Adam Gartenberg’s Blog

Upcoming Webinar (6/11): Discover A New Kind of Intelligence

Adam Gartenberg — Tue, 26 May 2009 10:58:25 -0400

Please join us on June 11 for another Webinar on New Intelligence. I know the last one was very well attended, and for any of you looking to learn more about how you can not only get control of your information, but put it to use to make faster, more informed, more accurate decisions, I'd highly recommend joining us.

Discover A New Kind of Intelligence. . .how the information you have can get you the results you need
Web Seminar Center, June 11, 2009, 01:00PM ET
Register

The world we live in today is increasingly instrumented, interconnected, and intelligent. We are experiencing a revolution, and information is at the heart of it. Businesses that are taking advantage of this new wealth of information are able to make more intelligent decisions and are rising to the top. They’re managing large volumes of information in real-time, incorporating analytics and predictive modeling, pervasively collecting and sharing information across the entire value chain, and speeding time to value by delivering trusted, accurate and timely information to the right decision makers. In short, they’re discovering a new kind of intelligence.

Capitalizing on its unrivaled technology leadership and end-to-end solution capabilities, IBM has developed a comprehensive program to help customers address their most complex, information-intensive business challenges. Our speakers will share customer success stories, frameworks and methodologies that will demonstrate how new intelligence is not only changing the competitive landscape, but literally changing the way the world works. You’ll learn how you can build an information agenda, create a roadmap for becoming a smarter company, and establish the flexible information infrastructure you need to deepen your competitive advantage.

Presenter: Eric S. Sall, IBM Software Group, Information Management Director,
New Intelligence Market Mgmt
Strategy & Planning Marketing Manager
Register

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Business Analytics and Optimization in 60 seconds

Adam Gartenberg — Wed, 20 May 2009 14:47:50 -0400

From the Smarter Planet Blog:

More of a :60 second primer than an ad, this new video hits home on the new intelligence aspect of IBM’s new consulting service, business analytics. For more on this see the Smarter Enterprise channel on our Smarter Planet site on Tumblr. Also, you can add this new Analytics Album widget to your blog, site, page or network to stay on top of this fast developing front.

I've got the widget he mentions over on my blog sidebar (for those reading in RSS), should you be interested.

IBM Announces "InfoSphere Streams" Stream Computing Software

Adam Gartenberg — Thu, 14 May 2009 10:48:58 -0400

From Time: "Steve Mills, SVP of IBM Software (left), and Dr. John Kelly, SVP of IBM Research, view Stream Computing technology."

At its annual investor briefing yesterday, IBM announced the availability of a unique "stream computing" software solution that will allow organizations to analyze massive amounts of data in real time. The IBM InfoSphere Streams software is based on the System S IBM Research initiative that involved over 5 years of development and has garnered 200 patents along the way.

The press release describes what InfoSphere Streams (referred to here still as System S) can do in more detail:

System S is built for perpetual analytics - utilizing a new streaming architecture and breakthrough mathematical algorithms, to create a forward-looking analysis of data from any source - narrowing down precisely what people are looking for and continuously refining the answer as additional data is made available.

For example, System S can analyze hundreds or thousands of simultaneous data streams - stock prices, retail sales, weather reports, etc. - and deliver nearly instantaneous analysis to business leaders who need to make split-second decisions. The software can help all organizations that need to react to changing conditions in real time, such as government and law enforcement agencies, financial institutions, retailers, transportation companies, healthcare organizations, and more.

In an article titled "The Reasons Behind Google and IBM Being Ahead of the Competition," TIME magazine covers why this is such a major announcement:

IBM released "stream computing" applications that allow businesses to look at and analyze huge amounts of data in real time. Describing the product, IBM said "System S is built for perpetual analytics — utilizing a new streaming architecture and breakthrough mathematical algorithms, to create a forward-looking analysis of data from any source — narrowing down precisely what people are looking for and continuously refining the answer as additional data is made available." The ability to have access to that kind of information will undoubtedly be valuable to governments, the financial industry, and large multinationals with thousands of retail outlets. The new software is unique and does not appear to have any direct competition.

While it hadn't officially been announced until yesterday, this stream computing technology has been the underpinning of several of the Smarter Planet references that we have discussed over the past year or two. It has already demonstrated great success across a spectrum of industries that include financial services, law enforcement, healthcare, manufacturing, environment monitoring, traffic control and others. Some of the applications already published in the press include the real-time monitoring of premature infants, marine monitoring in Galway Bay, and automated options trading. (And yesterday's press release has additional examples.)

