Nexion adds new AI revenue opportunities – Nokturnal

Nexion Group Ltd (ASX: NNG) has extended its relationship with IBM Australia Ltd (IBM) with a IBM Silver Business Partner Agreement to become a Business Partner selling IBM’s software solutions including the Artificial Intelligence (AI) platform, Watson and their Sustainability Suite incorporating Asset Management and ESG reporting.

The company has formed an alliance with Fuseforward Cloud Services in Vancouver to source the specialist skills required to accelerate adoption of this product combination and will promote IBM Software services in Australia under the Fuseforward Australia brand.

Highlights

• Nexion’s expanded relationship with IBM paves the way to faster revenue growth and higher margins with a specific focus on AI and ESG in asset-intensive industries including mining and Energy.

• Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) capacity and capability will be delivered using the industry -proven IBM Watson platform.

• Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) solutions for data collection, analysis and reporting will be delivered using the IBM Envizi Software as a Service (SaaS) suite.

• Asset monitoring, management, maintenance and optimization will be delivered using IBM’s Maximo, MRO and TRIRIGA software solutions.

• The FuseCommand suite and expertise from Fuseforward (www.fuseforward.com), including advanced digital twin technology will underpin IBM Software projects delivered by Nexion Group.

IBM has been applying Watson’s AI and ML capability to enterprise optimisation problems for many years and has experienced a resurgence of interest with the latest focus on natural language interfaces to Large Language Models (LLM) in recent months. Nexion is actively bidding for new projects in Western Australia’s mining and energy sectors that leverage IBM’s proven capability to optimise business operations with Watson using AI and ML techniques.

A key sector focus for Nexion will be ESG. Environmental monitoring solutions have enterprise assets at their core. Investor pressure, reputational risk, government legislation, and the introduction of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) reporting frameworks have paved the way for organizations to drive sustainability initiatives and set decarbonisation goals.

According to an IBM Institute for Business Value (IBV) study, 51% of CEOs now rank sustainability as their greatest organisational challenge. NEXION is responding to this demand by developing its capability to deliver systems that gather, store, analyse and present the data necessary for enterprises to meet demanding ESG reporting requirements.

The combination of IBM’s foundational enterprise asset management software, the Watson AI platform, Fuseforward’s data orchestration tools and Nexion’s ability to manage the complex hybrid cloud hosting environments needed to operate these solutions, brings a new skill-set to industry in Western Australia. This new branch of Nexion’s business adds capability to design, deliver and operate intelligent enterprise asset management solutions under one roof, forming a vertically integrated specialist organisation.

Nexion values the close relationship developed with IBM over the past few years and this new addition to our relationship builds on that foundation,” Executive Chairman and Interim Group CEO, Peter Christie, said.

“Delivering enterprise-scale software and related services opens new opportunities for Nexion to win larger projects with higher gross margins than our traditional infrastructure product suite delivers.

“Software for Enterprise Asset Management is an area of expertise that’s highly sought after in Western Australian, given the concentration of large-scale mining and energy operations in our region. IBM’s software is embedded in the operations of our largest asset operators, presenting an immediate opportunity for NEXION to engage in new projects, especially related to ESG.”