IT Informations

ARMONK, N.Y. - 29 Feb 2016: IBM (NYSE: IBM) is expanding its academic initiative with a new program that infuses its natural-language-based Watson Analytics technology into the classroom to help professors teach students how to turn data into insights without needing in-depth knowledge of data science. IBM is also introducing a new student version of Watson Analytics that will put the power of cognitive computing into the hands of the next generation of business leaders as they prepare to enter the workforce.

The skills gap in analytics is well known – not just in IT, but also across a wide range of job roles and functions. Recent research

cited in Datanami

indicates that the current demand for data scientists exceed the current supply by factor of three

. To help meet the need, line of business managers are learning to launch complex analytics programs on their own; as

Gartner predicts

that the number of citizen data scientists will grow five times faster than the number of highly skilled data scientists through 2017

IBM is helping to prepare the citizen data scientist of tomorrow with a new Watson Analytics Academic Program that can be used to help educate more than 140,000 students in qualified leading universities globally including Northwestern University, the College of William and Mary, Deakin University in Australia and many more. The new program provides qualified universities with an enablement kit that includes sample data sets; an online course; student workbooks; video tutorials and pre-packaged syllabi to help professors update their lesson plans. The program also includes a one-year license of Watson Analytics Professional Edition for up to 100 users at no cost.

With these tools, nearly 400 universities are already using Watson Analytics to augment data analysis courses and, in some cases, create completely new analytics programs. For example:

Northwestern University is building Watson Analytics into the curriculum of its Predictive Analytics, Marketing Mix Models and Entertainment Marketing classes to help its students build visualizations and learn about social media sentiment analysis. Students are analyzing data provided by an online retailer using manual analysis before moving the data sets into Watson Analytics. By comparing results, they are learning to remove personal bias from their analysis while learning to communicate their results with advanced visualizations.

At Auburn University, Professor Dianne Hall is incorporating Watson Analytics into the university’s introductory statistics class –a required course for every business student – as well as several other predictive modeling and big data courses. Students are learning to analyze social media data from Twitter as well as real-life data sets from across the university using data visualizations to better interpret their results.

Students at The College of William and Mary are using Watson Analytics in Professor Dorothea La Abraham’s Developing Business Intelligence course and a Health Analytics module in a health focused business course. Dr. Abraham is building lesson plans using sample data and workbooks available through Big Data University; allowing her students to explore the data through natural language processing.

University of Connecticut is incorporating Watson Analytics into several MBA courses taught by Professor Girish Punj, including “Digital Marketing” and “Big Data and Strategy Marketing” classes, to teach future marketing professionals how to analyze data without the help of a data scientist. With Watson Analytics, students are learning how to build long-term marketing plans based on insights that they are extracting from sources including Facebook and Twitter.

University of West Florida is using Watson Analytics in a Healthcare Informatics class to conduct data analysis on an asthma dataset and a dataset covering EPA reports across all 67 Florida counties. Through advanced data visualization and natural language processing, students are also learning how to uncover insights on correlations between behavior and obesity, which they could use to make more informed recommendations to physicians about how to treat patients in the real world.

Iowa State University is incorporating Watson Analytics into a series of management information systems classes to teach students how to leverage social media sentiment to make more informed decisions about sales offerings and product lifecycle management. Using Twitter sentiment analysis available through Watson Analytics, students are uncovering relationships between Twitter discussions and sales data that they can use to adjust marketing campaigns in real-time.

University of Memphis’ Fogelman College of Business and Economics has hundreds of undergraduate students using Watson Analytics as part of their initial introduction to business analytics as a component of the required “Critical Thinking and Project Management” course. With guided data discovery, Watson Analytics allows students with different analytical backgrounds – from advanced to novice – to quickly unveil insights and build advanced visualizations.

Deakin University in Australia, through its IBM Centre of Excellence in Business Analytics, is opening Watson Analytics to more than 50,000 students via a university wide agreement. Students from undergraduate and postgraduate levels are given the opportunities to learn contemporary analytics applications in preparation for real-life scenarios when they enter the workforce in fields such as information systems, accounting, business analytics, finance, financial planning, human resource management, IT security, IT services and marketing specializations.

Across nine campuses in Southeast Asia, Federation University in Australia is partnering with local businesses to help their Master of Technology Program students use Watson Analytics to learn how to analyze data around real–world problems as part of its capstone project.

“Data analysis will be a critical part of every job in the twenty-first century - so we see Watson Analytics, which turns everyone into a data scientist, as the future of analytics,” said Dr. Martin Block, Northwestern University. “Pulling from syllabus guides provided through the Watson Analytics Academic Program, we were able to integrate new lesson plans into our course work in less than a week; which has helped us prepare our students to tackle any analytical problem on their own once they enter the workforce.”

“With the shortage of data scientists, the rapid increase of citizen analysts and the growth in data, we need a paradigm shift away from Q&A-driven analysis and more towards unbiased inquiry to allow data scientists to spend less time searching and more time tuning; and citizen analysts to find patterns in data without deep statistical skills,” said Marc Altshuller, Vice President, Watson Analytics and Business Intelligence, IBM Analytics. “The new Watson Analytics Academic Program is enabling this by training the citizen analyst of tomorrow with skills to help them unlock the value of data for businesses around the globe.”

Furthering its mission to increase data science education, IBM is launching a new student edition of Watson Analytics that extends cognitive computing further into the classroom to help students learn how to prepare, refine and build predictions from data with smart data discovery. The new student version expands on capabilities available in the freemium version of Watson Analytics to offer students at qualified universities access to Twitter data as well data from external data sources including DashDB, IBM Netezza and more at no cost.

Universities can apply for the Watson Analytics Academic Program throughhttp://ibm.co/1emFp3G.

IBM has been a decades-long leader in open source innovation and data science education. In June, IBM committed to educating more than 1 million data scientists and data engineers on Spark through extensive partnerships with DataCamp, MetiStream, Galvanize and Big Data University MOOC.

1Datanami, Data Science Education Gets Stronger, But It’s Not There Yet, October 2015:https://ibm.biz/BdHKXd

2Gartner: Smart Data Discovery will Enable a new Class of Citizen Data Scientist June 29, 2015

Contact(s) information

Thursday, March 03, 201609:00 AM - 10:00 AM (PST) 06:00 PM - 07:00 PM in local time (GMT +0100)

Don’t wait any longer to jump in the bandwagon of the Open Source movement and start taking advantage of the best in class integration technology that can connect services, systems & data effectively without burning all your budget.

WSO2 is the only vendor that offers a complete SOA middleware stack 100% open source, addressing the demands of integrating disparate applications by various vendors, with heterogeneous protocols connecting services, legacy systems and cloud systems. The 100% open source comprehensive and cohesive platform enables you to be agile and is highly cost effective. IT Convergence has partnered up with WSO2 to deliver the best in class SOA framework, guaranteeing a cost-effective solution to all your integration needs.

