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IBM on Aug. 3 announced the opening of a new analytics center in China.
IBM’s China Analytics Solution Center is part of a network of global centers the systems giant is opening to address “the growing demand for advanced analytics capabilities needed to help clients build smarter business systems and drive improved decision-making,” IBM said in a news release.
“Business leaders today need to move beyond intuition to a more predictive capability and certainty about outcomes,” D.C. Chien, CEO of IBM Greater China Group, said in a statement. “It is now possible to see patterns in vast amounts of data, to extract critical insights and move to a new level of enterprise intelligence. Not only does the ability to create smarter digital and physical infrastructures herald the ability to improve the quality of life for our citizens, it is fundamental to improving competitive advantage and delivering economic growth.”
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IBM views analytics as a hot new business opportunity and the company has invested up to $10 billion over the last three years to improve its Information On Demand and analytics capabilities, said Ambuj Goyal, general manager of Information Management at IBM Software Group. According to the release:
“IBM opened its first two analytics solution centers in Berlin and Tokyo in June and July, respectively. The other centers will be located in London, New York City, and Washington, D.C. As part of this initiative, IBM plans to retrain or hire as many as 4,000 new analytics consultants and professionals globally.“
The China center is “IBM’s first center in the growth markets.”
According to the release, “The initial China center, located at IBM’s China Business Innovation Center in Beijing, will draw on expertise from across the company, including experts and consultants from analytics and optimization, mathematics modeling, software engineering, and architecture research and consulting.”
IBM officials said the company selected China because of “its status as a global center of economic development and innovation” and its emerging IT skills base. “The Beijing center will be staffed initially by up to 300 consultants, software specialists and mathematicians, with plans to retrain or hire an additional 300 as demand grows,” the company said. According to the release:
“The mission of the China Center will support IBM’s clients in the Greater China Region [in tackling] complex business problems by leveraging the full breadth of IBM’s capabilities in analytics and optimization, including hardware, software, consulting services and research. It will initially focus on smarter grid, smarter supply chain management and smarter city [management,] covering transportation and traffic management, and water management. The China Center will support and accelerate IBM’s collaboration with the government, enabling the country’s stimulus plan with advanced analytic solutions, helping create high value jobs and nurturing local talent.“