A Smarter Planet Blog

An Inflection Point for CFOs: The Need to Anticipate Change

2013-05-22T03:18:44Z

William Fuessler, Financial Transformation Leader, IBM Global Business Services

By William Fuessler

I have always loved the finance profession, and thrived on the challenging nature of the business.

No two days, no two weeks, or two months are ever the same.

Change is virtually the only constant in today’s business. Within the past decade, the rising forces of digitization, globalization and Big Data have accelerated the pace of change and have made the landscape fiercely more competitive.

Having an intimate view of the business, finance leaders have access and insight over details large and small related to business unit performance, costs, trends in customer growth and paths to innovation. They know the peaks and valleys, the risks and rewards, and what’s working, and what’s not.

Armed with this insight, finance leaders have the power to extend their influence over decisions related to a broad set of priorities related to corporate spend, new product development, customer growth strategies, R&D, HR/talent investments, and acquisition strategies just to name a few areas.

But knowing the business isn’t sufficient anymore. Maintaining the financial integrity of the business is a given. To stay ahead, CFOs need to nimbly anticipate and respond to change. The winners can proactively influence business strategy and predict certain outcomes.

Today we are convening a forum with an esteemed group of 100 CFOs and CIOs in NYC to discuss the evolving role of the CFO, the role that technology, process, data and skills play in the enterprise, and the threats and opportunities associated with Big Data and advanced analytics. I am excited to engage in a dialogue with my finance and IT peers about the future of my function, something I care deeply about.

This much is clear: we are at an inflection point – and the CFO’s role is on the verge of change. It’s not about keeping score and analyzing the past – but about having the headlights and insight to capture the growth opportunities that matter. The recent IBM IBV CFO Study has found that CFOs who excel at both using analytics for business insight and driving finance efficiency continue to outperform their peers across all phases of the economic cycle.

The CFO can be the pacesetter to bring the discipline of the back office to the front office. The true change agents will drive business model innovation to drive a continuous cycle of transformation. That’s the shining promise, power and potential of the profession in the future.

_______________________________________

Follow the discussion at www.ibm.com/finance.

Technorati Tags: Big Data, Big Data analytics, CFO, chief financial officer, IBM Smarter Planet, innovation, smarter analytics

New Study: Top Marketing Challenge is Creating and Sustaining Growth

2013-05-21T13:57:28Z

Kim Whitler, Contributor for the Forbes CMO Network and Professor at Indiana University

By Kim Whitler

What are the biggest challenges facing marketers across the globe? According to a hot-off-the-presses study conducted globally by IBM (500 marketing managers) across 15 different industries, creating growth (through the acquisition of new customers) and sustaining growth (through superior loyalty) is at the very top. Forty-two percent of respondents suggested that acquiring new customers and 36 percent suggested driving loyalty and satisfaction were the biggest challenges facing their organizations.

While these results aren’t earth-shattering as it is likely that a survey a decade ago would have yielded a similar pattern, what is surprising is the items at the bottom. Only 21 percent of the respondents suggested that measuring ROI was the most challenging problem they faced, behind branding, leveraging data, understanding and effectively using social channels, and creating positive experiences for consumers. A few years ago, measuring ROI was at the top of everybody’s list. This perhaps suggests a sign of the times – that a tough marketplace, increased competition, a more global marketplace, and more savvy consumers has made growth especially challenging.

Other key findings from the survey suggest that the marketers who are driving better firm results are doing something different than their less successful counterparts. They tend to be significantly more adept at tracking, technology, and analytics and use these tools to develop more sophisticated and adaptable solutions. They are more engaged in all customer service interactions and tend to personalize marketing offers. In short, stronger firm-wide leaders are more engaged in all customer interaction, and seem to have greater competency in what is necessary to be successful today.

What Does This Mean For Marketers?

