IBM Unveils New Offerings to Help Clients Better Manage Content With Analytics

Enables Clients to Analyze Unstructured and Structured Information, Reduce Costs and Make Smarter Business Decisions.

LAS VEGAS .- IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced new business analytics offerings designed to help clients better manage and control their unstructured and structured data in a unified manner, while providing valuable insight into their content across the enterprise.

The volume of unstructured data found on Web sites and social networking sites, in digital files, WebSphere Portal, Microsoft SharePoint, databases and customer comments, is increasing exponentially. Typically, organizations manage this unstructured information separately from their structured data found in applications and databases. By compiling and analyzing both structured and unstructured information, organizations can garner business insights from unlimited volumes of text from e-mails, documents, blogs, wikis and websites and change the way they do business.

IBM’s new offerings provide clients with the ability to access, assess and analyze unstructured information that can be found inside and outside their organization. The analytic offerings allow business users to find and gain insight from virtually any type of content - in any format - by extracting, sorting, filtering and categorizing key information and making the content relevant so organizations can more effectively make market-driven business decisions.

For example, it is critical for healthcare insurers to have insight into patient records to provide more cost-effective coverage and better quality care. Using content analytics, payers can analyze treatment records of thousands of patients, enabling them to identify the providers that provide the best approach to patient care and define the most cost-effective protocols to provide better overall patient care.

“Our clients realize that in today’s competitive landscape, they need to have better insight into all their information so they can act quickly and make the right decisions,” said Ambuj Goyal, general manager, Business Analytics and Process Optimization, IBM Software Group. “With the strength and breadth of our business analytics technology and expertise, IBM is helping clients combine, manage and use unstructured and structured data to drive innovation.”

The offerings IBM is introducing today deliver new business visibility and understanding from the content and context of unstructured information, helping clients turn unstructured content, such as e-mails, documents, and web pages, into relevant business information. The offerings include:

* IBM Cognos Content Analytics: This new offering allows organizations to discover, refine and deliver new insights by analyzing unstructured enterprise content alongside structured data. Through focused navigation, users can identify trends and patterns and proactively detect anomalies for improved decision making.

* IBM plans to expand the IBM Cognos Content Analytics family to include new solutions targeted at specific industries and business requirements. One solution currently being previewed centers around insight into consumer sentiment. This solution will be designed to help packaged goods companies gain a better understanding of what the market is saying about their brands on the “cloud” in blogs, wikis and media Web sites.

* IBM InfoSphere Content Assessment: Using content analytics, this new offering helps organizations rapidly assess unmanaged content to identify high-risk and valued content such as corporate records that need to be secured, retained and managed throughout its lifespan. The software simultaneously detects unnecessary content eligible for decommissioning, creating the opportunity to dramatically reduce production system burdens and associated storage requirements.

Bridging Content into Master Data Management

One of the most vexing problems in master data management (MDM) is completing master data records with important unstructured information such as scanned documents and e-mail correspondence. To help clients address this challenge, IBM MDM software now enables clients to incorporate unstructured information into their single view of customer or product solutions. Organizations can now deliver a more complete version of trusted information to improve customer service and make better business decisions.

The new InfoSphere Master Content for InfoSphere Master Data Management Server, for example, can help a financial services provider incorporate trusted content such as birth certificates, drivers’ licenses, and credit reports into master customer records. Too often, different departments operate individually, requesting and collecting the same information from their customers. The financial services provider for a new business transaction such as a major funds withdrawal, will now have a more comprehensive, single view of a customer. Trusted content, linked to the master record improves information quality and provides rapid access to the right information.

Similarly, a consumer electronics retailer using the new version of InfoSphere MDM Server for Product Information Management can incorporate photos and manuals for each individual product into their MDM system so that information can be found alongside other product data. Greater consistency of information and the ease of accessing a single version of all product information can help improve business results by delivering a better customer experience while improving operational efficiency.