WPP Open for B2B will help marketers solve complex B2B marketing challenges, accurately identify and engage buying groups, and improve clients’ return on investment. Buying groups are made up of multiple stakeholders with different priorities who influence key purchasing decisions both inside and outside of organizations, which can make it difficult to deliver a consistent message over a long sales period. Traditionally, understanding how to adjust that message across the right channels to guide buying groups to purchase is challenging and often leads to inefficient marketing spend. 

WPP Open for B2B is powered by watsonx – an AI and data platform designed to accelerate the impact of AI across businesses – and will bring together market-leading, proprietary capabilities from both organizations. WPP and IBM will strategically collaborate with LinkedIn to help brands better understand buying groups so they can market more effectively and reach target buyers. 

Alan Webber, Program Vice President – Digital Platform Ecosystems at analyst firm IDC believes “this product and partnership have the potential to be an exponential force multiplier for the Fortune 1000.”        

Stephan Pretorius, Chief Technology Officer at WPP, said: “Our clients want to get in front of the right people, at the right time, on the right channels, with the right message. However, most solutions in the market today are designed for consumer marketing, targeted at sole decision-makers at a single point of purchase.  WPP Open for B2B, and our collaboration with IBM and LinkedIn, will help solve some incredibly complex challenges in the B2B marketing space, using the best of WPP and IBM technology and expertise.”

Jonathan Adashek, Senior Vice President of Marketing and Communications at IBM, said: “B2B marketers have been focused on creating truly personalized, relevant and consistent experiences for buying groups at scale for years. Our collaboration with WPP and LinkedIn provides real-time, actionable insights that are based on trusted data. We are excited to create and use these new, powerful and trusted AI solutions to deliver a force multiplier for B2B marketing.”

Penry Price, Vice President at LinkedIn, said: “With success in B2B requiring customers to reach between 6 to 10 stakeholders, building relationships and ‘collective confidence‘ among the entire buyer group is key. We are looking forward to working with WPP and IBM to determine how our unique knowledge of buyer groups can help inform WPP Open for B2B and help clients deliver more effective advertising campaigns.”

WPP and IBM have used watsonx to build capabilities for the platform including:

• AI-powered Buying Group Brain – a WPP AI model that can more accurately identify target buying groups in a B2B client account, built with IBM watsonx.ai and trained on trustworthy data from the client and third parties through IBM watsonx.data. It can also inform how marketers deliver personalized and consistent experiences across channels and across the duration of a long-term influencer campaign. 
• Orchestration and optimization – using insights from WPP’s Buying Group Brain AI model to optimize engagement and opportunity progression for buying groups. That includes providing recommendations for channel mix and content to ensure buying groups experience a cohesive, consistent and relevant message. It can also help marketers track marketing activity effectiveness with a buying group and adjust messaging or influencer targeting on demand. 
• Chief Marketing Officer command center – an AI assistant that serves as a command center for CMOs, bringing forward data and insights and connecting underlying systems so senior marketers can plan and model scenarios, predict results, make more data-driven decisions and execute recommended actions.

These capabilities are supported by the IBM watsonx.governance toolkit to help clients govern and transparently track the performance of the AI models. 

Accelerating IBM’s AI-powered marketing and communications transformation

IBM has already begun deploying the new platform within its marketing and communications organization. WPP’s creative and technology expertise alongside the joint innovation on the watsonx platform is expected to support IBM’s objective to accelerate growth through AI-driven marketing. 

An open approach with embedded governance

WPP Open for B2B powered by watsonx is designed for enterprise scale, security, governance and easy integration into clients’ existing systems, combining the open capabilities of WPP Open, IBM watsonx and Red Hat OpenShift¹. 

IBM Consulting is the primary change management consulting partner for the solution. That  includes helping clients customize and operate the platform, integrate it into their marketing workflows and build employees’ skills and adoption of the platform, using the collaborative engagement model IBM Garage. IBM consultants can help clients select and deploy the right AI models for the platform based on their requirements, including enterprise grade models like IBM Granite, open source or other third-party models. 

About WPP
WPP is the creative transformation company. We use the power of creativity to build better futures for our people, planet, clients and communities. For more information, visit www.wpp.com.

WPP Open for B2B is part of WPP Open, WPP’s intelligent marketing operating system powered by AI. Applying WPP’s decades of experience serving enterprise clients, WPP Open is designed to integrate with any client, partner or technology vendor to create optimised and automated marketing capabilities. 

About IBM
IBM is a leading provider of global hybrid cloud and AI, and consulting expertise. We help clients in more than 175 countries capitalize on insights from their data, streamline business processes, reduce costs, and gain the competitive edge in their industries. Thousands of government and corporate entities in critical infrastructure areas such as financial services, telecommunications and healthcare rely on IBM’s hybrid cloud platform and Red Hat OpenShift to affect their digital transformations quickly, efficiently, and securely. IBM’s breakthrough innovations in AI, quantum computing, industry-specific cloud solutions and consulting deliver open and flexible options to our clients. All of this is backed by IBM’s long-standing commitment to trust, transparency, responsibility, inclusivity, and service. 

