Ibm watson
- 1. WATSON IS THIS THE FUTURE OF IBM? Read and Know for yourself. Tags: FUTURISTIC IBM (CAMS), CLOUD, ANALYTICS, MOBILITY and SOCIAL MEDIA, WATSON, Jeopardy Table of Contents Introduction ........................................................................................................................................... 2 WATSON - Commercialization................................................................................................................ 2 Challenges for IBM Watson................................................................................................................ 2 IBM Strategies to overcome the challenges posed............................................................................ 3 Strategic Investment ...................................................................................................................... 3 Strategic Partnership...................................................................................................................... 3 Strategic Pilot Engagements in Financial World............................................................................. 3 Strategy to use CLOUD as Development Platform......................................................................... 3 Strategy for Cross industry Application of WATSON...................................................................... 3 Critical Evaluation of Strategy Adopted................................................................................................. 7 What Can Be Drawn from Above ........................................................................................................... 8 Bibliography ........................................................................................................................................... 8
- 2. 2/9 Introduction Since last one decade IBM has been shifting its strategy from just being a technology provider to being a service provide through its continuous innovations and Smarter Planet strategies. Also IBM continued to invest in R&D keeping future in mind. Since 2007 IBM engineers and innovators in IBM’s Research labs worked to develop a new cognitive computing system. This was called WATSON. Using natural language processing and analytics, Watson processes information akin to how people think, representing a major shift in an organization’s ability to quickly analyze, understand and respond to Big Data. Watson’s ability to answer complex questions posed in natural language with speed, accuracy and confidence is transforming decision making across a variety of industries. This Analysis work will focus on IBM’s Strategy on how it is planning to leverage WATSON for Commercial use. WATSON - Commercialization IBM has transformed Watson from a quiz-show winner, into a commercial cognitive computing breakthrough that is helping businesses engage customers, healthcare organizations personalize patient care, and entrepreneurs build businesses. A major initiative for the IBM is to continue advancing its research and development to accelerate the delivery of cognitive innovations to organizations via the cloud. IBM will engineer Watson to be deployed on SoftLayer Technologies, a cloud computing infrastructure business IBM purchased last June 2013. SoftLayer has approximately 21,000 enterprise customers and a global cloud infrastructure platform spanning 13 data centers throughout the U.S., Asia and Europe. It provides the infrastructure for cloud-centric, performance-intensive applications in the areas of mobile, social media, gaming and analytics -- market segments that closely align to IBM's business and technology strategy Challenges for IBM Watson It's a bit of commonly accepted wisdom in big data circles that small companies and startups will be the ones to drive big data technology forward and define the shape of the market to come. The large players, like IBM and Oracle, unable to adjust quickly enough to a world changing at breakneck speed, will see bits of their business intelligence market stripped away by smaller, more agile competitors. Few outlined challenges for WATSON leading to Tepid response to WATSON are
- 3. 3/9 • Huge Hardware Cost (The Watson that won Jeopardy! was built on 90 IBM Power 750 Express servers powered by 8-core processors—four in each machine for a total of 32 processors per machine. At the time, Power 750 servers were running $34,500 a piece, adding up to about $3 million.) • Data Security over CLOUD • Expensive Resources (Watson is like hiring an expensive data scientist) • Lack of WATSON developer ecosystem (Where are the developers) IBM Strategies to overcome the challenges posed Strategic Investment IBM has built world's broadest and deepest portfolio in data and analytics. $ 24 billion invested to date to build IBM’s capabilities in Big Data and analytics, with $7 billion in organic investment $ 17 billion of gross spend for Big Data and analytics acquisitions, including more than 30 acquired companies 15,000 analytics consultants and 400 mathematicians 40,000 client engagements to date $ 1 billion investment in Flash technology, providing industry-leading speed and efficiency to enable data to be real-time ready for analytics 1,000 