ARMONK, N.Y., NEW YORK and COPENHAGEN, Denmark, June 30,
2016 /PRNewswire/ -- ISS, ISS A/S (ISS.CO, ISS DC,
ISSDY), a leading global provider of facility services, has signed
a commercial agreement with IBM (NYSE: IBM) to use the power of
Watson IoT to transform the management of over 25,000 buildings
around the world.
Headquartered in Copenhagen,
ISS is one of the world's largest private employers with over half
a million staff managing everything from concierge to cleaning,
catering to technical maintenance for thousands of high profile
clients including Rolls-Royce, Nordea, Novartis and the UK's Royal
Air Force.
Through the new agreement, ISS will tap IBM's Watson IoT
platform, consulting and advanced facilities management
technologies to transform the services it provides to building
owners and users around the world with the goal of making buildings
more personalized, intuitive and user-friendly.
Working with IBM, ISS will integrate and analyse data from
millions of devices and sensors embedded into buildings including
doors, windows, chairs, meeting rooms, dispensers and air
conditioning systems. Data will be uploaded onto IBM's Watson IoT
cloud platform and cognitive computing technologies will learn from
this data helping ISS optimise its services as well as furthering
its understanding of how people use buildings, thereby creating new
opportunities for innovation.
For example, sensors in doors and entrance areas can tell a real
estate manager how many people are in a building at any one time
and sensors on plate dispensers can inform kitchen staff of how
many people are still likely to need to eat – helping staff to
prepare the right amount of food and avoid wastage. Sensors in
meeting rooms, chairs and tables not only help building managers
better manage room occupancy and cancel unwanted room bookings, but
also inform service staff when a room needs more refreshments or
requires cleaning.
"In today's highly competitive market, managing and servicing
buildings should no longer just be about cost," said Jeff Gravenhorst, CEO of ISS. "With a dashboard
overview of key building metrics displayed on mobile devices,
facility managers will benefit from an integrated, real-time view
of the services and supplies within their buildings enabling them
to adopt a more pro-active, flexible and responsive approach to
building management and customised service delivery. Putting real
time data into the hands of service staff will help to foster more
attentive and service-minded employees, supporting our customers in
achieving their priorities. Putting a 'human touch' in buildings
helps to increase employee productivity, decrease absenteeism and
makes a better impression on visitors."
"With this agreement we are taking the power of technology and
the power of service and putting those together to enable ISS to
make buildings better for their users," said Harriet Green, General Manager, IBM Watson IoT.
"The key thing is to find out how people will work in the future.
By analysing data from sensors we are helping ISS to uncover new
insight that will help to ensure buildings are the kinds of places
where people want to be, not just need to be."
As a first step, ISS has already fitted its Copenhagen
headquarters, which serves as an innovation lab for the service
group, with hundreds of sensors connected to IBM's Watson IoT
platform and TRIRIGA facilities management software to help improve
room bookings and catering services for the 250 employees based in
the building. The next phase will be the implementation of the
cognitive IoT technology at selected customer sites.
To view a film giving ISS's perspective on the agreement, please
visit:
http://bit.ly/29s8r1k
To view a film showing the transformation of ISS's Copenhagen
HQ, please visit:
http://bit.ly/297I6Gj
To view an image relating to this announcement, please
visit:
http://bit.ly/2974N1s
To view an infographic relating to this announcement, please
visit:
http://ibm.co/296xgR7
About ISS
The ISS Group was founded in Copenhagen in 1901 and has grown to become one
of the world's leading Facility Services companies. ISS offers a
wide range of services such as: cleaning, catering, security,
property and support services as well as facility management.
Global revenue amounted to DKK 79.6
billion in 2015 and ISS has approximately 500,000 employees
and activities in more than 75 countries across Europe, Asia,
North America, Latin America and Pacific, serving thousands
of both public and private sector customers.
For more information on the ISS Group, visit
www.issworld.com.
About IBM Watson IoT
IBM is an established leader in
the Internet of Things with more than 4,000 client engagements in
170 countries, a growing ecosystem of over 1,400 partners and more
750 IoT patents which together help to draw actionable insight from
billions of connected devices, sensors and systems around the
world. Building on the company's $3 billion
USD commitment to bring Watson cognitive computing to IoT, in
December 2015 IBM announced a new
global headquarters for IBM's new Watson IoT unit in Munich Germany, bringing together 1,000 IBM
developers, consultants, researchers and designers to drive deeper
engagement with clients and partners. IBM TRIRIGA Facilities
Manager identifies underutilized facilities and workspaces that can
be used more effectively to help reduce costs. TRIRIGA is a
Software as a Service platform which helps to increase facilities
utilization and improves the effectiveness of a distributed
workforce. It also provides move management capabilities for more
efficient personnel and asset relocation.
For more information on IBM Watson IoT, please visit
www.ibm.com/iot
Contacts
Manuel Viglius
Global Media Relations Manager, ISS
A/S
Manuel.Vigilius@group.issworld.com
+45 3817 6404
Benedicte Strøm
IBM Denmark
BStroem@dk.ibm.com
+45 5163 8873
Jonathan Jessop Batty
External Relations Leader, IBM Watson IoT
jonathanb@uk.ibm.com
+44 7880 086571
Video - http://youtu.be/mk0C_rRhMOw
Video - http://youtu.be/sfeo8tbzG4k
Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160630/385230-INFO
Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160630/385233
Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20090416/IBMLOGO
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SOURCE IBM