IOTICS ecosystem: NTT Data

Despite a significant difference in age, scale and geographic location, between company values and culture, NTT Data and IOTICS have a lot in common. Our co-inventor recently wrote a piece about NTT’s vision of Digital Twin Computing, as Mark wrote “Theirs is a radical manifesto. Gradually replace your old systems with asset-focussed twins with rich metadata and data. Use the operations, the behaviour, the compute of the twins to model your world.” and one in which there is a “beautiful simplicity” which “gratifyingly mirrors what IOTICS have built.”

In 2020 IOTICS were delighted to win an award at NTT Data’s Open Innovation Contest, the competition spearheaded by Kotaro Zamma, Head of NTT DATA’s Open Innovation and Business Incubation, has the motto “Let’s change the world together”.

Both NTT Data and IOTICS want to create a society that connects the physical world and digital world in a way that benefits and empowers its citizens. As Tom Winstanley, VP New Ventures & Innovation at NTT DATA UK said of IOTICS’ victory “IOTICS speaks to the NTT Group vision to enable a smart society through digital twin computing and a sustainable photonic network and computing infrastructure, framed in our R&D programme IOWN (Innovative Optical and Wireless Networks) and is a welcome addition to our partner network in the UK.”

At the core of both organizations is a vision for better, more diverse ways of working, sustainability and a collaborative future where enterprises can identify opportunities and threats that help them to work more efficiently. 

The bold net zero carbon emissions target, flexible, environmentally conscious working arrangements, and a fundamental shared vision of cooperation and connectivity are just some of the ways that IOTICS are striving towards a better future sharing the core values and common goals expressed by NTT.   

Ali Nicholl, Head of Engagement at IOTICS emphasised the importance of being part of the solution that drives carbon emissions down: “IOTICS, our co-founders, investors, and team recognise that we, globally, are facing unprecedented times as the climate and ecological crisis continues to be one of our biggest threats as a society,” he said. “To accelerate solutions to this crisis IOTICS launched various programmes most recently the Data For Good Sponsorship initiative, led by Gemma Beard and Erika Le Doze, enabling cooperative development of the innovation needed to reduce carbon emissions and waste.”

While IOTICS may just be at the beginning of its journey compared to NTT’s 169 year evolution, we have been working as a remote team since the company was founded in 2014. As the world slowly opens up again after various lockdowns as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, some organizations have decided to keep the remote working as a permanent feature in a bid to cut down on carbon emissions. 

NTT Data has taken the bold step of enforcing permanent remote working in a bid to move towards a carbon neutral workforce. The new policy will allow 320,000 employees from across 250 regional faculties to work from home or from one of 260 new offices which are to be created in various regional areas in Japan. 

Both companies have proven themselves to be pathfinders for a carbon neutral future and have responded to the reality of the climate and ecological crisis. In a world of climate delayism, both organizations have been proactive in identifying ways of transforming the response to the climate emergency, and enabling others to tackle the grandest challenges collaboratively, cooperatively, and ultimately change the world together.

Would you like to become a IOTICS partner? To find out more contact gemma.beard@iotics.com