ABB named Frost & Sullivan's 2017 Company of the Year

ABB has received Frost & Sullivan’s 2017 Company of the Year award for setting the benchmark for digitalisation with its distributed control system portfolio.

ABB’s penetration and expansion in emerging markets have helped it dominate the distributed control systems (DCS) market with a 20.5% market share in 2016, according to Frost & Sullivan. The report noted that ABB’s two closest competitors hold market shares of 15.2% and 14.5%.

The award recognised the company’s digital leadership, not only when compared to other industrial automation suppliers, but also against non-industry peers. 

“ABB has unswervingly led the DCS market across the power end-user segment,” stated the Frost & Sullivan report. “Its expertise in developing innovative solutions that match the needs of energy and energy-intensive industries like oil and gas, utilities and mining operations has reinforced its significant global market share. ABB has the best and widest DCS portfolio across the industrial automation market. The organisation offers the customer-specific control platforms ABB Ability System 800xA, ABB Ability Symphony Plus, Freelance and Compact Product Suite.”

“With our installed base of over 70 million connected devices and 70,000 control systems, and an annual investment of $1.5 billion in research and development, ABB is leading the digital transformation taking place across all process industries,” said Bernhard Eschermann, technology manager of ABB’s Industrial Automation division.

Frost & Sullivan’s market research analysts attribute ABB’s success to its alignment with market megatrends 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. This, they say, has helped ABB stay ahead of competition and retain a leadership position in the DCS market. With market growth drivers such as advanced control strategies, software-based services, value-added services and life cycle cost optimisation, ABB is well positioned to retain its leadership position.

“While many competitors have had flat growth in recent years, ABB continues to steam ahead and build on its existing installed base,” concluded the Frost & Sullivan report.

ABB’s 2017 launch of the ABB Ability platform was commended for providing comprehensive, unified and cross-industry digital capabilities. 

The report also recognised ABB Ability Collaborative Operations Centers for helping customers improve performance. This was 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 life cycle service policy, which maximises the life of a customer’s investment, and its third-party Value Provider Program with channel partners located near end users to provide a superior experience, were applauded. 

Also commended  was ABB’s position as one of only two companies 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 minimising the impact of late-stage design changes.

The award also recognises that, faster than many other automation vendors, ABB embraced the need to invest in start-ups as a way to foster innovation and scale up digital offerings quickly. A partnership between ABB and Microsoft, announced in October 2016, is also identified by Frost & Sullivan as another way ABB is leading the way in nurturing a broader ecosystem of applications to drive digital excellence.