Infosys, Microsoft team up for smart-city solutions, to open innovation centre

IT services giant Infosys has announced a collaboration with Microsoft to deliver solutions for smart buildings in sectors such as engineering, construction, architecture, facilities management and real estate.

Infosys said the partnership would help leverage the latest digital technologies and solutions that aim to improve the lifecycle of building constructions, operations and the user experiences of individuals who work directly or indirectly in the sphere.

Microsoft will offer its Azure services and IoT sensor-enabled devices along with Infosys’ global network of innovation hubs and experience designs.

Infosys also said that its expertise with connected ecosystems to develop smart building solutions would improve energy efficiency, optimise space and improve people productivity.

“Physical spaces and buildings are the latest in adopting digital transformation. We are excited to have Microsoft as a partner in creating market-leading solutions in real-estate management,” Corey Glickman, vice president and head of strategic design consulting at Infosys, said in a press release.

Glickman said Microsoft and Infosys would together accelerate sustainable solutions that release immediate operational efficiencies for customers.

“We will fuse mature and emerging technologies to incubate space changing offerings that we can then begin to deploy at scale,” added Glickman.

Built on the Azure platform, the solutions would leverage IoT, intelligent cloud and edge technologies for better building monitoring, analysis, predictive maintenance and space utilisation analytics, the release said.

The first solution that will be deployed from the collaboration is a smart building management suite that would enable building automation, monitoring and control of operational assets. This would enable better usage of energy, water, lighting and acoustical systems through an integrated command centre with predictive analytics at its core.

The building management tool would use Infosys’ proprietary SCALE (Sustainable-Connected-Affordable-Livable-Experiential) framework for smart buildings, the release said.

Artifical intelligence would also be used to augment human intelligence and reduce costs, accelerate design and lead to sustainable, purpose-driven environments.

The two companies also announced the opening of an innovation lab in Redmond, US. The Indian company said the lab would be an extension of the Infosys Smart Workplace Hub in Indianapolis that focuses on cross-industry experiences to incubate new ideas. 

The lab would be used to co-create prototypes, physical assets, establish guidelines and build a partner ecosystem for smart buildings solutions.

Speaking on the collaboration, Rimes Mortimer, general manager for applied innovation at Microsoft, said: “It combines the incredible work we have done on energy smart buildings, space optimization and planning and workplace analytics with the strength and reach of Infosys’ expertise in solution design and systems integration to unlock new accelerated business value for our joint customers.”