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IBM acquires Aussie analytics software vendor Envizi

Builds on the tech giant’s growing investments in artificial intelligence-powered software.

IBM has acquired Australian data and analytics software provider Envizi in a bid to ramp up its environmental performance management offering.

According to Envizi, the core technology architecture that sits at the heart of the local vendor’s software platform was developed in 2004. It was originally used by utilities operators to capture data recorded by electricity smart meters and to manage the integration of that data with tariff engines to calculate electricity bills.

In 2008, the Sydney-based company became known as CarbonSystems, expanding its focus and developing a full-blown carbon accounting engine.

Five years later, the company returned to its roots in energy management, broadening and enhancing the energy management functionality of its core product to include deeper integration into buildings at the equipment and sensor level.  

With this expanded product offering, the firm changed its name to Envizi to better reflect its broader capabilities.

Today, Envizi has evolved to become a global software company, with teams physically located in Australia, the UK, the USA and Canada, and bills itself as provider of “the world’s most comprehensive sustainability performance management platform.”

Broadly, Envizi's software automates the collection and consolidation of more than 500 data types and supports major sustainability reporting frameworks. Its dashboards enable companies to analyse, manage and report on environmental goals, identify efficiency opportunities and assess sustainability risk.  

Available as a software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution and able to run in multicloud environments, Envizi serves leading brands such as Microsoft, Qantas, CBRE, Uber and Celestica, and its software can be applied to activities across a variety of industries.

From IBM’s perspective, the acquisition builds on the tech giant’s growing investments in artificial intelligence (AI)-powered software. This includes IBM Maximo asset management solutions, IBM Sterling supply chain solutions and IBM Environmental Intelligence Suite, to help organisations create more resilient and sustainable operations and supply chains. Indeed, Envizi’s offering will be integrated into these existing IBM products.  

Envizi is also expected to help expand IBM Consulting's growing sustainability practice, which is designed to help clients accelerate progress toward their sustainability commitments.

"To drive real progress toward sustainability, companies need the ability to transform data into predictive insights that help them make more intelligent, actionable decisions every day," said Kareem Yusuf, IBM AI Applications general manager.  

“Envizi's software provides companies with a single source of truth for analyzing and understanding emissions data across the full landscape of their business operations and dramatically accelerates IBM's growing arsenal of AI technologies for helping businesses create more sustainable operations and supply chains.”

For David Solsky, CEO and co-founder of Envizi, IBM's global reach, depth of resources and breadth of expertise will help the company to scale at an unprecedented pace.  

“As part of IBM, we feel more confident than ever that we can achieve our goal of providing clients and partners with the world class tools they need to reduce their operational impacts and optimize for the low carbon future,” he said.  

The acquisition closed on 11 January. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. 

Australian tech players seem to be in IBM's sights at present. Late last year, the company acquired Melbourne-based digital transformation services company SXiQ to enhance its consulting capabilities in the market.

The new acquisition was said to provide additional hybrid and multi-cloud expertise, further aiding IBM Consulting’s enterprise strategy.