Marketers Matter: While the importance, value, and role of marketers – and marketing – in the firm may be debated, this suggests that marketers are focusing on what they can uniquely deliver, which is growth. Many functions are focused on internal operations and are not directly responsible for creating and sustaining growth in the same way that marketing is. This data suggests that when it comes to building growth, marketers are focused on being the growth engine for the firm.
Learn From the Successful: With unprecedented change and the plethora of articles talking about what marketers need to do to manage growth (e.g., manage big data, collaborate with finance and IT, integrate an omni-channel world, etc.) what needs to be done is clear. What isn’t clear is how to do it. A next step from this research that would be valuable is to create case studies of what the top marketers are actually doing that enables them to be successful. While there are a myriad of conferences for C-level marketers, what is missing is a business-school like approach to understanding how to solve these complex problems. A 1 hour discussion can’t really completely dissect the challenges associated with making this happen.
Acquire the Right Skills: This research suggests that the individuals who are driving better firm results just seem to be more competent at navigating the more analytical, technical, and complex environment that exists today. People who went to business school 20 or 30 years ago either need a refresher course or need to generate the intellectual capital required of today’s environment.

_________________________________________________________

Follow Kim on twitter @kimwhitler and read her columns at Forbes.com.

Technorati Tags: Big Data, Big Data analytics, IBM Smarter Planet, Indiana University, innovation, smarter marketing

How Innovation Can Fuel Smarter, Faster Financial Advice

2013-05-21T17:36:42Z

Joyce Phillips, CEO Global Wealth and Group Managing Director, Marketing, Innovation and Digital, ANZ Banking Group

By Joyce Phillips

It used to be that next generation technology to make humans smarter, faster and at the top of their game was the stuff of cinema and science fiction.

Here at ANZ, we are exploring a groundbreaking solution that holds this very same promise – a cognitive assistant, if you will, that can empower our regional bank advisors to better serve our two million wealth management clients.

To understand why and what we’re doing to foster this innovation, it’s important to start with the perspective of the customer.

Imagine yourself entering a regional bank branch. You’ve arranged an appointment with the branch’s financial advisor, to discuss the life you want for you and your loved ones upon your retirement, and the solutions you need to achieve it.

Two of the key questions you and your advisor need to address are: what types of insurance, retirement and banking solutions do you have now, and do they cover you in a way that will safeguard your assets and yield a secure, well-funded retirement.

The fact is, many customers don’t know the answer to that question.

We do our best to choose the vehicles that can grow assets, protect them and prepare us for retirement. But amidst market fluctuations, changing needs, and a host of new financial solutions and strategies being brought to market every day, it’s hard for customers to gauge whether their trajectory is safe and sound – and in turn, ask the right questions of our advisors.

But what if financial advisors had access to everything they need to know about a customer’s portfolio, with a click of a button – informed by an instant, 360 degree view of what’s right and what needs to be fixed, to usher that customer into the retirement they deserve?

This is where technology comes in; but not just any technology.

The natural resource that can fuel a smarter, faster customer experience is Big Data, or the vast amount of electronically generated and stored information – ranging from account information to market research – that can piece together that 360 degree view for the financial advisor.

ANZ is collaborating with IBM to give our advisors that ability to harness information and make smarter, faster financial recommendations – enabling a customer experience that is simple, safe and steeped in data-informed insights.

The technology that will get us there: Watson, a cognitive computing system that is tailor-made for the customer experience, based on its ability to grasp the subtle context of questions posed in human language, search through a universe of Big Data to find the exact answers its users need, and deliver fast, evidence-based recommendations that can fuel a financial advisor’s advice to clients.

And that is how we’ll empower our advisors to be smarter and faster: by leveraging a groundbreaking innovation that can think like a human, and serve as a dedicated assistant, researcher and guidepost for ANZ’s top-flight team of advisors.

Technorati Tags: ANZ, Big Data, Big Data analytics, Financial Services, ibm watson, innovation, smarter analytics, smarter banking, Watson

It’s Time for Marketers to Stop Drowning in Data and Start Exploring

2013-05-21T13:09:35Z

Randall Beard, Global Head, Advertiser Solutions, Nielsen

By Randall Beard

It’s often said that marketers are drowning in data, but here at Nielsen, we have an idea for turning that harrowing experience into an insightful deep sea exploration.

For decades, Nielsen has been in the business of empowering brands and agencies with the information they need to understand and build connections with consumers. We do this by measuring the advertising and media content people watch, the goods and services people buy – and very importantly, by spotting connections between the two. Why are these connections important? If you know what ads people are exposed to, and you know what those same people buy, you can get a lot smarter about how well your advertising is working and how to make it work better.