¹ Red Hat® and OpenShift® are trademarks or registered trademarks of Red Hat, Inc. or its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries.

Media Contacts

WPP
Niken Wresniwiro, SVP Global Communications
niken.wresniwiro@wpp.com

IBM
Michelle Mattelson, IBM External Relations
morrison@us.ibm.com

SOURCE IBM
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The new ‘Catch Me Up’ feature displays pre and post-match player cards with AI-generated player stories and analysis via wimbledon.com and the Wimbledon 2024 App. Player cards will be personalised based on user preferences and data such as their location and myWimbledon profile, starting with their favourite players. Pre-match content will include analysis of recent performance and likelihood to win predictions, and post-match it will include key statistics and highlights. The feature will also create longer-form daily summaries of play.

‘Catch Me Up’ was built using IBM’s Granite large language model (LLM) to provide AI-generated text using the capabilities of the watsonx platform. The model has been trained on the Wimbledon editorial style and will be monitored by the All England Club. The new feature is designed to help Wimbledon scale its content to both new and existing tennis fans globally, as well as provide fans access to timelier, curated coverage across ladies’ and gentlemen’s singles matches which are often happening simultaneously. 

This year, Wimbledon will also use generative AI to provide coverage of a broader range of matches than was previously available, including wheelchair events, to offer more to Wimbledon’s diverse international audience. This will form part of a redesigned digital match centre, known as IBM Slamtracker, available on the Wimbledon App and wimbledon.com. Using generative AI built from watsonx, IBM Slamtracker has been enhanced to  provide bullet point-based match previews and post-match reviews for ladies’ and gentlemen’s singles matches.

Majority of tennis fans surveyed positive about AI

The announcement comes as new research from IBM and Morning Consult* reveals that 55% of global tennis fans surveyed think AI will have a positive impact on sports. When considering how generative AI could improve their experience, these respondents prioritised real-time updates (36%), personalised content (31%), and unique insights (30%).

Approximately one-third (31%) of global tennis fans surveyed use multiple devices while watching sporting events, primarily to get more information, watch multiple matches at the same time, and interact with other fans. In addition, nearly half (47%) of them engage with additional content on tennis daily or weekly and rank summarisation and personalisation as the two most important features of sports content.

Chris Clements, Digital Products Lead at the All England Club, said: “We are committed to offering fans the highest quality Wimbledon experience, whether it’s in person or digitally. Generative AI allows us to scale our ability to provide different types of content for fans wherever they are in the world in a way that’s personalised for them. This year’s new Catch Me Up feature will make it easier for fans to follow the key storylines as they emerge throughout The Championships.”

Jonathan Adashek, Senior Vice President of Marketing and Communications for IBM, said: “The new Catch Me Up feature is an exciting example of how we can use the power of generative AI to deliver compelling, insight-driven storytelling at scale. For 35 years, IBM and Wimbledon have been co-creating solutions that make fans feel more connected to all the on-court action, and our new research confirms they are beginning to understand the positive impact technologies such as generative AI can have on their digital experiences. IBM is also putting these same technologies from our AI and data platform watsonx into the hands of clients worldwide, across nearly every sector, to address their unique business needs.”

Additional highlights from the IBM and Morning Consult survey include:

Majority of global tennis fans surveyed think technology will have a positive impact on multiple aspects of the sport – for fans, coaches and players alike

• 60% of tennis fans surveyed think technology will have a positive impact on the advancement of fan engagement.
• More specifically, 75% of tennis fan respondents think technology will have a positive impact on the advancement of training; game strategy (74%); coaching (71%); and talent identification & acquisitions (66%).

Nearly a third of global tennis fans surveyed use more than one device to watch multiple matches at once, get more information and interact with other fans

• 24% of tennis fans surveyed use two devices; 5% report using three devices and 2% report using more than three devices at the same time.
• 45% of the surveyed tennis fans who use multiple devices do so to get more information while watching tennis; 32% do it to watch multiple matches simultaneously; and 30% do so to interact with other fans while watching a match.

More than one-fifth of UK sports fans surveyed use at least two devices simultaneously to consume sport

• 20% of UK sports fans surveyed use two devices at the same time when watching sports, close to the global average of 22%.
• Sports fans surveyed aged between 18-29 in Canada are much more likely to use three or more devices at once when watching sports (21%), compared with 7% in the UK and a global average of 10%.
• In the UK, respondents identified multi-tasking (50%) and finding more information (41%) as the top reasons for multi-device sport consumption. 26% also said they use multiple devices to interact with other fans.