Join our webinar to discover how we leveraged WSO2 ESB to cost-effectively integrate Salesforce.com with Oracle EBS for one of our long time customers providing a cloud integration solution that eased dramatically the complexity and cost of a traditional SOA project.

This webinar will contain:

Integration Issues Companies Face

Benefits Of Using An Open Source Platform

Introducing WSO2 Enterprise Service Bus

Case Study: Salesforce Integration With Oracle EBS

Live Demo

Key Takeaways

This webcast will include live demos and is intended to last about 50 mins with 10 mins of QA. We’re inviting all Enterprise Architects, CIOs, Dir./VP of IT and Applications, ERP Managers, Middleware experts, SOA architects, and everyone else who is interested in learning about integration with an Open Source tool.

Presenters

Bill Moorehouse Vice President of Sales and Marketing, IT Convergence

Bill Moorehouse is the Vice President of Sales and Marketing at IT Convergence. During his time at ITC, Bill has worked closely with ITC’s clients on a number of business transformation initiatives, including cloud application implementations & integration projects that included SOA, BPM, BAM & many other key areas that will be presented in the webinar. Prior to joining ITC in 2009, Bill worked at Oracle, within the “tech” consulting practice. Bill holds a Bachelor’s from the University of Hartford and an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management.

Brian Crowley Executive Director of Enterprise Architecture, IT Convergence

Brian Crowley is the Executive Director of Enterprise Architecture. He has been with ITC for six years. His distinguished career includes 23 years as an Oracle Technology consultant, as well as executive roles as President/CEO of an international Oracle centric consulting firm, CIO for a national retailer and CIO/CTO for an international financial services company. In addition, Mr. Crowley has worked for Coopers and Lybrand as a Management Consultant assisting in business development activities, as well as project management and Quality Assurance consultant for all large IT projects. The depth of his Oracle experience consists of hands-on experience as an architect, developer, DBA and Technical Lead.

Malaka Silva Senior Technical Lead, WSO2

Bomgar Vault helps companies secure, manage, and administer shared credentials for privileged users and IT vendors.

When integrated with Bomgar Privileged Access Management, passwords are injected directly from Bomgar Vault to endpoints without being seen by system administrators.

Tweet This: New @Bomgar Vault helps secure, manage, and administer shared credentials for privileged accounts http://goo.gl/vQD1AZ.

San Francisco, CA – RSA Conference – February 29, 2016 – Bomgar, a leader in secure access solutions, today announced the new Bomgar Vault, which helps companies secure, manage, and administer shared credentials for privileged users and IT vendors. Bomgar Vault improves security, compliance, and productivity by enabling security organizations to quickly find and gain control of privileged credentials, manage and rotate passwords, and directly inject credentials into servers and other network infrastructure via Bomgar’s Privileged Access Management solution.

“If a system administrator or vendor accesses an account on a regular basis, they may remember the password. But many times these accounts are shared and used infrequently, resulting in passwords written down on sticky notes or stored in unencrypted spreadsheets. These are exactly the kind of credentials cybercriminals target because they are the keys to your most critical systems,” said Sam Elliott, director of security product management, Bomgar. “Bomgar Vault makes it easy to uncover all of the privileged credentials within your environment and place them behind a secure wall where credentials are controlled and rotated. System administrators can access those credentials quickly and securely to log into privileged systems while reducing the business’s exposure to malicious attacks or nefarious parties.”

Bomgar Vault helps security professionals quickly scan their network to find privileged credentials, check if they’re active, and determine the age of each password. Security organizations can also import credentials in bulk to quickly build a list of accounts that need to be managed. Once privileged credentials are within the secure Bomgar Vault, all use of those credentials are managed, restricted, and logged. Credentials can be rotated automatically, based on defined rules or when the system detects plain text passwords have been exposed. Email alerts and approvals can be set up to keep responsible parties informed of critical credential use.

Integrating Bomgar Vault with Bomgar Privileged Access Management takes protection even further by enabling direct credential injection into servers and other network infrastructure without the system administrator or vendor ever seeing the credential. Integrating the solutions not only increases security, it also improves productivity by allowing administrators to access servers and systems quickly and seamlessly without having to find or check out credentials.

“Implementing Privileged Access and Account Management together allows organizations to immediately protect access to their critical systems while they’re identifying and securing their privileged accounts,” continued Elliott. “This not only speeds time to building a more secure environment, but ultimately makes it exponentially more difficult for attackers to reach privileged systems.”

Organizations can also integrate Bomgar Vault with multifactor authentication (MFA) to further improve security for critical accounts by ensuring that the authenticated user is the actual user who should be granted access to the systems.

Bomgar Vault will be available soon. Bomgar is showcasing all of its Secure Access solutions at booth N4432 during the RSA Conference from February 29 – March 4, 2016 in San Francisco. For more information, please visit: www.bomgar.com/vault.

About Bomgar

Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection uses cloud power to figure out you’ve been pwned - http://cyberparse.co.uk/2016/03/01/windows-defender-advanced-threat-protection-uses-cloud-power-to-figure-out-youve-been-pwned/

WDATP can detect anomalous behavior even when the malware scanner doesn’t find anything wrong.Microsoft Microsoft is beefing up Windows Defender, the anti-malware program that ships with Windows 10, to give it the power to tell companies that they’ve been hacked after the fact. Attacks that depend on social engineering rather than software flaws, as well as those taking advantage of unpatched zero-day vulnerabilities, can evade traditional anti-malware software. Microsoft says that there were thousands of such attacks in 2015 and that on average they took 200 days to detect and a further 80 days to contain, giving attackers ample time to steal data and incurring average costs of $12 million per incident. The catchily named Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection is designed to detect this kind of attack, not by looking for specific pieces of malware, but rather by detecting system activity that looks out of the ordinary. For example, a social engineering attack might encourage a victim to run a program that was attached to an e-mail or execute a suspicious-looking PowerShell command. The Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) software that’s typically used in such attacks may scan ports, connect to network shares to look for data to steal, or connect to remote systems to seek new instructions and exfiltrate data. Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection can monitor this behavior and see how it deviates from normal, expected system behavior. The baseline is the aggregate behavior collected anonymously from more than 1 billion Windows systems. If systems on your network start doing something that the “average Windows machine” doesn’t, WDATP will alert you. The system also strives to understand malicious behavior, too. More than 1 million suspicious files are automatically executed and examined within sandboxed environments in the cloud to build a better picture of the abnormal activities that malware and hacks can cause. All this data is crunched and analyzed using machine learning techniques to build models of normal and abnormal system activity. This means that not only can unusual PC behavior be identified, it can also be cross referenced against particular malware. When errant system behavior is found, WDATP alerts administrators and gives them a view not just of a machine’s current activities, but also historic information about network usage, files accessed, and processes run. That an intrusion has occurred may not be detected immediately, but this information should make it easier to determine when machines were compromised and just how far into an organization’s systems the intruder managed to penetrate. As is increasingly the way with Microsoft’s software, the whole thing is cloud-based with no need for any on-premises server. A client on each endpoint is needed, which would presumably be an extended version of the Windows Defender client.

