IBM has announced a major ecosystem initiative to drive collaborative innovation with dozens of clients and partners.
Avnet, BNP Paribas, Capgemini and Tech Mahindra will collocate development teams at the IBM center which will also act as an innovation space for the European IoT standards organization EEBus.
According to Harriet Green, General Manager, IBM Watson IoT, Cognitive Engagement and Education, IBM have over 6,000 clients and partners around the world.
“Together we are building a new global IoT innovation ecosystem that will explore how cognitive and IoT technologies will transform industries and our daily lives.”
The collaboration will take IBM in the top position as it opens the doors of its new $200M global headquarters for its Watson Internet of Things (IoT) business in Munich, Germany.
Late last year IBM announced that car maker BMW will collocate part of its research and development operations at IBM’s new Watson IoT center to help reimagine the driving experience.
Now, IBM is announcing four more companies that have signed up to join its special industry “collaboratories” where clients and partners work together with IBM’s 1,000 Munich-based IoT experts to tap into the latest design thinking and push the boundaries of what is possible with IoT:
Avnet
Avnet will open a new joint IoT Lab within IBM’s Watson IoT HQ to develop, build, demonstrate and sell IoT solutions powered by IBM Watson.
Avnet also plans to enhance its IoT technical expertise through hands-on training and on-the-job learning. Avnet’s team of IoT and analytics experts will also partner with IBM on joint business development opportunities across multiple industries including smart buildings, smart homes, industry, transportation, medical and consumer.
BNP Paribas
BNP Paribas, via Consorsbank, its retail digital bank in Germany, will collocate with IBM’s Watson IoT Center to explore how IoT and cognitive technologies can drive transformation in the banking industry and help innovate new financial products and services such as investment advice.
Capgemini
Global IT consulting and technology services provider Capgemini will collocate with Watson IoT center and help customers maximize the potential of Industry 4.0 and develop and take to market sector-specific cognitive IoT solutions.
Capgemini plans a close link between its Munich Applied Innovation Exchange and IBM’s new Customer Experience zones to collaborate with clients in an interactive environment.
Tech Mahindra
Indian multinational provider of enterprise and communications IT and networking technology Tech Mahindra, is one of IBM’s Global System Integrators with over 3,000 specialists focussed on IBM technology around the world.
The company will locate a team of 6 developers and engineers within the Watson IoT HQ to help deliver on Tech Mahindra’s vision of generating substantial new revenue based on IBM’s Watson IoT platform.
Tech Mahindra will use the center to co-create and showcase new solutions based on IBM’s Watson IoT platform especially for Industry 4.0 and Manufacturing, Precision Farming, Healthcare, Insurance and Banking and automotive.
Another Watson IoT-related development announced was that French Railways operator SNCF is using Watson IoT on IBM Cloud to deliver superior customer experiences, heightened operational efficiency and enhanced rail safety to its 13.5 million daily passengers.
SNCF, a global leader in passenger and freight transport services, manages the scheduling, operations and maintenance of a network covering 30,000 kilometers of track, 15,000 trains and 3,000 stations in France. Each of these elements are currently being or will be equipped with thousands of sensors.
With IBM’s Cloud-based Watson IoT Platform, SNCF is connecting its entire rail system – trains, railroad tracks and train stations to gather insights from real-time information on data. These insights will allow SNCF to manage its equipment and thus improve quality, security and availability of its trains.
IBM also shared that printer-maker Ricoh’s new cognitive-enabled interactive whiteboard is powered by Watson intelligence and voice technologies to actively support people in meetings by responding to commands, taking notes and actions and even translating into other languages.
Meanwhile, IBM and Bosch announced a collaboration for industrial Internet of Things (IoT), making available Bosch IoT Suite services on open standards-based IBM Bluemix and IBM Watson IoT Platform for clients to efficiently update millions of IoT devices.
IBM has also collaborated with Seebo, the development platform for smart products, to bring together the Seebo platform and Watson IoT.
Connecting Seebo’s easy-to-use IoT development capabilities with Watson IoT Platform and Bluemix empowers manufacturers to accelerate the delivery of smart products and gain insights from user data.
A few more tie-ups were also announced including those with Indiegogo and Arrow Electronics.
