in engineering and maintenance, the companies said Tuesday in a joint press release.

SAP^® Asset Intelligence Network, a cloud-based collaborative network, will provide BASF with a digital data connection to multiple original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and service providers and their respective asset data, according to Eike Croucher, Global Corporate Media Relations at BASF.

The project’s goal is to establish a fully integrated and centrally managed asset information repository, helping ensure data consistency and availability, Croucher said.

By establishing such a single source of truth for asset information, BASF aims to further improve the efficiency of its engineering and maintenance processes throughout the asset lifecycle, Croucher added.

“BASF constantly works on optimizing its sites, plants and production processes,” said Andreas Wernsdörfer, SVP Technical Site Services Ludwigshafen, BASF. “SAP Asset Intelligence Network is an approach that has the potential to further improve our engineering and maintenance processes by establishing a fully integrated digital information chain between OEMs, service providers and BASF over the whole asset lifecycle. A more integrated digital approach with our business partners would allow us to easily access the latest and current information when and where needed, leading to quicker and better decision-making and, in consequence, higher asset effectiveness.”

Added Dr. Tanja Rueckert, president IoT and Digital Supply Chain, SAP: “With SAP Asset Intelligence Network, we enable our customers to collaborate in a digital ecosystem to manage intelligent devices in the IoT and achieve their goals for operational excellence.”

According to Croucher, the evaluation project is expected to run for several months. It is part of “BASF 4.0”, a global project that drives the digital transformation of BASF, she said.