Enlarge / The WDATP dashboard giving an at-a-glance view of system health. Microsoft

While announced today, WDATP is currently being tested on about half a million systems in a private beta. WDATP will become more broadly available in a public preview later the year. Microsoft has yet to decide on what kind of pricing model it will have. The company says that more than 22 million enterprise customers have already made the switch to Windows 10 and points at the Department of Defense’s plans to upgrade 4 million systems as further evidence that Windows 10 is not merely ready for the enterprise but is also a marked improvement on Windows 7 and 8.1. Part of the push for Windows 10 is its improved security features; Windows 10 includes a number of sensible new security features that Microsoft is trying to sell enterprise users on, such as Credential Guard (to make credential theft and lateral access within breached networks harder) and Device Guard (to more robustly lock malware out of systems). WDATP is going to be part of that same push to Windows 10, and it won’t be available for older operating systems. This arguably marks a broader shift in Microsoft’s approach to enterprise software; traditionally, Redmond would, just like every other software vendor, support its software on multiple versions of Windows. In so doing, Microsoft acted as an enabler, allowing corporations to keep old versions of Windows long past their prime. Keen to avoid Windows 7 becoming “the new Windows XP,” the company is being rather more aggressive in applying pressure on users to upgrade to Windows 10 sooner rather than later.

WASHINGTON, D.C. and ARMONK, N.Y - 02 Mar 2016: Today, the American Sleep Apnea Association (ASAA) and IBM (NYSE:IBM) introduced the SleepHealth app designed for iPhone and Apple Watch and the patient-driven SleepHealth Mobile Study to help identify connections between sleep habits and health outcomes. The SleepHealth study uses the open source ResearchKit framework designed by Apple to enable participants to easily complete tasks and submit surveys right from the SleepHealth app. SleepHealth is the first ResearchKit study to run on the data-rich Watson Health Cloud.

Sleep is one of the most important factors impacting health, safety and quality of life. Yet 1 in 4 Americans experience sleep problems, which severely impact daily functioning, health and longevity. Chronic insomnia affects more than 10 percent of Americans, and 25 million suffer from obstructive sleep apnea, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Often undiagnosed, sleep apnea is characterized by disrupted sleep, loud snoring, and repeated pauses in breathing. Chronic sleep loss, whether from a medical condition or lifestyle, is associated with increased risk of heart disease, hypertension, obesity, cancer, depression, motor-vehicle crashes and reduced quality of life.

In concert with researchers, physicians and patient advocates in the US, the SleepHealth study will explore the connections between sleep quality and daytime activities, alertness, productivity, general health and medical conditions. App users will have the opportunity to help shape the study by contributing ideas for research topics, survey questions, engagement activities and messaging. Data contributed by participants will be stored on the Watson Health Cloud, where researchers will conduct extensive analysis to uncover patterns and connections in the data.

“We’ve made life the laboratory for this study by crowd-sourcing data and input to achieve an unprecedented understanding of sleep in a non-invasive manner,” said Carl Stepnowsky, PhD, the principal investigator for the study, associate professor at University of California at San Diego and ASAA’s chief science officer. “This study also marks the Association’s commitment to patient-led research and data-driven discovery. With ResearchKit and Watson Health Cloud, this new app will help us build the world’s largest longitudinal study to collect data on both healthy and unhealthy sleepers that can be published as an open study and shared with other researchers.”

The back-end data solution is provided via Watson Health for ResearchKit, which runs on the secure, HIPAA-enabled Watson Health Cloud and enables researchers to combine data collected via the SleepHealth app with diverse data sources such as medical literature, treatment guidelines, claims data and clinical data. Researchers can also opt to apply Watson Analytics for deeper insights from the data.

“One of our goals at IBM Watson Health is to eliminate silos that hinder collaboration between researchers, patients and clinicians, and create opportunities for these communities to share and learn from one another,” said Kyu Rhee, M.D., chief health officer for Watson Health. “It is exciting to see Watson Health and our ecosystem of partners help advance our understanding of how an essential, yet often under-appreciated factor like sleep impacts so many health outcomes like heart disease and diabetes.”

In addition to generating insights for research, the app is also a personalized tool that is designed to help users better understand the link between their sleep habits and general well-being. Participants will receive tips on health and sleep through the app such as sticking to a regular sleep schedule by going to bed and getting up at the same time every day, even on weekends and days off.

A New Research Model for Real-World Application

The SleepHealth app makes use of many Apple Watch sensors — such as the accelerometer, which detects movements, and the gyroscope, which determines orientation in space — to measure and record movements such as shifting positions during sleep. It also uses Apple Watch’s heart rate monitor to detect sleep. Some of the app’s features, such as the Personal Sleep Concierge and the Nap Tracker, were designed specifically with Apple Watch in mind to help instill good sleep habits. With iOS 9.3, SleepHealth will be the first ResearchKit app to leverage Apple’s new Night Shift feature that reduces light exposure before sleep.

“As someone who suffered for years with undiagnosed sleep apnea, I’m eager to see how this app contributes to our understanding of sleep health and its connection to serious health conditions,” said Adam Amdur, ASAA’s chief patient officer, co-investigator, and the father of a young child battling the condition. “SleepHealth is the first ResearchKit study developed by an all patient team of researchers and advocates, and we believe it has the potential to be the largest international sleep study ever. Our ultimate goal is to uncover patterns to advance good sleep practices, optimize health and predict who is at risk for sleep disorders or other medical conditions.”

After several years of data collection, the research team hopes to develop personalized and public health interventions for a variety of sleep-related health issues, for example helping athletes optimize training before a big event, mitigating fatigue in the workplace, or detecting early symptoms of Alzheimer’s and mental health disorders.

The SleepHealth app is available to anyone in the U.S. as a free download from the App Store, with plans for global expansion in the near future. Study participants must be at least 18 years of age and understand English. The app includes a simple process to ensure informed consent for participation in the study. To help maintain participant privacy, subject names are removed from the study data. For more information about the SleepHealth Mobile App Study, visit Sleeptember.org.

With this news, IBM introduces Watson Health for ResearchKit, a new offering on Watson Health Cloud. Watson Health for ResearchKit is now available at no charge to qualified, non-profit health researchers.

Visit the App Store to download the SleepHealth app:https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/sleephealth/id1059830442?ls=1&mt=8

Learn more about this story on the IBM THINK Blog: www.ibm.com/blogs/think/2016/03/02/night-terror-lets-put-the-spotlight-on-sleep-apnea/

About the American Sleep Apnea Association

The American Sleep Apnea Association, founded in 1990, is a patient-led 501©(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to the promotion of sleep health through research, advocacy and education. The ASAA engages patients in many ways including a national patient network called A.W.A.K.E. that provides free peer-to-peer support through local hospitals and dentist offices; an active website that provides education to 200,000 unique visitors a month; and through dynamic social media communities and discussion forums. Its CPAP Assistance Program (CAP) has provided over 4,000 medical equipment packages to sleep apnea patients over the last two years. Most recently, ASAA launched Sleeptember®, a new initiative to create fun and engaging online and community events in order to raise awareness of the public health impact of sleep loss, connections to comorbid health conditions, and raise funds for medical research. For more information on ASAA, visit: sleepapnea.org. For more information on the SleepHealth Mobile App Study and Sleeptember, visit: Sleeptember.org. Join our community on Twitter at #sleeptemberorg and #sleephealthapp and follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Vimeo.

