3M and C3 IoT have signed a multi-year agreement, where the latter's platform-as-a-service will help 3M design and develop data analytics, artificial intelligence and Internet of Things applications for healthcare and beyond.

At first, 3M will use the technology for predictive clinical and supply chain analytics for healthcare, but the expectation is to expanding to other lines of business, officials said.

The C3 IoT Platform will help 3M better aggregate and maintain huge volumes of disparate data in a unified cloud, and allow it to deploy AI and machine learning at scale to help give healthcare organizations predictive insights for better decision-making.

[Also: Testing algorithms key to applying AI and machine learning in healthcare]

3M selected C3 IoT after evaluating more than 350 other AI platforms, deciding that its maturity, scalability and extensibility of its cloud-based platform, as well as the business value of its model-driven architecture, made it a good fit.

Beyond being able to build new apps on the platform, 3M can customize and extend the functionality of pre-built SaaS applications in C3 IoT’s portfolio, officials said – including AI predictive maintenance, dynamic inventory optimization, fraud detection, and CRM.

Together, two companies say they'll set up a joint center to train 3M data scientists, developers and business analysts on the C3 IoT platform and applications.

H.C. Shin, 3M's vice chair and executive vice president, said in a statement that the company also intends to scale the C3 IoT platform across its enterprise. 

"3M is combining data science into material science, transforming how we design and deliver products and better serve our customers," Shin added. 

Twitter: @MikeMiliardHITN
Email the writer: mike.miliard@himssmedia.com