Palantir Technologies Inc, a builder of operating systems for the modern enterprise, and Caterpillar dealer WesTrac have announced a partnership to deploy Palantir Foundry across WesTrac’s servicing and rebuild operations centres in Perth, Western Australia.

The agreement further expands Palantir’s work in the Australian industrial sector, adding to its long-term flagship partnership with Rio Tinto.

Palantir’s Foundry operating system, designed to leverage data for better decision making across organisations of all sizes, will be used to drive digital transformation and help improve performance at WesTrac workshops, including by reducing work order delays and increasing work order velocity, Palantir says.

WesTrac and Palantir first began collaboration in 2021, and the current formal agreement will eventually expand to include WesTrac workshops in New South Wales.

The use of Palantir’s technology will help improve visibility of scheduled work, expand WesTrac’s digital twin, improve data discovery across multiple data sources and scale solutions to be delivered across multiple WesTrac workshops, the company added.

Foundry, according to Palantir, allows for the integration of siloed data sources into a common operating picture and bridges the full spectrum of data operations. At WesTrac, the technology will, for example, allow it to anticipate workshop bottlenecks, improve labour allocation and provide possible solutions or recommendations.

“We are excited to partner with WesTrac on their digital transformation journey and bring Palantir’s proven, cutting-edge technology to another emblematic Australian company,” Ashwin Rajan, Head of Commercial for Australia at Palantir, said. “Palantir Foundry will help transform WesTrac by providing unique insight into its critical operational and manufacturing decisions.”

“The WesTrac team are delighted to be working with Palantir on a project that will further digitalise our rebuild operations,” Jarvas Croome, Chief Executive Officer of WesTrac, said. “The solution will unlock capacity and improve work efficiency by optimising steps in the workflow via near real-time information on job status, and by recommending next steps to improve job outcomes. We see this as a key step in the continuation of our journey to deploy data and advanced analytics across our business.”

Palantir’s software is currently deployed in more than 50 industries, and helps power decisions in some of the most complex data environments in the world including natural resources, manufacturing, finance and government, the company says.