About IBM Watson Health

Watson is the first commercially available cognitive computing capability representing a new era in computing. The system, delivered through the cloud, analyzes high volumes of data, understands complex questions posed in natural language, and proposes evidence-based answers. Watson continuously learns, gaining in value and knowledge over time, from previous interactions. In April 2015, the company launched IBM Watson Health and the Watson Health Cloud platform. The new unit will help improve the ability of doctors, researchers and insurers to innovate by surfacing insights from the massive amount of personal health data being created and shared daily. The Watson Health Cloud will allow this information to be de-identified, shared and combined with a dynamic and constantly growing aggregated view of clinical, research and social health data. For more information on IBM Watson, visit: ibm.com/watson. For more information on IBM Watson Health, visit: ibm.com/watsonhealth.

Check out the IBM Watson press kit at: http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/presskit/27297.wss. Join the conversation at #ibmwatson and #watsonhealth. Follow Watson on Facebook and see Watson on YouTube and Flickr.

Contact(s) information

Christine Douglass IBM Media Relations, Watson Health 1 (415) 535-4479 [email protected]

Madrid - 02 Mar 2016: IBM (NYSE: IBM) and Telefónica today announced a 10-year contract for IBM to modernize and manage different Telefonica Human Resources and Finance Management processes of the telecommunications giant over the next 10 years.

As part of the agreement, IBM is acquiring three companies of Tgestiona – a Telefónica company specialized in finance and human resources processes management for Communications Sector – in Spain, Argentina and Peru.

Telefónica turned to IBM to drive three strategic objectives: simplify operations, drive efficiencies, and deliver a next-generation client experience. IBM differentiated with its consult-to-operate approach and its digital reinvention point of view, which aligns with Telefónica´s transformation strategy.

“IBM was chosen as our strategic partner based on their ability to demonstrate market-leading best practices in finance and HR, deliver a superior user experience to Telefónica, and demonstrate automation and digital innovation while respecting the cultural diversity of our clients,” said Javier Delgado, Director Planning, Projects and Global Services of Telefónica.

IBM’s market-leading process expertise and cloud operational platforms will help these companies modernize, deliver efficiencies, and improve client experience.

"We understand Telefónica’s enduring commitment to its people and its customers,” said Jesús Mantas, General Manager of IBM Consulting and Global Process Services. “Our agreement with Telefónica represents the future of process transformation in the digital age. It delivers the required efficiencies while addressing the cultural and human elements of digital change, reducing risks and operational disruption”.

Founded in 2001, Tgestiona is a leading provider of Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) services, with offices in Spain, Argentina and Peru serving clients across Europe, Latin and Central America.

About Telefónica

Telefónica is one of the largest telecommunications companies in the world in terms of market capitalisation and number of customers. With its best in class mobile, fixed and broadband networks, and innovative portfolio of digital solutions, Telefónica is transforming itself into a ‘Digital Telco’, a company that will be even better placed to meet the needs of its customers and capture new revenue growth.

The company has a significant presence in 21 countries and a customer base of over 327 million accesses around the world. Telefónica has a strong presence in Spain, Europe and Latin America, where the company focuses an important part of its growth strategy.

Telefónica is a 100% listed company, with more than 1.5 million direct shareholders. Its share capital currently comprises 4.864.341. 251 ordinary shares traded on the Spanish Stock Market  and on those in London, New York, Lima, and Buenos Aires.

About IBM

For more information, visit http://www.ibm.com/services/gbs.

Contact(s) information

Marisa Conway IBM Media Relations 212-671-9408 [email protected]

- Tiatros to Help Doctors Extract Real-World Patient Data and Connect Medical Experts with Family and Caregivers Using Watson-Powered CarePod, a Digital Health Platform - New Study by UCSF and Tiatros Powered by Watson to Help Doctors Identify Veterans with PTSD Early in its Onset and Apply Customized Behavioral Health Support

LAS VEGAS - 02 Mar 2016: Tiatros® and IBM (NYSE:IBM) announced today that Tiatros has joined the IBM Watson Ecosystem, enabling the development by Tiatros of new cognitive computing applications to help transform chronic disease care with the power of secure, social networks, and predictive natural language analytics. This announcement comes as both Tiatros and IBM participate in HIMSS 2016, a leading health technology conference.

San Francisco-based Tiatros has created a patient-centered, doctor-driven digital solution called aCarePod

TM

that allows physicians, with patient consent, to create a secure, social network around a patient and safely add people who influence their health to a care plan. Social determinants — which include a patient’s education level, food security, and household stability — are known to be among the greatest influences on a patients’ health outcome, notably patients with chronic conditions.

[1]

Patients typically see a doctor only a few times per year with each appointment an average of 15 minutes per visit — little time to discuss what’s happening in the patient’s life outside of the clinic.

[2]

Exacerbating the time constraints, doctors typically only see a ‘roll up’ report of a patient’s medical history, which lacks insights.

[3]

Tiatros’ CarePod integrates social media-styled communications, calendaring, and video chat technology connecting individuals to their continuum of caregivers in a HIPAA-compliant environment. In doing so, Tiatros enables people such as family members, specialty physicians, home health nurses, social workers, and behavioral health workers to become part of the care plan alongside primary care physicians. The Tiatros CarePod incorporates IBM’s Watson’s Natural Language Processing API to extract relevant health information from a patients’ unstructured health data (such as posted conversations between the patient and their home care nurse or text responses to digital patient questionnaires) and integrates that data with other available health information to support a holistic view of patient health.    

“Understanding the impact of social determinants on a patient’s health requires numerous real-time conversations with lots of different people that doctors simply don’t have time for in today’s health system. Tiatros helps address this, and helps facilitate and record a type of ongoing care conversation,” said Kimberlie Cerrone, CEO of Tiatros.“Tiatros incorporates Watson cognitive computing to more easily unearth care insights from unstructured data. We then integrate it into the broader patient record, which has proven to dramatically increase a physician’s ability to positively influence patient’s health outcomes.”

Tiatros and UCSF to Study PTSD and War Veterans

Tiatros today also announced it is using the Watson Personality Insights API in a study launching this month with the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF).

