Philips partners with Bosch, Cisco and SAP on programmable lighting

Philips has entered into a strategic partnership with three major players in the network market, namely Cisco, Bosch and SAP. The three will include network systems using Philips programmable lighting in their programs.

That writes Reuters news agency. Philips is going in different directions with the three companies. With Cisco it will work on lighting in office environments, with software company SAP Philips will delve into urban infrastructure and for home use a strategic partner has been found in Bosch.

No financial details have been disclosed about the partnerships, nor are the agreements exclusive. Reuters suspects that the connections will have to do with Philips’ plans to split off the lighting division and then focus solely on healthcare.

With the connected lighting, for example, an employee can control the lighting in an office with their own smartphone. In addition, the systems will collect more information, such as energy consumption, temperature, space use and other data. The data can then be used in business operations to save costs.

The company has also entered into various partnerships with consumer-oriented Philips Hue. In addition to Bosch, Logitech and Samsung SmartThings will be added to the Friends of Hue program, Philips reports on its own site. The goal of Friends of Hue is to improve integration between different systems. Philips already started collaborations with Apple for HomeKit integration and with Nest.

The electronics group has also sought cooperation with Xiaomi and has crowdfunded an EyeCare lamp with the Chinese company through the Mi Store. Xiaomi is going to release the Philips EyeCare desk lamp. The lamp works in combination with a smartphone and can react to ambient light to ensure the right amount of light. The lamp will be available from January 2016 via the Mi Store.