Based on its recent analysis of the North American smart connected chillers market, Frost & Sullivan recognizes Johnson Controls with the 2020 North American Company of the Year Award. Johnson Controls leverages more than a century of healthy building expertise to present the broadest HVAC equipment and controls portfolio worldwide. The company offers multiple types of chillers that optimize facility conditions, efficiencies, and energy costs across various industries.With Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), and other innovative technologies, Johnson Controls successfully delivers smart hospital solutions to healthcare facilities worldwide.

“Each of its Smart Connected Chillers incorporates a customer dashboard featuring the new Chiller Performance Index (CPI), enabling data-driven insights in real time. This CPI allows customers to decrease energy consumption from 10% to 30%," said Pavel Zhebrouski, Best Practices Research Analyst at Frost & Sullivan. "The chillers present building owners and facility managers with novel, more effective tools to lower repair costs and minimize downtime due to unplanned equipment service. They also reduce the total cost of ownership through improved reliability, enhanced performance, energy efficiency, extended asset life, and greater technician productivity."

“This recognition from Frost & Sullivan is an honor; one that speaks to our commitment of driving value for our customers and their bottom line,” said Carolyn McGrath, Director of Program Management at Johnson Controls. “Our Smart Connected Chillers can lower unplanned and emergency repairs by an impressive 66% and time-to-repair by 65%. What sets Johnson Controls apart is that we pull data directly from the machine to provide predictive algorithms and fault-detection diagnostics, translating to direct cost-savings for our customers.”

The company recently reinforced its strong market position by introducing the OpenBlue platform, a digital solution suite that connects traditional operational technology, existing IT systems, and cloud applications. OpenBlue enables operating technologies to communicate and integrate across a range of systems seamlessly. Furthermore, the platform has provided valuable support during the COVID-19 pandemic with features such as contact tracing, social distance monitoring, thermal cameras, clean air, touchless environments, compliance and reporting management, energy optimization, and advanced safety monitoring.

"Demonstrating an understanding of the importance of a robust global partner network, Johnson Controls partnered with Microsoft to build a solution connecting equipment data to the cloud for unprecedented operational insights. Specifically, the company has over 3,000 chillers connected to the Microsoft Azure platform," noted Zhebrouski. "Overall, its outstanding features and value, such as remote monitoring, condition-based model service, maintenance and reliability, energy efficiency, and sustainability, have positioned it for long-term growth."

Each year, Frost & Sullivan presents this award to the company that develops a product with innovative features and functionality that is gaining rapid acceptance in the market. The award recognizes the quality of the solution and the customer value enhancements it enables.

Frost & Sullivan Best Practices awards recognize companies in a variety of regional and global markets for demonstrating outstanding achievement and superior performance in areas such as leadership, technological innovation, customer service, and strategic product development. Industry analysts compare market participants and measure performance through in-depth interviews, analyses, and extensive secondary research to identify best practices in the industry.