July 2012
5 posts
What can social media tell us about future retail...
Michael Haydock, the Chief Scientist for IBM’s Business Analytics and Optimization organization, has been crunching large data sets to determine retail sales patterns over a number of years. Recently, he’s also started to analyze social media patterns to help fine tune his forecasting. What he sees for this fall is an up tick in sales of women’s and children’s clothing.
...
What's so big about big data?
You have probably been hearing the term ‘big data’ these days, and you may be wondering what this term really means and why it’s so important.
There’s no question we are amassing an ever increasing amount of digital information. Every person in the world with a smartphone is adding to the growing mountain of accumulating bits of information. And, it’s not just...
Do Ninja Polymers wear black pajamas?
IBM Research has applied advanced knowledge of nano-technology acquired in designing and manufacturing semiconductors to address a serious medical problem — bacteria that have developed a resistance to antibiotics. MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureas) bacteria pose a great danger to anyone infected. They are resistant to common treatments and they kill thousands each year. ...
June 2012
3 posts
Safety begins at home
The world of social media — Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter (among others) — continues to expand rapidly. IBM recently surveyed nearly four thousand consumers in six countries and discovered that 59% of the respondents use social media regularly to stay in touch with friends and colleagues.
As we become more socially active online, a key question we need to consider is how to participate...
Being flexible has its advantages
A new IBM global study has discovered the enterprises that are building a more flexible workplace are realizing substantial improvements in employee productivity while reducing costs. The report on the study issued by IBM’s Center for Applied Insights indicates that one segment of the sample — which the report labels forward thinkers — are reporting productivity gains and cost...
May 2012
2 posts
The wisdom of the executive crowd
IBM has just released its fifth comprehensive survey of CEOs from around the world. Based on face-to-face interviews with over 1,700 top business and public sector executives in 64 countries, the 2012 Global IBM CEO Study provides insights into what’s on the mind of leaders today and how they’re addressing the challenges that lie ahead.
The full study report, Leading through...
The role the right leadership can play in...
As the world becomes more interconnected and dependent on information technology, security is a persistent concern that must be addressed not just with eternal vigilance, but with new approaches, tools, and leadership. Many forward-thinking enterprises are addressing leadership by naming a CISO — Chief Information Security Officer.
IBM has just completed an assessment of CISOs and other...
February 2012
2 posts
Not so elementary, my dear Watson
It was just about one year ago when Watson, the game-playing supercomputer system developed by IBM Research, won the Jeopardy! challenge with human grand champions. The effort to create Watson wasn’t about game playing — but ultimately about solving real problems like providing better medical care and treating chronic diseases.
For more on how Watson and other technology solutions...
January 2012
3 posts
Happier days are just around the corner
One hundred years ago, America was roused from a two year recession by new technologies that helped spur a century of growth. On the OpEd page of The Wall Street Journal, there’s an interesting piece about three emerging technology trends that will shape the years ahead — The Coming Tech-led Boom. Co-authors Mark Mills (a physicist and founder of the Digital Power Group) and Julio...
A new record of innovation for IBM
In 2011, IBM was awarded 6,180 U.S. patents — the most in its history, and for the 19th year in a row, more than any other organization worldwide:
IBM’s ongoing commitment to invention and innovation has helped it outpace all other information technology companies:
Today’s announcement includes a snapshot of four of the new patents awarded in the past year.
Bernard Meyerson,...
The wisdom of the tech crowd
IBM has published a survey of over 4,000 IT professionals, faculty members and students, who are members of the developerWorks community, to assemble a consensus view on the future of critical technology initiatives including business analytics, cloud computing, mobile devices and applications, and social business tools. The results are available in the IBM Tech Trends Report — a helpful...
December 2011
2 posts
Are you up for a little crystal ball gazing?
At the end of each year, the research scientists in IBM Labs around the world conjure up five innovations that will take hold over the next five years and change the way we all work and live. The 2011 edition of 5 in 5 is out and predicts significant changes in energy production, a continued expansion of mobile devices and access, analytics that help sort through the clutter of everyday life, and...
November 2011
3 posts
Analyzing Black Friday and Cyber Monday
IBM’s Coremetrics unit has tracked online shopping trends in the United States for both Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
Sales on Black Friday ran about 24% higher than 2010 — with a 39% increase on Thanksgiving Day — as online shoppers took advantage of pre-Friday sales. Here’s the hour by hour sales trend lines from this Black Friday compared to the two prior years:
...