However, despite vast amount of data at their fingertips—and often because of the complexity of the data at hand—our clients’ ability to form these vital connections is oftentimes hindered. In fact, our advertiser clients tell us that despite the ever increasing amounts of data they have access to, they still have problems answering basic questions such as: How much should I spend on advertising? How should I allocate my spending across media platforms and within them? And, how do I measure my advertising performance “in-flight,” and make course corrections to improve results?

To help answer these questions, Nielsen created a simple “end-to-end” framework for measuring advertising and media effectiveness: the 3R’s. The 3R’s try to answer three simple questions: First, is my advertising reaching my intended audience (Reach)? Second, is it breaking through, being remembered and changing consumer opinion about my brand (Resonance)? And third, is it driving a behavioral reaction – e.g. sales (Reaction)?

We’ve been working hard to create the data sets and tools to help brand marketers answer these questions. We’ve gotten much better at answering the fundamental questions about advertising effectiveness, but we still have work to do.

Like never before, we and our clients face a continuous and, sometimes overwhelming stream of data generated by consumers and our digitally enabled measurement tools. Just envision terabytes of structured and unstructured data pouring into our offices – trends, metrics, sentiments and perspectives – that express who consumers are, which programs and ads they’ve seen, how those ads perform by TV program, genre, web site, placement, number of times they’ve seen the ad, exposure to social media, where they’ve shopped, what they’ve bought, etc.

Within this data, there exists a range of opportunities to better understand consumers. But the challenge is clear, and for many, overwhelming – due to the data’s volume, scope and growing complexity, it’s almost too much to decipher.

A new form of technology is needed to dive deep into this sea of data, and come up for air with actionable advertising and media insights that can help brands understand their campaigns’ reach, resonance and reaction, and in turn, improve their advertising campaigns.

That’s why we were so intrigued when we began discussions with IBM about an entirely new and unique category of technology known as cognitive computing.

Cognitive computing systems can understand the nuances of human language, process questions akin to the way people think, and quickly cull through vast amounts of data for relevant, evidence-based answers to their human users’ needs. And very importantly, they learn from each interaction, to improve their performance and value to users over time.

Seems like a custom fit for the data-driven challenges today’s advertisers face.

Building on this excitement, we’re embarking on a new collaboration between the Nielsen Innovation Lab, which we founded in 2012 to advance research in advertising effectiveness, and IBM to harness the power of Watson, the sole player in this exciting new era of cognitive computing.

As part of our own brand’s continuous effort to advance understanding around advertising effectiveness, we’ll be exploring ways to use Watson for helping our agencies and their client brands engage more effectively with consumers across all devices – from TV to tablet to smartphone – while improving the impact of their advertising and media plans.

We believe this collaboration will open up a realm of possibilities for our clients, so they too can uncover value from new and exciting data. It’s time to stop drowning, and start exploring.

Technorati Tags: Big Data, Big Data analytics, cognitive computing, IBM Research, IBM Smarter Planet, ibm watson, innovation, Watson

How Cognitive Technologies Can Help Transform the Way Companies and Consumers Connect

2013-05-21T14:00:47Z

Manoj Saxena, General Manager, IBM Watson Solutions

By Manoj Saxena

Social and technological shifts are driving rapid change, altering ways in which individuals interact with one another, learn, and attend to their personal and business needs. These shifts offer the potential to strengthen the relationships between companies and their customers—enabling more individual and directed communication and allowing organizations to cater to individual needs. Yet, for many, today’s online customer experiences lack personalization, timeliness and trust.

But what if companies could offer their customers the kind of personalized and knowledgeable assistance when they’re online or on the phone that people have come to expect from top-flight customer service delivered in person? We believe that a new generation of cognitive systems will do just that. They will provide individuals with intelligent personal digital assistants that interact with them, answer their questions, and help them make complex purchasing decisions or solve problems they’re having with products like cell phones, computers and consumer electronics devices.

Click here to view the embedded video.

A first step in this journey happens this week, when IBM introduces the Watson Engagement Advisor. The technology underlying this service is based on IBM Watson, the computer that beat former grand-champions on the TV quiz show Jeopardy!. Our research and development staff has made Watson 75 percent smaller, 25 percent faster, and have been working hard to improve Watson’s ability to answer consumer-oriented questions. For the first time, with the engagement advisor, we’re bringing Watson to the masses.

