by Gary Mintchell | Sep 28, 2018 | Automation, Commentary, News, Software
Dreamforce, the Salesforce annual customer conference, was this week in San Francisco. I should have been there. Along with 100,000 of my closest IT friends. But, my project hit a crisis and I didn’t travel. All is not lost, however, since I received this information about ABB and Salesforce partnering.
The first item of interest is that I went to Salesforce’s “small” summer conference in Chicago with 3x-5x the attendees of a typical industrial technology conference. Then there is the big one with 30x or more the size. It blows the mind.
Then I consider the strategic moves that the largest industrial players are making. Siemens nailed a couple of acquisitions to bolster its MindSphere IoT platform. Schneider takes a majority stake in AVEVA to integrate design to process. ABB aligns with Salesforce (see below). And Rockwell Automation spends major dollars for a small stake in PTC evidently for a tighter integration with ThingWorx and Kepware.
Although there was a lot of marketing buzz to sort through, what ABB gets with a partnership with Salesforce is substantial. The company under the leadership of Ulrich Spiesshofer for the past five years has staged a remarkable turnaround. Don’t forget it also bolstered its machine control / discrete manufacturing portfolio with the acquisition of B+R Automation.
You can see more by watching this Fireside Chat with ABB CEO Ulrich Spiesshofer and Salesforce chairman and co-CEO Marc Benioff on the future of work and Fourth Industrial Revolution.
The stated objective of the partnership is for Salesforce to provide a single view of customers across ABB’s global sales, service and marketing operations.
The partnership will combine the power of Salesforce IoT, Einstein artificial intelligence, and ABB Ability, the cross-industry digital offering supporting an installed base of 70 million connected devices worldwide, to drive enhanced service and faster solutions for customers
Explaining Industry 4.0, otherwise known as The Fourth Industrial Revolution, Salesforce states it is a wave of innovation and technology that is radically transforming every business and industry. It’s no longer enough for manufacturers to differentiate on product—they must also predict customer needs and deliver smarter, more personalized customer experiences. With Salesforce, ABB is unifying its CRM globally, across every region, brand and department, to embrace the opportunities created by the Fourth Industrial Revolution and help its customers pursue important, new openings for service, innovation and growth.
“The Fourth Industrial Revolution is creating massive opportunities for our customers, making the work we do with them to drive innovation and create value more important than ever,” said Ulrich Spiesshofer, CEO of ABB. “That’s why we’re growing our relationship with Salesforce. The wealth of information we’ll get by unifying our data on Salesforce and combining it with our ABB Ability digital offering will allow us to use artificial intelligence and IoT more effectively, so we can anticipate our customer’s needs and write the future together.”
“ABB is undergoing incredible digital transformation and connecting with their customers in revolutionary ways,” said Marc Benioff, Chairman and co-CEO of Salesforce. “Our relationship with ABB is another example of the extraordinary power of artificial intelligence and IoT technologies to drive customer success.”
ABB’s expansion of Salesforce includes Einstein, Salesforce IoT, Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Marketing Cloud, Community Cloud and Success Cloud advisory services.
Einstein will enable ABB to drive smarter sales and service with artificial intelligence. For example, ABB will use Sales Cloud Einstein for intelligence-driven decision making, automated data entry, identification of potential opportunities and predictive forecasting. Einstein Vision, used with Service Cloud Field Service Lightning, will be used to give ABB’s 15,000 field service technicians the ability to take a photo of an ABB product or component when they arrive onsite to automatically surface information about the product on their screens, resulting in faster, more accurate service.
Salesforce IoT will allow ABB to make data from its connected devices actionable and measurable. The company’s vision is to combine Salesforce IoT with ABB Ability so that its installed base of 70 million connected devices can use predictive intelligence, powered by Einstein, to generate and trigger actions directly into Salesforce. With Salesforce IoT and ABB Ability together, ABB will be able to improve customer experiences by getting ahead of performance and maintenance needs.
by Gary Mintchell | Mar 17, 2017 | Automation, Data Management, News, Organizations, Process Control, Technology
ABB CEO Ulrich Spiesshofer
ABB held its customer conference in Houston this week and showcased many new products and unveiled its digital enterprise platform ABB Ability.