Almost all soldiers return from a tour of duty suffering from some behavioral disturbance, but not necessarily Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, which often does not fully present in an individual for six months or more after returning home. There are nearly 3 million veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and as many as 1/3 (1 million) are believed to suffer from PTSD. Only ¼ of those suffering from PTSD (250,000) ever get even the most minimal of treatment.[4]

The UCSF study is designed to examine whether Tiatros’ cognitive digital assessment tool for behavioral health can more quickly identify PTSD in veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, and better measure the impact of therapeutic interventions. For the study, the Tiatros tool will organize veterans into secure, social networks and deliver a series of psycho-educational courses called Next Mission. Veterans will watch course materials, provide written responses to questions about their experiences, and collaborate on homework assignments with members of their peer group. These interactions will produce natural language content, which UCSF will use to then ‘score’ the likelihood that a patient will meet the clinical definition of PTSD. Results will be compared against qualitative physician assessments, the current standard of care, which require a six month long post-deployment waiting period before being considered valid.

“Our goal is to lower the barriers of access and stigma that prevent soldiers from receiving care, and aim to create a quantitative marker of the risk of PTSD persisting in an individual — something that has not existed and which is sorely needed if we’re going to stop the ongoing crisis of soldier suicide, which currently claims 22 veterans each day,” said Kim Norman, MD, principal investigator for the study and a professor of psychiatry at UCSF. “Advanced technology such as cognitive computing could be a tremendous asset to clinicians in identifying and caring for this incredibly at-risk population.”

Unique to the motivations for this collaboration is a father-son relationship. Both of Dr. Norman’s sons are veterans of the Global War on Terror. The older, Seth Norman, served as a Platoon Leader throughout two deployments to Iraq, and is now the Vice President of Customer Engagement for Tiatros and a course leader for Next Mission.

Watson Health Ecosystem Continues to Expand

Tiatros joins more than 500 companies across 17 industries and disciplines in the Watson Ecosystem, such as Boston-based Best Doctors. In 2015, Best Doctors announced an initiative with IBM Watson for Best Doctors to develop a highly-sophisticated tool that provides real-time, personalized responses to users’ medical questions. The system, named Asklepius, will incorporate a massive database of medical knowledge derived from thousands of medical cases reviewed by Best Doctors. Leveraging Watson, Best Doctors aims to help reduce the physical, emotional, and financial tolls of medical uncertainty and misdiagnosis.

More than 100 members of the Watson ecosystem have introduced commercial cognitive enabled apps, products and services to the marketplace. These members join the more than 80,000 developers globally that are tapping into APIs via the Watson Developer Cloud to pilot, test and deploy new business ideas. IBM has allocated $100 million for venture investments to support this community of start-ups and businesses building cognitive applications powered by Watson. The rate at which companies are introducing cognitive computing and AI-infused apps to market has tripled in less than a year.

About Tiatros

Tiatros was founded in 2010 to harness the power of digital technology to improve the practice of chronic disease care. Tiatros literally means the healing power of secure, social networks enabled by technology. In fact, “iatro” is the ancient greek word for healing. The “t” for technology and “s” for social are our own modern additions. The team has over 200 combined years of experience in startups, healthcare IT, clinical medicine, and healthcare sales. Now the team is building clinician-driven, patient-centric tools that allow physicians to use the power of secure, social networks to deliver better, faster, safer outcomes for chronic disease patients. Tiatros was designed with the expert input of hundreds of clinicians, patients, and caretakers, to help them overcome the information silos, logistical barriers, and process complexity unique to the treatment of chronic diseases. Tiatros places patients in a CarePod, at the center of their own secure, social network of care providers and caretakers, who use powerful collaboration, engagement, and predictive analytics tools to improve patient outcomes. Tiatros is making healing and health social again.

About IBM Watson Health

Watson is the first commercially available cognitive computing capability representing a new era in computing. The system, delivered through the cloud, analyzes high volumes of data, understands complex questions posed in natural language, and proposes evidence-based answers. Watson continuously learns, gaining in value and knowledge over time, from previous interactions. In April 2015, the company launched IBM Watson Health and the Watson Health Cloud platform. The new unit aims to improve the ability of doctors, researchers and insurers to innovate by surfacing insights from the massive amount of personal health data being created and shared daily. The Watson Health Cloud will allow this information to be shared and combined with a dynamic and constantly growing aggregated view of clinical, research and social health data. For more information on IBM Watson, visit: ibm.com/watson. For more information on IBM Watson Health, visit: ibm.com/watsonhealth.

Check out the IBM Watson press kit at: http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/presskit/27297.wss. Join the conversation at #ibmwatson and #watsonhealth. Follow Watson on Facebook and see Watson on YouTube and Flickr.

UC Disclaimer

The information stated above was prepared by Tiatros and IBM and reflects solely the opinion of the corporations. Nothing in this statement shall be construed to imply any support or endorsement of Tiatros, IBM or any of their products, by The Regents of the University of California, its officers, agents and employees.

[1] http://www.cdc.gov/socialdeterminants/

[2] http://khn.org/news/15-minute-doctor-visits/

[3] http://www.newsweek.com/why-your-doctor-has-no-time-see-you-63949

[4] http://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/monographs/2008/RAND_MG720.pdf

Contact(s) information

NUREMBERG, Germany March 3, 2016

SUSE® today announced the general availability of SUSE OpenStack Cloud 6, the latest enterprise-ready technology for building Infrastructure-as-a-Service private clouds with less stress on IT staff and resources. Based on the OpenStack release Liberty, SUSE OpenStack Cloud 6 delivers high availability enhancements and non-disruptive upgrades for future releases, along with Docker and IBM z Systems mainframe support to make it easier to move business-critical applications and data to the cloud. In addition, SUSE is offering new OpenStack training and certification for deployment and operation of OpenStack private clouds.

“The market has started to realize that do-it-yourself approaches to deploying private clouds are too time consuming, too expensive and too prone to failure,” said Nils Brauckmann, CEO of SUSE. “As the first to offer an enterprise OpenStack cloud distribution, SUSE continues to focus on providing the OpenStack solution of choice for businesses. We combine rapid and simple deployment, configuration, management and maintenance with enhanced high availability features and the widest hypervisor support in the industry to give our customers access to the benefits of OpenStack without the complexities that hold some companies back.”

SUSE OpenStack Cloud 6 addresses market needs A recent study commissioned by SUSE found that more than 90 percent of large companies say they have already implemented at least one private cloud within their business, would use a cloud solution for business-critical workloads, and believe there are business advantages to implementing an open source private cloud. At the same time, most respondents were concerned about installation challenges, possible vendor lock-in and a lack of OpenStack skills in the market. SUSE is addressing these concerns by adding non-disruptive upgrade capabilities along with a more business-friendly release cycle and longer support duration. These combine to reduce the load on limited skilled resources by requiring fewer upgrades and minimizing disruption to production environments.

In addition, new OpenStack training and certification from SUSE will help grow the OpenStack skills base and support the growth of OpenStack solutions in the market. SUSE is introducing the SUSE Certified Administrator-OpenStack (SCA-OpenStack) certification along with a new training course on deploying and administering SUSE OpenStack Cloud to complement SUSE’s existing SUSE OpenStack Cloud training. Developed in collaboration with the OpenStack Foundation exam development team, the new course will specifically prepare students to take both the OpenStack Foundation Certified OpenStack Administrator (COA) exam as well as the SCA-OpenStack exam. In this way, OpenStack professionals not only garner important community-supported credentials but also demonstrate real-life OpenStack deployment expertise. First sessions of the new course will be held at the upcoming OpenStack Summit in Austin, Texas, beginning April 25.

