IBM's Chief Strategist talks partnering with Apple—and what it means for analytics
IBM and Apple are two companies that need no introduction. They have formed a strategic partnership setting out to change the face of the mobile enterprise as we know it. Bringing together the design innovation and consumer-level savvy of Apple and the deep enterprise and industry knowledge of IBM is a potent combination for sure, and the duo is setting out to enable workers to carry the power of Big Data and Analytics right in their pockets. Consulting sat down with Saul Berman, Chief Strategist with IBM Global Business Solutions, who talked about what this partnership means for the future of analytics.
Consulting: Can you talk a little bit about how this partnership with Apple came to be?
Berman: As we both looked at our marketplace and began to talk to each other, we understood there was a lot of synergy between the two of us working together and a lot of opportunity where what each of us does would be complementary to the other. IBM is very important in the enterprise space, has a very strong position there, it's a major part of our business. Today 70 percent of the world's data is managed on IBM systems, 90 percent of the world's credit card transactions are processed through IBM hardware, 80 percent of all airline reservations are processed on our hardware and software.
At the same time, Apple brings their creative innovation around devices and their success in the consumer marketplace and is increasingly looking to move into the enterprise marketplace. We're looking to work together to bring the potential that's been achieved with mobile increasingly in the consumer space into the enterprise space. We didn't believe anybody was doing this together today, and it took the capabilities we both would bring to fully capitalize on this opportunity. This is about critical processes and transforming them. Empowering the worker in the enterprise and arming them with world class analytics and empowering them to make real-time, mission-critical process decisions which together will redefine and reinvent how work is done in the enterprise.
Consulting: What industries will see the most obvious changes?
Berman: Some of the industries we're starting with are retail, travel and transportation, telecommunications, insurance, public sector and government and others. In each case we'll be addressing industry pain points, building on the power of analytics, doing things you couldn't do without a mobile device and empowering employees to make decisions at point of contact, which drive productivity and efficiency for the organization and also drive customer satisfaction and experience. We're working on those apps as we speak and expect to have about 15 of them in the market in the near future. In those we'll cover most of our major industries but also expand it to every industry.
We expect to have 150 of them out in the marketplace in the next 18 months. We've got a set of criteria we're using to develop these because we really want them to be differentiating and not just another app that automates a piece of paper. What we're trying to do is reinvent the critical processes in the enterprise. Imagine in the future you can get on a plane and the flight attendant will have a device that not only tells them your frequent flyer information, your likes and dislikes, but will enable them to come up to you and inform you that your connecting flight is running a little late and offer alternative bookings, which if you accept, your boarding pass will be waiting for you on your mobile device.
Consulting: What will the implications of this partnership be on the Big Data and Analytics industry as a whole?
Berman: Certainly we think that's a business that is only going to grow. It's an area we've invested in very heavily and are very strong in, so we think it's going to accelerate the importance and use of big data and analytics in the enterprise because it's going to empower every employee to have access to the systems of record to be able to do those analytics at the point of contact. You no longer have to go back to your office and research a database, in effect, you'll be carrying the database and the analytics you've built on top of it with you wherever you go.
Consulting: How are the various current mobile analytics solutions falling short?
Berman: Most of today's analytics solutions have been around communications and digitizing certain assets and increasingly around transactions. But again, they weren't designed in many cases for the enterprise, they don't have the requirements that an enterprise needs to try them securely and safely, and they don't bring the power of big data and analytics to the employee at the point of work. If you're a banker or insurance agent talking to your client, it's very easy to sit at a computer and look up some information, but it's very different to be sitting with your client with a mobile device and be able to empower real time analytics as opposed to having to send back to the office to ask for different scenarios and models to be run.
Consulting: How will this relationship with Apple impact IBM's consulting clients?
Berman: It certainly empowers us to bring a broader range of capability and services to our consulting clients, and we believe working together with them we'll be able to enhance their position and their effectiveness and their competitiveness in the marketplace. If we can empower their employees we can help reinvent how work is done, that's going to improve their efficiency, productivity, customer service and their competitive position in the marketplace.
Consulting: Can you compare this to any other big partnerships in recent memory?
Berman: We've talked a little bit about this being like the birth of the internet in the 1990s and the implications that had around e-business, the impact that transition had on the enterprise we believe mobility can have the same impact with our partnership on the enterprise. This is something that hasn't been done, bringing the best of the consumer innovation and design and devices with the deep knowledge of the enterprise at the industry level and pain points and issues within those industries and the broader capabilities throughout IBM to provide what the enterprise needs to really enable mobile to take off in the enterprise in a way is hasn't up until now.
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