university partnerships, and 2,215 IBM Business Partners 500 analytics patents generated each year 2/3 of IBM Research is focused on data, analytics and cognitive computing Strategic Partnership IBM has partnered with a range of healthcare organizations to help transform how medicine is practiced, paid for and taught, with the help of Watson-powered solutions. This includes collaborations with Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, WellPoint, the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, and Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University. Strategic Pilot Engagements in Financial World In May 2013, IBM unveiled the Watson Engagement Advisor, a commercial breakthrough that helps businesses deepen and redefine engagement with customers. Top brands including DBS Bank and Nielsen are exploring how Watson can help them engage customers. Strategy to use CLOUD as Development Platform In November 2013, IBM announced it would make Watson available as a development platform in the cloud, enabling software application providers to build a new generation of apps infused with cognitive computing intelligence. This includes the Watson Developers Cloud: a cloud-hosted marketplace where application providers can tap into resources for developing Watson-powered apps, including Watson's API. Three business partners plan to go to market in 2014 with Watson apps, from Fluid to transform how consumers shop, from MD Buyline to help hospitals procure devices, and Welltok to enable health plans to engage their members. Currently more than 760 applicants have shared their ideas for creating cognitive apps that redefine how businesses and consumers make decisions. Strategy for Cross industry Application of WATSON IBM's Makes Watson to the size of a pizza box The Watson-capable servers being deployed to hospitals and data centers will only take up one slot in a standard server rack(the size of a Pizza Box). This does not mean that it is slower or has compromised on its processing speed. Watson’s theoretical processing speed has been bumped up 240% since its television debut. The key to the slimmed down Watson rig is not only the improved processing algorithms, but also domain specialization leading to reduction in the size of the Hardware used. This exponentially reduces cost of hardware running WATSON.
- 4. 4/9 IBM'S WATSON TO ENSURE BUSINESS DYNAMICALLY CHOOSES THE LOCATION OF CLOUD DATA IBM has patented a technique that helps clients automatically analyze and manage the location where their public and private cloud data is stored, thereby enabling companies to comply with regulations governing where data can be stored in different countries and continents. The patented IBM invention -- Geographic governance of data over clouds: U.S. patent #8,676,593 – allows users to dynamically choose or change the location where cloud data resides, ensuring that businesses adhere to local or regional compliance and security regulations. Cloud computing offers many benefits through the scalability and ease of use enabled by providing access to information stored in data centers often based in remote, disparate geographical locations. A challenge that can arise from the cloud model is the need for cloud providers to manage and govern content in accordance with regulations specified by government agencies in different countries or continents. IBM's patented invention serves as a smart routing device for cloud data, enabling business owners to have greater control over where their cloud data is stored and thereby more easily comply with local laws. The invention allows companies to mark or tag their data and use an intelligent cloud management system to store files in the appropriate location. For example, if a business needs to ensure that all of its financial data is stored in specific cloud data center, the associated files are tagged appropriately and the cloud management system ensures that the files are stored in the correct location(s). During the early years of cloud computing, it was evident that storing and accessing business data across geographically dispersed cloud computing environments could present logistical and regulatory challenges. Our team of inventors designed a system that will allow businesses to efficiently manage and move data in the cloud, while meeting required compliance mandates in different countries." IBM WANTS WATSON TO ORCHESTRATE YOUR NEXT BOARDROOM TAKEOVER IBM is testing a wall-sized prototype in the Thomas J. Watson research center in New York., The computer can listen for its name and execute commands using system's ceiling-mounted microphones, all while transcribing the entire meeting. IBM wants to integrate WATSON in the board meetings not as a mere stenographer but more because it can actively participate in the discussion at hand. In a live demonstration, it helped researchers generate a list of companies to acquire, using only an internal memo summarizing a fake company's strategy, decision-making algorithms, and a voice command. After some back and forth between the fake executives and the computer, Watson narrowed down its results, and rendered a verdict. "I recommend eliminating Kawasaki Robotics," it said. When prompted to