The Championships, Wimbledon will run from 1-14 July, 2024. To see the technology in action, visit wimbledon.com or download the Wimbledon App on your mobile device, available on the App Store and Google Play Store.

Notes to Editors

*Survey Methodology
This survey was conducted in May 2024 among a total sample of 18,082 sports fans 18+ in the US, Canada, the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, India, the UAE, and Saudi Arabia. 

The interviews for each country were conducted online, and the data is unweighted, with ~2,000 responses per market in the US, Canada, the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and India and ~1,000 responses per market in the UAE and Saudi Arabia.

To qualify for this survey respondents must be at least an average sports fan and follow one or more of the following sports: Soccer, Cricket, Tennis, Basketball, Baseball, Rugby, Golf, American football, F1 racing, Track and field, Swimming, and the Olympics.

The full findings of this survey will be published on 26 June, 2024.

About IBM
IBM is a leading provider of global hybrid cloud and AI, and consulting expertise. We help clients in more than 175 countries capitalize on insights from their data, streamline business processes, reduce costs and gain the competitive edge in their industries. More than 4,000 government and corporate entities in critical infrastructure areas such as financial services, telecommunications and healthcare rely on IBM’s hybrid cloud platform and Red Hat OpenShift to affect their digital transformations quickly, efficiently and securely. IBM’s breakthrough innovations in AI, quantum computing, industry-specific cloud solutions and consulting deliver open and flexible options to our clients. All of this is backed by IBM’s long-standing commitment to trust, transparency, responsibility, inclusivity and service.

About Wimbledon
The Championships, Wimbledon, is the oldest of the four tennis Grand Slams and the only one played on grass. Managed by The All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC) and staged on the AELTC Grounds, Wimbledon has evolved from its origins as a private members’ croquet club in 1868, to one of the world’s biggest annual sporting events and one of the most well-respected brands in sport. Visit www.wimbledon.com and follow @wimbledon on all major social media platforms.

IBM Media Contact:
Gregor Hastings
+44 (0)7385946943
gregor.hastings@ibm.com

Wimbledon Media Contact:
Eloise Tyson
+44 (0)7771347932
ETys@aeltc.com 

SOURCE IBM
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Consumers Welcome AI-Driven Advancements to Improve the Retail Experience

A global IBM Institute for Business Value study has laid bare the discrepancy between consumer expectations and the current state of retail offerings. The “Revolutionize retail with AI everywhere: Consumers won’t wait” study, unveiled ahead of NRF, surveyed nearly 20,000 individuals worldwide, revealing a dissatisfaction with retail experiences. Just 9% of consumers surveyed said they are content with in-store shopping and just 14% are content with online shopping.

Technology could play an integral role in enhancing the overall shopping experience. Most consumers (59%) surveyed said they would like to use AI applications as they shop and 4 in 5 consumers who haven’t used the technology for shopping reported being interested in trying it, including in product research (86%), deal hunting (79%) and customer service (82%). Personalization and targeted offerings present opportunities for retailers, with 52% of surveyed consumers interested in receiving information, advertisements, and offerings from stores that are relevant to their specific interests.

Still, there remains a clear satisfaction gap for current AI assistant users surveyed. Only about one-third of consumers surveyed who have used virtual assistants are satisfied with the experience and nearly 20% were so disappointed that they don’t want to use virtual assistants again, signaling a mismatch between current tech offerings and shopper expectations.

IBM, Samsung, and Workday partner to empower frontline retail workers through technology

As the retail sector grapples with inflation, rising labor costs, shifting workforce expectations, and hiring challenges, C-Suite executives are confronted with challenges and mounting pressure to boost revenue and expand margins.

IBM has collaborated with Samsung and Workday to provide a strategic answer—Workforce Experience (WEx). The bespoke retail solution combines the power of IBM Consulting‘s iX application design and watsonx AI capabilities with Samsung mobile devices, while leveraging Workday’s Human Capital Management (HCM) and Workday workforce management applications, to equip frontline retail workers with technology to streamline operations.

WEx was built to promote associate and manager productivity, boost employee retention and improve customer satisfaction. The solution uses automation to help solve common challenges like task management and employee onboarding, and generative AI to measure store metrics and performance and help associates with product availability. It is designed to help reduce the time to train associates using a centralized, easy-to-use interface with nudges and notifications and offers on-the-go training and development opportunities through Workday. WEx also offers store associates more detailed information about product availability, in turn helping the customer.

At NRF, IBM will demonstrate how WEx can equip employees with technology to help them  provide the level of service that customers expect. Stop by booth #5006 at NRF to see a demo.

Enhancing the consumer packaged goods (CPG) industry with SAP

In addition to enhancing the customer experience and helping retail employees better meet customer expectations, AI has an important back-office role to play across the industry. At NRF, IBM and SAP will discuss how they seek to combine their expertise to help CPG and retail clients enhance their supply chain, finance operations, sales and services using AI and gen AI.

