AWS to co-develop Bridgestone digital platforms

Bridgestone Corporation has selected Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS) as its strategic cloud provider. In this capacity, AWS will support Bridgestone’s sustainable mobility solutions.

Using AWS Internet of Things (IoT), machine learning, and analytics/business intelligence services, Bridgestone will accelerate the creation of digital platforms to launch new solutions for its customers, improve data analysis and streamline IT operations. The company says this relationship “further marks an important milestone in the Bridgestone 3.0 journey toward enhanced corporate value that merges business strategies with sustainability initiatives.”

Comprehensive services & solutions selection

As part of the relationship, Bridgestone will work with AWS’s ProServe and AWS Marketplace teams to enhance existing Bridgestone fleet solutions and bring concepts such as a Bridgestone marketplace to life. It says the resulting fleet solutions and service-centric marketplace concept will provide a “comprehensive selection of services and solutions” to fleet managers to “proactively assess fleet needs and reduce vehicle downtime.”

These digitally enabled solutions will provide fleet managers with “greater insights into the health of their fleets, proactive maintenance needs, access to a broad network of service providers, and scheduling and digital payment options that ultimately unlock customer and social value.”

Transform the way we provide services

“AWS has helped strengthen and modernise our Americas business for several years and we’re excited to grow our relationship across global operations,” said Paolo Ferrari, joint global chief operating officer of Bridgestone Corporation and president and chief executive officer of Bridgestone Americas. “Using AWS platforms, we will transform the way we provide services and solutions to our customers to enhance the digital customer experience Bridgestone offers while also modernising our business operations and improving data analytics capabilities.”

In order to continue building cloud fluency across its organisation, Bridgestone will provide its entire IT organisation in the Americas region with access to AWS’s cloud training curriculum and resources. Over the next five years, Bridgestone is committed to providing training resources and ongoing education to several hundred technology professionals across geographies to improve understanding of AWS technologies that enable increased speed of cloud adoption and the development of new customer-facing and internal capabilities. The company says this initiative is part of its commitment to retain and offer continuous development opportunities to its workforce.

In addition, Bridgestone will migrate its North American data centres to AWS and will continue building new system application and products (SAP) environments on AWS. Through decreased energy usage and a reduction in hardware asset waste, this migration to the cloud supports Bridgestone’s goal to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 and will help Bridgestone deliver its Efficiency, Extension and Economy values as part of the Bridgestone E8 Commitment. Bridgestone and AWS will focus future efforts on sustainability innovations designed to help contribute to Bridgestone 2050 sustainability goals of carbon neutrality and making tyres from 100 per cent renewable resources.

Expanding impact across automotive landscape

“AWS provides the most comprehensive suite of cloud offerings to enable automotive leaders to build applications that touch every point in the customer journey. With Bridgestone’s extensive domain expertise and AWS’s cloud leadership, we’re expanding our impact across the automotive landscape and unlocking new industry solutions to make the mobility of the future a reality today,” says Uwem Ukpong, vice-president of global services, Amazon Web Services, Inc.

This announcement is the latest development in a longstanding relationship between Bridgestone and AWS. Bridgestone has worked with AWS for several years, most recently in its Akron Mobility Lab, located in Ohio, USA to develop a system that delivers insights derived from the interaction between a tyre and a vehicle using advanced machine learning capabilities delivered through Amazon SageMaker – all without installing any additional hardware in the car.