Stay safe out there
Security has long been a top-of-mind issue for CFOs, CIOs and other business leaders. However, with the expansion of mobile devices and users, the explosion of data, the move of applications and data into the cloud, and the perennial existence of some people up to no good, the need to maintain a focus on the security of information and systems has never been higher.
Keeping on top of the...
October 2011
2 posts
Challenges and opportunties facing Chief Marketing...
IBM is releasing its latest comprehensive survey of C-level executives with today’s publication of the Global Chief Marketing Officer Study based on interviews with over 1,700 CMOs in 64 countries around the world.
These interviews show that CMOs are confronting four challenges: the explosion of data, finding ways to tap into and manage social media, the rapid growth of ways customers can...
September 2011
3 posts
Getting down to more serious matters
Watson — the IBM computer system that beat the best human champions in a special Jeopardy! challenge match earlier this year — is back in the news. WellPoint and IBM have announced an agreement to harness Watson to deliver new healthcare solutions — ones designed to improve patient care through the system’s ability to review a massive amount of information quickly and...
When it comes to work, getting there isn't half...
IBM has released its fourth Commuter Pain Index survey — a study that assesses the level of frustration commuters in 20 major cities around the world encounter on getting to and from work every day. Not surprisingly, the commuting burden is greatest in the high growth markets with commuters in Mexico City facing the greatest headaches. This is a problem that has the potential to continue...
August 2011
3 posts
Moving beyond calculation to cognition
Earlier this year, Watson, the computing system developed by an IBM Research team, topped the two greatest human champions in a special game of Jeopardy!. This was a significant accomplishment for a computer because playing the game requires the ability to ‘understand’ puns and jargon and sort through a massive amount of information to produce the correct answer — or in the case...
What's the value of taking a smarter approach...
Determining the business value of new initiatives before investing is always important — even more so in the current economic climate. An organization inside IBM - The Center for Applied Insights — is working to develop a series of analyses to uncover the ROI of industry-specific smarter solutions.
For Banking, the team probed the value of credit risk management.
The analysis is...
July 2011
2 posts
Saving billions through consolidation,...
The business section of today’s New York Times features a story on the United States government’s plans to save billions of dollars by consolidating data centers, virtualizing systems and embracing cloud computing. The story reported and written by Steve Lohr — U.S. to Close 800 Computer Data Centers — indicates that 40% of the government’s 2,000 data centers will be...
The CIO Leadership Exchange -- coming to a...
IBM regularly hosts a high level get together of leading CIOs from around the world called the CIO Leadership Exchange. This year’s edition was held in San Francisco and featured a number of panels and presentations on topics like Capitalizing on New Opportunities, CIO Perspectives on the Growth Paradox, and deploying advanced analytics to Advance an Innovation Agenda. Videos of the...
June 2011
4 posts
Game. Set. Match.
If you’re watching the Wimbledon tennis matches, you may have noticed the IBM logo on the display board that shows the speed of each serve. That stat is just one of many that are generated from the data that IBM gathers and analyzes at Wimbledon and other Grand Slam Tennis events, as well as the major tournaments in golf.
IBM has a long-standing relationship with Wimbledon and helps...
Today's the big day
Since I’ve made a number of prior posts discussing 2011 as IBM’s Centennial year (here, here and here), it seems only right that I post something today, which is considered the official 100 year birthday of IBM.
June 16, 1911 is the day that The Computing, Tabulating and Recording Company was founded. Thomas Watson, Sr. — who came to CTR to lead the organization a few years...
May 2011
4 posts
The Essential CIO
The Essential CIO is the title of IBM’s Global CIO Study, which is being introduced today. Based on in-person interviews with over 3,000 CIOs in 71 countries and across 18 industries, this new study is the largest face-to-face survey ever conducted with CIOs. Contrary to some published reports over the past 18 months that suggested the CIO position was becoming passe, this study recognizes...
Analytics for business. Analytics for IT.
CIOs around the world are keenly interested in using business intelligence and analytic tools to deliver greater insights to the enterprise. Over 8 out of 10 CIOs surveyed in IBM’s Global CIO Study in 2009 indicated they would be investing in analytics to help their organizations gain greater insight, increase competitive advantage, and prosper.
