ARMONK, N.Y., Oct. 6, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- IBM (NYSE: IBM)
today launched the industry's first consulting organization
dedicated to helping clients realize the transformative value of
cognitive business.
IBM Cognitive Business Solutions extends the exclusive cognitive
leadership of IBM Watson and the company's established market
leadership in business analytics. The new practice draws on the
expertise of more than 2,000 consulting professionals spanning
machine learning, advanced analytics, data science and development,
supported by industry and change management specialists to
accelerate client journeys to cognitive business.
Cognitive represents an entirely new model of computing that
includes a range of technology innovations in analytics, natural
language processing and machine learning. Industry analyst firm IDC
predicts that by 2018, half of all consumers will interact
regularly with services based on cognitive computing.
"Our work with clients across many industries shows that
cognitive computing is the path to the next great set of
possibilities for business," said Bridget
van Kralingen, senior vice president, IBM Global Business
Services. "Clients know they are collecting and analyzing more data
than ever before, but 80 percent of all the available data --
images, voice, literature, chemical formulas, social expressions --
remains out of reach for traditional computing systems. We're
scaling expertise to close that gap and help our clients become
cognitive banks, retailers, automakers, insurers or healthcare
providers."
A survey of more than 5,000 C-suite executives to be released
this fall by IBM's Institute for Business Value (IBV) finds that
executives from the highest-performing companies place
significantly greater priority on cognitive capabilities than peers
in market-following enterprises. Industry-specific IBV research
shows that:
- Insurance: Sixty-five percent of industry CXOs are pursuing
some form of business model innovation, but nearly 30 percent feel
the quality, accuracy and completeness of the data in their
organization is insufficient. Nearly all said they intend to invest
in cognitive capabilities.
- Retail: Sixty percent of retail executives do not believe their
company is equipped to deliver the level of individual experiences
consumers demand, and 95 percent say they will invest in cognitive
in the next five years.
- Healthcare: The industry forecasts a 13 million person gap in
qualified healthcare workers by 2035, and more than half of
healthcare industry CXOs report that current constraints on the
ability to use all available information limits their confidence
about making strategic business decisions. Eighty-four percent of
these leaders believe cognitive will be a disruptive force in
healthcare and 95 percent plan to invest in it over the next five
years.
Across all industries, executives surveyed by the IBV cite the
scarcity of skills and technical expertise as the primary barriers
to cognitive adoption -- surpassing concerns about security,
privacy or the maturity of the technology.
IBM consultants are prepared today to bring clients "get
started" offerings and readiness assessments that create low-cost
entry points to begin the journey to become cognitive
enterprises.
"Before long, we will look back and wonder how we made important
decisions or discovered new opportunities without systematically
learning from all available data," said Stephen Pratt, global leader, IBM Cognitive
Business Solutions. "Over the next decade, this transformation will
be very personal for professionals as we embrace learning
algorithms to enhance our capacity. For clients, cognitive systems
will provide organizations that adopt these powerful tools
outperform their peers."
Examples of clients working with IBM to become cognitive
enterprises:
- For a major retailer, IBM developed a cognitive solution that
analyzes the client's data in the context of information from
multiple external sources -- including local weather and
up-to-the-minute social sentiment -- to sense deviations in demand
for selected products, make recommendations in areas from
replenishment to pricing and dramatically improve demand
forecasting.
- The cognitive systems of a leading provider of consumer
insurance use Watson natural
language capabilities to answer questions and provide advice about
the company's products and services to create a more compelling
online experience.
- IBM is working with healthcare organizations to apply the
technology in genomics to advance cancer care by accelerating DNA
analysis for personalized treatment options.
- In financial services, IBM is working with clients to apply
cognitive to better manage risk and provide personalized guidance
and investment options.
- In education, cognitive technology is being used to personalize
academic instruction and enhance academic experiences for students
and teachers.
IBM brings clients the collective experience amassed over more
than 50,000 analytics engagements and the expertise of the world's
largest data science workforce, including thousands of experts
across IBM Research, and the company's Analytics and Watson solution units, along with more than
30,000 professionals worldwide in the industry's foremost Strategy
and Analytics consulting organization.
The new practice will also draw upon the exclusive computational
reasoning and learning capabilities of IBM Watson, which represents
a $1 billion investment to advance
cognitive innovations across industries. IBM will train
another 25,000 IBM consultants and practitioners on cognitive
computing this fall.
Over the past year, IBM has forged strategic partnerships with
Apple, Twitter, The Weather Channel and Facebook, all aimed at
unlocking new data sources to the advantage of clients
worldwide.
About IBM
For more information on IBM Global Business Services please visit
www.ibm.com/gbs/consulting.
Media Relations
Karen Davis
IBM External Relations
E: karend@us.ibm.com
P: +1 917 346 4406
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SOURCE IBM