Gary Chen, research manager for Software Defined Compute at IDC, said, “OpenStack has rapidly matured to become a viable option for enterprise-grade private clouds. For most businesses, balancing and enhancing in-house skills with support, training and maintenance from an experienced, seasoned partner like SUSE is a key factor in the success of private cloud projects. Initiatives such as new training and certification programs will help accelerate OpenStack adoption, making it easier for more enterprise businesses to gain the fullproductivity and agility benefits from their private cloud investments.”

SUSE OpenStack Cloud 6 enhancements to address customer needs include:

Non-disruptive upgrade capabilities to ease migration to future OpenStack releases.

Enhanced high availability features to enable customers to move legacy or business-critical applications to their cloud with the same level of availability of more traditional infrastructures.

Support for IBM z/VM alongside existing support for Xen, KVM, Hyper-V and VMware, making SUSE first to include all these hypervisor options. This gives SUSE OpenStack Cloud the widest range of hypervisor support available and allows customers to incorporate their mainframe platforms into their OpenStack private cloud.

Docker support to let customers build and run new and innovative containerized applications.

Full support for OpenStack Manila to provide direct access to the performance, scalability and management of the open source Manila shared file system service.

Support for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 Support Pack 1 to allow customers to build their OpenStack clouds on the latest version of the top platform for enterprise workloads.

“SUSE OpenStack Cloud is a sophisticated cloud solution that simplifies the automation and management of cloud services” said Lars Göbel, head of IT Operations for DARZ, a full IT service provider with its own high-security colocation data center situated in the former vault building of the bank of Hesse. “It delivers highly available, superb performance and outstanding value. SUSE OpenStack Cloud technology is extremely reliable. This enables DARZ to deliver high-quality IaaS services to our customers, with all the flexibility, performance and security they need.”

Jeff O'Neal, senior director of the Cloud Solutions Group at NetApp, said, “We are excited about the release of SUSE OpenStack Cloud 6 with Manila support. As the founder of the Manila project and a charter member of the OpenStack Foundation, we have contributed deep expertise and technology that will enable shared volumes between public and private clouds for our Data ONTAP customers, a feature many enterprises have been looking for to accelerate their cloud adoption.”

For additional information on SUSE OpenStack Cloud, visit www.suse.com/cloud. For details on SUSE OpenStack Cloud 6 pricing, see www.suse.com/products/suse-cloud/how-to-buy.

About SUSE SUSE, a pioneer in open source software, provides reliable, interoperable Linux, cloud infrastructure and storage solutions that give enterprises greater control and flexibility. More than 20 years of engineering excellence, exceptional service and an unrivaled partner ecosystem power the products and support that help our customers manage complexity, reduce cost, and confidently deliver mission-critical services. The lasting relationships we build allow us to adapt and deliver the smarter innovation they need to succeed—today and tomorrow. For more information, visit www.suse.com.

Copyright 2016 SUSE LLC. All rights reserved. SUSE and the SUSE logo are registered trademarks of SUSE LLC in the United States and other countries. All third-party trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Press Contact

The start of Season 10 IEM World Championship Finals opens its doors to over 100,000 fans this weekend. Intel and ESL have built a world class tournament for the best gamers in the world and will close the season in Katowice, Poland. Alongside anniversary celebrations, PC partners have released Limited Edition IEM PCs and the expo will also feature new initiatives like AnyKey Organization, to create fair and inclusive spaces in eSports for women and other underrepresented gamers. Record number of fans from all over the world will be able to watch the action live from the Intel Extreme Masters site all weekend. Learn more abouteSports on our media kit.

Rapidly expanding ecosystem extends Health Cloud with additional technology and services including device connectivity, Electronic Health Record (EHR) integration and more

Leading healthcare companies The Genen Group and UCSF Medical Center usher in a new era of patient engagement with Salesforce Health Cloud

LAS VEGAS—Feb. 29, 2015— Today at the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) Conference, Salesforce [NYSE: CRM], the Customer Success Platform and world’s #1 CRM company, announced the general availability of Salesforce Health Cloud, a patient relationship management solution that enables providers to deliver higher-quality care and engage their patients in entirely new ways.

In a world where everything and everyone is connected, patients are demanding new ways to communicate with their caregivers through mobile and social channels. In addition, new regulations, such as the Affordable Care Act, give patients more options in choosing a provider. At the same time, innovative technologies – such as fitness trackers and connected medical devices – are empowering people to take healthcare into their own hands. Providers who want to thrive in this new era need to move from patient records to patient relationships, integrating their existing EHRs with cloud-based systems designed for personalized engagement with patients.

Salesforce Health Cloud – Patient Relationships, not Records

Generally available today, Salesforce Health Cloud enables more personalized care through:

Complete patient views: Health Cloud puts all patient information in one place, including a Timeline view, demographic and family information and a functional diagram of the extended care team. Health Cloud also integrates with EHRs to make real-time patient data easily visible and actionable from any device, giving caregivers the information they need to manage patients anytime and from anywhere.

Smarter patient management: Health Cloud provides a single console for managing patients, allowing caregivers to create more efficient workflows and improve the quality of patient experiences, while also reducing costs by improving collaboration across teams. Care teams can take action on open tasks, create customized care plans for individuals and manage groups of patients, such as those with high-blood pressure or diabetes.

Connected patient engagement: Health Cloud enables caregivers and patients to send and receive messages, get reminders and complete surveys from any device, encouraging them to stay on top of their health goals.

Rapidly Expanding Ecosystem Extends Salesforce Health Cloud

Salesforce is leveraging a comprehensive ecosystem of partners, systems integrators (SIs) and independent software vendors (ISVs) to extend and implement Health Cloud:

Platform integration: The Philips HealthSuite digital platform provides personal and medical device connectivity, rich clinical data storage and exchange and advanced data analysis tools to spur collaborative care models for patients and providers.

EHR integration: Apigee, Catalyze, Jitterbit, MuleSoft and Redox offer services to integrate Health Cloud with leading EHRs, ensuring patient information can be managed and viewed within the Health Cloud console.

Health education: Healthwise provides health education and resources so the care team can deliver tailored health information to help people understand, manage and improve their health.

Implementation services: Accenture, Deloitte Digital, PwC, Persistent Systems and Silverline deliver professional services for implementation and customization of Health Cloud.

Patient feedback: GetFeedback provides integrated, mobile-ready surveys and forms that empower healthcare organizations to quickly and effectively collect patient feedback.

Secure messaging: TigerText adds secure text messaging capabilities to Health Cloud, allowing care teams to communicate together in a HIPAA-compliant way.