explain, it told the researchers that Kawasaki Robotics "is inferior to Cognilytics in every way." IBM'S WATSON TO HELP MILITARY MEMBERS TRANSITION TO CIVILIAN LIFE The move to civilian life can be challenging for military personnel -- they have often centered their entire lives on active duty. Roughly 155,000 people transition from military to civilian life every year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. IBM recently that it partnered with USAA to bring military members an app to help with the transition out of service. This is the first time Watson is being used as a consumer app. This new service can help men and women who served their country gain timely and relevant insights into the steps they need to successfully move to civilian life The app lets transitioning military personnel ask Watson questions about civilian life, such as what benefits are offered, what does insurance cover, how does the GI Bill work, and even how to get a job or buy a new home. To answer these questions, the app taps into Watson's cognitive intellect, which has culled data from more than 3,000 documents on military transitions. IBM'S WATSON IS HELPFUL IN THE KITCHEN IBM paired with the Institute of Culinary Education in New York City and debuted Chef Watson from a food truck at the annual South by Southwest music festival in Austin, Texas, in March. That project combined Watson's learning and natural language capabilities with the talents of top chefs who cooked meals for attendees IBM recently paired with the food magazine Bon Appétit to create a Web-based application that uses Watson's brain power to analyze an abundance of inputted recipes and food chemical information to create unique ingredient combinations. It's then up to the chefs to figure out how to cook and develop those recipes. Watson was loaded with the magazine's database of over 9,000 recipes to see if it could pick up on patterns and extrapolate on what staff at the magazine had learned over the years.
- 5. 5/9 For example, Watson suggested to Bon Appétit Senior Food Editor Dawn Perry that she use two kinds of onions, buttermilk and flour with cole slaw. After wondering what to do with it, she topped the cole slaw with crispy fried onions which was really liked by all. The process can be compared to a computer analyzing a chess game and producing a move or series of moves that a human may have missed. IBM'S WATSON TO HELP DOCTORS TO IDENTIFY TREATMENT OPTIONS According to one expert, only 20 percent of the knowledge physicians use to diagnose and treat patients today is evidence based. Which means that one in five diagnoses is incorrect or incomplete. And consider that the amount of medical information available is doubling every five years and that much of this data is unstructured. Physicians simply don't have time to read every journal that can help them keep up to date with the latest advances. Given the growing complexity of medical decision making, how can healthcare providers address these problems? Watson has the potential to transform healthcare research, how medical students learn and how payments are processed. Physicians can use Watson to assist in diagnosing and treating patients by having it analyze large amounts of unstructured text and develop hypotheses based on that analysis. First, the physician might describe symptoms and other related factors to the system. Watson can then identify the key pieces of information and mine the patient’s data to find relevant facts about family history, current medications and other existing conditions. It combines this information with current findings from tests, and then forms and tests hypotheses by examining a variety of data sources—treatment guidelines, electronic medical record data and doctors’ and nurses’ notes, as well as peer- reviewed research and clinical studies. From here, Watson can provide potential treatment options and its confidence rating for each suggestion. Healthcare and business professionals have a positive perspective on the promise of Watson's transformative technology, and its ability to completely change how patients interact with caregivers and consumers with brands. Watson can allow Health care Professionals to personalize patient care in a way that's never been possible before. Few Initiatives to tap Watson's potential in Healthcare are listed below Memorial Sloan Kettering Memorial Sloan Kettering trained Watson to synthesize vast amounts of data, such as physicians’ notes and reports, lab results and clinical research, to help community physicians identify treatment options for cancer patients Watson at Wellpoint, Inc. Health benefits company Wellpoint saw an opportunity to apply IBM Watson in a way that could improve the quality and efficiency of healthcare decisions. Watson at MD Anderson The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston uses Watson's cognitive computing power to help clinicians uncover insights from its patient and research information. WatsonPaths In collaboration with Cleveland Clinic, IBM Research is developing a cognitive computing tool designed to help physicians and medical students make more informed and accurate decisions faster and to cull new insights from electronic medical records (EMR).
