KONE, a global leader in the building industry, has announced a multi-year agreement with IBM to use the tech giant’s Watson IoT Cloud Platform to remotely monitor and optimise the management of millions of elevators, escalators, doors and turnstiles in buildings and cities worldwide.

The system will analyse the vast amounts of data from sensors embedded in equipment to identify and predict issues, minimise downtime and personal user experiences.

KONE is hopeful the system will be able to predict and respond to technical issues in real-time, facilitate remote run tests and issue commands over the cloud.

“Our partnership with IBM is exciting and it is an important stepping stone to deliver the best People Flow experience,” KONE CEO Henrik Ehrnrooth said.

“We operate in a connected world and by working with IBM, new solutions like remote diagnostics and predictability means we will deliver even better services to our customers, and great experiences for the people who use our equipment.”