IBM and Veolia team up to offer digital solutions to improve urban municipal systems

IBM and Veolia have formed a new partnership to integrate digital technology to offer a solution, which can improve water, energy and waste management services of municipal systems.

The two firms will deliver new solutions for Smarter Water, incorporating IBM’s Intelligent Water software that will leverage Big Data to create a management system for the integration, optimisation and analysis of all necessary and related data.

Presently being developed Lyon, France, and Tidworth, UK, the new solutions will follow the data-driven approach to improve efficiency of the municipal systems.

While Veolia is presently offering the digital water solution, the energy and wastewater solutions are likely to be available by next year.

Veolia intends to use the new digital technology to improve its service with the current clients, as well as utilise the ready-to-use solutions for new projects.

Data accumulation across municipal water management systems and application of advanced analytics will offer systems-level view of operations and help in identifying trends, patterns and make predictions accordingly.

Veolia chairman and chief executive officer Antoine Frérot said: "Cities generate enormous amounts of data that must be constantly managed.

"As one of the world’s leading operators of urban infrastructure, Veolia supplies millions of people with water, energy and waste management services every day.

"By combining our deep expertise with IBM’s data-driven insight, Veolia is creating a paradigm shift in urban management which in turn will help cities improve efficiency and deliver better services to citizens."

IBM Smarter Cities general manager Michael Dixon said: "By combining Veolia’s expertise in utilities management with IBM’s data-driven approach to Smarter Cities, the two companies are bringing together some of the most advanced solutions in the market and making them readily available to cities.

"This provides cities of any size with unprecedented options for improving efficiency."