Press kits

IBM brings business insight, advanced research and powerful technologies to the media and entertainment industry – adding intelligence and innovation to an industry undergoing a digital transformation. Serving all segments including film, music, publishing, advertising, broadcast, and media networks, IBM is helping media companies transform the customer experience

IBM is bringing together some best and brightest entrepreneurs from around the world, together with venture capitalists and other industry leaders, at the SmartCamp Global Finals, January 31-February 2, 2012. These startup companies are working with IBM to address some of the greatest challenges facing cities and citizens today, such as traffic, healthcare, water, and retail, bringing analytics-based solutions to market. The winner will be named the IBM Global Entrepreneur of the Year. Follow the conversation on our social media links below, and vote for the SmartCamp People's Vote award at http://asmarterplanet.com/blog/2012/01/ibmscf_main.html.

IBM is helping utilities add a layer of digital intelligence to their grids. These smart grids use sensors, meters, digital controls and analytic tools to automate, monitor and control the two-way flow of energy across operations—from power plant to plug. A power company can optimize grid performance, prevent outages, restore outages faster and allow consumers to manage energy usage right down to the individual networked appliance.

Savvy consumers around the world are increasingly connected to each other through a number of mobile devices, tablets and applications. There are over two billion internet users globally, with 800 million on Facebook and 100 million on Twitter, not to mention the scores of people using location-based services like Foursquare or media sharing apps like Instagram and YouTube. With this explosion in communications technology, we know that the way people shop has fundamentally changed. This week at NRF, the largest annual tradeshow for the retail industry, IBM unveiled the results of its annual survey of more than 28,000 global consumers to find out just how much.

IBM is actively expanding its operations across Africa as part of the company's continued geographic expansion initiative to increase its presence in key growth markets and support its global growth strategy.

Social Business is a smarter approach to the “people-centric” processes of business. Social Business means connecting networks of customers, partners, and employees, using analytics to derive insights from those connections, and using those insights to improve business functions. It's an organization that uses social networking tools fluently to communicate with people inside and outside the company. It's a strategic approach to shaping a business culture, highly dependent upon executive leadership and corporate strategy, including business process design, risk management, leadership development, financial controls and use of business analytics. Becoming a Social Business can help an organization deepen customer relationships, generate new ideas faster, identify expertise and enable a more effective workforce.

IBM's Research and Development labs, comprised of some of the world’s leading minds, are pushing the boundaries of science, technology and business to make the world work better. As the world gets smarter and IBM clients need to innovate rapidly, IBM’s technologists and scientists are advancing existing IBM products and services, while simultaneously pursuing the future. IBM's technical talent and resources are massive: * More than 3,000 scientists and engineers in eight Research labs in six countries. * More than 25,000 technology developers in more than 60 70 major development labs around the world. * IBM invested $5.8 billion in R&D in 2009 and has increased its R&D investment by 21% since 2002 * As a result of the company's investment in R&D, IBM has earned the most US patents of any company for 17 consecutive years. In 2009, IBM received 4,914 U.S. * IBM has one of the most recognized Research labs in the world, with five Nobel Laureates, nine US National Medals of Technology, five US National Medals of Science, six Turing Awards and 10 inductees into the US National Inventors Hall of Fame and 37 members of the US National Academy of Engineering.

Today IBM unveils the sixth annual "IBM 5 in 5" (#ibm5in5) - a list of innovations that have the potential to change the way people work, live and interact during the next five years. This year's five in five are: People power will come to life; you will never need a password again; mind reading is no longer science fiction; the digital divide will cease to exist; and junk mail will become priority mail. The IBM 5 in 5 is based on market and societal trends as well as emerging technologies from IBM's research labs around the world that can make these transformations possible.

IBM is working with thousands of universities around the globe to develop students with business and technology skills for a Smarter Planet. Our many University Programs include Ph.D. fellowships, faculty and university awards, as well as impressive Research collaborations. In addition, IBM's Academic Initiative provides schools with access to course materials, training, books and more.</p>

When today's consumers make decisions, it's a multi-layered process. While they continue to expect the highest-value personalized promotions, consumers also seek a highly personalized shopping experience delivered in the moments when they choose to shop. In short, consumers are looking for remarkable experiences.

