ABB has commercially launched ABB Ability, its portfolio of digital solutions, at ABB Customer World in Houston.
With the commercial launch of more than 180 solutions and services, ABB says it is unlocking value for customers in the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
By combining ABB’s domain expertise with network connectivity and the latest digital technologies and innovations, ABB Ability says it creates powerful solutions and services that solve real business problems and produce tangible business opportunities.
ABB Ability helps customers in utilities, industry, transport and infrastructure develop new processes and advance existing ones by providing insights and optimizing planning and controls for real-time operations. The results can then be fed into control systems to improve key metrics such as factory uptime, speed and yield.
The offering builds on ABB’s pioneering technology and more than four decades of industrial digital leadership. It will enhance customers’ ability to innovate and compete in the emerging digital-industrial marketplace.
ABB CEO Ulrich Spiesshofer says: “As a pioneering technology leader in digital solutions, with an installed base of more than 70 million connected devices and 70,000 control systems, ABB is uniquely positioned to support its customers’ digital transformation.
“With ABB Ability, we are combining ABB’s entire portfolio of digital solutions and services. We are creating additional customer value by bringing together ABB’s domain expertise, advanced connectivity and the latest digital technologies. With this, our customers can achieve unprecedented improvements in operational performance and productivity.”
Digital offerings provided by ABB Ability include:
- performance management solutions for asset-intensive industries;
- control systems for process industries;
- remote monitoring services for robots, motors and machinery; and
- control solutions for buildings, electric-vehicle charging networks and offshore platforms.
Some of the more specialized offerings address energy management for data centers and navigation optimization for maritime shipping fleets, among many others.
Customers who are already using the portfolio of digital solutions that are now part of ABB Ability include some of the world’s leading utilities, manufacturers and service providers. Among them are:
- Shell Oil;
- CenterPoint Energy;
- Con Edison;
- BASF;
- Royal Caribbean;
- Cargill;
- Volvo; and
- BMW.
ABB Ability’s next-generation digital solutions and services are being developed and built on Microsoft’s leading Azure cloud platform, based on a strategic partnership with the software company.
ABB chief digital officer Guido Jouret says: “Building our solutions on the Azure platform means we can take advantage of all of its capabilities and add value with our domain-specific offering.
“In effect, we are turning ABB’s decades of industrial domain expertise into software offerings that our customers can access through the world’s largest and most advanced digital platform. From being a hidden digital champion, we are becoming the partner of choice for customers embarking on a digital transformation.
“They can now know more, do more, do better, together. We can help them assess, automate, optimize and collaborate.”
