DNV GL launches industry data platform to unlock potential of big data

The maritime and energy industries are looking to boost their profitability and explore new business models through digitalization. However, companies are increasingly recognizing the need to overcome data quality issues and manage the ownership, control, sharing and use of data. To facilitate frictionless connections between different industry players, domain experts and data scientists, DNV GL is launching an industry data platform.

Remi Eriksen, President and CEO of DNV GL, explains: “The potential for smarter use of data in our industries is enormous. Companies have always turned to us for independent, expert assessments and best practices – to build trust in the safety, efficiency and sustainability of their physical assets or operations. Now we are exercising this same role in the digital domain with our Veracity industry data platform, designed to help companies leverage the ever-increasing amount of data from multiple sources. This is an additional way of fulfilling our purpose of safeguarding life, property and the environment.”

DNV GL is developing the platform by working together with several industry leaders on big data projects in pursuit of reduced downtime, improved safety, predictive maintenance, performance forecasting, energy efficiency and real-time risk management.

“This is the start of transforming some core elements of our 150-year-old company into a global digital-platform business. It will not happen overnight, but we have a unique starting point. DNV GL is already a trusted custodian of asset and performance data from ships, power grids, wind and solar farms, oil and gas installations, fish farms and the healthcare sector. That’s why we’re building an industry data platform in collaboration with Microsoft Azure and other leading companies. DNV GL is not looking to own data, but to unlock, qualify, combine and prepare data for analytics and benchmarking,” says Remi Eriksen.

“A key learning from the big data projects we have worked on so far is that data quality is a major barrier to overcome. A distinctive element of our platform is that we combine domain expertise and data science to put quality assurance of data – the veracity of data – at the centre and to facilitate open, industry-wide collaboration and innovation,” says Lars Petter Blikom, who is heading DNV GL’s digital platform business. “The data scientists and developers we have been working with across industries universally agree that these are key issues that need to be tackled collaboratively.”

“Data is the key ingredient for companies in any industry looking to transform their business, said Michel Van der Bel, Corporate Vice President of Microsoft EMEA. “DNV GL has a high level of trust within the industries it serves based on its strong track record in handling customer data. Offering its customers more sophisticated data insights through Microsoft’s cloud will help companies in the maritime and energy industries drive digital innovation scenarios like predicting maintenance issues to reduce downtime to improve business outcomes.”