IBM today announced the creation of a new Business Analytics Center of Competency, headquartered in Bangalore, focused on the rapidly growing business analytics marketplace.

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The new Center - a pool of deep subject matter experts who will be deployed globally to support clients anywhere in the world - is expected to have a staff of over 200 consultants with advanced analytics skills. These experts will collaborate with local client teams to craft advanced solutions that apply analytics to a company's most complex information-based challenges and biggest opportunities. The Center will also feature deep and scalable skills and capabilities for clients in the world's emerging growth markets.

The demand for deep analytical skills has begun to emerge as a strategic imperative as companies seek a competitive advantage in today's transformed global economy. In fact, 83 percent of CIOs in the recently released IBM Global CIO Study identified business intelligence and analytics - the ability to see patterns in vast amounts of data and extract actionable insights - as their number-one priority to enhance their organizations' competitiveness.

IBM's extensive investment in highly differentiated services capability is manifested in the operating model for the new Business Analytics Center of Competency. The Center will house experts with unique skills and expertise in deploying IBM patented analytics capabilities and assets that address specific, targeted analytical applications. For example, the team features experts in the area of advanced customer analytics and social media analytics. The team is using IBM patented analytics techniques in these two areas to help clients in the telecommunications, retail and financial services industries to improve customer service and retention.

"The new Business Analytics Center of Competency is an important component in our rapidly expanding and unmatched portfolio of business analytics capabilities," said Fred Balboni, Global Leader, IBM Business Analytics and Optimization. "Through our extensive experience we've built the broadest and most sophisticated analytics services and solutions in the industry and are deploying them to address our clients' most profound business issues."

The new IBM Business Analytics Center of Competency will focus on a number of core areas vital to successfully applying analytics to industry problems. Some of these areas include: Web 2.0 Analytics, Risk and Fraud Analytics, Financial Analytics, Customer Analytics and Enterprise Business Analytics Strategy. The Center will also have a deep set of analytical skills focused on helping clients gather and manage the right information and insights to improve their performance.

The Business Analytics Center of Competency will also support IBM's recently announced network of global Business Analytics Solutions Centers. The centers, located in Berlin, Beijing, New York and Tokyo - soon to be joined by Washington, DC and London - are in place to serve clients in those local markets, with specializations in areas like Smarter Cities, Transportation and Federal Government.

In these centers, IBM draws upon its vast information management portfolio, including technologies from IBM Software, Hardware, and IBM Research, along with industry expertise from over 4,000 consultants in the Business Analytics and Optimization Services practice.

In addition to Business Analytics, IBM has created four other Centers of Competency focused on deploying resources and capabilities to high-priority, strategic engagements around the world. This new model - unencumbered by national boundaries - gives clients access to industry-focused, world-class, senior expertise in business transformation, along with assets, best practices and delivery capabilities, garnered from numerous global engagements. The other IBM Centers include skilled experts in the areas of Strategy and Change, Banking/Financial Markets, Telecommunications, and Energy/Utilities.

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  Media Contacts:

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  IBM Global External Relations     IBM India/South Asia External Relations
  917-472-3324                      +91-80-4068 3844
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SOURCE: IBM