Microsoft, a world leading company in the cloud first, mobile first world and RIB Software SE, the world’s leading 5D BIM solutions provider, have embarked on a joint project called MTWO, the world’s #1 vertical cloud for the construction & real estate industries. As one of the world’s biggest industries with over US$10 trillion in global expenditures today, expected to grow to US$14 trillion by 2025, construction and real estate offer tremendous potential for productivity improvements through cloud-based 5D BIM technologies.
At their official launch in Hong Kong, RIB and Microsoft, as well as a world-leading property developer, Country Garden Holdings Company Ltd. and RIB’s joint venture YTWO, jointly announced that they will work together on a Proof of Concept of MTWO. The target of the collaboration is the optimal utilization of big data in the planning, construction, operations, maintenance and management processes.
The joint vision of Country Garden and YTWO is to digitalize the building and housing industry, by creating a world-class next-generation system together, leveraging the latest big data, cloud, apps, artificial intelligence and other digitization technologies to manage the entire building process from design, estimation, scheduling, procurement, supply chain management, and project management to execution in one single system. Country Garden and YTWO are currently working on a Proof of Concept of the YTWO technology at Forest City, Country Garden’s smart city project in Malaysia.
In order to create new solutions based on the intelligence and Big Data flowing out of YTWO platform, RIB has established together with Microsoft, the world’s #1 vertical cloud for the construction & real estate industries, MTWO. MTWO is a cloud solution that is specifically tailored to the construction and real estate industries, offering optimized cloud-performance for BIM modeling, optimized data management of construction projects on Azure virtual machines, and creating new Artificial Intelligence solutions to support the work of construction & real estate professionals.
MTWO will integrate RIB’s know-how of the construction industry with Microsoft’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) based BoT solutions, Azure Internet of Things (IoT) suite and mixed reality solutions using Microsoft’s HoloLens. MTWO’s focus on the construction & real estate vertical is supported by a team of industry, IT and cloud professionals, who are fully dedicated to the digitalization of the construction & real estate industries. Through regular hackathons of the Microsoft and RIB R&D teams, a joint go-to-market strategy of the two companies’ sales teams in the three target regions: China, US and Europe, supported by a joint presentation of the MTWO solution at events, workshops and in the global Microsoft Experience Centers, as well as close coordination on the executive level, MTWO can fully utilize the two companies’ global R&D, sales, marketing and management capabilities.
“We are excited to partner with RIB to accelerate the digital transformation of the construction and real estate industry. RIB is a global leader in business information management systems, data modelling and construction and is truly transforming the digitization of the industry with the cloud. This will address the transformation needs of both large and smaller industry players. With MTWO on Microsoft Azure as their trusted platform, we are building the foundation for a digital ecosystem in the industry that will level the playing field as well as accelerate the adoption of innovations with artificial intelligence, IoT and to upskill the work of professionals in this industry, starting in Asia” said Ralph Haupter, President, Microsoft Asia and Corporate Vice-President, Microsoft.
“With Microsoft and thanks to the great strategic foresight of Ralph, Microsoft Asia’s President, we have found a partner and sponsor that shares our vision to digitally transform the construction and real estate industries. Microsoft and RIB share a strong focus on using new technologies, such as 5D BIM and cloud to increase productivity and empower workers to achieve more. With MTWO, we are now able to support not only large enterprises, but also the millions of small and medium-sized construction and real estate enterprises to kick start their digital transformations. The cooperation with Microsoft also holds exciting potential for the development of new AI, IoT and Mixed Reality solutions for this burgeoning industry”, said Tom Wolf, CEO of RIB Software SE.
RIB is also establishing a partner network with Managed Service Providers (MSPs) in order to increase the global adoption of MTWO and to provide MTWO through a network of experienced and agile service providers. The combination of IaaS, PaaS and SaaS in MTWO gives construction and real estate companies the opportunity to start their digital transformation in a highly scalable, cost effective and simple way.