More than half of the people on Earth live in cities, and urban populations are projected to double by mid-century. IBM is helping cities around the world tackle serious urban issues and improve the quality of life of their citizens.

World Community Grid is one of IBM's exciting philanthropic initiatives. Founded in 2004, it provides computational power available to scientists who might not otherwise be able to afford the high speed computing they require for timely humanitarian research projects. To date, 19 research projects have been hosted on World Community Grid, spinning off 30 peer-reviewed papers. Nine of the projects it has hosted have generated particularly promising results that are being further researched, or followed up with a second phase on World Community Grid.

Technology is rapidly evolving and transforming the way we live and do business. What if you could predict the information technology landscape to stay a step ahead of your competitors or ensure that you were building the right skills for future success? The IBM 2011 Tech Trends Report provides insight from the global IT development community into the adoption, preferences and challenges of key enterprise technology trends including cloud computing, business analytics, mobile computing and social business. The results provide IT and business professionals a roadmap of the technologies and skills that will be the greatest demand in the coming years. The report surveyed more than 4000 IT professionals from 93 countries and 25 different industries on the future of IT trends. Among the results: IBM's Watson's analytics technology will transform the education and healthcare industries and open platforms are key to mobile and business analytics development.

IBM will host a Watson University Symposium at Harvard Business School and MIT Sloan School of Management. The Symposium will include a series of panel discussions and keynote speeches on how advances in technology, like IBM's Watson, are transforming business and society. Students, professors and IBM researchers and executives will talk about this transformation, as well as the skills students need to leverage this revolutionary technology in the workforce. The Symposium will close with teams of students competing against Watson in an exhibition game of Jeopardy! The event is part of IBM's on going work with universities around the world, bringing access to experts and Watson-like technology to students and faculty to inspire and engage the next generation of leaders and entrepreneurs.

Water is a critical resource. Countries, cities, companies, utilities, farmers and people are wrestling with how to manage and make the most of it. The issues around water can be better understood and managed by collecting and analyzing of data. IBM is applying its expertise in smart systems and data analysis to help companies and governments effectively deal with these issues.

At Information On Demand and Business Analytics Forum, IBM is announcing new products to simplify big data analytics and how organizations gain insights into market trends, customer behaviors and consumer sentiment. These new technologies will allow companies and their employees to access and store information on-premise and on the cloud. Along with key customer announcements across verticals, IBM is demonstrating with these products how it is helping make big data work for the enterprise. With daily people creating the equivalent of 2.5 quintillion bytes of data, IBM is driving more efficient decisions for a smarter planet and helping organizations unlock the potential of big data.

2011 IBM Global CMO Study

IBM is applying its analytics expertise to help organizations make more intelligent, automated business decisions. As part of this announcement, IBM is introducing a broad portfolio of software that uses analytics to provide greater visibility and integration between the applications that run on an IT infrastructure and key business processes. The new software will enable clients to make more intelligent, automated business decisions and help them embrace cloud computing.

A bus, train or car to work. A bike to school. A plane for a business trip. Even if you don't leave your home, your life is still influenced by the transportation industry: virtually every tangible good – food, clothing, medicine, vehicles and computers – has been transported into your world from somewhere else. Population growth, urbanization and globalization are placing great strains on the world's transportation systems - impacting citizens personally, economically and environmentally. It’s estimated that up to $30 trillion will be spent on transportation infrastructure globally over the next 20 years. Improving physical infrastructure only goes so far, especially with the ever-present debate on the best ways to maintain roads, rails and terminals in the face of strained budgets and resources. By integrating technology and intelligence into the physical transportation infrastructure, we can improve capacity, enhance the traveler experience and make transportation systems more efficient, safe and green. IBM has a long history in transportation since the company began in 1911 and works with some of the most advanced operators of transportation networks around the world, from municipal governments to railway operators to airlines.

IBM is marking the 100-year anniversary of its founding on June 16, 1911, with a year-long global initiative. The company will reexamine the history of technology innovation and predict where the world will be in the next 100 years. IBM will use this milestone to engage with business leaders, academia, clients, and local communities in the 170 countries the company does business.