ABB Ability is the name given to its portfolio of digital solutions. I was trying to place it into a competitive landscape when one speaker showed a slide positioning ABB Ability with GE Predix, Siemens Mindsphere, and Schneider Electric’s Ecostruxure. CEO Ulrich Spiesshofer likened it to putting all the Lego blocks of ABB’s digital offerings together.
ABB Chief Digital Officer Guido Jauret
ABB Ability is a platform, database, and analytics that allows such things as helping 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.
“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,” said Spiesshofer. “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 Shell Oil, CenterPoint Energy, Con Edison, BASF, Royal Caribbean, Cargill, Volvo, BMW and many others.
“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,” said ABB Chief Digital Officer Guido Jouret. “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.”
This product was the coolest thing at the show for me. It is ABB’s take on the trend toward smaller I/O devices with configurable racks. Admittedly not having first-mover advantage, ABB was able to build on existing competitive offerings and release an updated take on the technology.
ABB Ability System 800xA Select I/O, a new addition to System 800xA, is a redundant, Ethernet-based, single-channel I/O system. It supports ABB’s next-generation project execution model, Intelligent Projects, which offers a range of efficiency improvements for automation projects. With Select I/O, customers can undertake major projects on a faster schedule with fewer cost overruns. It uses standardized cabinets that allow installers to digitally marshal signals instead of using labor-intensive marshalling panels. Loop checks can be done before the rest of the system is delivered, minimizing the impact of late changes and allowing for project tasks to be executed in parallel.
ABB Ability Asset Health Center – Among the first ABB Ability solutions to be launched on Azure is ABB’s next-generation asset performance management solution, Asset Health Center 3.0. Available since January 2017, it uses predictive and prescriptive analytics and customized models to identify and prioritize emerging maintenance needs based on probability of failure and asset criticality.
ABB Ability Collaborative Operations – This powerful solution, now being brought to scale across industries, helps customers collaborate more effectively. It allows experts to work together across organization boundaries, using the same data and analytics platforms. It focuses on such outcomes as improving productivity, reducing equipment failures, lowering the cost of asset maintenance and transforming overall business performance. This is done while maximizing security and protecting data, people and assets at every level of integration. The solution has been delivering sustainable, long-term results to early adopters.
ABB Ability Digital Substation – ABB’s digital substation provides customers in the utility sector with unmatched control and efficiency. The digital substation incorporates fiber optic current sensors and disconnecting circuit breakers to reduce maintenance requirements and the need for miles of conventional cabling. ABB Ability takes these advances several steps further by combining the latest electrical gear with digital sensors and cloud computing. The result is that grid operators can make decisions based on comprehensive, up-to-the-moment information, while predictive algorithms can improve maintenance practices and asset management.
ABB Ability Smart Sensor – This smart sensor solution, unveiled last year, connects low-voltage electric motors to the Industrial Internet, allowing them to be monitored continuously. The solution, which can be easily affixed to a motor, transmits data on vibration, temperature, loads and power consumption to the cloud. Alerts are generated as soon as any of the parameters deviates from the norm, allowing the operator to take preventive action before the motor malfunctions. Early indications are that the smart sensor solution leads to a reduction in downtime of motors by up to 70 percent and extends their lifespan by up to 30 percent. Acting on the data to optimize the motor’s performance reduces energy consumption by as much as 10 percent.
by Gary Mintchell | Feb 3, 2016 | News
ABB has had a rugged financial period, but its latest financial results indicate a righting of the ship. I’m not a financial analyst; I didn’t sleep at a Holiday Inn Express; but, I’m interested in corporate strategies and performance especially among industrial technology suppliers.
What follows is mostly from the company press release. However read CEO Ulrich Spiesshofer’s remarks. There are two significant comments. One–recovery in the Power Systems business. ABB moved some talented individuals from the process automation business over to Power Systems. It wasn’t an overnight success, but the team has made an impact. Two–“productivity improvements”, which is usually a euphemism for fewer people doing more work.
Anyway, I noticed a little bounce in ABB’s stock price in the last week. Looks promising.
