Jim BramanteManaging Partner, North AmericaIBM Global Business ServicesExcellence in Leadership
In 2007, two New York City firefighters lost their lives in a fire at the former Deutsche Bank building, which had been scheduled for demolition. Fire investigators attributed the loss of life to a lack of timely information available to responding firefighters. If the Fire Department of the City of New York (FDNY) had a system in place for collecting and sharing data in real time, the accident could have been avoided, they concluded. With this harsh reality fresh on their minds, officials with the FDNY partnered with IBM to come up with a new Coordinated Building Inspection and Data Analysis System that will rely heavily on predictive modeling and advanced data analytics to anticipate fire exposure, analyze possible impacts and improve communication processes—such as more thorough information sharing between the FDNY and other city agencies—to help minimize risks.
The FDNY engagement, in many ways, is typical of what has become the new IBM. Over the last few years, the company has been more heavily focused on helping clients pull useful information out of mountains of existing data. In April, the firm announced the formation of a brand new practice area—Business Analytics and Optimization Services—that will employ some 4,000 consultants to help meet the increased demand for enhanced data utilization services in the marketplace.
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