IBM Announces Purchase Agreement With Tririga

ARMONK, N.Y. – IBM announced an agreement to buy a Tririga Inc. as part of its move to accelerate its smarter building initiatives.
 
The purchase of Tririga, a privately held, Las Vegas-based provider of facility and real estate management solutions, is part of IBM’s Smarter Planet initiative, which is estimated to drive $10 billion in revenue for the company by 2015, according to the company.
 
Financial terms were not disclosed.
 
The acquisition will help IBM add to its advanced intelligence that improves real estate performance, capital project management and the outcomes of sustainability initiatives, according to IBM.
 
Tririga software is designed to help clients make strategic decisions about space usage, evaluate alternative real estate initiatives and generate higher returns from capital projects. The software also enables users to assess the environmental impact of investment.
 
Combining the software with IBM’s program will streamline the process of optimizing facility infrastructure as opposed to using many different programs and products.
 
"Having one view of building operations worldwide will be a powerful tool to help organizations control and optimize their second-largest corporate expense — property," said Florence Hudson, energy and environment executive at IBM.
 
Facilities investments and operating costs can be more than 30 percent of corporate annual spending, and 50 percent of the lifetime ownership costs of a facility can be driven from its ongoing operation, according to IBM.
 
"Greater efficiencies around the operations and management of real estate are critical for organizations with multiple facilities," company officials said. "Property and real estate typically represents the second-largest expense on a company’s income statement, after employee compensation."  
 
The company is working with organizations worldwide to optimize energy usage and equipment efficiency in office buildings and campuses, among others, using IBM smarter buildings software, which includes analytics, automation and IBM Maximo Asset Management.
 
IBM reports that more than 200 of its clients and thousands of users spanning many major industries and almost half of the federal executive departments use TRIRIGA software to reduce operational costs, increase return on real estate assets and mitigate environmental regulatory risks.
 
TRIRIGA will be integrated into IBM Tivoli Software and IBM Global Business Services. The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of 2011, subject to regulatory approval and the satisfaction of customary closing conditions, according to the company. TRIRIGA employs approximately 200 people worldwide.