EY and General Electric (GE) Digital announced a new strategic alliance to develop and provide industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) services to help industrial companies achieve increased productivity from capital assets and processes linked in the cloud.
EY and GE Digital will develop and deliver industry-specific services based on GE's Predix cloud-based operating system. The services can help companies reduce operating expenses and increase revenue through improved machine uptime and streamlined industrial workflows.
EY, which has been working with GE for more than 10 years, joins GE's ecosystem of global alliance partners, which gives members access to digital tools and domain expertise from across GE. EY will provide its extensive experience in business transformation; IoT, data analytics and IT cybersecurity capabilities; and access to global resources across multiple industries.
Lionel Lamy, associate vice president and co-lead of the European IoT Practice, IDC, said: "Within the global economy, CxOs face tough challenges: the unrelenting pressure to do more with less and optimize performance whilst controlling costs, as well as the need to innovate. They must get more from their fixed assets, improve capital return on investment (ROI), and optimize the productivity and value of their increasingly mobile and demanding workforce. The Internet of Things helps address these issues, but as a complex and fast-moving market, partnerships must be formed to ensure a holistic, end-to-end approach. This alliance, combining GE Digital's Industrial IoT technologies with EY's IoT experience, confirms the vital role of collaboration and strategic relationships. Bringing data analytics and cloud capabilities to co-create services to help companies use their data to realize significant gains in workflows and productivity will go a long way to address key business challenges."
Carmine Di Sibio, EY global managing partner of client service, said: "At EY, we are forming strategic alliances, like the one with GE Digital, to better serve our clients and new markets. With GE Digital, we'll help industrial companies not only improve productivity of their existing assets, but also help them to fundamentally reshape their enterprises."
In the oil and gas industry, producers can use the IIoT to develop maintenance schedules that improve oil rig uptime, reduce the number of times workers must travel to maintain rigs, and identify the tools and parts they need to take with them. In other industries, like hospitality, the IIoT can help a hotel system know when to block availability of a room because the plumbing requires maintenance.
Bill Ruh, senior vice president and chief digital officer of GE, and CEO of GE Digital, said: "We are building an industrial Internet ecosystem with world-class partners who share our commitment to delivering better outcomes for our customers. Together, we are co-developing solutions on Predix that will combine GE's industrial domain expertise with EY's innovative approaches to addressing complex business challenges to uncover creative ways to increase productivity and efficiency for our customers through data and analytics."
Jeff Liu, EY leader for the GE alliance and EY global sector head of technology, said: "With data and digital technology impacting every industry, businesses are under tremendous pressure to adapt in almost real time. Our expanded relationship with GE and approach to digital operations will enable us to bring innovative IIoT services to market to help clients dramatically improve productivity, reduce cost and increase revenues."