Consumers will be able to experience this new level of personalized service through the brands they already have relationships with—their banks and investment advisors, their phone service providers, insurance companies, favorite stores and other trusted organizations. For instance, a bank might offer Watson directly to customers on Web sites and mobile devices to help give them insights regarding retirement and various types of savings instruments like 401K accounts. An individual may begin a dialogue with Watson on their smartphone, but continue later from where they left off on their PC or tablet. Alternatively, a telecommunications firm could equip their call center agents with Watson to assist customers in troubleshooting a problem with a product, service, or billing issue.

(Check out images of the IBM Watson Client Engagement Advisor)

These amazing new capabilities are the next steps on the journey to the era of cognitive systems. We at IBM foresee a dramatic improvement coming in the way people interact with organizations and the role computers will play. The cognitive systems of the future will provide deep reservoirs of knowledge and sharp insights combined with an understanding of needs of the individuals they’re serving. The result will be transformational—helping people and organizations interact, learn, grow and make better decisions.

Since shortly after Watson’s debut on Jeopardy! two years ago, IBM has been improving the technology and finding new uses for it. Our early efforts focused on particular fields, such as health care, where cognitive capabilities can help physicians and patients make more personalized decisions about treatment and care. Now, with the IBM Watson Engagement Advisor, we’re widening the scope that the technology addresses. It’s gratifying and exciting to see how rapidly this technology is developing. And, as far as I’m concerned, this is just the start. This next era of computing is going to touch all of our lives in positive ways we can’t yet imagine.

Technorati Tags: Big Data analytics, business analytics, cognitive systems, IBM Congnitive Computing, IBM Smarter Planet, innovation, Jeopardy, smarter analytics

Smart Spending: L’Oreal Improves Bottom Line on Beauty

2013-05-20T13:22:32Z

Lori Steele, General Manager, IBM Global Business Process Services

By Lori Steele

This week, C-suite attendees representing all aspects of technology-fueled commerce will be convening at the IBM Smarter Commerce Global Summit in Nashville. Among the participants will be L’Oréal USA, with whom IBM is working on a three-year project for procurement services supported by an advanced cloud analytics solution to help transform the way L’Oréal USA buys from its large network of North American suppliers.

Over the years, L’Oréal USA has rapidly grown through both acquisitions and organically through its existing brands. With the new market advancement, the company’s ecosystem of suppliers and vendors has grown exponentially. In order to continue to realize more savings from procurement, L’Oréal USA needed its procurement workforce compliant with its spending processes to attain the best buying advantage.

L’Oréal is the first client to purchase IBM global procurement business process and technology services that include a new compliance analytics tool from IBM Research, integrated with strong spending analytics capabilities from the IBM SmartCloud procurement management software. The new smarter commerce solutions will enable L’Oréal USA to bring beauty products to consumers more quickly and efficiently.

The payoff to sourcing critical business processes like procurement is innovation. According to the new IBM Center for Applied Insights study, “Why partnering strategies matter,” which involves more than 1,300 business and IT sourcing decision makers worldwide, organizations like L’Oréal USA that source broadly to drive innovation, are outperforming on a host of financial measures, including revenue (2x) and gross profit (5x) growth.

In other words, the formula for success is based on metrics that are tied to business outcomes, transformational scope and integrated governance.

Technorati Tags: Big Data, Big Data analytics, IBM SmartCloud, IBM Smarter Commerce, IBM Smarter Commerce Summit, IBM Smarter Planet, IBM Smarter Supply Chain, innovation, supply chain

As Open Cloud Standards Take Hold, Get Ready for the Next Technology Revolution

2013-05-17T13:44:50Z

Jim Smith, General Partner, Mohr Davidow Ventures

By Jim Smith

Take a second to think about how much of our daily activity takes place online. And I don’t just mean at work. In 2012, $225 billion of retail purchases happened virtually. In the U.S., 55 percent of us book worldwide travel solely through the Internet. Even our personal relationships, from organizing social activities to calling our relatives across the country and overseas, are maintained on the web. The rise of the Internet Revolution has had such a profound impact on our lives that most of us can’t even imagine how the world would revolve without it.

Many of the activities we perform online – whether staying on top of the 24-hour news cycle or managing our bank accounts – are made possible by the Internet’s open architecture. The Internet Revolution was catalyzed by the establishing and adopting of open standards. Linux, Apache, PHP: these are just a few examples of standards that made it possible for us to do almost anything online.

