Harman /DE/ : “Sherlock” honored at the prestigious 2016 Digital Leader Awards

The high-end audio market thrives on innovation. Driving this requires a combination of good ideas, profound knowledge and extensive technology scouting. HARMAN's Lifestyle Audio Division has developed 'Sherlock - Information at your Fingertips' technology to achieve this.

HARMAN has hired a new colleague - or let's say 'developed' a new colleague…and it's just been recognized with a 2016 Digital Leader Award! The successful project, 'Sherlock - Information at Your Fingertips' is based on AI technology and Microsoft Cloud services. Sherlock is operated by the HARMAN Connected Services Division and is very valuable to our developmental teams as they conduct preliminary work. This detective-like platform filters relevant early indicators from the general information flow, carries out market research, and analyzes the prospects of future projects based on data.

The award is granted by IDG and Dimension Data, whose patron is the German Minister of Economy Sigmar Gabriel. It is awarded to business leaders and community leaders who drive digital transformation in their business. The Award Gala Ceremony took place in Berlin on June 29th.

Most Important Resource: Manpower

HARMAN is continuously driving innovation in audio solutions and sees manpower as its most important resource. HARMAN wants to provide its development teams with the best possible technology including Sherlock. With Sherlock, employees have access to interdisciplinary knowledge and are able to see the big picture of the innovation process. This project completely redefines the work flow in the HARMAN Lifestyle Audio Division. Technology scouting and market analysis are no longer conducted as 'paper work' by individual employees; instead they are digitally embedded into Sherlock, thereby becoming collaborative projects with broader participation. This sparks ideas that develop into new innovations at HARMAN.

Sherlock, Please Take Over!

With Sherlock, the work process has become more streamlined and efficient. Formerly, technology scouting often took several weeks and had been supported by external companies. Now employees can create a quick report on almost any technical topic within 3-4 working days, allowing the specialists to assess new developments. The next steps are the digitization of market and competition analysis.

With Sherlock supporting our company's creative minds, HARMAN will be able to react even more quickly to market needs and provide relevant innovations to audiophiles all over the world.