In an age when the demand for IT services is...
When it comes to IT, some practical advice for...
CEOs recognize that technology is vital to the continued health and success of the enterprise. In the Global CEO Study released by IBM last year, the over 1,500 CEOs who participated in the study rated technological factors as the number two external force that will impact their organization over the next 3-5 years. In our increasingly interconnected world, the technology at the forefront is...
April 2011
3 posts
Two for the price of one
In my attempts to find items to post here, I regularly scan various publications for items of interest. It’s the rare day that I uncover two articles that merit attention, so, I guess that makes today an unusual day. Actually, I uncovered the first item over the weekend. Steve Lohr of The New York Times wrote an article on an effort to quantify the benefits of using analytics to drive...
A little bit of history repeating
The most recent Icon of Progress documenting IBM’s 100 years of innovation features IBM’s involvement 35 years ago helping the World Health Organization precisely map trends and outbreaks of smallpox around the world. This breakthrough — Tracking Infectious Diseases — has been followed by other efforts to help healthcare researchers and providers find valuable insights and...
The Epsilon breach
If you’ve done business in the past with any of a host of companies — including Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase, US Bancorp, Capital One, Walgreens, Kroger, Best Buy, Brookstone, among others — you have no doubt received notice that a security breach at Epsilon may have exposed your email address.
Epsilon, a major provider of email marketing services, has reported that a subset of...
March 2011
5 posts
Will the PC go the way of the typewriter?
Given my prior post on the Selectric typewriter, this question is an intriguing and natural follow on.
Mark Dean, the vice president of research strategy at IBM Research, believes the day has arrived when the PC is not at the center of our technological life. In an interview published by Business Insider, Dean covers a number of topics on the future of personal technology, and while he thinks...
"Cobra-like speed"
Perhaps you’ve noticed the Icons of Progress on Executive Exchange and other IBM websites. They’re commemorating IBM’s 100th anniversary this year with a look back at 100 IBM innovations that helped reshape the way business gets done and how the world works.
Today’s icon — the IBM Selectric Typewriter — brings back many memories for me. Before I even thought...
What does Boulder, Colorado have in common with...
Boulder and Chiang Mai are among 24 cities around the world selected as winners of Smarter Cities challenge grants from IBM. The grants will give these cities access to IBM experts, who will analyze and recommend ways they can improve the delivery and efficiency of municipal services, while supporting greater citizen engagement.
Over the next three years, up to 100 cities will receive one of...
Watson's wagers
One fascinating element of the IBM Jeopardy! Challenge was the contrasting wagers Watson made for the Final Jeopardy! round each of the two games. At the end of the first game, Watson only bet $974 of the $36,681 amassed during the game — or just 2.6% of the total. However, at the end of the second game, Watson placed a much larger bet — $17,973 or near 77% of the $23,440 on hand.
...
February 2011
10 posts
Print me a car
The idea of 3D printing — creating objects on a device similar to the way printers produce output — has a been around for awhile. I have seen small items produced on prototype machines, but it always seemed to me that the goal was to create models and samples rather than actual products. An article in The Economist — The Printed World — indicates that...
A competitive final
The third night of the Jeopardy! IBM Challenge was the most competitive with Ken Jennings holding a lead over Watson at the end of the first round of play. There were two categories in the opening round (“Actors Who Direct” and one on items that have the same name as computer keys) that completely stymied Watson.
Ken Jennings continued strong play in Double Jeopardy! but Watson made...
What is Toronto?????
That was Watson’s question to the Final Jeopardy! answer on the second night of the Jeopardy! IBM Challenge on Tuesday. Since the category was U.S. Cities, it was the second wrong answer of the night for the IBM system. However, Watson was the master of the Double Jeopardy! round raising its total to $36,681 at the end of the game’s second round compared to $5,400 for Brad Rutter and...
First night jitters?
The first of three nights on Jeopardy! went smoothly for grand champions Brad Rutter and Ken Jennings and for Watson, the game playing system designed by a team from IBM Research. In the opening Jeopardy! round Watson got off to a fast start answering questions across all the categories and led at the first commercial break with $5200 to $1000 for Brad Rutter and $200 for Ken Jennings.
After...
