'All the Torque, All the Time'

Zoom... Zoom-Zoom! Or should we say... Swoosh?! or Wreorw... Wreorw-Wreorw!? Are there even English words to describe it? They sound like landborne rocketships!

Judge for yourself.

Those are Formula cars, baby! Slick, screaming-fast and... relatively quiet. That's because they're the newest kind: all-electric! These kits were created by the Electric Car Association.

"We have all the torque, all the time," boasted smiling racer Ellis Spiezia. You see, these cars have but one gear, its power controlled by the appetite of each driver's pedal. Take that, gas!

The event? A world first, hosted by the venerable Zould track in Belgium. Surrounded by giant windmills, fueled by ubiquitous solar panels, this testament to sustainability came to life for ERA!

On the day before the big @ERAChampionship, the event's sponsor, Software AG, invited a handful of influencers, analysts and friends to check out the scene, including yours truly.

The scene was awesome! Imagine the early days of drag racing on the California Coast, with Dick Dale lighting up his guitar to the sounds of surf and fun! It was like that (for me)!

Picture a view into the next generation of motorsports, where anyone can get involved, regardless of social status or pedigree. "We want to be inclusive," exclaimed Beth Georgiou.

A second earlier, I'd asked what she did for ERA, to which a nearby Frenchman responded, "Why, she *is* the ERA!" That was David Milot, a veteran Vice President of Software AG.?

His point? She helped conceive the whole concept, which is quite a spectacular idea: Create an open-minded electric racing group, where all racers get the same car, and all the IoT data!

That way, it's all about the nexus of racing strategy and driver performance. Oh, and these cats use real-time data, thanks to Cumulocity, Software AG's IoT platform. That really helps.

"We can get suggestions to the drivers, like, 'You're losing traction on that turn,' and do so in real-time, so they can act on it," she continued. This results in serious racer improvement.

Everyone knows that feedback loops are crucial for any system to improve. With racing, the data has historically been shared after a race. But that doesn't help during the race, does it?

Nor does it help much afterwards, to tell a driver: "You were going too high on turn #4." And the driver's like, "Oh, uh, yeah, okay," not really remembering exactly when that was.

Real-time info is the key. And we're talking real-time *data* -- like, the gritty nuts and bolts of the information that's streaming off all those sensors, via Cumulocity. Real-world data.

Attention, Please!

Suddenly, a safety hazard on the inside track! A driver is compromised. A vehicle has been damaged. Within moments, a pro arrives on the scene: "Shall we give it to the engineers?"

Turns out, an electric vehicle got damaged en route to Belgium. This particular vehicle was manned by the wife of yours truly. It's the scooter she uses to get around, due to her MS.

Well, someone from Frenchbee apparently showed insufficient care for the Buzzaround HD in transit, because the right, metal armrest was so badly bent, it was practically falling off.

I'd noticed this the night before, but had no time to address it, instead using a quick fix that wasn't holding. When I began clumsily trying to bend it back in place, that pro arrived.

Who was this unmasked man? Why, none other than Bart Schouw, Chief Evangelist for Software AG! He quickly ascertained the situation, and took the appropriate action.?

Schouw grabbed the mangled metal, walked down to the pit crews who were busily tending to the racecars. Seven minutes later, he returned with a reengineered, picture-perfect armest!?

The best part? The damage was so bad that the original bolt was bent, and the nut, gone. So the crew fashioned another solution: a shiny, new, Formula 4 bolt and nut! Oh, yeah!

In other words, my wife's scooter is now a Hybrid Electric Formula 4 Racing Machine! Yeah. I ask you, dear reader, have you ever heard of something quite that cool?

That's how we roll.

Culture Scores

Where do you find such Good Samaritans? In what kinds of environs do you come across folks who have such empathy? The answer can be defined in two words: Good Culture!

Take Ms. Georgiou, for instance. She grew up near Silverstone Circuit in the UK, so motorsports have been in her blood. This inspired her to create something new.

She developed a passion for electric cars while managing the Formula Student UK competition at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. That's when she got the electric bug.

As Sporting Director of ERA Championship, she brings that passion which shines everywhere. The current is strong with her, and that leads to good partnerships.

Take Richard Morris, not your typical racecar driver. He's the Co-Founder of Racing Pride, an innovative international movement promoting inclusion throughout all of motorsports.

Morris brings a gentle demeanor to a traditionally rugged industry. His sensitive, thoughtful approach may seem inordinate for grease monkeys, but not here at the ERA Championship!

He's a perfect example of what happens when good people collaborate for a positive cause: To have fun building, racing, fixing, and then racing again these fascinating electric vehicles.

Then there's Lucas Strackerjan, veteran racing engineer, who took the time to explain all manner of important details about the cars. He's a key player for ERA, and he's fired up!

The IoT data is "absolutely awesome," he says. As an engineer, he can learn so much from it about how to optimize the cars. With just one gear and no gas, these are different animals.

Take the chassis for instance. In traditional racecars, you can mount the chassis to the gas tank. With electric cars, there is no such thing, and you don't want to jeopardize that battery.

So the engineers had to build out a special chassis for these kits. Along with the battery, the metal bars of the chassis account for much of the weight. And the lighter, the better!

This all gets us back to the design point, and why this association is so cool. Everyone collaborates around the data to make the cars faster, safer, and, yeah, more sustainable.

And as Schouw pointed out, with respect to Software AG's acquisition of Cumulocity, "At the end of the day, you don't want to buy code; you want the people" who wrote it!

"The worst case scenario is that you have a repository of code, and no one to tell you what it does." The people are what really matter, far more than the code.?

Gestalt

The Germans have a word that we English-speaking types don't really have: Gestalt celebrates that the sum is greater than the whole of its parts. This reality was on display at Zould for ERA.

First, you have the colossal vision of Software AG's team, including CMO Dawn Colossi who sprang this partnership into action. Her attention to detail was found around every turn.

You have the CEO, Sanjay Brahmawar, who recently showed the courage and moxie of a Formula 4 racer by throwing down the gauntlet for a $567 million acquisition of StreamSets.

That move, in particular, rounded out Software AG's stack in a most compelling way: the company now boasts robust functionality across multiple layers of abstraction:

1) Adabas (Adaptable Data Base System) is at the foundation, rocking and rolling in the enterprise since yours truly was 3 years old (I'm 54 now, do the math);

2) StreamSets to manage complex data pipelines, designed to fuel the modern enterprise

3) WebMethods, the gold standard in API management, which is now the integration engine

4) Cumulocity, a flexible, out-of-the-box IoT solution for every kind of sensor you can imagine

5) Aris, the process mining and redesigning platform that enables actual Digital Transformation!

You also have the adorable Dr. Astrid Kasper, SVP of Communications, veritable Den Mother for the pack. He calm demeanor combined with a brass tacks, git-er-done attitude. ?

There's Mr. Milot, a Frenchman who knows much about many things. He stayed extra long at the end of the day to make sure our family (me, wife and daughter) got a cab to the hotel.

And among many others, the eloquent Rinilda Raviraj-Steinhagen, who gave testimony about why Software AG has such a positive culture. It was just a pithy soundbyte:

"Sanjay told me, 'You don't have to earn my trust. You have it.'" Culture starts at the top!

And now... off to the races!?

Innovators, start your engines!