Two months after forming a new division to widen the adoption of cloud computing and analytics in the industrial world, General Electric Co. is acquiring ServiceMax Inc. for $915 million to fast-track its efforts.

The deal buys the company one of the world’s most widely used platforms for managing field service operations. ServiceMax boasts thousands of corporate clients, including GE itself, which has been using the platform for more than two years now to coordinate technical activities. The industrial giant derives most of its revenue from providing equipment inspections, repair assistance and other professional services to organizations that use its gear.

Bill Ruh, the head of GE’s recently formed digital division, told Bloomberg that his group originally wanted to develop a homegrown automation platform but was so impressed with ServiceMax it opted for an acquisition instead. GE will incorporate new analytics features into the suite after the deal completes next year to try and increase its usefulness even further.

The acquisition announcement didn’t go into too much detail, but a quick glance at the industrial giant’s data processing portfolio should provide a good idea of what’s to come. GE likely intends to connect ServiceMax with its cloud-based Predix platform for analyzing machine-generated transmissions to give field staff a better understanding of the equipment they maintain. Such integration has the potential to streamline many tasks that currently require manually accessing and communicating operational information.

GE could, for example, make equipment logs from Predix accessible in ServiceMax’s dispatcher console to let team leaders coordinate the work of their technicians more effectively. And those technicians in turn would likewise benefit from the ability to access real-time data about a piece of machinery while carrying out repairs. There’s also a chance that the industrial giant will integrate ServiceMax with the asset tracking tools that it gained through the purchase of Meridium Inc. in September to provide an even more complete view of operations.

GE’s Bill Ruh suggested during his interview with Bloomberg that more acquisitions will follow as his division continues to expand its technology portfolio. The company will certainly need to invest heavily if it wants to achieve Chief Executive Jeffrey Immelt’s ambitious goal of reaching $15 billion in digital sales by 2020.

Photo courtesy of ServiceMax