Wells Fargo, U.K.'s Kent County, AMEC Paragon and New York State Department of
Labor Using Mashups for Improved Decision Making
LAS VEGAS, Oct. 27 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- As part of its commitment to
business analytics, IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced an expansion of its
industry leading enterprise mashup portfolio, including the latest version of
IBM Mashup Center and a new offering called IBM Cognos 8 Mashup Service. IBM
is also announcing a set of new clients that are using IBM Mashup technology
to help transform their organizations by using information as a strategic
asset.
(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20090416/IBMLOGO)
Every day, more than 15 petabytes of data are created. Mashups are critical in
helping people make sense of this overwhelming amount of available data.
Organizations from a variety of industries are using IBM mashup technology to
empower not only business users but also decision-makers at the employee level
to gain new insights from previously hard to access data found in a variety of
sources, such as the Cloud, enterprise applications, and personal software and
programs.
Bringing Transparency to Government Services
Home to 1.4 million residents, Kent County in the United Kingdom is using IBM
mashup technology to bring transparency to government services and help
citizens make sense of vast amounts of publicly available information and
services. The first of its kind, this pilot program offers residents 570
different information feeds that can be combined and shared online, helping
citizens use analytics technology to better capitalize on government
information and services.
For example, a resident looking to relocate within the county could create a
mashup showing average household income, school enrollment levels and the
location of doctors accepting new patients to determine the ideal new
neighborhood. This map could be displayed online and shared with others as a
way to start conversations and elicit feedback.
KCC Cabinet Member for Corporate Support Services and Performance Management,
Roger Gough, said: "You can put all the information you want online but isn't
it better when you can see the whole picture and not just snap shots? With IBM
Mashup Center we are creating new ways to serve our residents, providing easy
to use tools that help them make sense of the overwhelming amounts of
information available. It certainly is an exciting time for us."
Making Sense of Information Overload
For Wells Fargo and AMEC Paragon, having quick access to a consolidated view
of information is key to maintaining competitive advantage.
Wells Fargo is piloting IBM mashup technology to enhance the online experience
for their wealth management clients. The ability to mashup various pieces of
existing information such account balances, the status of wire transfers and
real time market updates helps Wells Fargo quickly deliver customized
solutions for clients using existing resources.
"Virtually all the functionality and information we need to effectively
service our clients is already built and deployed somewhere in the cloud. With
Enterprise Mashups, we will have a way to access and make sense of all of that
information without reinventing the wheel," said Jesse Lund, Head of
Technology, Wells Fargo Family Wealth.
AMEC Paragon serves as the Americas oil and gas hub for AMEC, the
international project management and services company. AMEC Paragon uses IBM
Mashup Center as a way to unify all key project management information and
take action on items all in one place. Paragon's mashup solution includes
blending structured data with Enterprise Content Management and IBM FileNet
content along with information from various SaaS providers. For example,
Paragon can mashup project staffing requirements with budget updates and the
project timeline. Then managers can take action, making appropriate changes to
the project staffing from within the mashup.
Driving Innovation with Mashups
As part of today's news, IBM is announcing a new version of its Mashup Center
software and a new offering called IBM Cognos 8 Mashup Service. The new IBM
Cognos 8 Mashup Service is an application programming interface (API) that
automatically and securely exposes content from IBM Cognos 8 Business
Intelligence as a Web service for use in other operational applications,
business processes and mashups. By integrating entire reports, analyses and
metrics - or just the most relevant parts - into key applications such as
human resources, procurement, and sales management, users can quickly and more
easily make informed decisions in the context of their daily business.
For instance, a sales manager responsible for many retail outlets will be able
to easily overlay critical sales reports into a GIS application in order to
gain a quick, visual snapshot of store performance throughout the district,
identify trouble spots, and initiate necessary sales strategies to boost
underperforming locations. Similarly, sales managers accustomed to working
solely in their sales force automation system will be able to mashup timely
business analytics reports and metrics with client interaction history to
better manage and forecast pipeline.
The New York State Department of Labor will use IBM Cognos 8 Mashup Service to
combine unemployment insurance appeals case management with over 100 reports
made available through IBM Cognos 8 BI. The department's Unemployment
Insurance Appeals Board System (ABS) handles all information aspects of
hearings and appeals, from the time the Appeal Board receives notification of
an upcoming hearing, to the decision rendered by an Administrative Law Judge,
and any subsequent appeals. By mashing with IBM Cognos reports, department
administrators and staff will be able to more efficiently manage the lifecycle
of each case file, and quickly and more accurately report latest status and
results up the management chain.
"Unemployment insurance appeals are very sensitive cases and demand the utmost
in procedural care and management. Only through clear, up-to-date insights
into caseload information can we properly abide by our departmental mission to
provide all parties a full and fair opportunity to be heard, and to render
decisions that are based on the record and are legally correct," said Robert
Vitello, chief information officer at New York State Department of Labor.
The latest version of IBM Mashup Center is expected to include:
-- Connections with new data sources: Integration with RESTful services
significantly expands the types of data sources that can be included
in
a Mashup. In addition, Microsoft SharePoint, WebSphere MQ and FileNet
integration allows businesses to take advantage of their existing
investments by generating feeds these applications that can quickly
and
easily be mashed up with other data sources.
-- Improved security and governance: Now, businesses can filter malicious
content and stop the use of un-trusted widgets to prevent information
stealing. In addition, Mashup Center is now compliant with Section
208
of the US Federal Government's e-Government Policy.
-- New collaboration and community tools: Now, IBM Mashup Center allows
businesses to create collections of mashup pages. Without requiring IT
support, people can assemble a space around a specific business need
or
project to enhance collaboration and productivity.
-- New widget tools: A new browser-based tool lets people create simple
widgets - small applications or pieces of content that can be placed
on
a web page - right from their mashup to solve problems faster.
Integrated Approach to Mashups
Now, with IBM Cognos 8 Mashup Service and IBM Mashup Center, clients can
combine information from within IBM Cognos reports with other applications and
access it in an easy-to-use Web interface. For example, if a pharmaceutical
sales rep was asked to predict their upside for the quarter they could quickly
access an IBM Cognos report highlighting sales progress to date and mash it up
with a report from their CRM system that showed projected close dates for
sales and historical sales patterns for the same quarter in previous years.
Then, using a widget in Mashup Center they could graphically represent this
information over a given timeline to estimate anticipate upside to sales
quotas all within minutes of receiving the request.
"IBM Mashups takes analytics out of the backroom and onto the desktop, putting
people in control of the vast data resources their company already has in
place," said Anant Jhingran, vice president IBM Information Management. "With
new capabilities and software, we are continuing to innovate to help customers
make smarter decisions."
The latest version of IBM Mashup Center software is expected to be available
in November. IBM Cognos 8 Mashup Service is expected to be available in
December.
For more information visit: IBM Mashup Center, IBM Cognos 8 Mashup Service,
For more information: www.ibm.com/press/informationondemand
IBM Analytics: IBM Business Analytics & Optimization Press Kit, and You Tube:
"Analytics: How it Works" Twitter: #IOD2009
IBM and the IBM logo are trademarks of International Business Machines
Corporation in the United States, or other countries, or both. All other names
are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.
Contact:
David DeRosa
IBM Software Group
+1-613-796-2970
David.DeRosa@ca.ibm.com
SOURCE IBM Corporation
David DeRosa, IBM Software Group, +1-613-796-2970, David.DeRosa@ca.ibm.com