The goal of the AI-powered solutions is to address the complexities of direct store delivery business process and product portfolio management. IBM Consulting and SAP are already working with CPG clients worldwide to gather detailed requirements to create secured and scalable AI solutions that can be integrated with the SAP Direct Distribution solution.

The new solutions would be designed to help CPG companies, wholesale distributors and retailers more efficiently manage store-level assortments, improve product distribution, and drive incremental revenue by using AI and gen AI to:

• Enhance transportation planning and execution — By incorporating data such as weather, traffic and local events into SAP Direct Distribution, CPG companies could enhance delivery routes to help reduce costs, and lower their carbon footprint.
• Optimize store-level assortments – The solutions could use the market dynamics of each store, sales patterns, anticipated demand and current product mix to make product recommendations and include preliminary planning so enough products are added to the assortment to help maximize sales. Joint clients of SAP and IBM Consulting could be able to manage their last-mile distribution to help effectively identify the most profitable selections and minimize waste.
• Automate order settlement – CPG companies could use intelligent workflows to help proactively achieve operational efficiencies and increase settlement accuracy based on AI in the SAP Direct Distribution last-mile distribution component.

IBM will also use NRF to demonstrate various aspects of our watsonx generative AI platform, particularly watsonx.governance, a powerful set of tools to help manage enterprise-wide governance processes and control risk. To see how watsonx can help retailers, enhance from customer engagement and personalization to operational efficiency, stop by booth #5006 at NRF to see a demo.

Revolutionizing the grocery aisle with Kroger

Looking beyond NRF’24, gen AI can help transform the way businesses across sectors operate, and grocery retail is no exception. The consumer sector is ready to embrace this disruptive technology: 42% of retail CEOs and 59% of consumer products CEOs expect AI—including gen AI, deep learning, and machine learning—to be the technology that can best deliver desired results in the next three years.

Following NRF, join IBM on January 23rd for the latest installment in our retail-focused LinkedIn Live series. Cathy Reese, Senior Partner for Data & Technology Transformation services at IBM, will speak with Jamie Lancaster, Vice President, Contact Centers and G&A Expense Optimization at Kroger, about the gen AI opportunity in grocery, current and potential use cases and how industry players are navigating the implementation and integration journey.

Looking ahead

As businesses across the retail industry gear up for 2024, it’s clear they need to be prepared to meet customers’ changing demands as ecommerce evolves and in-store commerce recovers. Gen AI can play an instrumental role in that preparation, and IBM is looking forward to helping retailers make the most of this emerging technology. To learn more about how IBM is showing up at NRF’24, stay updated via our NRF webpage.

Media contact:

Kelsey Lazio
Kelsey.Lazio@ibm.com

SOURCE IBM

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The AI courses, which are available free of charge, will grant participants IBM-branded digital credentials upon completion. This collaboration aligns with Ireland’s National AI Strategy, which emphasizes the importance of equipping workers with the necessary skills to thrive in the AI job market.

To support this initiative, universities will gain access to IBM-led training tools, such as lectures and immersive skilling experiences. Dublin City University is particularly thrilled to be the first university in Ireland incorporating IBM SkillsBuild generative AI learning and teaching resources into their business analytics modules for the current academic year. This integration will also extend to postgraduate business analytics programs.

FIT’s Chief Executive, Peter Davitt, expressed excitement about the potential of IBM AI course content to complement their existing Tech Apprenticeships and other provisions. He noted the challenges posed by generative AI solutions and the promising growth they entail. Ultimately, this collaboration aims to bridge the gap between education and industry needs in Ireland’s evolving AI landscape.

With the launch of these free AI training courses, IBM is making significant strides in democratizing AI education and empowering adult learners with the skills necessary to succeed in the digital era.

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Unveiling the Strategic Collaboration

IBM’s partnership with AWS is a significant milestone in its ongoing transformation strategy. Through this collaboration, IBM will offer its extensive software catalog as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) on the AWS platform. This move effectively grants AWS access to over 100 resources spanning IBM Consulting, IBM Software, and Red Hat. The announcement was met with enthusiasm, with Tom Rosamilia, senior vice president of IBM Software, stating, “By deepening our collaboration with AWS, we’re taking another major step in giving organizations the ability to choose the hybrid cloud model that works best for their own needs.”

IBM’s Hybrid Cloud Vision

This collaboration aligns seamlessly with IBM’s strategic vision, which CEO Arvind Krishna outlined last year. IBM is placing substantial bets on hybrid cloud, automation, and artificial intelligence (AI). The company firmly believes that the path to rapid digital transformation for its clients revolves around a hybrid cloud strategy. Notably, public cloud services play a pivotal role in this strategy, making partnerships like the one with AWS essential.