IBM also announced yesterday the opening of the IBM European Stream Computing Center, headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, that will serve as a hub of research, customer support and advanced testing for what is expected to be a growing base of European clients who wish to apply stream computing to their most challenging business problems.

Congratulations to all of the researchers, developers, marketers and everyone else involved in yesterday's announcement!

Links:

DB2 on Campus event at York University

Adam Gartenberg — Mon, 11 May 2009 16:23:45 -0400

Agatha provides an update from a DB2 on Campus event at York University. Sounds like a great event!

On April 22nd, Dan Han, the first DB2 Student Ambassadors at York University, organized the first ever, DB2 on Campus event at YorkU.

Over 70 YorkU students from Computer Engineering, Computer Science, and IT programs attended the event to learn about the DB2 on Campus program and to help grow the DB2 community. Also, everyone in attendance requested to be contacted about additional DB2 resources, DB2 certifications, and future DB2 events!

Our featured DB2 on Campus Quarterly Newsletter and DB2 Best Practice flyers were picked up faster than free food! We also handed out DB2 9.5 Discovery Kit DVDs, some free t-shirts, and Raul donated a copy of his book, Understanding DB2: Learning Visually with Examples, to the YorkU Library.

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Congratulations to 65 new Data Champions

Adam Gartenberg — Fri, 8 May 2009 13:54:15 -0400

Please join me in congratulating the 65 new Data Champions!

These individuals, who come from 21 countries and whose participation spans products like DB2, IDS, IMS, U2 and Data Studio, have been honored for their exceptional contributions to the IBM Data Management community.

Data Champions are objective experts. They have no official obligation to IBM. They simply share their expertise, enthusiasm, and years of experience with others in the community, and their work contributes greatly to the overall success of Data Management. The new Data Champions include IBM customers, business partners, university professors and students. All members of the Data Management community that are not currently employed by IBM are eligible for this recognition.

You can meet the new Data Champions here, and learn more about the program itself on its homepage on ibm.com.

Nominations for the 2010 Data Champions will open in the Fall, and in the mean time, congratulations and our appreciation go out to all of those recognized this year.

Marketing to Strangers vs. Marketing to Friends

Adam Gartenberg — Thu, 7 May 2009 12:58:24 -0400

I've been meaning to weigh in on the discussions taking place over on the Lotus blogosphere (e.g.. here, here, here) around IBM advertising and marketing, but haven't had the time to really put my thoughts down in detail.

And I still don't, but I thought this post by Seth Godin on marketing to friends vs. strangers was too relevant not to pass along today.

I was talking to an author about his next project. The question I asked him was, "are you writing this for strangers or friends?" The implications are huge. It impacts how you design the cover, how you price it, what it's about, where you sell it, when you publish it, how much you pay for store displays, etc...

You need to treat friends differently at every step along the way. First, don't confuse the moments you're supporting them or connecting with them with the moments when you are doing business. Second, understand that the most powerful win is when your friends tell their friends about you. This is worth 1000 times more than you talking about yourself.
...
Guaranteed: if you sell a friend the way you sell a stranger, you've made neither a sale or a friend.

Outside of our advertising (well, possibly including some advertising), I think a lot of the marketing IBM does falls into the "marketing to friends" category. And the feedback I hear from a lot of the folks in the Lotus community is that you'd like to see us doing a better job of marketing to strangers. The two questions that come to mind are:

1. Can we (IBM and our Business Partners) grow our businesses the way we want to by only marketing to friends? Do we have the appropriate focus, resources, attention, revenue allocation split appropriately between marketing to friends vs. strangers?
2. Have we made a conscious effort to only market to friends, or is it happening by default (because our marketing hasn't been designed to effectively target strangers)?

My concern is that in not making this choice explicitly, as Seth Godin points out, we're failing both parties (and ourselves).

Thoughts?

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Upcoming Triangle DB2 User Group (TriDUG) Meeting and DB2 Application Tuner Boot Camp

Adam Gartenberg — Wed, 6 May 2009 14:17:30 -0400

I just received notice in my inbox that the TriDUG (Triangle [North Carolina] DB2 User Group) has scheduled their next user group meeting for Thursday, 5/21, followed by a DB2 Application Tuners Boot Camp seminar on Friday, 5/22.

You can find more details on the User Group meeting here.

