Three Middle East-based companies have acquired Predix, the asset performance management platform of US-based GE. Predix collect and analyse data from industrial machines.

The sale was undertaken by GE along with Saudi Arabia’s Al-Obeikan Investment Group, the first company in Saudi Arabia to have signed up for Predix last year, William Ruh, chief digital officer at GE and CEO of GE Digital, tells MEED.

Ruh, however, declined to name the clients, which are in the food and beverage business.

GE is positioning Predix as the platform for the industrial internet-of-things (IIOT), a key building block in the digitalisation, or smart transformation, of industrial plants.

The contract with Obeikan, which has over 20 plants in the food and beverage and consumer package goods  sector, is set to be implemented in phases. It is understood that will start with centralised data collection and the creation of a manufacturing execution system (MES). Subsequent phases entail digitisation of scheduling, dashboards, asset performance and inventory.

GE Digital looks after GE’s software and services products, which can be sold to both non-traditional GE customers, like Obeikan, and traditional customers across its vertical sectors - they include power, renewables, aviation and transport.

Ruh tells MEED that GE Digital’s revenues in the first half of 2018 are split evenly between traditional and non-traditional customers.