- 6. 6/9 IBM'S WATSON TO HELP PLANNERS RECOMMEND BETTER INVESTMENTS The challenges the financial services industry faces are complex. Regulatory measures, as well as social and governmental pressure for financial institutions to be more inclusive, have increased. And customers the industry serves are more empowered, demanding and sophisticated than ever before. In addition, with so much financial information generated each day, it’s difficult to properly harness the right information to act upon. The solutions? Deeper client engagement and a better understanding of risk profiles and the operating environment. Major financial institutions are already working with Watson to infuse additional intelligence into their business processes. Watson is tackling data-intensive challenges across the financial services sector, including banking, financial planning and investing. DBS Bank's relationship managers advise their wealth-management clients by analyzing large volumes of such complex data as research reports, product information, and customer profiles. DBS will apply Watson Engagement Advisor to analyze the relationship managers’ growing corpus of investment knowledge, identify connections to customers' needs, offer better advice and determine customers’ best financial options. Watson can transform Customer experiences via cost-effective, personalized advice, increasing customer satisfaction and attracting new capital. Watson is already starting to be used in customer service and as a wealth advisor. Financial analysis and make analysts more productive and insightful through the vast amount of information it analyzes. Watson can also answer open-ended questions asked by users based on the data it has consumed. Risk management and compliance by evaluating all cases against approved policies and guidelines and by understanding the complexities of risk exposure. IBM'S WATSON TO HELP RETAILERS TRANSFORM CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP Disruption is everywhere in retail today. Customers, empowered by mobile devices and social networks that give them readier access to more information than ever before, have high expectations for service and satisfaction. And while today’s top retailers use Big Data to keep up with those expectations, their bigger challenge is efficiently and effectively analyzing this growing mountain of data for the insights that give them a competitive advantage. With the power of IBM Watson’s cognitive computing, retailers can transform their business and re-imagine everything about the way they connect, transact, and engage with consumers. Watson’s cognitive computing capabilities of analyzing massive amounts of unstructured data can help retailers reinvent their decision-making processes around pricing and purchasing. Today, a retailer using Watson can find insights in the data that might have escaped their notice, rather than relying on gut instinct. Further, Watson’s unique ability to understand and answer questions in natural language makes it a cost-effective and scalable tool for analyzing and responding precisely to social sentiment, such as social interactions, blogs and customer reviews. And like a human being, Watson learns from experience and improves with feedback. Watson can help draw insights from reams of unstructured information to help deliver a better experience. When a retailer understands its customers’ needs in greater detail, it can offer those customers more personalized and more satisfying experiences, increasing loyalty and conversions. Watson can transform The shopping experience by providing immediate access to new forms of data to help consumers become more informed. Merchandising and supply networks by diagnosing business issues that drive better decisions around product and pricing. Sales operations by empowering associates with new information in real time to create more engagement and efficiency.
- 7. 7/9 IBM'S WATSON TO HELP GOVERNMENT TO HELP ITS CITIZENS For local, regional and national government, the exponential rise of Big Data presents an enormous dilemma. Today’s citizens are more informed and empowered than ever, and that means they have high expectations for the value of the public sector serving them. And government organizations can now gather enormous volumes of unstructured, unverified data that could serve their citizens—but only if that data can be analyzed efficiently and effectively. IBM Watson’s cognitive computing may help make sense of this data deluge, speeding governments’ decision-making processes and helping public employees focus on innovation and discovery. Cognitive computing can help improve the service of the public sector in several ways, improving on slow and manual decision- making processes by employing such capabilities as decision-management, predictive and content analytics, planning, discovery, information integration and data management. And Watson learns like a human. As it refines its own knowledge from its findings in vast sets of data and its interactions with the employees using it, it helps public employees improve process and policy. Watson helps deliver personal service to citizens navigating complex processes. From these interactions, Watson learns the priorities of the public and helps inform policies that serve those interests. And with threats to security an ongoing problem, Watson can uncover patterns of activity that can help an agency interpret and address abnormal usage that may suggest an emerging problem. Watson can transform Citizens’ experience by providing cost-effective personalized advice that builds community engagement. Policy and performance by helping employees deliver better service and make optimal decisions. Public security by helping analysts and investigators discover the most relevant information. Critical Evaluation of Strategy Adopted IBM Announced a significant increase in its Analytics revenue through Strategic investments, New Skills and Capabilities. Watson to generate $10 billion in annual revenue over the next decade, but it has only made $100 million since 2011 so far. Overall, IBM's Watson Group announcement was extremely well thought out from both a short-term tactical and a long-term strategic perspective. IBM has amassed all the right ingredients for success: Dedication and Commitment in terms of: • Manpower, • Monetary investment, • A well-developed partner ecosystem • The right geographic location The random element is whether the corporate and consumer customers embrace Watson? That remains to be seen. However, Watson is off to a good start, with nearly 900 third-party developers signing on. Applications are the lifeblood of any technology platform, and the early ISV enthusiasm for Watson augurs well for its success.
