Sao Paulo, Brazil – IBM announced the opening of its Natural Resources Industry Solutions Lab (NRIS Lab) in Sao Paulo to help mining, oil and gas companies use innovative technology to meet the operational, environmental and supply demands facing the industry today.

The new software development lab will be located in Sao Paulo but will have a national scope to service Brazil’s growing natural resources industry. The lab will be connected to a global network of labs and industry solution centers enabling teams to share knowledge and expertise with local clients.

The operations of NRIS Lab will be integrated with other existing local IBM facilities including IBM Research – Brazil, focusing on development; and the Natural Resources Solution Center, focusing on the development of solutions and interaction with clients.

Today there is greater demand than ever for natural resources, yet the availability of our planet’s natural reserves is dwindling. Cost cutting is maxed and prices, competition and risk keep rising. Natural resources companies are looking for greater visibility over their entire enterprise, insight into financial impact of operating decisions, and the ability to know, evaluate and respond in real time.

This lab, the first of its kind in Brazil, will focus on the development of automated solutions to help natural resources companies tackle these challenges.

“Making innovative technology rapidly available to help our clients is a key priority for IBM and this initiative is aligned with our strategy to strengthen this capability to help clients. We’ll combine technical and scientific potential to offer world-class projects as well as leveraging research, development and support from market specialists,” said Fabio Scopeta, director of Software Lab for IBM Brazil.

According to Ulisses Mello, Natural Resources Executive for IBM Research in Brazil, the project will help companies adopt state-of-the-art technologies already in place in foreign markets. “Operations will build on an environmental focus, intelligent resource extraction, real-time analytics and big data management for the collection of valuable data.”

“The goal is to enable technology-driven operations and leverage predictive analytics, helping companies improve their natural resource extraction capabilities,” says the executive. The initiative will make available to clients a comprehensive set of projects spanning the entire IBM portfolio, from consulting to development.

Natural Resources Solution Center (NRSC)

IBM established Natural Resources Solutions Centers (NRSC) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in March 2011 and Perth, Australia in June 2010 with the objective to help companies in the oil, gas and mining industries to speed up the adoption of innovative technology and business strategies.

NRSC works as a showcase of IBM solutions, where clients can experience hands-on demos of leading-edge technologies for the oil & gas and mining industries. The new Sao Paulo lab will focus on software R&D to create a specialized portfolio for this industry, which will be available at the NRSC in the form of demos.

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Wisconsin, U.S.A. — Connecture, the leading provider of Web-based information systems used to create health insurance marketplaces and exchanges, today announced Tim Allaway has been hired as vice president, client services. Allaway joined Connecture from McKesson Corporation where he served as vice president, payer services for the company’s RelayHealth division – a role that placed him in charge of a new business: selling software services to health insurance carriers. As vice president, operations, he also led McKesson’s electronic transaction services for the provider market.

“Leaders in the health insurance industry are facing significant changes that must be implemented in a very short period of time,” said Kevin McClain, senior vice president of operations at Connecture. “Tim’s experience is well-suited to give health plans the confidence they need to prepare for and implement the changes defined by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. His background in customer service with multi-billion dollar corporations and his focus on innovation and change management will also help Connecture to succeed in this exciting period of growth associated with healthcare reform.”

In addition to McKesson, Allaway worked for other Fortune 500 companies, serving as vice president, global customer support for S1 Corporation; vice president, operations for Equifax; and director, customer service for IBM; all in Atlanta. In his new role, he is responsible for managing Connecture’s client relationships from point-of-sale through implementation of Connecture’s InsureAdvantage – the leading platform for health insurance distribution. Allaway is based out of Connecture’s Atlanta office and reports directly to McClain.

“As health plans rush to comply with the deadlines associated with healthcare reform, I feel my experience with automated sales and distribution to small individual and group markets can help clients through the process,” said Allaway. “Because I’ve worked at much larger companies, I can serve our customers at a different level, looking beyond the sale and ongoing product maintenance to the role we can play in their long-term business strategy.”