Financial Milestones

IBM’s financial performance underscores the significance of this strategic move. In the quarter ended March, IBM reported impressive revenues of USD 14.2 billion, representing a growth rate of 7.7 percent. Red Hat, a subsidiary of IBM, also posted remarkable numbers, with revenues soaring by 18 percent to around USD 1.41 billion. These figures indicate the growing importance of cloud and hybrid solutions in IBM’s revenue mix.

The Kyndryl Spinoff

IBM’s transformation journey includes strategic decisions like the spinoff of its infrastructure services business unit into a new company known as Kyndryl. While Kyndryl reported revenues of USD 4.4 billion for the quarter ended March 31, 2022, marking a year-over-year decline of 7 percent, this move allows IBM to focus more sharply on its core objectives in the cloud computing sector.

A Look Back: The SoftLayer Acquisition

To understand IBM’s evolution in the cloud arena, it’s essential to revisit its acquisition of SoftLayer in 2013. At that time, IBM’s then-CEO Ginni Rometty boldly declared that Watson, IBM’s top innovation, would run on the company’s power chips within SoftLayer. This acquisition aimed to position IBM as a formidable player in the cloud market.

Challenges and Realizations

However, SoftLayer’s cloud infrastructure, designed for smaller markets seeking cost-effective solutions, fell short in addressing the demands of larger organizations. AWS and Microsoft had already established themselves as efficient cloud infrastructure providers, offering enterprise-grade performance and reliability. This realization prompted IBM to make significant changes to its cloud strategy.

The Genesis Project

IBM embarked on a journey to rebuild its cloud infrastructure, initiating the Genesis project. This endeavor sought to create an enterprise-grade cloud system from scratch, incorporating cutting-edge technologies like 3D Torus and a high-performance disk. The goal was to minimize latency to less than 20 milliseconds and meet the demands of large enterprises.

The GC and NG Initiatives

In parallel, another group within IBM worked on a separate infrastructure architecture called GC, aiming to scale the cloud and introduce virtual private cloud technology. Eventually, both the Genesis and GC architectures became available in 2019, leading to internal conflicts and confusion. Unfortunately, by the time IBM’s cloud infrastructures were ready, market leaders like Amazon, Microsoft, and Google Cloud Platform (GCP) had already established their dominance.

Arvind Krishna’s Vision

Upon taking over IBM Cloud in January 2019, Arvind Krishna sought to streamline IBM’s cloud strategy. He aimed to end the dual-track infrastructure approach and focus on a single, unified cloud strategy. Krishna emphasized aligning the portfolio around hybrid cloud and AI, adapting to the evolving market needs.

The Current State

IBM’s recent successes paint a promising picture for its cloud endeavors. IBM’s Cloud Paks, AI-powered software tailored for the hybrid cloud landscape, achieved a remarkable 100 percent net retention rate. Arvind Krishna expressed confidence in the company’s direction, stating, “Today we’re a more focused business, and our results reflect the execution of our strategy.” Despite a temporary dip in cloud and cognitive software revenues, IBM is poised for growth in 2022.

Conclusion

The strategic collaboration between IBM and Amazon Web Services marks a pivotal moment in the world of hybrid cloud computing. As IBM continues to refine its strategy and align its offerings with market demands, the tech giant is positioning itself to play a central role in the evolving cloud landscape. The future holds exciting possibilities for businesses seeking flexible and innovative hybrid cloud solutions, and IBM is determined to be at the forefront of this transformation.

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SAP will use IBM Watson capabilities to power its digital assistant in SAP Start, which provides a unified entry point for cloud solutions from SAP. With SAP Start, users can search for, launch and interactively engage with apps provided in cloud solutions from SAP and SAP S/4HANA® Cloud. New AI capabilities in SAP Start will be designed to help users boost productivity with both natural language capabilities and predictive insights using IBM Watson AI solutions built on IBM’s trust and transparency and data privacy principles.

“This milestone collaboration with IBM aims to provide SAP customers a better user experience, faster decision-making and greater insights to help transform their business processes,” said Christian Klein, CEO and Member of the Executive Board of SAP SE. “Working together to incorporate additional AI, machine learning and other intelligent technologies into SAP solutions can lead to better business outcomes for our joint customers. Today’s news, along with the recent news of our expanded use of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, is a prime example of how the rich, 50-year partnership between our companies continues to grow stronger and move the industry forward.”

New digital assistant capabilities in SAP Start will be extended across SAP solutions to help answer diverse questions for managers and employees. By automating and speeding up common tasks, the capabilities are designed to help unlock employee productivity to focus on more strategic work. SAP Start will allow customers to benefit from intelligence at the point of decision-making with the ability to use AI and machine learning to extract information from a variety of data sources and answer user questions across lines of business. Today, IBM technology currently available in the TripIt mobile app from SAP Concur is helping nearly 13 million users easily access AI-derived weather insights to make more sustainable travel choices before and during their trips.

