Just 10 months after inaugurating the global headquarters of its Watson IoT business in Munich, IBM Corp. is already expanding the office’s scope of operations. The company today announced that it will invest $200 million to set up new cutting-edge labs in the facility where organizations will be able to train their staffers in making use of connected devices.

Big Blue plans to make these so-called IoT Collaboratories available both to customers who use products from the Watson IoT group and partners seeking to provide value-added capabilities. The 1,000-odd IBMers in Munich will offer their expertise to executives interested in exploring the business uses of connected devices, hardware engineers trying to develop new gear and developers focused on the software side. A big part of today’s $200 million investment will likely go towards buying lab equipment that can support these activities. And IBM will probably also need to rent more office space in Highlight Towers, the ornate office complex where the Munich headquarters is located, if it wants to handle a large number of visitors.

The company says that the initiative represents one of its single biggest investments across the pond to date. It presumably decided to establish the Watson IoT group’s headquarters in Munich because Europe is spearheading the creation of so-called smart cities, urban development projects designed to help municipalities harness connected devices for the public good. The U.K., for instance, is currently in the process of installing 53 million smart meters around England. Such projects constitute one of the main sources of demand for connected devices.

And at the same time, IBM claims that it’s also seeing strong demand from the private sector. The Watson IoT group collaborating on connected device projects with German industrial giant Schaeffler Technologies AG & Co. KG, Netherlands-based drone maker Aerialtronics and numerous other notable companies. It has a total of 6,000 customers worldwide, up from around 4,000 when the Munich headquarters opened.

Much of the credit for this growth can be attributed to the $3 billion investment that the company made in the division early last year. The initiative is clearly yielding results, but IBM can expect to have a tough time maintaining its momentum amid the growing competition from rivals like SAP SE. The German software giant last week launched a similar effort to expand into the connected universe that is set to cost about $2.2 billion over the next three years. Similarly to Big Blue, the firm plans to open a network of training labs as part of the initiative where customers and partners will be able to learn about its products.

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