The agile approach and collaboration with start-ups

In 2019, we organized our first International Digital Intrapreneur challenge. Over 100 employees submitted ideas that would contribute to innovation and business agility. The winning pitch, the RD4 Predictive Heat Exchanger Schedule, wowed the jury for both its financial and environmental benefit – it is expected to generate significant cost savings and save up to 15,000 t of CO₂ emissions per year.

Ensuring a fresh supply of ideas, perspectives, and cutting-edge technologies is a central element of innovation and digitalization. We can often greatly benefit from new ideas by young companies. To learn from them, OMV engages in dialogue and cooperation with young and aspiring technology companies or start-ups. One such example is Innovation2Company, an initiative organized by the Vienna Economic Chamber that focused on the search for innovative solutions in the area of predictive maintenance. The winning start-up, ZeitDice, was awarded an innovation cash prize and a pilot with OMV. ZeitDice is a Canadian start-up that provides a cloud-based computer vision platform and smart time lapse cameras that extract measurable data from images. In Romania we have been collaborating for four years with Innovation Labs, a nationwide start-up development competition, which has ultimately resulted in several start-up collaborations.

Open innovation facts & figures