IBM delivers market-leading AI capabilities with Watson products deployed by more than 100 million users across 20 industries. In addition, SAP and IBM Consulting are currently supporting customers with 25 joint intelligent industry solutions that use IBM Watson capabilities underpinned by SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP). These industry solutions help customers across industries such as retail, manufacturing and utilities accelerate their business transformation and use data to make more informed decisions.

“IBM and SAP are joining forces to give businesses new and exciting ways to harness the transformative power of AI and use it as a source of competitive advantage,” said Arvind Krishna, IBM Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. “With this announcement, we are infusing IBM Watson’s powerful, enterprise-grade AI capabilities into SAP’s leading ERP platform to help businesses reimagine customer experiences, boost productivity and fuel growth.”

In addition to natively embedding IBM Watson AI capabilities into SAP solutions, SAP and IBM are collaborating on generative AI and large language models aimed to deliver consistent continuous learning and automation based on SAP’s mission-critical application suite.

Visit the SAP News Center. Follow SAP on Twitter at @SAPNews.

About SAP
SAP’s strategy is to help every business run as an intelligent, sustainable enterprise. As a market leader in enterprise application software, we help companies of all sizes and in all industries run at their best: SAP customers generate 87% of total global commerce. Our machine learning, Internet of Things (IoT), and advanced analytics technologies help turn customers’ businesses into intelligent enterprises. SAP helps give people and organizations deep business insight and fosters collaboration that helps them stay ahead of their competition. We simplify technology for companies so they can consume our software the way they want – without disruption. Our end-to-end suite of applications and services enables business and public customers across 25 industries globally to operate profitably, adapt continuously, and make a difference. With a global network of customers, partners, employees, and thought leaders, SAP helps the world run better and improve people’s lives. For more information, visit www.sap.com.

About IBM
IBM is a leading global hybrid cloud and AI, and business services provider, helping clients in more than 175 countries capitalize on insights from their data, streamline business processes, reduce costs and gain the competitive edge in their industries. Nearly 3,800 government and corporate entities in critical infrastructure areas such as financial services, telecommunications and healthcare rely on IBM’s hybrid cloud platform and Red Hat OpenShift to affect their digital transformations quickly, efficiently, and securely. IBM’s breakthrough innovations in AI, quantum computing, industry-specific cloud solutions and business services deliver open and flexible options to our clients. All of this is backed by IBM’s legendary commitment to trust, transparency, responsibility, inclusivity, and service. For more information, visit www.ibm.com.

Statements regarding IBM’s future direction and intent are subject to change or withdrawal without notice and represent goals and objectives only.

This document contains forward-looking statements, which are predictions, projections, or other statements about future events. These statements are based on current expectations, forecasts, and assumptions that are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results and outcomes to materially differ. Additional information regarding these risks and uncertainties may be found in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including but not limited to the risk factors section of SAP’s 2021 Annual Report on Form 20-F.

© 2023 SAP SE. All rights reserved.
SAP and other SAP products and services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP SE in Germany and other countries. Please see https://www.sap.com/copyright for additional trademark information and notices.

For customers interested in learning more about SAP products:
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Modernized, unified interface streamlines analyst response across full attack lifecycle Sophisticated AI and automation capabilities shown to speed alert triage by average of 55%¹

ARMONK, N.Y., April 24, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — Today IBM (NYSE: IBM) unveiled its new security suite designed to unify and accelerate the security analyst experience across the full incident lifecycle. The IBM Security QRadar Suite represents a major evolution and expansion of the QRadar brand, spanning all core threat detection, investigation and response technologies, with significant investment in innovations across the portfolio.

Delivered as a service, the IBM Security QRadar Suite is built on an open foundation and designed specifically for the demands of hybrid cloud. It features a single, modernized user interface across all products – embedded with advanced AI and automation designed to empower analysts to work with greater speed, efficiency and precision across their core toolsets.

Today’s Security Operation Center (SOC) teams are protecting a fast-expanding digital footprint that extends across hybrid cloud environments – creating complexity and making it hard to keep pace with accelerating attack speeds. They can be slowed down by labor-intensive alert investigations and response processes, manually stitching together insights and pivoting between disconnected data, tools and interfaces. SOC professionals say they spend around one-third of their day investigating and validating incidents that turn out to not be real threats, according to a recent survey.²

Built on the company’s existing leadership in 12 security technology categories,³ IBM has rearchitected its market leading threat detection and response portfolio to maximize speed and efficiency, and to meet the specific needs of today’s security analysts. The new IBM Security QRadar Suite includes EDR/XDR, SIEM, SOAR, ­and a new cloud-native log management capability – all built around a common user interface, shared insights and connected workflows, with the following core design elements:

• Unified Analyst Experience: Refined in collaboration with hundreds of real-world users, the suite features a common, modernized user interface across all products: designed to dramatically increase analyst speed and efficiency across the entire attack chain. It is embedded with enterprise-grade AI and automation capabilities that have been shown to speed alert investigation and triage by 55% in the first year, on average.¹
• Cloud Delivery, Speed & Scale: Delivered as a service on Amazon Web Services (AWS), QRadar Suite products allow for simplified deployment, visibility and integration across cloud environments and data sources. The suite also includes a new, cloud-native log management capability optimized for highly efficient data ingestion, rapid search and analytics at scale.
• Open Foundation, Pre-Built Integrations: The suite brings together the core technologies needed across threat detection, investigation and response – built around an open foundation, an extensive partner ecosystem, and more than 900 pre-built integrations that provide strong interoperability between IBM and third-party toolsets.