The Boot Camp will be led by Sheryl Larsen, an IBM Gold Consultant who speaks regularly at IDUG and IBM's Information On Demand Conference. You can find more detail about her background and the seminar at the SMLI Website. Sheryl will also be on the agenda for the TriDUG meeting on Thursday, as will Paul Zikopoulos, the Program Director for IBM's DB2 evangelist team.

TriDUG Meeting - Thursday, May 21st
Cost: $20
To register E-mail: reg_tridug@tridug.org

Meeting Topics:

DB2 9 Performance Topics for z/OS Developers; by Sheryl M. Larsen
The Business Value of Intelligent Data Access; by Sheryl M. Larsen
What's New in DB2 9.7; by Paul C. Zikopoulos
Update on Data Studio; by Paul C. Zikopoulos

Briefs for these presentations can be found on our website at: http://ww.tridug.org/speakers.htm

Seminar - Friday, May 22nd: DB2 Application Tuners Boot Camp
Cost: $275
Registration details will follow in a few days when registration is open for this session. Additional details

Seminar Description:
The majority of SMLI’s performance audits easily discover poorly coded or performing SQL. These statements can easily add up to 25% total CPU utilization. If your goal is optimizing IT, DB2 SQL education and tuning is a low cost, immediate return, high ROI and low organizational blockade solution.

Let SQL tuning expert Sheryl M. Larsen with over 20 years of DB2 experience, award winning lectures and course material, increase your developers’ SQL tuning skills in as little as one day of education.

(Re)Subscibe to IBM Data Management magazine today

Adam Gartenberg — Wed, 6 May 2009 11:17:11 -0400

It was recently announced that we would be transitioning IBM Database Magazine to IBM Data Management magazine. Along with the new name comes a new publisher, which means that if you subscribe to IBM Database Magazine today, we do need to ask that you visit this site for a free subscription to the new publication (via print or e-mail).

We are promising to continue the same great content, same technical details, same insights, tips and commentary - and a lot more. There will be a new look and feel, plus additional coverage on the topics that we hear are most important to you.

The next edition is due out next month, so please click the link below to make sure you don't miss an issue. (And if you don't subscribe today, I'd recommend you check it out!)

Link: Subscribe to IBM Data Management Magazine (free)

Dressed for Success

Adam Gartenberg — Fri, 1 May 2009 22:00:00 -0400

Carl Tyler has come up with something for those of us for whom working from home means that every day is casual day (well, maybe not THIS casual), and yet still need to jump on the occasional video conference. Now all I need is a painted backdrop with a corner-office view and I'll be all set!

I have to say, Carl, I'm quite impressed with your handiwork. Should the whole Sametime/UC/Plugin thing not work out for you, you've got quite a backup as a tailor.

For additional background, here's what started it all. I guess spending much of my childhood waste-deep in snow is good for something!

Announcing Analytics Solution Centers to promote Business Analytics and Optimization

Adam Gartenberg — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 14:37:29 -0400

Closely following the recent announcement of the Business Analytics and Optimization service line, earlier this week IBM announced that it would be opening a network of Analytics Solutions Centers in locations around the world, with the first five being opened over the next few months.

Three of the Analytics Solution centers will be located in the major financial centers of New York, London and Tokyo, and will be initially staffed with more than 100 consultants and mathematicians each, serving clients seeking a deeper view of financial risk across markets as they look to incorporate predictive insight into their business operations. Another, located in Washington, D.C. at the IBM Institute for Electronic Government, will focus on analytics requirements needed to manage economic recovery investments. The fifth Analytics Solution Center will be located in Beijing, and will focus on rail and transportation analytics.

The press release on the announcement highlights the purpose of these centers:

The centers will enable IBM to meet growing client demand for advanced analytics capabilities as part of new, smarter business systems. Much of this demand is driven by new stimulus investments around the world in areas such as financial risk management, smart grids, electronic medical records and food tracking. These clients are embedding new sensor technology into their processes in order to gather better performance and management data. Organizations are then leveraging new analytics capabilities to turn that data into predictive intelligence to help run new digital infrastructures more effectively and smarter.

Links:

New Informix Blog - Informix Voices

Adam Gartenberg — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 13:12:01 -0400

I was very pleased to see a new Informix blog show up in my Google Alerts, authored by Informix Marketing Manager Cathy Elliott. (And this is the first time I'm seeing a blog on the new MyDeveloperWorks site. Lotus friends - does that platform look familiar?)

I really like the approach that Cathy is taking with the blog, as is indicative by the title - "Informix Voices"

Welcome to the new 'Informix Voices' blog! This blog will contain interviews from Informix voices from around the world, and will include pointers to the other Informix news and happenings.

