Advanced Computing in the Age of AI | Thursday, March 28, 2024

3M Picks C3 IoT and Azure for AI / IoT Predictive Platform 

(phipatbig/Shutterstock)

C3 IoT continued its impressive record of customer wins with today’s announcement that the company has landed a multi-year contract with 3M (NYSE:MMM) to deliver AI-based applications, starting with predictive healthcare and supply chain analytics and expanding to additional lines of business globally, according to the companies.

The news from global diversified manufacturer 3M ($32 billion in revenues, 91,000 employees) builds on last year’s announcements that C3 IoT has won major contracts with the U.S. Air Force and utility giant Con Edison, the latter to generate energy conservation and equipment maintenance analytics based on sensor data from 5 million smart meters installed at homes and businesses in the New York metropolitan area.

Founded in 2009, Tom Siebel-led C3 IoT says it currently has 300 million sensors under management, which apparently is more than any other IoT analytics vendor. A major C3 IoT claim to fame: the company says it can develop and install new IoT apps for customers in less than two months, 10X times faster and 10X cheaper than its competitors.

3M said C3 IoT was selected to be its Digital Connected Products platform partner after evaluating more than 350 platforms and “ultimately validated the maturity, scalability, and extensibility of C3 IoT’s platform as a service (PaaS) and the unique business value of the C3 Type System, the model-driven architecture at the core of the C3 IoT Platform.

“C3 IoT has an exciting vision, proven technology, and demonstrated customer success across industries, making them a great partner for implementing 3M’s digital transformation initiatives,” said H.C. Shin, 3M vice chair and executive vice president. “With tangible business results from the initial predictive healthcare and supply chain analytics applications, we plan on scaling the C3 IoT and Azure solution across our enterprise. In this way, 3M is combining data science into material science, transforming how we design and deliver products and better serve our customers.”

3M said the C3 IoT Platform enables the company to aggregate and keep current enormous volumes of disparate data in a unified Azure cloud image and employ predictive AI and machine learning at scale and in near-real time.

In addition to building new applications on the C3 IoT Platform, 3M is able to customize and extend the functionality of pre-built SaaS applications in C3 IoT’s portfolio, including AI predictive maintenance, dynamic inventory optimization, fraud detection, and CRM. The companies said they will establish a Center of Excellence to train 3M data scientists, developers and business analysts to implement the C3 IoT Platform and applications.

“3M is a true innovator igniting digital transformation across their enterprise,” said Ed Abbo, president and CTO, C3 IoT. “3M’s ability to apply the sciences of big data, predictive analytics, AI, and IoT to transform business operations and create customer value will drive the organization as a leader far into the 21st century. We look forward to working with 3M to bring their vision to reality.”

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