Cloud computing is now at this same inflection point. In Silicon Valley and other hotbeds of innovation, the idea of an open-architecture cloud is becoming a reality. This will be transformational on a level equal to that of the Internet.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Open cloud computing will provide the infrastructure that supports our increasingly interconnected world. And as collaboratively driven technologies such as OpenStack, Quantum, Ceph and Swift establish open standards in the cloud, the pace of technology innovation will become even more rapid. These standards will unlock boundless opportunities for startup and large companies alike, as well as the individuals they serve.

So get ready. Once this revolution ignites, things that seem futuristic today will rapidly move from theory to reality – dramatically impacting our daily lives. The open cloud will serve as the catalyst for many things, big and small, that today may seem impractical or unimaginable, but tomorrow will be pervasive.

Take, for example, the sensor in the tire of your car. Today, it tells you if the tire needs air. Tomorrow? Powered by open cloud computing, that sensor will be able to not only tell you that the tire is going flat, but will check your dealership’s inventory. The dealership may, in turn, talk to the smartphone connected to your car, checking your calendar to install a replacement. This is only the start of what’s possible once as the open cloud lifts off.

Open Standards enable essential powerful computing capabilities at entrepreneur friendly cost points, and reduce the high licensing and operating expenses that closed software and hardware solutions impose. The open cloud provides startups the reach, speed, and scale that support entrepreneurial creativity and agility. It is the canvas for developing the revolutionary mobile, social and big data technologies that will change our world.

Next generation cloud standards are breaking the chains of high-cost, difficult-to-use networking, database and storage technologies. They provide the framework for entrepreneurs to build analytic platforms that will enable vastly more effective and personalized healthcare, widespread demand response systems that will lower energy consumption, and advanced and broadly adopted video communications that will more tightly connect us with friends and family.

Startups not only use open technologies to redefine the world of what is possible, but also serve as the incubators of new technologies that enable the next wave of startups. As open standards in the cloud take hold, a tremendous stream of innovation is gathering speed. This will not only ignite future technology waves, but will transform daily lives the world over.

Technorati Tags: Big Data, cloud computing, IBM SmartCloud, IBM Smarter Planet, innovation, Open Standards, OpenStack, Smarter Cloud

Add Your Voice: The Growing Ecosystem of Innovation in Africa

2013-05-16T14:52:13Z

Steve Hamm, IBM Writer

By Steve Hamm

Earlier this month, IBM opened the Nairobi IBM Innovation Center, the 41^st center of its kind worldwide and the first in East Africa. This Innovation Center is a prime example of how IBM is helping to accelerate growth in Africa from the ground up with an ecosystem of highly skilled partners. IBM is working to support the growing network of entrepreneurs, academics, developers, and students by providing technology, business resources and a hub where they can come together to work with technology and business experts from around the world

But the opening of the NairobiIBMInnovationCenter is just the beginning of IBM’s work in the emerging ecosystem of tech and business in Africa.

To keep the conversation going and hear from expert voices, we will be hosting a Smarter Friday Facebook Chat this Friday, May 17^th, from noon to 5 p.m. East Africa Time (4 a.m. – noon Eastern Standard Time).

The session, focused on East Africa’s growing technology industry and ecosystem, will be hosted by me and Julian Kyula, CEO of Nairobi-based mobile startup MoDe and IBM’s Global Entrepreneur of the Year.

We would love your perspective on emerging technology markets in East Africa, and IBM welcomes your participation in the chat at any point throughout the day. Here is how you can participate:

1. Login to Facebook.

2. “Like” the People for a Smarter Planet Facebook page.

3. Check out the page this Friday, May 17th, during the hours mentioned above, and respond to the questions posed by our chat hosts! Respond and discuss by writing in the comments section of their posts.

Technorati Tags: Big Data, Big Data analytics, IBM Research, IBM Research Africa, IBM Smarter Planet, innovation, Nairobi

Hands-On Linux Training, New Power Center, to Help China Handle Big Data

2013-05-16T16:36:29Z

Jim Zemlin, Executive Director, The Linux Foundation

By Jim Zemlin

Businesses across China are adopting Linux at a brisk pace. According to the latest figures from the IDC Worldwide Quarterly Server Tracker (Q4 2012), Linux growth in the country outpaces the worldwide average where share has grown from 9.2 percent to 33.2 percent over the past decade.