Cathy has posted a number of updates from the 2009 International Informix User Group Conference going on this week (and be sure to head over to PlanetIDS for all of the updates), and you can also follow Cathy on Twitter.

Please head over and join me in welcoming Cathy to the blogosphere!

Where to find IBM Information Management at IMPACT 2009

Adam Gartenberg — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 16:00:29 -0400

IBM's IMPACT 2009 conference is just a week away. If you're planning to be there and are interested in the role that information plays in a SOA strategy, Information Management will present at nearly 20 sessions over the course of the conference. (And if you're not yet planning to be there, registration is still open.)

To share just a few higlights:

Andy Warzecha, VP of Information Management strategy, will be a speaker among of the slate Day Three's keynotes, and will also lead a drill down session - Information in SOA: Best Practices - that will provide an overview of the connection between having an Information Agenda approach and SOA.
Dan Bigos, Strategy and Planning Marketing Manager, will share the interesection between Enterprise Content Management and SOA in the session: Leveraging Content to Improve the Efficiency of Core Processes.
SOA and cloud computing are extremely complementary, and we have an excellent session to help explain Informagion Management's contributions to cloud computing titled: Universal Services for SOA, Cloud and XML Data,presented by Susan Malaika, IBM Academy of Technology Member.

In addition, in IMPACT's exhibit area, we will feature demos of the IBM Mashup Center and key Information Management productsthat connect to and leverage that technology, including FileNet BPM.

Please see this pdf for all of the details on Information Management's presence. at IMPACT next week.

A Smarter Planet in Action: Smarter Traffic, Smarter Electrical Grids, Smarter Food Safety

Adam Gartenberg — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 14:23:08 -0400

Fortune has a great article that goes into depth on a number of examples of how cities, electrical grids, and food safety are all getting "smarter."

The city of Stockholm has managed to cut traffic by 35%, emissions by 14%, and increase public transit ridership by 40,000 a day... all without any obvious side effects on inner-city commerce or public complaints.
IBM is working with CenterPoint Energy on a self-healing power grid that can automatically detect downed power wires, deploy technicians, and reroute the lines to get energy back on in a matter of seconds. (And in looking towards the future, is thinking about how to deploy smart thermostats so their customers can do things like turn on their air conditioning from their iPhone 20 minutes before they get home.)
Matiq, an IT consultancy in Norway, is deploying RFID tags and traceability software so they can monitor food "from farm to fork," tracking the origin, delivery date, transportation mode, and destination of any package of meat. The implementation is based on anticounterfeiting schemes developed for the pharmaceutical industry. Should there be a crisis, such as an E.coli outbreak, the transparency promised by the system can save time, lives, and a lot of money for innocent companies, which won't be caught up in sweeping recalls.
Mars (the chocolate company, not the planet) is working with IBM to sequence the cacao genome - with 415 million base pairs - so that they can take steps to ward off diseases or other risk factors for the plant, helping in turn to ensure the livelihood of the 6.5 million farmers that grow it (not to mention billions of happy consumers).

The Fortune article calls out the common thread that runs through these - and many, many more - Smarter Planet examples:

From one view, this global tour of woe shows our world buckling because of poor planning, too much demand, and strained infrastructure. But there's a more opportunistic way to look at the vignettes. From another angle it becomes clear that they're all propagated by a single culprit: a lack of quality information.

This is why you're seeing us place such a large focus on helping companies capture, analyze but most importantly apply information to solving their business problems. The benefits possible are just too large to leave unaddressed.

Links:

Announcing DB2 9.7 and InfoSphere Warehouse 9.7

Adam Gartenberg — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 09:30:14 -0400

My colleagues on the DB2 and InfoSphere Warehouse teams announced today new versions of DB2 and InfoSphere Warehouse.

Conor O'Mahoney has a number of highlights posted on his blog on his blog already, and keep checking back in there and over at Planetdb2.com today and during the coming weeks for more details.

While I will leave it to those closer to the products to provide details on all of the enhancements, these new releases offer improvements around compression, partitioning and administration, XML enhancements, security, workload management and monitoring, developer productivity, and warehouse-specific enhancements.

From the press release:

IBM is addressing the challenge of today's business leaders to deliver greater return on their IT investments with new versions of DB2 and InfoSphere Warehouse software. Code-named "Cobra," the new version of DB2 introduced today reduces an even greater amount of space needed to store data, helping clients save up to 75% on related costs including energy -- more than any other available database software. This offering is also the industry's first database software that will deliver business analytics capabilities for both relational and XML data at the same time.