Customers Achieving Success with Salesforce Health Cloud

Health Cloud, built on the Salesforce Service Cloud – the world’s #1 customer service and support platform – helps build stronger relationships between providers and patients. The Genen Group, a multi-specialty mental health practice located in California, is using Health Cloud to develop a mobile application that allows patients to verify their insurance benefits in real time, view out-of-pocket pricing estimates and immediately schedule an appointment, all from their mobile devices. It also allows Genen Group clinicians to check-in with patients through push notifications, giving instant feedback to patients and enabling them to make smarter care decisions.

Comments on the News

“In this digital era, healthcare providers need to go beyond records to create strong and meaningful patient relationships,” said Joshua Newman, M.D., Chief Medical Officer, GM, Salesforce Healthcare and Life Sciences. “The Salesforce Health Cloud delivers a powerful platform that connects patients and providers in entirely new ways, improving outcomes and personalizing care.”

“We truly want to change the way the mental health industry operates and be on the forefront of innovation,” said Lawrence Genen, founder of The Genen Group. “At the end of the day, our core goal is to make our patients happy, and Health Cloud is giving us the capabilities to provide better experiences for everyone involved.”

Pricing and Availability

Salesforce Health Cloud is generally available today starting at $150 per user, per month.

Additional Resources

Like Salesforce on Facebook:http://www.facebook.com/salesforce

Follow Salesforce on Twitter: https://twitter.com/salesforce

Salesforce Health Cloud Website: http://www.salesforce.com/healthcloud

About Salesforce

Salesforce, the Customer Success Platform and world’s #1 CRM, empowers companies to connect with their customers in a whole new way. For more information about Salesforce (NYSE: CRM), visit: www.salesforce.com.

Any unreleased services or features referenced in this or other press releases or public statements are not currently available and may not be delivered on time or at all. Customers who purchase Salesforce applications should make their purchase decisions based upon features that are currently available. Salesforce has headquarters in San Francisco, with offices in Europe and Asia, and trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “CRM.” For more information please visit http://www.salesforce.com, or call 1-800-NO-SOFTWARE.About Salesforce

Salesforce, the Customer Success Platform and world’s #1 CRM, empowers companies to connect with their customers in a whole new way. For more information about Salesforce (NYSE: CRM), visit: www.salesforce.com.

Domain knowledge from Watson and WayBlazer will help personalize and enhance the Hilton guest experience

MCLEAN, Va., - 09 Mar 2016: Hilton Worldwide (NYSE: HLT) and IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced a collaboration to pilot “Connie”–the first Watson-enabled robot concierge in the hospitality industry. Connie draws on domain knowledge from Watson and WayBlazer to inform guests on local tourist attractions, dining recommendations and hotel features and amenities.

Connie, named for Hilton’s founder Conrad Hilton, marks the first time IBM has developed a Watson-enabled robot for the hospitality market. Connie will work side-by-side with Hilton’s Team Members to assist with visitor requests, personalize the guest experience and empower travelers with more information to help them plan their trips.

Currently stationed near reception at the Hilton McLean in Virginia, Connie is learning to interact with guests and respond to their questions in a friendly and informative manner. Connie uses a combination of Watson APIs, including Dialog, Speech to Text, Text to Speech and Natural Language Classifier, to enable it to greet guests upon arrival and to answer questions about hotel amenities, services and hours of operation. By tapping into WayBlazer’s extensive travel domain knowledge powered by Watson, Connie can also suggest local attractions outside the hotel.

The more guests interact with Connie, the more it learns, adapts and improves its recommendations. The hotel will also have access to a log of the questions asked and Connie’s answers, which can enable improvements to guests’ experiences before, during and after their stays.

Connie is powered by Watson, a cognitive computing technology platform that represents a new era in computing where systems understand the world in the way that humans do – through senses, learning and experience.

“We’re focused on reimagining the entire travel experience to make it smarter, easier and more enjoyable for guests,” said Jonathan Wilson, vice president, product innovation and brand services, Hilton Worldwide. “By tapping into innovative partners like IBM Watson, we’re wowing our guests in the most unpredictable ways.”

“This project with Hilton and WayBlazer represents an important shift in human-machine interaction, enabled by the embodiment of Watson’s cognitive computing,” said Rob High, IBM fellow and vice president and chief technology officer of IBM Watson. “Watson helps Connie understand and respond naturally to the needs and interests of Hilton’s guests – which is an experience that’s particularly powerful in a hospitality setting, where it can lead to deeper guest engagement.”

“WayBlazer is excited to bring Watson’s cognitive computing capabilities directly to the traveler as a way to improve the in-destination experience,” said Felix Laboy, CEO of WayBlazer. “We believe providing personalized and relevant insights and recommendations, specifically through a new form factor such as a robot, can transform brand engagement and loyalty at the Hilton.”

Connie is the latest example of Hilton’s long history of innovation to enhance guest stays, as far back as 1947 as the first hotel company to introduce televisions into guest rooms. Recent innovations include digital check-in with Room Selection, which recently surpassed 10 million users; Digital Key; and partnerships with Uber to deliver ‘Local Scene’ and ‘Ride Reminders’ and with Tesla and Current, powered by GE, to rapidly expand the electric vehicle charging program.

About Hilton Worldwide

Hilton Worldwide (NYSE: HLT) is a leading global hospitality company, comprised of more than 4,600 managed, franchised, owned and leased hotels and timeshare properties with more than 758,000 rooms in 100 countries and territories. For 96 years, Hilton Worldwide has been dedicated to continuing its tradition of providing exceptional guest experiences. The company’s portfolio of 13 world-class global brands includes Hilton Hotels & Resorts, Waldorf Astoria Hotels & Resorts, Conrad Hotels & Resorts, Canopy by Hilton, Curio - A Collection by Hilton, DoubleTree by Hilton, Embassy Suites by Hilton, Hilton Garden Inn, Hampton by Hilton, Tru by Hilton, Homewood Suites by Hilton, Home2 Suites by Hilton and Hilton Grand Vacations. The company also manages an award-winning customer loyalty program, Hilton HHonors®. Hilton HHonors members who book directly through preferred Hilton channels have access to benefits including free standard Wi-Fi, as well as digital amenities that are available exclusively through the industry-leading Hilton HHonors app, where HHonors members can check-in, choose their room, and access their room using a Digital Key. Visit news.hiltonworldwide.com for more information and connect with Hilton Worldwide on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, LinkedIn and Instagram.