“In the face of a growing attack surface and shrinking attack timelines, speed and efficiency are fundamental to the success of resource-constrained security teams,” said Mary O’Brien, General Manager, IBM Security. “IBM has engineered the new QRadar Suite around a singular, modernized user experience, embedded with sophisticated AI and automation to maximize security analysts’ productivity and accelerate their response across each step of the attack chain.”

Co-innovation for Real-World Security Demands

The QRadar Suite is the culmination of years of IBM investment, acquisitions and innovations in threat detection and response. It features dozens of mature AI and automation capabilities that have been refined over time with real-world users and data, including IBM Managed Security Service engagements with more than 400 clients. It also includes innovations developed in collaboration with IBM Research and the open source security community.

These AI-powered capabilities have been shown to significantly improve the speed and accuracy of SOC operations: For example, allowing IBM Managed Security Services to automate more than 70% of alert closures[4] and reduce its alert triage timelines by 55%² on average within the first year of implementation.

Bringing these capabilities together via the unified analyst experience, the QRadar Suite automatically contextualizes and prioritizes alerts, displays data in visual format for rapid consumption, and provides shared insights and automated workflows between products. This approach can drastically reduce the number of steps and screens required to investigate and respond to threats. Examples include:

• AI-Powered Alert Triage: Automatically prioritizes or closes alerts based on AI-driven risk analysis, using AI models trained on prior analyst response patterns, along with external threat intelligence from IBM X-Force and broader contextual insights from across detection toolsets.
• Automated Threat Investigation: Identifies high-priority incidents that may warrant investigation, and automatically initiates investigation by fetching associated artifacts and gathering evidence via data mining across environments. The system uses these results to generate a timeline and attack graph of the incident based on MITRE ATT&CK framework and recommends actions to speed response.
• Accelerated Threat Hunting: Uses open source threat hunting language and federated search capabilities to help threat hunters discover stealthy attacks and indicators of compromise across their environments, without moving data from its original source.

By helping analysts respond faster and more efficiently, QRadar technologies can also help security teams improve their productivity and free up analysts’ time for higher value work.

Open, Connected and Modernized Security Suite

The QRadar Suite leverages open technologies and standards across the portfolio, alongside hundreds of pre-built integrations with IBM Security ecosystem partners. This model enables deeper shared insights and automated actions across third party clouds, point products, and data lakes, which can reduce deployment and integration times from months to days or weeks.

The IBM QRadar Suite includes the following core products, initially delivered as SaaS and updated with the new unified analyst experience:

• QRadar Log Insights: A new, cloud-native log management and security observability solution providing simplified data ingestion, sub-second search and rapid analytics. It leverages an elastic security data lake optimized to collect, store and perform analytics on terabytes of data with greater speed and efficiency. It is designed for cost effective security log management alongside federated search and investigation.
• QRadar EDR and XDR: Helps companies protect their endpoints against previously unknown, zero-day threats – using automation and hundreds of machine learning and behavioral models to detect behavioral anomalies and respond to attacks in near-real time. It leverages a unique approach that monitors operating systems from the outside, helping avoid manipulation or interference by adversaries. For companies looking to extend their detection and response capabilities beyond the endpoint, IBM also offers XDR with alert correlation, automated investigation, and recommended responses across network, cloud, email, and more, as well as managed detection and response (MDR).
• QRadar SOAR: Recent winner of a Red Dot Design Award for interface & user experience; helps organizations automate and orchestrate incident response workflows and ensure their specific processes are followed in a consistent, optimized and measurable way. It includes 300 pre-built integrations and offers out of the box playbooks for responding to 180+ global data breach and privacy regulations.
• QRadar SIEM: IBM’s market leading QRadar SIEM has been enhanced with the new unified analyst interface which provides shared insights and workflows with broader security operations toolsets. It offers real-time detection, leveraging AI, network and user behavior analytics, and real-world threat intelligence built to provide analysts with more accurate, contextualized and prioritized alerts. IBM also plans to make QRadar SIEM available as a service on AWS by the end of Q2 2023.

