Towards Digitalization with Distributed Control Systems (DCS)

ABB earned Frost & Sullivan 2017 Company of the Year Award for its capacity to set the benchmark for digitalization with its distributed control system portfolio. The company offers customer-specific control platforms.

by Andrea Baty

ABB was named Frost & Sullivan’s 2017 Company of the Year thanks to its visionary innovation embodied by its distributed control system (DCS) offering and its impact on customer performance. The award highlights how ABB meets customer needs for improved performance in tough market conditions, at a time when process and power industries’ production assets have never been larger or more complex.
According to the Business Consulting Firm Frost & Sullivan, ABB’s penetration and expansion in emerging markets have helped it reach a 20.5% market share in 2016.
Frost & Sullivan’s market research analysts attribute ABB’s success to its alignment with market Mega Trends and developing industry-specific DCS solutions to address the demands of different end-user market segments, thereby enabling them to create new opportunities and values for their customers. With market growth drivers such as advanced control strategies, software-based services, value-added services and lifecycle cost optimization, ABB is well positioned to retain its leadership position.
ABB’s 2017 launch of the ABB AbilityTM platform is commended for providing comprehensive, unified and cross-industry digital capabilities. This launch, together with the availability of more than 180 ABB Ability solutions customized for individual end markets, ensures ABB continues to set the benchmark for digitization, enabling its customers to accelerate towards achieving operational excellence, says the award citation.
This is augmented by self-learning to harvest data better and do more with ABB than competing systems, which Frost & Sullivan says distinguishes ABB from the rest of the competition.

The excellent service quality was also recognized
The report also praises ABB Ability Collaborative Operations Centers for helping customers improve performance. This is achieved by connecting them instantly, 24/7, to ABB experts who use remote diagnostics and analytics to solve problems before they become failures. Likewise, ABB’s lifecycle service policy which maximizes the life of a customer’s investment, and its one-of-a-kind third-party Value Provider Program with channel partners located near end-users to provide a superior experience, are applauded. Also recognized is ABB’s position as company capable of acting as a Main Automation, Electrical and Information Contractor (MAEIC). Such a service cuts the cost, schedule and risk of new projects through single-source accountability. The latter is bolstered by digital innovations such as cloud engineering and configurable I/O channels which decouple software from hardware design, speeding up project execution and minimizing the impact of late-stage design changes.