- 8. 8/9 IBM's decision to base the Watson Group in New York City's Greenwich Village is both practical and symbolic. "The Village," as New Yorkers call it, long has been identified as the birthplace of leading-edge movements. Big Blue's Watson headquarters is within walking distance of Wall Street and the financial district, as well as large hospitals and universities that include many of the company's top customers in banking, healthcare, insurance and education. It was a savvy move on IBM's part to locate the Watson BU within walking distance or a short bus or subway ride to many potential customers. Making it convenient for them to visit the labs and get access to hands-on experience and training is a savvy move on IBM's part. The decision to situate the Watson BU in the center of one of the world's top financial, engineering and academic spots bodes well for sparking interest and generating revenue among a wide variety of business professionals. What Can Be Drawn from Above Over the past several years, the company continuously has bolstered its position in cloud computing, mobility, security and management services via a series of targeted acquisitions such as the SoftLayer purchase. Additionally, in the three years since the Jeopardy! Challenge, IBM continuously has evolved the core Watson technology. Mainstream adoption of Watson cognitive computing solutions should gain significant traction over the next two to three years. If by 2016, IBM Watson Group is not generating substantial and recurring annual revenue, then there will be cause for concern. In summary, IBM is positioning the Watson BU for success and doing everything within its power to lure prospective enterprises and development partners to this powerful, emerging cognitive computing platform. The value of Big Data is in its potential to help practitioners make better strategic and tactical decisions, run more streamlined and efficient organizations, and deliver better products and services to customers. Vendors would be wise to remember that it is such business value, not technology features per se, that will drive revenue in this market. In order to propel the Big Data market forward and entice early mainstream adopters, Watson must align not just its marketing messages but product roadmaps to this reality at the earliest The very recent IBM-Apple deal may prove to be a landmark in history for WATSON and Siri. This will open new avenues to showcase and market WATSON capabilities at a much affordable price and ease of use. Both IBM and apple are expected to gain commercial and social benefits by venturing into the BLUE OCEAN which still remains to be tapped. Bibliography 1. http://www.ibm.com/smarterplanet/us/en/ibmwatson/ 2. https://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/42867.wss 3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watson_(computer) 4. http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/79821.html 5. http://wikibon.org/wiki/v/Big_Data_Vendor_Revenue_and_Market_Forecast_2013- 2017 6. http://www.theverge.com/2014/8/4/5968405/ibm-wants-watson-to-orchestrate-your- next-board-room-takeover 7. https://www.google.co.in/search?q=IBM+Watson+business&client=firefox- a&hs=GCr&rls=org.mozilla:en- US:official&source=univ&tbm=nws&tbo=u&sa=X&ei=ax7lU8XuGpbk8AWGmYD oDg&ved=0CEgQkSU&biw=1366&bih=632 8. http://www.waterstechnology.com/inside-market-data/news/2356032/9w-search- integrates-ibms-watson-for-natural-language-queries 9. http://www.marketwatch.com/story/made-in-ibm-labs-governing-geographically- dispersed-cloud-data-2014-08-08?reflink=MW_news_stmp 10. http://www.aaai.org/Magazine/Watson/watson.php 11. http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/story/news/local/2014/08/10/ibm-chef-watson- recipes/13879881/
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