ABB Survey Shows Majority of Utilities See IoT as Key to Asset Management
A global survey of over 200 executives at electricity, gas and water utilities increasingly believe that integrating information technology (IT) and operational technology (OT) is a key component of any effective asset management strategy.
The “Bridging IT and OT for the Connected Asset Lifecycle Management Era” -survey conducted by ABB in collaboration with Microsoft Corp. and market research firm Zpryme shows that some 80 percent held IT-OT integration for asset management as valuable. Furthermore, 58% of respondents either have, or are planning to have later on, a strategy leveraging the Internet of Things (IoT) for asset management. Meanwhile, 55% reported the importance of asset management has increased over the past 12 months.
Numerous Benefits from IT-OT -integration
Interconnecting things, services and people via the Internet improves data analysis, boosts productivity, enhances reliability, saves energy and costs, and generates new revenue opportunities through innovative business models. The industrial internet and cloud services also offer the benefit of bringing world-class analytics
–Now more than ever, utilities see the need to bring together once disparate technologies and systems to better understand their increasingly complex asset base and share those insights with the people across the organization, in order to improve planning, productivity and safety, says Massimo Danieli, Managing Director of the Grid Automation business unit of ABB’s Power Grids division.
According to the survey, respondents see numerous benefits in this integration. On a scale of 1-5, they ranked better long-term planning (4.86) as the highest priority. Increased staff productivity (4.43), improved safety (3.98) and better use of capital (3.68) rounded out the top five.
For more details on the findings of the report: http://register.e.abb.com/it-ot-survey