The pioneering spirit of company founders Erwin Bernecker and Josef Rainer, together with the vision of accomplishing something exceptional for the automation industry, still influences the company's strategy today. This conviction led to the establishment of the first international subsidiaries in 1983. Entrepreneurial courage, along with remarkable foresight, allowed B&R to prosper into an international company within the last quarter of a century. Excellent intuition regarding market developments and trends, combined with the ambition to offer high-tech solutions that benefit customers, has allowed B&R to become an industry leader in innovation and technology. Year founded: 1979

Bosch is an industry leader in automobile and industrial equipment, as well as consumer goods and building systems. Bosch operates via 440 subsidiaries in 60 countries; its core lines include mobility (auto) systems, from diesel/hybrid drive to steering, starter motors and generators, electronics, and brakes. Year founded: 1886 Revenue: $58.7 billion (2014) Portfolio Companies: - Bosch Software Innovations - Rexroth - Deepfield Robotics - Escrypt - ProSyst 

Ericsson provides services, software and infrastructure in mobility, broadband and the cloud that enable the communications industry and other sectors to do better business, increase efficiency, improve their users' experience and capture new opportunities. Year founded: 1876 Revenue: $26.8 billion (2014) NASDAQ: ERIC

Hitachi is a highly diversified company that operates eleven business segments: Information & Telecommunication Systems, Social Infrastructure, High Functional Materials & Components, Financial Services, Power Systems, Electronic Systems & Equipment, Automotive Systems, Railway & Urban Systems, Digital Media & Consumer Products, Construction Machinery and Other Components & Systems. Year founded: 1910 Revenue: $94.0 billion (2014) TYO: 6501

Infineon is a semiconductor manufacturer with a focus on automotives, industrial power control, power management, and chip cards and security.

Johnson Controls is an American company globally offering products and services to optimize energy and operational efficiencies of buildings, automotive batteries, electronics and interior systems for automobiles. Year founded: 1885 Revenue: $42.9 billion (2014)

Schneider Electric is a leading global manufacturer of equipment for electrical power distribution and for industrial control and automation. The company helps power generators distribute electricity; designs automation systems for the automobile and water treatment industries; builds electric networks and utility management systems for energy, water treatment, oil and gas, and marine applications; and manages electric power in residential, industrial, and commercial buildings. Year founded: 1836 Revenue: $26.0 billion (2014) EPA: SU Featured Subsidiaries/ Business Units: - Avantis - Wonderware

Many areas of our lives have already been changed by the Internet of Things, and industry is no exception. By blending the real and the virtual worlds of production via the internet, the IoT makes it possible to connect all parts of the production process: machines, products, systems, and people. This means that machines and products can communicate so they can manage themselves and each other. Software-based system and service platforms will play a major role in tomorrow’s manufacturing; they are the only way to bring connectivity, including data analysis, to machines and workpieces in production. Bosch's software solutions for connected manufacturing and logistics gather, visualize, analyze, and monitor machine, process, and sensor data. They then translate this data into useful information that serves as a source for their rule- and process-based actions. The transparency this creates allows clients to determine precisely where to optimize production and logistics processes along the entire value chain.

The Internet of Things (IoT) will have a profound impact in the future. Enabling anything to be connected and providing ’smartness’ to these connected things will bring value across a number of sectors in the Networked Society. Ericsson is engaged with a number of partners from industry and academia in an EU-funded research project called the IoT Initiative with the objective of increasing the benefits and possibilities of IoT, but also identifing and proposing ways to tackle the challenges. The project analyzed about 150 application scenarios of strategic importance. A selected subset were tested in surveys which went out to a number of users and professionals within the ICT community.

The Internet of Things (IoT) is the network of physical objects accessed through the Internet—essentially a "Connected Everything Platform." These objects contain embedded technology to interact with internal states or the external environment. When objects can sense and communicate, it changes how and where decisions are made, and who makes them. ​IoT is connecting new places—such as manufacturing floors, energy grids, healthcare facilities, and transportation systems—to the Internet. When an object can represent itself digitally, it can be controlled from anywhere. This connectivity means more data, gathered from more places, with more ways to: increase efficiency, innovate in product development, increase asset utilization, enhance the customer experience, streamline the supply chain, and improve safety and security. Hitachi Consulting helps apply IoT solutions to drive business value, ultimately allowing companies to be IoT innovators and become an "Enterprise of Things." Companies can learn more about Hitachi Consulting's products, solutions and expertise and how they leverage the diverse product portfolio of Hitachi to help enterprises quickly get value out of IoT capabilities.

When physical things are equipped with smart sensor and microchip technology and completely connected to one another, they autonomously transmit information and data digitally over the Internet. With the aid of these interfaces, real things can be controlled remotely via virtual commands – in a cyber-physical manner. The data and information exchanged faces a growing number of risks. Inadequately secured systems are open not only to espionage and data theft, but also to malevolent manipulation. Infineon has developed security solutions that combine innovative hardware security and state-of-the-art Encryption technology – after all, it's better to be safe than sorry. Infineon has developed a broad range of easy-to-deploy semiconductor technologies to counter growing security threats in the IoT. These solutions enable system and device manufacturers as well as service providers to capitalize on growth opportunities by integrating the right level of security without compromising on the user experience. Complemented by software and supporting services, our hardware-based products create an anchor of Trust for security implementations, supporting device integrity checks, Authentication and secure key management.

The Internet of Things (IoT) is fueling innovation in products, services and solutions that improve building operations and performance. For decades, Johnson Controls has been providing the equipment and systems that communicate in real-time to deliver optimized environments. With a portfolio ranging from sensors, equipment and systems through cloud-based data collection and fault detection, they offer an advanced and robust product line. Johnson Controls smart equipment leverages embedded controls and secured connectivity to reduce the risk of downtime and improve the serviceability while optimizing efficiency and reducing energy costs.

The recent Internet of Things (IoT) momentum has been enabled through a broad adherence to open standards (such as Ethernet) and by technology breakthroughs in the area of Data Aggregation middleware. Schneider Electric delivers open, connected solutions at each IoT-driven intelligent ecosystem layer: the connected, decentralised device layer (sensors, drives, meters, PLCs, controls, switchgear), the platform layer (cloud services, middleware, physical infrastructure architectures), and the On-Premise central control layer (operational intelligence, remote monitoring, predictive analysis, simulation, cloud analytics). Schneider Electric tools help data centre, plant, and smart grid operators to become more efficient by sorting through mountains of data (eliminating false alarms or nuisance alarms) and by generating dashboards that consolidate the information coming in from all parts of the extended network. Instead of gridlock, a smooth flow of information is created which allows for greater operational intelligence and higher quality decisions. IoT is broadening the scope of where both power protection and security are needed, as entire chains of communication can be disrupted by the breakdown of a single device. Schneider Electric leverages the power of IoT and big data to maximize safety and reliability through high-precision automation and control, training and simulation, the generation of ‘what if’ scenarios, robust remote management, Predictive Maintenance, managed services, and advanced analytics. Power protection and cyber security considerations are imbedded into our product designs in order to strengthen overall network reliability.

John Deere, Suzuki, ThyssenKrupp Steel

AT&T, O2, Sprint

BMW, Cortal Consors, Die Mobiliar

ABB, Bosch, Siemens

Organichem, Sealed Air, Steelcase, Morgan Stanley, Ericsson, Jaguar Land Rover, Fiserv (Europe) Ltd

Compass, Neoclyde, TierPoint, Shell.