In 2006, IBM promised to spend more than $1 billion constructing an information management strategy that it said would help its customers put information at the centre of their organisations.
Two years and $7 billion later, the company is pushing information-on-demand (IOD) more than ever, with a raft of new announcements made at IBM`s Information on Demand Conference, in Las Vegas, Nevada, recently.
The new offerings will address three critical business needs, says IBM: innovating by creating new intelligence to identify business opportunities; improving efficiency; and making better use of information for improved decision-making to outmanoeuvre competitors. Although IBM would not provide dollar figures, its IOD business is enjoying a 26% annual growth rate and has attracted over 10 000 new clients and 2 000 new business partners.
"Since 2006, we`ve deliberately constructed a strategy which helps customers build an information agenda for their businesses," said Ambuj Goyal, GM of the IOD division.
"Analysts have recognised that we now have an unmatched unified information management product portfolio."
Goyal quoted Ovum analyst Dwight Davis`s recent report that said the company had "deliberately and doggedly constructed a portfolio of software products that address virtually every element with the unified information management universe".
He emphasised that there had been ongoing value delivery since IOD was established.
"Information on demand is a journey, and each step of the way you have to deliver value," said Goyal. "Everything we`re talking about today has been collected from clients. Our customer advisory boards have been advising us on direction. It hasn`t been two-and-a-half years of them waiting for us to deliver our vision - otherwise our business wouldn`t have grown."
Steve Mills, senior VP and group executive of IBM`s Software Group, noted the process of analysing and capturing information is old but that technology is only now becoming capable of delivering proper information on demand.
"How do we organise data so that it`s useful? Can I consistently present my data? What are the analytics?" he asked, explaining that in the transport industry, some 20% of containers shipping goods around the world are empty. "Clearly, there`s lots of room for improvement."
Industry targets
The announcements follow IBM`s recent launch of industry-specific technologies and services to help customers develop their information agendas. This includes solutions in the areas of finance, pharmaceuticals, internal controls, sales and operations planning, municipal scorecarding and business reporting.
The technology comes from IBM`s acquisition of Cognos. It is also offering consulting services focused on analytics software to help customers organise internally for success to create and execute on their information agenda by bringing together people, process and technology offerings.
IBM Global Business Services is also introducing four new service offerings. These new industry solutions have been developed to address key information-related business issues, including enterprise risk management, customer analytics, data quality and integration, operational intelligence and performance management.
IBM Global Delivery Centres will also now provide application development and maintenance services to help customers support their IOD strategies in key growth markets.
IBM Global Technology Services is also providing technology to help clients move forward with their information agenda with confidence by ensuring their infrastructure can accommodate workload increases.
Launched this week, the IBM Archive Reference Architecture allows customers to build an archive environment that meets corporate information management requirements, while ensuring cost-efficient, predictable scalability.
IBM is also launching an item tracking application called InfoSphere Traceability Server. It says the new software helps businesses comply with emerging standards and enables them to use smart tracking to address issues such as counterfeiting, diversion of valuable items, making the food supply safer and boosting product availability in retail stores.
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