Full-year 2015 Summary:
- Next Level strategy delivering positive results
- Orders and revenues stable, order backlog up 5%
- Operational EBITA margin up 60 bps to 11.8%
- Operational earnings per share +5% (constant currency)
- Cash return on invested capital up 70 bps to 13.4%; free cash flow +16%
- Power Systems ‘step change delivers strong financial turnaround in 2015
- 7th consecutive dividend increase to CHF 0.74 per share proposed
- 4 new Board members proposed for election at the next annual general meeting
Q4 Summary:
- Orders (-2%) reflect challenging market conditions; base orders -6%
- Operational EBITA margin up 60 bps to 11.7%
- Power Systems reached target margin corridor; strategic portfolio review of Power Grids on track
- Accelerated productivity and cost out measures in white collar, supply chain and operational excellence
- Net income of $204mn including a total $496mn restructuring and related expenses
- Cash flow from operating activities +18%
Full-year and Q4 financials impacted by currency translation due to strong appreciation of US dollar
“We took decisive actions to improve our customer focus and realized profitable growth in target segments to mitigate the impact of significant market headwinds. At the same time, we simplified the organization, drove productivity improvement and accelerated our cost reductions,” said CEO Ulrich Spiesshofer. “As a result, we increased margin and free cash flow. The successful turnaround in Power Systems demonstrates our execution capabilities and our focus on sustainable value creation. With our strong financial position and a leaner, more market oriented organization we are well placed to manage through the global uncertainties which we will continue to face in 2016.”
Short-term outlook
Macroeconomic and geopolitical developments are signaling a mixed picture with continued uncertainty. Some macroeconomic signs in the US remain positive and growth in China is expected to continue, although at a slower pace than in 2015. The market remains impacted by modest growth in Europe and geopolitical tensions in various parts of the world. Oil prices and foreign exchange translation effects are expected to continue to influence the company’s results.
Full-year 2015 Group Results
“We are shifting our center of gravity, fully in line with our Next Level strategy by driving organic growth in targeted segments, strengthening competitiveness and lowering risk,” said CEO Ulrich Spiesshofer. “We drove technology leadership with the launch of YuMi, the first truly collaborative robot. We strengthened our technology leadership position in the area of the Internet of Things, Services and People, for instance with our innovative Octopus offering for optimized vessel operations. Furthermore, our focus on high growth markets such as food and beverage and Africa is paying off.”
Orders were steady for the year (down 12 percent in US dollars). Large orders (above $15 million) grew 10 percent (down 5 percent in US dollars) and offset a base order decline of 3 percent (14 percent in US dollars). The order backlog at the end of December 2015 amounted to $24.1 billion, an increase of 5 percent (down 3 percent in US dollars) compared with the end of 2014. The book-to-bill ratio remained steady at 1.03x.
Revenues were steady (down 11percent in US dollars) compared with 2014 as revenue growth in Power Systems and Power Products offset the decline in Discrete Automation and Motion and Process Automation. Service revenues grew 6 percent (down 8 in US dollars) and grew 1 percentage point as a percent of total group revenues (adjusted for divestitures; 0.5 percent prior to adjustment).
ABB continued to execute its Next Level strategy in 2015 which resulted in a 60 basis points improvement of the operational EBITA margin to 11.8 percent and free cash flow generation improving 16 percent in constant currency (6 percent in US dollars) to $3 billion. The main drivers for the group’s enhanced profitability were the successful turnaround of Power Systems and continued cost savings and productivity measures.
“The strong execution of our strategy is showing results,” said Ulrich Spiesshofer. “In 2015 we continued to focus on growth opportunities in a disciplined way while mitigating the impact of market headwinds through capacity adjustments, productivity measures and cost reductions. Transforming ABB, we have made good progress towards enhancing our performance culture by implementing our new performance management and compensation model for more than 70,000 people in 2015. The divisional realignment has been completed and the strategic portfolio review of the Power Grids division is to be completed in 2016 as previously announced.”
Net income for the year amounted to $1.9 billion and was impacted by $626 million of restructuring and related expenses for capacity adjustments and white collar productivity measures. Successful measures to improve net working capital contributed to higher cash flow from operating activities (constant currency) and free cash flow conversion and supported an increased cash return on invested capital2 (CROI) of 13.4 percent. Basic earnings per share in the period was $0.87 and operational earnings per share2 on a constant currency basis was $1.35, an increase of 5 percent.
