WARSAW, Poland, June 4, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced that it will help eight municipal governments in Poland improve citizen services with the assistance of cloud-based virtual agents developed by InteliWISE, an IBM business partner. Available via web chat, the virtual agents will harness powerful analytics technologies to deliver fast, automated access to information on government services to the citizens of Gdynia, Swietochlowice, Olsztyn, Lomza, Sroda Wlkp, Lancut, Bojszow, and Elblag.

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"With 70 percent of the world's population expected to live in cities by 2050, city authorities are coming under increasing pressure to come up with innovative and cost effective approaches for delivering smarter and inclusive government services to citizens," said Ales Bartunek, Country General Manager, IBM Poland and Baltics. "IBM is working with city leaders all over the world - enabling them to make better decisions, anticipate and resolve problems, and coordinate resources to operate effectively - and I am delighted that these eight Polish cities have joined their ranks."

In an effort to improve citizen services, the eight Polish municipalities have adopted a virtual web chat program. The program runs on the municipal website and provides the additional option of a virtual assistant to citizens who wish to get instant access to information about government services, rather than phoning or visiting the local city hall. The solution uses sophisticated analytics and natural language processing capabilities to respond to customer queries in a question and answer format, and can interpret spoken or written questions, even with spelling mistakes.

The virtual assistants, which run on computer and mobile platforms, provide information on a wide range of services from identity cards to company registration and utilities. Depending on the nature of the inquiry, the assistant can provide relevant information or connect the customer to the appropriate official.

"We have a vision of making Gdynia a smarter city by providing sophisticated services to our citizens," said Wojciech Szczurek, Mayor of Gdynia. "The new virtual assistant is an important step in that direction and provides our citizens with a convenient option of using their computers or smart phones to get the information they need instead of going to city hall."

Cloud computing provides a powerful option for municipal governments who wish to deploy new services quickly, securely and cost effectively with the flexibility to expand or deploy new applications in the future. The eight Polish cities will benefit from InteliWISE's app and the IBM SmartCloud, which will ensure optimal speed and continuity of operations, without the need for the municipal authorities to install new physical IT infrastructure.

With its analytics capabilities, the IBM SmartCloud helps store data generated through various virtual assistant interactions, enabling the application to be continually improved and expanded.

About IBM Cloud Computing

IBM has helped thousands of clients adopt cloud models and manages millions of cloud based transactions every day. IBM assists clients in areas as diverse as banking, communications, healthcare and government to build their own clouds or securely tap into IBM cloud-based business and infrastructure services. IBM is unique in bringing together key cloud technologies, deep process knowledge, a broad portfolio of cloud solutions, and a network of global delivery centers.

For more information on IBM Cloud: http://www.ibm.com/smartcloud

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ibmcloud

IBM Cloud Blog: http://www.thoughtsoncloud.com

For more information about InteliWISE: http://www.inteliwise.com/en/virtual-agent/egov.html

Media Contacts

Monika Maciag-Kruszewska
IBM Poland
+48-693 93 5342
monika.maciag@pl.ibm.com

Supriyaranjan Kar
IBM Growth Markets
+919717443337
supriya.kar@in.ibm.com

Jonathan Batty
IBM Growth Markets
+44-7873-295615
jonathan.Batty@pl.ibm.com

SOURCE IBM