Allaway earned his undergraduate degree in business management from Jacksonville State University and his Master of Business Administration from Auburn University, both in Alabama.

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Armonk, U.S.A. — IBM has announced new software that helps CMOs and CIOs transform the digital experience for employees, customers and fans across a broad range of mobile devices.

The new software brings together the power of social networking, analytics and mobile computing to front office operations and externally to clients, allowing companies to create exceptional Web experiences. As a result, organizations can gain faster insight on customer buying patterns and consumer sentiment allowing them to more quickly reach and engage their audiences.

As part of the news, IBM is also announcing the completion of a digital transformation project with the All England Lawn Tennis Club. By visiting the new www.wimbledon.com from a variety of devices including the iPhone, iPad, Android and other tablets, fans can share information, interact with and connect to The Championships as if they were actually there seeing the plays in real-time.

The website also integrates with a new online TV channel, Live @ Wimbledon, alongside IBM’s real time match analysis tool, SlamTracker, bringing the most comprehensive digital experience to consumers.

“Working with IBM, we’ve created a new digital experience that aims to showcase the beauty of Wimbledon to our millions of fans around the world. It allows them to truly engage with the Wimbledon experience as never before,” said Mick Desmond, Commercial Director at the All England Lawn Tennis Club.  “Visitors can follow the progress of their favorite players, view clips of live matches, view highlights of the day’s action and get scores and results delivered in real-time.  It is an increasingly interactive and engaging online experience that draws fans, players and the media in ever-greater numbers.”

With the growing number of mobile devices, social networks and social media tools on the rise, CMOs struggle to reach their audiences. At the same time, CIOs are struggling to provide access to company data on every type of device for a geographically distributed workforce. Given the business realignment between marketing and technology, the CMO and CIO can no longer afford to operate on separate stages. To succeed, they’ll have to forge a shared agenda to deliver business results through innovation and efficiency, working together to streamline their technology needs. The convergence of social and mobile is prompting organizations to revisit decades-old website to create exceptional web experiences to reach and engage with their audiences.

Building on these increased demands, IBM is delivering a new Customer Experience Suite giving millions of marketing professionals the power to manage and integrate all types of data on their web sites and then analyze it for deeper insight into customer buying patterns and sentiment. Also delivered today, the new IBM Intranet Experience Suite pulls together company information and data, personalized content and news, and social media and analytics, enabling employees to connect, collaborate and access information at anytime, from anywhere.

At European industrial automation technology manufacturer Omron, employees are connecting knowledge and technical know-how through the organization’s Intranet, helping to meet the specific needs of their customers. Omron delivers an exceptional Web experience to its 1,700 European employees through a single communication platform that embeds relevant social data into the daily workflow.  Omron has sped knowledge sharing across boundaries and between departments, enabling employees to support customers better and faster.

“The world is changing and is becoming increasingly connected and social,” said Michel Min, Head of Strategic Communication & eMarketing, Omron Europe B.V. “Because of this, we know our clients are changing as well, which is why it’s increasingly important to ensure our sales teams have the right information at the right time.”

Analytics to Help Marketers Engage Audiences

From digital marketing and mobile commerce, to websites and social media, marketers are inundated — often paralyzed — by data amassed from consumers via searches, purchase histories, Facebook “likes” and comments on Twitter. Combine that with data about in-store traffic, conversations with call centers and updates from suppliers, today’s marketers confront a daily deluge of data waiting to be sifted for nuggets of intelligence they can act upon to boost their business.

By 2017, the CMO will have greater control of the IT budget than the CIO, according to Gartner(1). Marketing budgets will grow 7-8 percent over the next 12 months, which is 2-3 times that of IT budgets. However, despite their growing reliance on technology and their soaring budgets, CMOs readily admit they lack the skills that IT requires.  According to the IBM CMO Study, while 79 percent of CMOs expect high levels of complexity in their job over the next five years, only 48 percent feel prepared to deal with it.

