ABB is to acquire Obvient Strategies Inc, based in the USA and a privately owned specialist software provider. The purchase will add Obvient’s products to its recently acquired Ventyx software portfolio. The transaction will increase ABB’s software offering for asset management, power distribution automation and smart grid applications.

Obvient range covers software and services for industries and utilities with geographically dispersed assets. The company’s business intelligence software collects, analyses and reports critical real-time as well as periodic information. Obvient’s products are said to compile the power transmission and distribution sector’s best business practices into prepackaged solutions. This enables companies to monitor and manage their distributed assets more effectively, on a real-time and event-driven basis.

ABB plans to retain the Obvient team and place its executives in key roles within the Ventyx product management organisation. The company has offices near Atlanta, Georgia, and a staff of 40.

Ventyx provides enterprise software, energy markets data and professional services that enable energy, utility, communications and other asset-intensive organisations to “optimise operational efficiency and productivity.”