IBM Researchers take On Business Analytics
Driving a small but growing part of IBM's research these days is analytics — a discipline that uses mathematics and data to arrive at the most optimal decision.
According to this report on eWeek, IBM researchers work within two different disciplines of analytics: business analytics, which uses data to make predictions and forecasts; and
optimization, which combines predictions and business constraints to produce an outcome and plan to meet differing objectives.
“IBM's approach to IT services is somewhat different from that of other companies. It is able to tap into its own massive research division and incorporate in-house scientific research, such as analytics, into a business division such as Global Services. For the past year, IBM has highlighted this approach in its Smarter Planet initiative, but the concept actually goes back to 2002, when IBM bought PricewaterhouseCoopers. This began a nearly 10-year effort to bring more research and analytics into the services division.
“Schieber explained that, though IBM has been talking up its particular approach to IT services for the past few years, applying analytics to business problems actually goes back about 20 years, to when IBM worked with American Airlines on a customized fleet-and-crew scheduling project.
” IBM researchers work within two different disciplines of analytics, which then come together. The first is business analytics, which uses data to make predictions and forecasts; the second is optimization, which combines predictions and business constraints to produce an outcome and plan to meet differing objectives.”