Because of this, it’s critical for CMOs to not only be aware of and monitor the social conversation, but to truly understand the sentiment and interact one-on-one with that customer. Taking it one step further would be to integrate these conversations directly into the organization’s web site, providing one place to both network and shop.

The new IBM Customer Experience Suite provides CMOs with the power to manage and integrate all types of data on their web sites and then analyze it for deeper insight into customer buying patterns and sentiment. Web data has evolved today to include social media, videos, and web-based forms, as well as traditional enterprise data such as financial, customer and order data, and transactions.  The software suite pulls together IBM’s market-leading enterprise portal, web content management, forms, andenterprise social networking software into a single view.

CIOs Creating Exceptional Intranets To Help Employees Gain Insight from Data Deluge

The new IBM software also helps business leaders extend their corporate intranet to a broad range of mobile devices in an effort to deepen employee collaboration and information sharing.

According to IDC, employees typically see up to a 30 percent increase in productivity using social tools internally to complete their work(2). With unlimited access to any type of information, consumers expect this same level of information availability in their professional lives, in order to work efficiently and reach business goals quickly.

The new IBM Intranet Experience software brings the power of social and analytics capabilities to CIOs and lines of business employees helping organizations innovate and evolve their internal operations and communications. The solution pulls together company information and data, personalized content and news, and social media and analytics, enabling employees to connect, collaborate and access information at anytime, from anywhere.

For example, IBM’s new intranet platform provides HR executives and business leaders with software to help employees better engage across networks and business units, and access information from a variety of sources including external and internal news feeds.

Working with IBM and its partner Portico, Omron created an award-winning business intranet, called Ozone internally, helping to create a single-source communication and collaboration platform for all 1,700 European employees. The IBM Intranet Experience Suite integrates with external social media, including Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube, allowing employees to pick and choose which applications they want in their Intranet view. For example, a sales manager can leverage the Cognos software integration to ensure a clear view into monthly sales reports by region, as well as competitive background on new product updates and forecasts.

“It’s essential to offer relevant social information in the right business context embedded in employee’s daily workflow,” continued Min. “By measuring, analyzing and filtering social information, and then injecting those insights to the right people at the right time, real business value can be generated by bringing technical know-how directly to the customer.”

Omron has the ambition to connect employees worldwide, with its Ozone intranet being expanded intoAsia today. Omron Europe is also testing mobile access for all popular devices including the iPad.

Image Courtesy of  Scott Prokop / Shutterstock.com

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New York, U.S.A. – In today’s challenging global economic environment, businesses everywhere are looking for a critical edge to boost them past competitors and into market leaders. For many successful companies, that edge can be found in a strong culture built around the brand and extended to employees who act as brand ambassadors, fostering deep engagements with vendors, suppliers, business partners, and other key stakeholders.

At the Extending Your Brand to Employees Conference, hosted by The Conference Board in New York City on June 19 and 20, this vital concept will be thoroughly explored over two days and will feature best-practice experts who will discuss how Dolby, Microsoft, IBM, LinkedIn, Mayo Clinic, FedEx, Pfizer, 3M, and other leading corporations are:

• Building and reinforcing company culture and core values with employees on a regular basis
• Creating and maintaining workforce behaviors that support positive brand experiences
• Creating deep brand engagement with employees across business units and functions
• Engaging employees in a new brand during an acquisition
• Learning techniques to develop a “one-company” culture
• Maximizing a company’s LinkedIn profile
• Realizing the value of collaboration within your company and driving profitability
• Unlocking business opportunities and driving success with the right corporate culture

Attendees will hear from executives such as Paul Westbrook, Principal at Westbrook Consulting and formerly a Senior Vice President with Ritz-Carlton, about how creating a culture of engaged employees can create customers for life. In the attached video clip, Mr. Westbrook discusses how Ritz-Carlton employees embody the company’s brand values and the importance of creating a strong internal culture:

More details on the conference can be found here

The conference is geared toward corporate executives responsible for internal communications, corporate affairs, human resources, branding, corporate governance, investor relations, corporate social responsibility, public affairs, and other corporate executives interested in better understanding how to build internal cultures that engage employees, boost productivity and improve financial performance.

