Our Values
Responsibility
• We take responsibility for the digital economy by actively participating in open-source developments.
• Challenges such as sustainability cannot be solved by single players but require a radical new way of collaboration.
Integrity
• Open source usage and active contributions are conducted under a clear governance to meet high standards (and stick to best software engineering practices).
• The strategic approach to open-source software enhances transparency and trust in our products and services.
Diversity
• Open-source projects enable collaboration and innovation across diverse professional backgrounds.
• Open-source addresses foundational technologies serving diverse application fields.
Passion
• We develop professional, cutting-edge solutions through responsible open-source integration and open development.
• Open source adds a purpose by contributing back to the community and drives passion for existing developers and new talents application fields.
Excellence
• Innovation and industrial ecosystems enable pioneering services, new ways to enhance excellence of operation and availability.
• Re-using software increases efficiency, focusing on value creation in GEA’s core domains.
Why Open Source is important for GEA
Efficiency and Sustainability
We consider open source software as a critical driver for industrializing software development processes.
Consciously utilizing open source software avoids reinventing the wheel and redundant software
development, thus increasing development efficiency and sustainability at the same time.
Innovation through Participation
Leveraging open-source development not only ensures higher efficiency but also enables organizations to react faster to the dynamic nature of technology and to reduce time-to-market for innovations.
By participating in the global developer communities GEA can integrate different perspectives and capabilities solving complex problems more effective.
Flexibility and Independency
Open-source technologies ensure the flexibility to tailor solutions to our needs and those of our customers.
At the same time, we are reducing our dependency on proprietary solutions and gaining more control over
our technical decisions and investments.
Fertilize the Implementation of Standards and Regulations
Open source sourcing ensures the quick adoption of industry standards and regulations. Usually, such
developments do not lead to a competitive advantage but require development and test resources.
A broad adoption of standards creates a self-enforcing effect of high acceptance in the industry.
Competetive Advantage Through Knowledge Sharing
In an increasingly connected world, we regard sharing knowledge as a competitive advantage.
By makings elected technologies and software components public, we can position ourselves as a pioneer in our industry, attract talent and drive innovation across the industry.
“We understand open source as a fundamental principle for a sustainable and collaborative future. We invite the global open-source community, as well as our partners and customers, to collaborate with us and make this vision a reality. Together, we are shaping the future of technology, environmental protection and the global economy.”
Dr. Christian Hirschen
Vice President GEA Digital Technology
Open-Source-Strategy: Core Principles for GEA Digital
I. Secure & High-Quality Coding
We commit to secure coding and a code quality which is at the level of professional OSS. This is the base for inner-sourcing – sharing code across several GEA entities and teams according to OSS principles. 
II. OSS Usage First
Before we code something we prefer maintained high-quality OSS. We also prefer OSS before commercial software libraries.
