HFS Highlight: Atos and IBM expand the decarbonization solutions ecosystem

IBM and Atos recently partnered to address the business challenges of industries where environmental impact is most commonly of high concern: the manufacturing, energy and utilities (including oil and gas), retail, and transportation sectors. The partnership has a powerful potential to combine the emerging technology capabilities and all-around weight of IBM with Atos’ new Decarbonization Center of Excellence (DCoE)—which we covered in a separate report. The partnership is also looking to produce replicable “blueprint” solutions that align with industries—which we have also discussed recently in the realms of cloud. However, despite this partnership’s potential, the need to decarbonize isn’t limited to the traditional “industrial” sectors named above; it will need to become native in all industries whether it’s assessing climate risk in banking, financial services, and insurance, or in the technology sector that must decarbonize the electricity powering its datacenters, and also itself play a key role in deploying solutions to address the climate crisis.

Sustainability needs financial and cultural investment—while becoming a core part of businesses rather than a standalone strategy

Atos is aiming to be net-zero as a company by 2028 —22 years ahead of the Paris Agreement’s 2050 deadline—and is also becoming an early mover in the rapidly expanding sustainability services ecosystem; see another of our broader reports on this trend.

Atos acquired EcoAct, a climate strategy consulting firm that strengthened its portfolio and will be pivotal in the development of its DCoE; sustainability is being driven from the top at Atos, as it is in some of its competitors:

“As a trusted transformation and innovation partner, it is our responsibility to use our unique set of capabilities to tackle the climate change emergency and enable others to do the same, starting with our ecosystem,”

Elie Girard, Atos CEO

Atos’ vertical decarbonization solutions combines with IBM’s emerging technology expertise

This partnership will build on Atos’ vertical decarbonized solutions and IBM’s service delivery and emerging technology capability. The solutions will aim to be customizable according to the verticals they’re offered—ranging from manufacturing, energy and utilities (including oil and gas), retail, and transportation sectors. As mentioned above, this is a chance for these providers to pioneer replicable blueprints of sustainability solutions.

Atos and IBM intend to primarily make use of  AI, hybrid cloud, and internet of things (IoT) technologies to optimize client operations. The collaboration expands an existing relationship between the two firms, and will focus on:

• Asset Lifecycle Management Solutions: Clients will be able to identify areas for improvement within and across plants, real-time operations visibility, and developing KPI(s) to ensure business continuity using IBM Maximo.
• Asset Monitoring and Maintenance, Repair, and Operations (MRO) Optimization Solutions: a predictive approach to MRO with decreased downtimes and increased asset lifetimes for clients—again, using IBM Maximo.
• Packaging, Transportation, and Logistics Optimization Solutions: Clients will be able to optimize product packaging, transportation, and logistics while reducing expenses.
• SMART Waste/Energy Monitoring and Optimization Solutions: This solution will help manufacturers and waste management companies to optimize energy consumption using IBM Watson and Red Hat OpenShift.

The Bottom Line: It’s not quite a first-mover advantage—but Atos and IBM are still among the early big names in the sustainability solutions space; they have the experience and expertise to shape and lead the ecosystem beyond decarbonizing traditional “industrial” sectors. All industries and enterprises must make sustainability native—and have the potential to see tangible value from it.