Members of the media who are interested in attending should contact Peter Tulupman at (212) 339-0231, peter.tulupman@conference-board.org.

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Thursday, April 26, the House of Representative approved the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) on a bipartisan vote by a margin of 248 to 168, despite the threat of a possible veto by President Obama.

The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act would allow the government to access web users’ private data and to pass on information to commercial companies on suspicion of cyber attacks and hacker threats, and it would allow also the companies to share their users’ information with the government and security agencies to ensure the networks’ security.

The Obama Administration strongly opposes the measure and it says the law repeals “important provisions of electronic surveillance law without instituting corresponding privacy, confidentiality and civil liberties safeguards.”

In a statement on Wednesday, the White House has also threatened to veto the House bill.  “[CISPA] would allow broad sharing of information with governmental entities without establishing requirements for both industry and the government to minimize and protect personally identifiable information,” reads the statement. “The broad liability protection not only removes a strong incentive to improving cybersecurity, it also potentially undermines our Nation’s economic, national security, and public safety interests.”

Instead of putting private information and cybersecurity in the hands of military and intelligence agencies, the White House would prefer a Senate measure to give the “central role” to the Department of Homeland Security, which is a civilian agency.

Despite the opposition of the Administration, the bill passed with some amendments to the original that moderate its effects and limit the government’s use of threat information to specific purposes such as the protection of individuals from death or serious bodily harm investigation and the prosecution of cybersecurity crimes; protection of minors from exploitation; and the protection of national security.

Advocacy groups, CISPA opponent coalitions and lawmakers strongly condemned the passage of the bill, arguing that these amendments are not enough to assure users’ privacy protection.

“CISPA goes too far for little reason,” said ACLU legislative counsel Michelle Richardson. “Cybersecurity does not have to mean abdication of Americans’ online privacy. As we’ve seen repeatedly, once the government gets expansive national security authorities, there’s no going back. We encourage the Senate to let this horrible bill fade into obscurity.”

“In an effort to foster information sharing, this bill would erode the privacy protections of every single American using the Internet. It would create a “Wild West” of information sharing,” said Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi.

CISPA was introduced by Republican Rep. Mike Rogers in November 2011 and it is supported by more than 800 private companies. Among those include Facebook, Microsoft, AT&T, Intel, IBM and Verizon.

“We can’t stand by and do nothing as US companies are hemorrhaging from the cyber looting coming from nation states like China and Russia,” said Rep. Mike Rogers. “America will be a little safer and our economy better protected from foreign cyber predators with this legislation.” “There is no government surveillance, none, not any in this bill,” he argued referring to the legislation.

Over the last weeks, activist groups and organizations like Avaaz.org, American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Reporters Without Borders, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, strongly criticized CISPA and launched campaigns to turn the spotlight on the internet privacy right issues tied to it.

In a video released on April 27, titled “Operation Defense. Phase II,” the famous hacker group ‘Anonymous’ called on American CISPA opponents to take the battle to the street and organize local protests at the offices of the companies that support the bill between May and June.

“Remember, you have a right to protest if you care about your freedom of speech, your right to privacy and your government censoring you. This is your time to act now. We will defend our home. Operation Defense phase two engaged. We are Anonymous. We are legion. We do not forgive. We do not forget. Supporters of CISPA, you should have expected us,” the video statement concludes.

After SOPA, CISPA is the new battle for the internet, but what will be the next? 

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Northwestern University and IBM recently announced they are collaborating on new business and technology curricula to help students gain the latest skills in business analytics. The new courses of study, Masters of Science degree programs with analytics concentrations in the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science and the School of Continuing Studies, will better prepare students and current professionals who are seeking new analytics skills for today’s competitive job market.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts that there will be a 24 percent increase in demand for professionals with management analysis skills over the next eight years. The need for this specialized talent is being fueled by an increased use of business analytics by companies to better understand the explosion of data generated online, via social networks and mobile devices, or through real time sensors.