The press release highlights the benefits that one DB2 customer - UCLA Medical Center - is seeing. They've managed to reduce the storage required for their medical records - all of which are stored online - by 50%, while reducing the time required for administrative tasks by 35%.

To learn more, about DB2 9.7, please join us for a DB2 9.7 Overview webcast (Chat with the Lab) on May 6 at 11:30 AM ET.

And, if you are interested in trying out these new releases for yourself, you can sign up for the DB2 9.7 Early Access Program. Participants in the Early Access Program can download the code, read the technical documentation, and get more information on the products. To sign up for the Early Access Program, please see ibm.com/db2/technology-sandbox/.

Links:

New Intelligence in Action: Predicting changes in the tiniest patients

Adam Gartenberg — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 16:41:58 -0400

My favorite thing about working on the Smarter Planet initiative is that I get to come across some really cool stories about how new technology can be applied to change things for the better - far beyond the measures I usually come across of "increase market share by 10%" or "improve productivity by 20%."

A perfect example of this is work being undertaken to monitor critically ill newborn "preemies" by IBM Research in collaboration with the Ontario Institute of Technology and several Canadian hospitals. Traditionally, doctors and nurses staffing the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) are only able to respond to critical situations after the monitors alert them of a problem; in an ideal world, of course, the staff would be able to predict when problems will occur and intervene before the situation reaches the critical stage.

Enter a research group, headed up by Dr. Carolyn McGregor, a UOIT associate professor and Canada Research Chair in Health Informatics, who have been looking at just how to do that. They are applying advanced stream computing software developed by IBM Research (and expected to be available later this year in the form of IBM InfoSphere Streams) to collect up to 512 readings per second from monitoring devices, pulling in a constant stream of biomedical data, such as heart rate and respiration, as well as environmental data gathered from advanced sensors and more traditional monitoring equipment on and around the babies.

The researchers will then use the software to apply findings from Dr. McGregor's research to help make sense of the data and, in near-real-time, feed back the resulting analysis to hospital staff so they can predict potential changes in an infant's condition with greater accuracy and intervene more quickly. While certain life-threatening conditions, such as infection, can be detected up to 24 hours in advance, today's manual processes are often insufficient to detect such patterns as they form.

The type of information that will come out of the research project is not available today. Currently, physicians monitoring preemies rely on a paper-based process that involves manually looking at the readings from various monitors and getting feedback from the nurses providing care.
"This research has the potential to reatly impact neonatal care through reduced mortality and morbidity rates and overall health-care costs," said Dr. McGregor. "By merging our research and technology, we are able to collect more detailed patient data in a systematic manner, do online health analysis and decision support, and get advanced early warning of emerging patterns that could predict a medical event."

Like I said, pretty cool, huh?

More: First-of-a-Kind Technology to Help Doctors Care for Premature Babies

Regaining control from runaway social media

Adam Gartenberg — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 09:10:43 -0400

For those of you not following The Colbert Report on a regular basis, the past few weeks have seen a series of events that should provide a helpful lesson should any of find yourself faced with a situation involving runaway social media. As he has in the past, Stephen Colbert once again put his large number of (online) followers to work for him, this time requesting that they head over to the website NASA had set up to allow people to vote on the name for a new module of the international space station. NASA, in their infinite wisdom, had included a write-in box, and Stephen Colbert requested that his audience write in "Colbert" as their choice for the name for the module.

Lo and behold, when voting closed, "Colbert" - even as a write-in vote - walked away with the most votes. This, of course, put NASA in a bit of a predicament.

While I didn't get to watch the show last night to see how Colbert handled it, I think NASA's decision very deftly handled what could have been a tricky situation. (And as anyone who's watched the show - and especially their "Better know a district" segment - knows, Colbert is very good at making tricky situations into a downright quagmire.)

NASA in the end decided to go with another write-in name - Tranquility - for the module. Good Morning Silicon Valley describes how they (hopefully) settled the Colbert issue:

NASA's choice meant passing over the easy winner in the popular vote, "Colbert," driven to the top by the efforts of comedian Stephen and his loyal legions. But the agency found a way to acknowledge the groundswell in suitable fashion. Not only was the announcement of the module’s name made on Comedy Central’s "Colbert Report," but, said Gerstenmaier, "NASA is naming its new space station treadmill the 'Combined Operational Load Bearing External Resistance Treadmill,' or COLBERT. We have invited Stephen to Florida for the launch of COLBERT and to Houston to try out a version of the treadmill that astronauts train on."