The IBM Security QRadar Suite is available today via individual SaaS offerings. For more information, visit: https://www.ibm.com/qradar

Statements regarding IBM’s future direction and intent are subject to change or withdrawal without notice, and represent goals and objectives only.

About IBM Security

IBM Security helps secure the world’s largest enterprises and governments with an integrated portfolio of security products and services, infused with dynamic AI and automation capabilities. The portfolio, supported by world-renowned IBM Security X-Force® research, enables organizations to predict threats, protect data as it moves, and respond with speed and precision without holding back business innovation. IBM is trusted by thousands of organizations as their partner to assess, strategize, implement, and manage security transformations. IBM operates one of the world’s broadest security research, development, and delivery organizations, monitors 150 billion+ security events per day in more than 130 countries, and has been granted more than 10,000 security patents worldwide.

Media Contact:
Cassy Lalan
Communications, IBM Security
cllalan@us.ibm.com | 319-230-2232

¹Based on IBM’s internal analysis of aggregated performance data observed from Managed Security Service engagements with 400+ clients from 2018-2019, which showed that average alert triage timeline was reduced by 55% during the first year using AI and automation capabilities that are now part of QRadar. Actual results will vary based on client configurations and conditions and, therefore, generally expected results cannot be provided.

²Global Security Operations Center Study Results, administered by Morning Consult and commissioned by IBM, March 2023. Based on responses from 1,000 surveyed security operation center professionals from 10 countries.

³Based on security product evaluations from external analyst firms including Gartner, IDC, Forrester, KuppingerCole and Omdia, which rank IBM as a leader in 12 security product categories: SIEM, SOAR, Fraud Reduction Intelligence Platform, Risk Based Authentication, Identity Governance and Administration, Access Management, Identity and Access Management as a Service, Access Governance & Intelligence and Identity Governance, Authentication, Customer Identity and Access Management, Data Security, Unified Endpoint Management.

⁴IBM Institute for Business Value report, “AI and automation for cybersecurity,” 2022. Results based on IBM analysis of aggregated annual performance data observed from hundreds of global clients using AI and automation capabilities that are now part of QRadar Suite. Actual results will vary based on client configurations and conditions and, therefore, generally expected results cannot be provided.

SOURCE IBM

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In 2021, IBM announced the spin-off of its IT services business into a new public company named Kyndryl. This decision came as part of IBM’s effort to focus on cloud computing and AI capabilities. In this article, we will discuss the reasons behind the spin-off, Kyndryl’s business strategy, and what has happened to the company since its inception.

Background

IBM has been a major player in the IT services industry for several decades, providing consulting, application development, and infrastructure services to clients worldwide. However, the company has been struggling in recent years to keep up with its competitors in the cloud computing market, such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure. In 2020, IBM announced that it would spin off its IT services business into a separate public company, allowing IBM to focus on its cloud and AI capabilities.

Reasons for the Spin-Off

There were several reasons why IBM decided to spin off its IT services business. First, the move would allow IBM to focus on its core competencies, such as cloud computing and AI. By shedding its IT services business, IBM could invest more resources in developing these capabilities, which are critical for the company’s future growth.

Second, the spin-off would provide more flexibility for both IBM and Kyndryl. As separate companies, IBM and Kyndryl would be able to pursue their own strategies without being constrained by each other’s priorities. This would allow Kyndryl to focus on expanding its IT services business, while IBM could focus on developing its cloud and AI capabilities.

Kyndryl’s Business Strategy

Kyndryl’s business strategy is centered on providing IT services to clients worldwide. The company offers a range of services, including consulting, application development, and infrastructure services. Kyndryl aims to differentiate itself from its competitors by providing customized solutions to its clients, tailored to their specific needs and requirements.

Kyndryl’s focus on customization is supported by the company’s investment in emerging technologies. The company is leveraging technologies such as automation and AI to develop innovative solutions that can help its clients become more efficient and effective.

What has Happened to Kyndryl since its Inception?

Kyndryl was officially launched as a separate public company on April 5, 2021, with Martin Schroeter as its CEO. Since then, the company has been focused on building its business and expanding its client base.

One of the major challenges that Kyndryl has faced is the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, which has had a significant impact on the IT services industry. The pandemic has caused many businesses to cut back on their IT spending, which has affected Kyndryl’s revenue growth.

Despite these challenges, Kyndryl has been making progress in building its business. The company has announced several new partnerships with clients in different industries, including financial services and healthcare. These partnerships have helped Kyndryl to expand its client base and generate new revenue streams.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the spin-off of IBM’s IT services business into Kyndryl was a strategic decision aimed at allowing IBM to focus on its core competencies while providing more flexibility for both IBM and Kyndryl. Kyndryl’s business strategy is centered on providing customized IT services to clients worldwide, supported by investments in emerging technologies such as automation and AI. Although the COVID-19 pandemic has presented challenges for Kyndryl, the company has been making progress in building its business and expanding its client base.

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