Could interoperability be Europe’s superpower?
Sami Koskinen, Director of Digital Transformation, Beamex
As global industry scrambles to tap into the potential of digital, Europe’s real superpower may lie in one of its most understated strengths, interoperability. From managing varying levels of regulation to enabling inclusive digital transformations to ensuring trust and safety in innovation, Europe’s experiences with interoperability hold lessons for the world.
Being a European, something that always amazes me is how this region, marked by so many differences in cultures, languages, foods and even histories, has always learnt to work together. Granted, there may be squabbles, bureaucracy, and a very long lead time, but at the end of the day, the bloc has managed to build a reputation for innovation backed by trust and safety, for making things work across borders, and for allowing open sharing of data. It is a level of interoperability that other regions can only dream of.
A simple example is mobile phone roaming charges. Travelling and making calls across the EU countries used to mean paying steep roaming charges. But thanks to EU regulations, such as the Roam like at home (RLAH), roaming surcharges were abolished, allowing seamless mobile use across borders. This unified experience has benefited millions. A year after its implementation, studies showed a substantial increase in European Economic Area (EEA) countries for roaming traffic of all types. For example, data traffic increased by 435% in Q3 2017 compared with Q3 2016.
To my engineer’s mind, this is a great metaphor for how interoperability in connected systems can unlock ease, efficiency and trust. As countries worldwide work on accelerating their digital transformations, Europe’s ability to make interoperability work could emerge as a superpower for others to emulate.
Leveraging “democratic expertise”
One area I expect to see this in action is the industrial sector, and especially process industries. Here, companies globally have set ambitious digital transformation targets while upgrading their infrastructure to collect, analyse and leverage data to unlock new business models and opportunities. But at the same time, they must navigate significant challenges. Regulations that differ from country to country. The IT-OT mismatch, where advanced software must be integrated with legacy hardware. The lack of trust in opening up data to outsiders. Interoperability, as seen in the European context, could be the answer here.
What makes Europe’s approach unique in process industries is our recognition that digitalisation isn’t only about adding screens to existing processes, and that no company can go it alone. We are fundamentally rethinking how systems communicate and share information. While other regions struggle with a general sense of distrust in different aspects of society, European companies can sit around the same table with competitors and government bodies to solve shared problems.
I’ve personally witnessed this transformation sitting in meetings with Siemens, Endress+Hauser, and other stakeholders. Companies that were once purely competitive are now discussing how we can collectively serve our clients better through shared standards and data democratisation. We’re seeing that proper interoperability standards can enhance safety and compliance by providing better data visibility, reducing human error in data transcription, and enabling more sophisticated analysis of equipment performance trends.
This approach leverages what I call “democratic expertise”. The best ideas win, regardless of company size or nationality. A breakthrough in one area stands to benefit all.
Trust-based interoperability
A great example of this is with calibration data. Process industries have long struggled with what I call the “paper trail problem.” Vendors come in, perform calibrations, and leave behind paper certificates. These paper trails create data silos that prevent us from utilising valuable calibration data to predict maintenance needs, optimise processes, or even build the factory of the future.
This is where the Digital Calibration Certificate (DCC) becomes revolutionary. The DCC is a European-led initiative that we at Beamex are actively helping to develop, working alongside major industrial companies and key stakeholders like Germany’s national metrology institute, Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB). Beamex brought to the table over 50 years of practical insight into the discussion, especially in high-stakes industries like nuclear energy, where paper-based processes still dominate.
The result of the collaboration is a secure, tamper-evident document that can be stored and shared electronically in a standardised, consistent, authenticated, and encrypted format. Unlike paper certificates, which can be lost or altered, DCCs provide built-in traceability, eliminating the need for manual approvals. Because DCCs are machine-readable, they also enable direct communication between calibration instruments and enterprise systems.
Another collaborative project we’re working with is the Asset Administration Shell (AAS) initiative, which tackles the broader challenge of asset management harmonisation. Companies have thousands, sometimes millions, of different assets, each with IDs, IP addresses, serial numbers, and spare parts inventories. Without harmonised and interoperable systems, this becomes an unmanageable data nightmare.
The goal is for organisations to use these initiatives to improve interoperability across the board. By being able to share data in a standardised, secure and verifiable manner, companies will be able to optimise operations, regulators can rest assured that compliance measures are being adhered to, and consumers will be able to better trust products and services.
We need to talk up European innovation
Here’s where Europe’s trust in government pays dividends. When governmental bodies support and fund interoperability initiatives, those standards have a much better chance of becoming widely adopted. Taxpayer money invested in interoperability benefits everyone, not just shareholders of a single corporation.
This creates a virtuous cycle: government support provides credibility, industry adoption creates network effects, and widespread implementation generates more data and innovation opportunities. It’s a model that combines the best of public oversight with private sector agility.
As the DCC and AAS initiatives show, European interoperability is proof that trust-based innovation is possible in a collaborative and structured manner. When we can demonstrate that our approach creates tangible benefits, the business case becomes compelling.
But let’s be honest. We Europeans have traditionally been terrible at marketing our innovations. We tend to perfect our products first, then figure out how to tell the world about them. Meanwhile, others shout ideas to the rooftops before they even exist, collecting investment and attention for ideas still on paper. While others may prefer the hype-first approach, in a world where trust is an increasingly rare commodity, I’d vote for safety and reliability every time.
In a world of increasing fragmentation, Europe’s superpower might just be our ability to build bridges that enable technologies, companies, and ideas to flow freely across boundaries. The future belongs to those who can make things work together.
Interested in exploring how interoperability can transform your industrial processes? I’m always happy to discuss new ideas and collaborative opportunities. Simply get in touch.
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