With so much data residing within and shared across these digital sources, organizations are seeking new ways to understand, measure, act and even predict outcomes based on customer and social sentiment.

The demand for new higher education programs such as those at Northwestern illustrates the evolution of analytics. Once considered an area of focus for technology majors, it has moved beyond computer science and is now a required competency across businesses from finance and IT to human resources and marketing.

“Business leaders are faced with an enormous, and ever-increasing, amount of complexity,” says Julio M. Ottino, Ph.D., dean of the McCormick School of Engineering at Northwestern University. “It is critical that we prepare the next generation of leaders with the skills to find trends and patterns in this vast amount of data.

The field of analytics provides powerful tools to find meaning and opportunity amid complexity. We are committed to preparing students to excel in this emerging field, and we value the support of IBM in our efforts.” The work between Northwestern and IBM is part of an ongoing effort to expand and strengthen education curricula to meet the growing demand of highly skilled analytics business workers of the future.

As part of its Academic Initiative, a program that offers colleges and universities access to the latest advances in technology and business industry expertise, IBM is providing Northwestern with curriculum materials, project-focused case studies for students to gain hands-on experience in analytics, access to a wide spectrum of software solutions and IBM thought leaders as guest speakers, as well as faculty awards to accelerate program development.

“As data of all shapes and sizes swell at record speeds, the need will continue to grow for those individuals with an advanced understanding of how to interpret and respond to this information,” says Deepak Advani, vice president of predictive analytics, IBM.

“IBM is privileged to work with Northwestern University to help share the latest developments in analytics, technologies and processes, and help prepare future business leaders to tackle complex societal challenges that increasingly will be addressed by understanding and responding to data instantly – from health care to retailing experiences to public safety.”

The collaboration extends a long-standing relationship between the two organizations. In addition to the focus on expanding analytics curriculums, Northwestern faculty are also working alongside IBM researchers at the TJ Watson Research Center to explore material science, engineering and computing innovations.

Harnessing the Power of Analytics

For those that have wondered how social media sites like Facebook and LinkedIn are able to identify acquaintances as potential friends, the core ingredient is the use of ‘prescriptive’ analytics — sophisticated algorithms help the system scan billions of bits of data and identify patterns that ultimately lead to long lost friends. This is just one example of some of the unique coursework that the new McCormick Master of Science in Analytics degree will challenge students with beginning Fall 2012.

Beyond social media applications, analytics offers enormous potential for world-changing insights. By applying these technologies in new ways, basic citizen services to complex systems can be transformed to work more effectively and efficiently, from electrical grids to healthcare to global trade.

“Business analytics is going mainstream, so it’s important for us to integrate traditional study with interactions across the business community that allow students to see how these capabilities are impacting business,” said Diego Klabjan, associate professor of industrial engineering and management sciences and director of the Master of Science in Analytics.

“With this new program we are giving students the opportunity to learn by doing. The goal is to offer students an academic setting that closely mirrors the corporate environment they’ll jump into after graduation.”

The program combines mathematical and statistical study with instruction in advanced computational and data analysis, including forecasting, business intelligence and data mining, as well as simulation and predictive analytics techniques, and big data analytics.

Students will learn to identify patterns and trends, interpret and gain insight from vast quantities of structured and unstructured data, and communicate their findings in practical, useful terms. In addition to fundamentals, students will engage in a unique gateway class involving case studies where analytics is used to develop a solution to a current business challenge submitted by U.S. based companies.

Substantial importance will also be devoted to the business side of analytics so that the students are taught how to communicate the value of their work, lead a team, and cope with other business related issues.

The Master of Science in Analytics is a full-time, cohort program designed for students with undergraduate degrees in engineering, science or business. Housed within the highly ranked Department of Industrial Engineering and Management Sciences, the program will introduce students to professional situations through a summer internship and an industry-supplied capstone design project.

Dikiiy / Shutterstock.com

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