ICONICS delivers facilities optimization and new sustainability reporting with Microsoft Sustainability Manager

New technologies, new efficiencies

The tug of war between saving natural resources and saving money often casts sustainability as a luxury and out of reach for many organizations. But as business solutions evolved to harness the power of new, more efficient technology, organizations began to realize that sustainability practices have the power to preserve the bottom line as well as the planet. Microsoft’s Leader’s Guide to Sustainability cites that over 70% of investors think that companies with good sustainability strategies make good investments, and 44% consider environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors when making new investments.

Making sustainability actionable

One company that has taken the challenge of sustainability head on is ICONICS, a global firm dedicated to building IoT and cloud-ready solutions to deliver building management and manufacturing efficiencies. VP of Product Management Kyle Reissner says this mission is shared by its parent company, Mitsubishi Electric Corporation. “Technology can't solve every environmental issue, but it can help us manage, understand, and hold ourselves accountable for action," he said. "It enables us all to focus and align on the right aspects, those that truly impact usage, and helps us to hunt for the less obvious aspects in the data for a more positive impact.”

ICONICS IoTWorX solutions enable organizations to collect, visualize, and analyze real-time information. “ICONICS helps customers automate sustainability efforts by providing visibility into every endpoint that uses or affects natural resources," said Reissner. "From energy to water management, ICONICS enables customers to harness the power of technology to build a more sustainable future.”

And the technology is designed to work within any manufacturing and industrial process, across all devices. “The key,” Reissner explains, “is to root the sustainability goals in sound operational decisions and business benefit." Several products in the ICONICS portfolio support customer sustainability and cost saving efforts. ICONICS Smart Building solutions provide real-time energy monitoring and advanced Fault Detection and Diagnostics technology. ICONICS Water Management solutions provide insight into water and wastewater facilities. And ICONICS IoTWorX IoT software enables secure, cloud-ready solutions for energy, smart buildings, manufacturing, and industrial applications. 

In sum, ICONICS solutions offer a cost-effective, out-of-the-box experience that: 

• Provides universal connectivity to collect source data
• Delivers advanced visualization
• Ensures mission-critical redundancy
  
  

“Environmental sustainability is important for the well-being of current and future generations,” Reissner says. “Our sustainability mission is to use technology to address environmental issues, including climate change, resource circulation, and harmonious coexistence with nature.”

A partnership formed in the cloud, with the Earth in mind

ICONICS’s industry leading solutions leverage Windows 10 IoT, Azure IoT Edge, and Azure IoT Hub. “ICONICS has a decades-long partnership with Microsoft,” says Reissner. “We leverage Microsoft cloud services to deliver valuable customer solutions, including Microsoft Azure, Microsoft 365, and Microsoft Dynamics 365.”

And it’s this technology partnership that has enabled ICONICS to deploy its solutions to some of the largest companies in the world across manufacturing, automotive, financial services, retail, and utilities industries. It’s also allowed organizations to realize 10-20% savings off their total energy costs. “ICONICS was an early adopter and launch partner for Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability,” says Reissner. “This helped us understand not only Microsoft’s direction for Microsoft Sustainability Manager, but also enabled us to extend our solution for customers’ environmental, social, and governance reporting needs.” 

Reissner says creating a solid operation that not only empowers a workforce to be more efficient but allows visibility into progress toward sustainability goals is key. He continues, “Our customers can publish data collected by ICONICS to Microsoft Sustainability Manager for ESG reporting. ICONICS provides the ongoing operational insights and dashboards to improve operations and sustainability objectives.” 

Along with the technology innovations, Reissner states the partnership with Microsoft continues to touch so many areas of the business. “ICONICS's benefits from the Microsoft partnership include marketing support, architectural guidance, sales collaboration, and access to development tools and cloud services.”

Partnering for a brighter future

With the ongoing need to improve efficiencies and energy savings, the partnership between ICONICS and Microsoft is poised to grow. “Moving forward, we are working with Microsoft Sustainability Manager specialists to jointly engage customers,” reflects Reissner. “In addition, we are engaging customers with our new workplace management tools (our Intelligent Buildings Software Stack), which provide occupant applications such as room booking, colleague finding, and visitor management.”

Reissner further states that with AI technologies, ICONICS automation will continue to evolve. “Going forward, ICONICS is exploring how AI technology can improve developer productivity, optimize different scenarios, and expand our existing digital twins and analytics capabilities.”

As sustainability pressure from stakeholders increases, organizations everywhere have an opportunity to optimize their environment to deliver better business outcomes and support a better world. Reissner concludes, “ICONICS has a long history of delivering Microsoft-based sustainability solutions. Saving resources, creating efficiencies, and cost savings will never go out of style. We look to continue to work with Microsoft to drive further innovation.”

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