ABB Forms Alliance with Accenture, Intel, And Microsoft

Manufacturing systems company ABB Ltd. says it will work closely with Accenture, Intel, and Microsoft to develop IT systems that will let industrial manufacturers more easily connect systems across their enterprises.

Under the alliance, Accenture will help ABB optimize its Industrial IT plant-automation systems for Wintel platforms and will lead sales efforts in a number of vertical industries. Currently, many of ABB's systems run on Hewlett-Packard's OpenVMS operating system.

Accenture is also developing software connectors that use Microsoft's BizTalk Server and .Net technology to link ABB's systems with third-party business software programs such as those from SAP. "The idea is to give customers a view of information that is unified from the top floor to the shop floor," says Alicia Bauer, ABB's alliance development director. ABB has previously worked with the companies in the alliance, but, Bauer says, "the relationship is now formal."