SeDi-Tech is a start-up that creates software robots with the aim to automate processes and move people away from manual work.
It was our pleasure to interview them and to get to know their view on the following questions.
What is your view on innovation?
In our opinion, innovation is key to a successful business. One example from the recent past is Tesla. During Corona-crisis they have started to build ventilation devices made of car parts, supporting US hospitals. We truly admire this mindset, not looking at problems but seeing opportunities. Also, it is more than impressive that such a big company can change their production within a month to produce something they probably have no expertise with.
Can you tell us a bit more about SeDi-Tech?
SeDi-Tech started with the same mindset, seeing opportunities where most people see impenetrable obstacles. Our key point of sale is a quick and efficient robotic process automation. With a strong chemical background, we are dealing mostly with chemical problems. We have solved already quite some challenges and we know the needs of the chemical industries. Some examples are the clean-up of contact details, the creation of product catalogs, the creation of a tool for automatized and customer-specific pricing, but also web scraping or SAP scripting. If there is a manual work which must be performed frequently, we enter the game and create supporting scripts or create a tool operating without human monitoring.
What are you currently working on?
One of our main products combines a wide knowledge base. Dealing with hazardous goods is highly restricted in Germany. The German government requires a lot of documentation around hazardous goods, which are, indeed, standardized but not yet automated. We as SeDi-Tech have created an artificial intelligence steering the process of creating these kinds of documents. The AI shines most when it comes to extracting data or parameters from Safety Data Sheets (SDS). Parsing Data from SDS is highly repetitive and quite a boring task with low margins for errors. However, creating a library containing substance-specific parameters such as tradename, storage advice, physical facts, information on the handling during transport or environmental facts is key for proper hazardous goods documentation. The so-called hazardous substances register is needed to develop further documents such as risk assessment, check for possible substitutions of hazardous substances and operating instructions. Creating these documents requires only the basic input of the user and is totally automatized and therefore steered by the AI. Parsing the documents manually takes up to 20 minutes per SDS, with the use of our AI, we can shrink that time to 30 to 60 seconds per SDS. The opportunities for savings are huge and more customers start realizing that and approaching us for a partnership.
The AI and the software built around it, is not available for the free market, since adjusting and operating it, requires knowledge in programming languages. However, our customers profit from the AI, by booking its services. We as SeDi-Tech offer a full service, allowing our customers to entirely outsource the hazardous good management to us, at a very low cost. With the AI, SeDi-tech is revolutionizing the market of hazardous goods management, being the first company, using this technology, and helping companies and consultants with their day-to-day tasks.
Is there more to come?
The opportunities in the digital age are greater than ever before. We are frequently approached by customers or even interested parties, with very detailed questions about process which could have potentially a big benefit if it was automated. With this set-up we align very closely with our customers, not allowing development which is not meeting requirements or customers’ needs. Indeed, a fully automated tool makes a task look very easy, yet, this is only possible since all edge cases are thought of. Most of the time a proof of concept is developed in a short duration, but error handling and the handling of edge cases take much more time before the tool can be launched. Being a truly digital company requires offering a consistent service, only achievable by anticipating user’s problems and solving them, without even letting them know. Simple examples are protected or scanned documents, prohibiting the user to access or copy-pasting. Therefore, all documents are checked upfront on security, and on text, in case, problems are detected those documents are targeted by OCR or cracking scripts to allow the user full access without knowing about the steps required upfront.
Thinking about these problems continuously provide SeDi-Tech with new business opportunities and built a great way to increase the value-adding process. With a broad portfolio, synergy effects also start to increase leading to shorter development phases.
How do you build your products?
Every programming language has its strengths and weaknesses. Therefore, we try to not limit ourselves to one language but connect different languages. Using very state-of-the-art solutions requires Python since there is a big community, it is open-source and widely applicable. A major disadvantage is a need for additional software to allow the scripts to run. For automation steps not requiring state-of-the-art technology, we use VBA or PowerShell. Since both languages are part of the Microsoft universe, almost everything can be automated without any compatibility issues. With Microsoft support, the applications are also very fast, and a lot of actions can be taken per minute. This fact is especially handy when it comes to data management of large databases or very complex processes requiring a lot of processing power of the machine.
Thank you
Thank you SeDi-Tech for your time. We learned a lot about your vision and capabilities. Moreover, we want to encourage all interested parties to reach out to you in case they have an automation project. If you are curious one a more detailed view on their portfolio and company DNA, please visit them at www.sedi-tech.de
