Big Blue is using analytics to help clients look ahead
ON THE HOT SEAT
Technology giant IBM Corp. has been rapidly expanding its already significant presence in Massachusetts, buying no less than 18 Bay State companies since 2003. Alistair Rennie, IBM’s senior executive for Massachusetts and the general manager of the company’s Collaboration Solutions group, spoke to Globe reporter D.C. Denison about developments in its business software.
Software is an increasingly large part of IBM’s business now, right?
Yes, and part of the reason it’s so hot, and so hot in Massachusetts, is that if you look at the problems that customers are trying to solve, many of them involve making processes, or making people smarter. And a lot of the work we’ve been doing in software, and a lot of the software we’ve been doing in Massachusetts, gets at that. Things like deep analytics. Helping people make sense of large volumes of data. Helping them connect that data into improved processes. When we look at the places where our customers see opportunity to improve their businesses, a lot of fuel for that is in smarter forms of software.
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What does that mean for hardware? Is everyone bringing their own?
From a hardware perspective, probably the biggest trend we see is something called workload optimized systems. Rather than thinking of hardware as a generic platform, we’re moving to thinking of software plus hardware as an integrated system, accelerating and making things more effective to run. Netezza, one of our companies, does that by combining business analytics with an appliance-like hardware delivery. That can give people value faster, by combining software and hardware into one platform.
What are the real-world applications of business analytics?
Analytics are being applied to many problems, ranging from supply chain optimization to health care management to financial risk management. Our customers use business analytics to find better ways to integrate data. It helps people make sense of the increasing amount of data that they are subject to. In nearly real time.
“Real time’’ seems to be the breakthrough.
That’s right. Having a rear view mirror is not helpful, we want to drive towards predictive. That is where things are headed. Predictive analytics can help a company spot trends as they are emerging. It can help uncover insights hidden within the data.
IBM has bought 18 software companies in Mass since 2003. Why so many?
The fundamental thing about software is innovation. We are looking for people who are inventive, who have solved problems in new ways. And there’s tremendous innovation in Massachusetts: in the schools, in the venture community, and in the significant base of enterprise companies. That creates a pretty unique environment, and a very productive place for us to grow.
Monday 23 May 2011
Big Blue is using analytics to help clients look ahead - Boston.com