I've got to hand it to NASA for turning a potential social media nightmare into a publicity boosting campaign.

Study: Half of organizations can’t connect the dots

Adam Gartenberg — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 14:57:06 -0400

Along with the launch of the Business Analytics and Optimization service line today, IBM Global Business Services and the IBM Institute for Business Value have released the results of a study that highlight why it is so important that companies focus on making better use of their information and on aligning it with their business objectives (in other words, on taking advantage of New Intelligence).

The report, titled Business Analytics and Optimization for the Intelligent Enterprise (pdf), highlights the result of a survey of 225 business leaders from around the world. What they found is not necessarily surprising (especially for those of you living and working in a Dilbert world), but seeing it in black and white is alarming, nonetheless.

One in three executives admitted that they make major decisions based incomplete information or information that they don't trust, while one in two organizations neither connect the dots internally nor shares much with external partners and suppliers (as highlighted below).

But there is opportunity in these numbers, too. In looking at which responses came from companies that outperformed their peers, the study found that companies that outperformed their peers were twice as likely to be able to extract and prioritize relevant information, and while early adopters of new analytic solutions were three times as likely to be able to apply information to understand risk as peers that had not thought about these solutions.

As summed up in the report:

For the intelligent enterprise, the new reality is this: personal experience and insight are no longer sufficient. New analytics capabilities are needed to make better decisions, and, over time, these experiences will even inform and hone our gut, or instinctive, responses. Making analytics core to our thinking is the only way we can really get smarter, so doing so is an imperative not an option. The information explosion has permanently changed the way we experience the world: everyone – and everything – is leaving real-time data tracks. Intelligence is now increasingly embedded in objects, and individuals have become market segments of one.

Links

Study: Business Analytics and Optimization for the Intelligent Enterprise (pdf)
ibm.com: Business Analytics and Optimization
ibm.com: New Intelligence

BusinessWeek: IBM Roars into Business Consulting

Adam Gartenberg — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 13:13:58 -0400

IBM earlier today unveiled a new services practice within IBM Global Services (GBS), focused on Business Analytics and Optimization. This is an important move, as it is the first new service line launched since GBS was formed in 2002 (following the acquisition of PricewaterhouseCoopers Consulting).

From BusinessWeek's coverage of the announcement:

In IBM's biggest foray in business consulting since it acquired PricewaterhouseCoopers Consulting in 2002, the company announced on Apr. 14 that it is setting up a 4,000-person organization focused on helping corporations analyze data better and make smarter decisions. The consultants will mine IBM's research and software divisions for innovations.

In the press release for the announcement, IBM Senior Vice President Frank Kern describes what we're hearing from clients that led to the creation of this service line:

"Our clients understand they're operating in a competitive environment where more than ever before, in addition to being fast, they have to be right. That requires something beyond the traditional notion of 'sense and respond,'" said Frank Kern, senior vice president, IBM Global Business Services. "That drives the need to speed business decisions, understand the consequences of any decision and predict outcomes with more certainty -- in short, moving to a new level of enterprise intelligence."

As to why the launch of this practice is so important, I think IDC analyst Dan Vesset, quoted in BusinessWeek sums it up well. "Now more than ever, leaders need to know what's really going on in their businesses."

There will be more than 4,000 consultants focused on this effort, and they will be working in conjunction with more than 200 mathematicians and advanced analytics experts from IBM Research, the only private industry research department specifically devoted to this field. The new service also will draw on IBM's Information Management portfolio, including technologies from the recent acquisitions of Cognos and iLog, as well as assets and expertise built up in focusing on these solutions over the past ten years.

Here's a video that provides a little more background on today's announcement.

Links:

Smarter Planet TV Ad: New Intelligence

Adam Gartenberg — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 16:07:29 -0400

While I'm not featured in the commercial, I am an IBMer, and this is what I'm working on.

Transcript

Every day we generate eight times the information found in all US libraries. Where does it come from?

Store transactions
Market movements
e-Mails
Photos
Videos
Blogs

What if technology could capture all this information and turn it into intelligence.

We could identify patterns faster.
We could predict with greater confidence.
Convert data into actions.

Smarter information means smarter decisions.

Smarter decisions build a smarter planet.

That's what I'm working on.

I'm an IBMer [multiple languages]

Let's build a smarter planet.

Links:

New Intelligence Webcast Replay

Adam Gartenberg — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 21:00:39 -0400

For those of you who may have missed the New Intelligence webcast last week, you can register and view the replay for the webcast here.