Water operators to benefit from better network visibility, optimised infrastructure, and lower costs, according to the companies
Xylem has forged a partnership with Esri to better serve utilities around the world. Working together, both companies will pursue joint technical roadmapping, solution development, joint marketing and collaborative selling.
Calling the collaboration “a great match”, Dave Flinton, CIO for Xylem, explained the partnership will help the company’s customers realise operational improvements by integrating various sources of data more effectively and efficiently. “This better visbility and analysis will help utilities optimise their water networks even more,” he added.
In a collaboration for a US water utility, Xylem and Esri deployed artificial intelligence (AI)-powered pipelines analysis technology to reduce costs by US$70 million – or nearly 80% – and bring down pipeline failures by 400%. The approach was one of the first in North America to effectively model the future of the water network, and predict pipe failures before they happen. The breakthrough came from deploying an AI-based solution from Xylem to analyse data from the utility’s system built on Esri’s ArcGIS Enterprise. Results allow water operators to prioritise and stage pipeline replacement, lowering costs and reducing customer impacts by targeting the most critical and deteriorated pipes.
Both companies have also been working together on joint customer engagements across the water cycle, addressing both wastewater and clean water systems, as well as environmental monitoring and dewatering applications.
For utilities managing aging infrastructure, the digital transformation of their water networks is an opportunity to reduce costs while making their communities more resilient, particularly as extreme, climate change driven weather events become more common.
David Wachal, director global water practice, Esri, concluded: “We look forward to our continued joint customer commitment with Xylem to solve global water ad wastewater challenges by providing innovative solutions and services. Xylem and Esri are combining GIS, visualisation, analytics, real-time data and the deep industry knowledge to solve problems across the water cycle.”
