ARMONK, N.Y., July 22, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- IBM Services
(NYSE: IBM) and CBRE, the largest commercial real estate services
company in the world, are expanding their long-term relationship to
provide technology support services for CBRE's clients at select
data center facilities it manages.
A new CBRE offering called Smart Maintenance is the
latest addition to their existing suite of Converged Data Center
Services. Powered by IBM Services, it leverages IBM's AI, augmented
reality technologies and deep analytics to provide vendor-agnostic,
predictive and reactive hardware maintenance for CBRE's data center
clients' technology assets.
As part of the agreement, IBM will work with CBRE technicians as
an on-site extension of IBM's Remote Technical Support. CBRE
technicians intend to diagnose and maintain IT hardware from a wide
range of manufacturers, leveraging IBM's augmented reality and
Watson enabled AI technologies
while being supported by IBM's global platform, which includes 57
call centers worldwide, tens of thousands IT support specialists
and 585 parts centers carrying 1.3 million parts. It is anticipated
that when a service call is placed, IBM AI technology will ask a
series of questions to identify the problem and help find the
quickest solution. If physical repair is required, CBRE site
technicians can perform this repair under guidance from IBM's
central pool of expertise. Additionally, IBM analytics can provide
lifecycle review for data center equipment and provide a predictive
maintenance service plan.
In today's hybrid, multicloud environments, many enterprises
rely on a heterogeneous mixture of manufacturers and third-party
vendors to provide maintenance and support for their IT systems.
The solution is designed to reduce complexity and create a path to
implement and maintain the next generation of hybrid workloads
which can help reduce costs for CBRE's clients, which include
leading corporations across sectors including financial services,
technology, media, healthcare, energy and utilities, life sciences,
retail and real estate investment trusts.
"This opportunity was made possible by the history of success
between CBRE and IBM," said Jim
Harding, President of Data Center Solutions for CBRE's
Global Workplace Solutions segment. "We've been exploring areas
that make sense for innovative collaboration, and we're very
pleased to be backed by IBM Services and its leadership in AI and
multi-vendor technology support."
Additionally, a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic, cloud
adoption and software has become an essential business service for
many organizations and has highlighted the complexities of managing
cost and usage. It has also created the need for IT decision makers
to look for ways to help reduce the costs and complexity associated
with maintaining equipment from a variety of technology vendors.
Recently named a "Leader" among seven other providers in the IDC
MarketScape: Worldwide Support Services 2019 Vendor
Assessment (October 2019, IDC
#US45595819e), "IBM's global presence and partnerships make the
company a great fit for large enterprises." The report continued
that "… customers state that the partnerships IBM creates at the
higher levels of the C-suite allow IBM to truly understand the
business needs of the customer and, in return, the C-suite of the
customer has access to IBM executives."
"We're pleased to provide multi-vendor services for CBRE with
IBM's diverse set of technology capabilities, software knowledge
and predictive operational management," said Mike Perera, General Manager, Technology Support
Services, IBM. "IBM Services is committed to innovations in
analytics, AI, AR and other technologies to enable organizations to
manage the toughest of circumstances, minimize outages and secure
their data."
With this service, CBRE's clients may be able to reduce
maintenance and support spending. IBM's advanced IT support
management technologies can infuse automation into the support
process, including predictive maintenance, cognitive capabilities,
proactive monitoring, and asset and life-cycle management. Prior to
this, without the advantage of Smart Maintenance's analytics and
predictive maintenance driving reduced downtime, CBRE's data center
clients would have used Original Equipment Manufacturers and other
third-party vendors to help manage their equipment.
In addition, CBRE's clients may benefit from reduced time
spent on hardware support tasks. IBM's proprietary asset
management and support portal, which provides a real-time view of
assets and support actions, will automate CBRE's IT support
processes, helping employees to further improve their
productivity.
Furthermore, by consolidating IT support with CBRE, clients can
minimize management overhead by no longer maintaining multiple
support relationships, allowing them to shift their focus to
more value-add tasks.
Analytics, predictive maintenance, fault avoidance and speed to
resolution—for both data center plant (e.g., UPS systems) and IT
equipment (e.g., servers, storage arrays)—will be provided through
CBRE|Romonet and IBM Watson technologies.
This agreement between IBM and CBRE was signed in IBM's Q1,
2020.
IBM Technology Support Services division delivers
world-class service with presence in over 200 countries, speaking
127 languages, 57 remote support centers, managing 6M Service Requests, with support professionals
and services over 30,000 products. For more information on
IBM Services, visit https://www.ibm.com/services
Media Contact:
Tricia
Vuiton
Communications, IBM
tavuiton@us.ibm.com
+1 (914) 765-4980
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SOURCE IBM