A group of IT colleagues from JYSK tested their skills during KMD Innovation Challenges 2019 and won first place for their design of an intelligent bedroom.

Imagine if everything in your bedroom adjusted automatically to secure a good night’s sleep.

Your duvet made sure your body temperature was just right. Your pillow adjusted the angle of your head to avoid any strains. And your mattress shaped itself to support your body perfectly.

This scenario may become reality in the future – at least if you ask some of the “IT geeks” (in their own words) at JYSK. They recently competed against other IT professionals in KMD Innovation Challenges 2019 and won first place for their prototype of an intelligent bedroom.

Valuable insights

One of the participants from JYSK was Allan Jørgensen, Team Leader of SAP Sales & Marketing, who took away valuable insights from his participation.

“This was a chance for me to dig even deeper into machine learning, which I am already working with. It is one thing to read about how to do something, and another to actually write the code and figure out how to deploy it. I also enjoyed the methodology of design thinking, which makes sure that everyone on the team gets a say instead of just one dominant person taking charge,” he explains.

The winning solution, called “DreamTech – The Intelligent Bedroom”, utilised a live demo of SAP Cloud Technologies and IoT sensor devices to help people monitor and improve their sleeping experiences. In only 30 hours, the team managed to put together a solid concept, have great teamwork and spirit, and create functioning code that connected IoT directly with mobile user interfaces.

Knowledge sharing

Another participant from JYSK was Frank Folsach Olsen, SAP Platform Architect & Manager for SAP Basis, who was happy with his outcome from the project.

“Once we are ready for it, we expect to present our ideas for actual products to JYSK’s management team. Then we will see if any of the concepts are commercial enough to be put into use. In any case, I think we were all impressed with the professional setup by KMD, and I also personally signed-up for a Twitter account to follow some of the skilled SAP people I got to meet,” he says.

The two colleagues’ manager, Thomas Høiberg Jensen, Head of SAP & Development, thinks participating in this kind of project is natural for JYSK.

“We want to keep an eye on emerging technologies, and it is a natural part of preparing for what could be the tasks of tomorrow. And also in general, we want to embrace learning, fun and innovation. Our IT department in JYSK is – and must be – a great place to work,” he says.