The reason? Globally, businesses like those in China are looking more closely at Linux for new computing workloads such as Big Data, cloud and mobile. Linux is an easier and more cost effective choice than other operating systems, like Windows or iOS. Plus, it already powers most devices and key infrastructures such as smartphones, sensors, data centers, social media sites, and even automobiles.

My organization – The Linux Foundation – recently surveyed over 1,200 businesses for our 2013 Enterprise End User Report. We found that 80 percent of enterprises have long term Linux commitments, 73 percent are using Linux to run mission critical applications, and 72 percent are planning to use Linux for Big Data.

For reasons like these, it should be no surprise that IBM this week is opening its first Power Systems Linux Center in China. The company is working with Red Hat and SUSE at the center to help software developers put their applications on the Linux operating system using the latest IBM Power Systems.

Perhaps the most important aspect of the new center will be the focus on Linux skills development for clients, business partners, academics and students. The hands on training and support from RedHat, SUSE and IBM experts are certain to produce new software applications that we haven’t seen before. It can also lead to further innovation of Linux itself, which is one of the lasting benefits that will continue on through this center.

Technorati Tags: Big Data, Big Data analytics, IBM Power Systems, IBM Smarter Planet, innovation, Linux, Linux Foundation

‘Smarter Care’ Drives Holistic Focus on Individuals

2013-05-16T16:30:10Z

Karen Parrish, Vice President, Industry Solutions, IBM

By Karen Parrish

This week, professionals from around the world are attending eHealthWeek to discuss trends, innovations and solutions to address the ongoing challenges in healthcare. There certainly won’t be a lack of data and discussion about cost, wellness, aging populations and dealing with chronic conditions. While there are plenty of opinions, what’s missing from this deluge of points of view is a holistic approach to meeting needs of individuals – an approach IBM calls Smarter Care.

We’ve known for decades that health and social systems are interdependent and have a critical impact on each other. Yet the complex matrix of public and private stakeholders in the health and well-being of citizens still operate largely within silos, providing separate and disparate care.

For example, does your grandmother’s home health aide understand the new therapy prescribed to her? Does the social services worker have insight into the medical issues behind her disability? Does the social security office understand how her benefits should be determined at this stage in her life? Does the pharmacist down the street realize that her doctor just gave her a sample for a new blood thinner that may interact with her other medications? While these caregivers, agencies and social services support organizations all have her well-being in mind, many times – not necessarily to any fault of their own – they lack insight and collaboration to see the bigger picture.

The promise of Smarter Care is that the health and well-being of an individual can be mapped out over a lifetime, helping him or her make informed decisions and just as importantly, aiding the healthcare and social services ecosystem to know what to do. At each state of an individual’s life, the end goal is to know when to incorporate preventive care, thereby lowering risks and everyone’s costs. The result: healthier and more prosperous citizens and communities.

So how do we get to Smarter Care? With access to unprecedented amounts of Big Data, forward- looking organizations and governments are creating new opportunities to observe, analyze and coordinate the interconnections between social determinants, clinical factors and lifestyle choices.

Take the case of Catalonia, Spain. Sixty percent of its population over 65 has chronic diseases and consumes 70 percent of the region’s healthcare resources. Through a pilot program, the Catalan Institute of Health is working closely with the Catalonian government to tackle the problem through a more coordinated chronic disease management process. The organizations are pulling together information that previously resided in more than 20 databases and many custom and commercial applications to provide a holistic view of each patient.

In the Region of Southern Denmark (RSD), 22 percent of the citizens suffer from some form of a chronic illness, including about 70,000 who suffer from heart disease. To combat this problem, RSD is launching a pilot program with IBM to facilitate real-time communication among patients, physicians, pharmacists, mental health professionals and specialists so all parties have insight into patient care plans.

Smarter Care is a new way of thinking for private and public sector organizations. It delivers on the promise of holistic and individualized care, focusing on people, not programs. This is our opportunity to help address quality, costs and outcomes, and drive individual wellness and community vitality.

Technorati Tags: Big Data, Big Data analytics, healthcare, holistic care, IBM Smarter Planet, patient care, Smarter Healthcare