IBM Watson: Pioneering a New Era of Computing

IBM is actively applying Watson’s cognitive capabilities to companies across industries, including hospitality and consumer packaged goods, as part of IBM’s ongoing efforts to serve a broader audience of users across various form factors such as robotics, desktop, tablets, mobile, and other Internet of Things devices. Toward this end IBM has announced a global strategic alliance with SoftBank Robotics to meet the expanding needs of enterprise clients. Watson represents a new era in computing called cognitive computing, where systems understand the world the way humans do: through senses, learning, and experience. Watson continuously learns, gaining in value and knowledge over time, from previous interactions. With the help of Watson, organizations are leveraging cognitive computing to transform industries, help professionals do their jobs better, and solve important challenges. To advance Watson, IBM has three dedicated business units: Watson, established for the development of cloud-delivered cognitive computing technologies that represent the commercialization of “artificial intelligence” or “AI” across a variety of industries; Watson Health, dedicated to improving the ability of doctors, researchers and insurers and other related health organizations to surface new insights from data to and deliver personalized healthcare; and Watson IoT, focused on making sense of data embedded in for more than 9 billion connected devices operating in the world today, which generate 2.5 quintillion bytes of new data daily. For more information on IBM Watson, visit: ibm.com/Watson andibm.com/press/Watson.

About WayBlazer

WayBlazer is the world’s first cognitive travel recommendation engine. WayBlazer surfaces the perfect hotel for each traveler by using IBM Watson and proprietary cognitive computing technology.  This technology analyzes cues and triggers from the traveler’s search to personalize hotel results for each individual traveler. Beyond finding the best hotels, WayBlazer’s cognitive technology dynamically merchandises recommendations, media, insights, and local area knowledge in the context of each individual and their trip profile.  The combination of the best hotel and personalized content increases traveler engagement online and improves conversion rates.  WayBlazer delivers this technology to companies merchandising hotels and to travel-related companies in search of revenue steams from hotel bookings with an easy-to-use API. The privately held company is based in Austin, Texas and is led by seasoned travel and technology entrepreneurs, including the Founder of Travelocity/Founding Chairman of Kayak.com, the former GM of IBM Watson, and former President of Sabre Hospitality.  For more information, please visit www.wayblazer.com.

Contact(s) information

Gabby Gugliocciello IBM Media Relations 1 (314) 494-8715 [email protected]

Deal accelerates adoption of new technologies across KPMG’s businesses, strengthening firm’s commitment to reinforcing confidence in the capital markets

NEW YORK, - 08 Mar 2016: KPMG LLP and IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced plans to apply IBM’s Watson cognitive computing technology to KPMG’s professional services offerings. The agreement, including a focus on auditing services, builds on several recent successful KPMG initiatives demonstrating the promise of cognitive technologies in transforming the firm’s ability to deliver innovative and enhanced business services.

“The cognitive era has arrived,” said Lynne Doughtie, KPMG LLP Chairman and CEO.

“KPMG’s use of IBM Watson technology will help advance our team’s ability to analyze and act on the core financial and operational data so central to the health of organizations and the capital markets. In addition to the unprecedented possibilities for enhancing quality, the potential for cognitive and related technologies to help us pursue new business offerings is extraordinary.”

Cognitive technology enables greater collaboration between humans and systems, providing the ability to communicate in natural language and analyze massive amounts of data to deliver insights more quickly. IBM has a rich history of combining innovations to create cutting edge technologies. Watson integrates machine learning and other artificial intelligence technologies into a scalable system that can be accessed through a range of applications.

“Auditing and similar knowledge services are increasingly challenged with tackling immense volumes of unstructured data. Cognitive technologies such as Watson can transform how this data is understood and how critical decisions are made,” said John Kelly, senior vice president, cognitive solutions and IBM Research. “By applying Watson, KPMG is taking a forward-looking approach to extending its expertise, helping professionals and clients gain new insights from critical enterprise information.”

Evolving Professional Services

Many of KPMG’s audit, tax, advisory and other professional services rely heavily on judgment-driven processes. Adding cognitive technology’s massive data analysis and innovative learning capabilities to these activities has the potential to advance traditional views on how talent, time, capital and other resources are deployed by professional services organizations.

KPMG’s growing cognitive ecosystem will contribute significantly to the continued evolution of the firm’s service offerings. Underscoring this importance is KPMG’s deep commitment to working with leading technologies like IBM Watson. This includes promising work with Watson to develop select cognitive services designed to help KPMG meet its extensive audit-specific security, confidentiality and compliance requirements.

One current initiative is focused on employing supervised cognitive capabilities to analyze much larger volumes of structured and unstructured data related to a company’s financial information, as auditors “teach” the technology how to fine-tune assessments over time. This enables audit teams to have faster access to increasingly precise measurements that help them analyze anomalies and assess whether additional steps are necessary.

This example also highlights how cognitive technology is further advancing improvements to sampling processes, in which auditors review subsets of data to analyze thousands or millions of actions to draw conclusions. Cognitive technology helps allow for the possibility of a larger percentage of the data to be analyzed, providing KPMG professionals the potential to obtain enhanced insights into a client’s financial and business operations. At the same time, cognitive-enabled processes allow auditors to focus on higher value activities, including offering additional insights around risks and other related findings.

“Including cognitive technology with KPMG’s innovative capabilities, robust methodologies and processes, and 100-plus year history of excellence, is a real game changer that underscores our commitment to reinforcing confidence in the capital markets,” added Doughtie.

About IBM Watson

Watson continuously learns, gaining in value and knowledge over time, from previous interactions. With the help of Watson, organizations are harnessing the power of cognitive computing to transform industries, help professionals do their jobs better, and solve important challenges.

To advance Watson, IBM has three dedicated business units: Watson, established for the development of cloud-delivered cognitive computing technologies that represent the commercialization of “artificial intelligence” or “AI” across a variety of industries; Watson Health, dedicated to improving the ability of doctors, researchers and insurers and other related health organizations to surface new insights from data to deliver personalized healthcare; and Watson IoT, focused on making sense of data embedded in for more than 9 billion connected devices operating in the world today, which generate 2.5 quintillion bytes of new data daily.

For more information on IBM Watson, visit: ibm.com/Watson and ibm.com/press/watson. Join the conversation at #ibmwatson.

About KPMG LLP

KPMG LLP, the audit, tax and advisory firm (www.kpmg.com/us), is the U.S. member firm of KPMG International Cooperative (“KPMG International”). KPMG International’s member firms have 174,000 professionals, including more than 9,000 partners, in 155 countries.

Contact(s) information

ARMONK, N.Y. - 08 Mar 2016: IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced it completed the acquisition of ecx.io – a full-service digital agency headquartered in Dusseldorf, Germany – to join IBM Interactive Experience (IBM iX). Financial details were not disclosed.

Together, IBM and ecx.io will deliver clients a powerful combination of consulting, digital commerce, digital marketing and technology platform expertise. ecx.io is a leading digital agency in Europe and one of the few specialized in implementation services across three of the leading commerce and customer platform software providers: Adobe, Sitecore, and SAP hybris.

ecx.io will add 200 employees to IBM iX, already the largest global digital agency, specialized in designing and implementing commerce and digital marketing services and platforms. Clients will benefit from this range of capabilities, combined with the strategy, analytics, cloud and cognitive depth of IBM.

“To compete in the modern business world, companies must deliver customer experiences that are personalized, impactful, and enabled by world class digital marketing and commerce technologies,” said Paul Papas, Global Leader, IBM Interactive Experience. “Adding the talent, reputation and market presence of ecx.io we’re able to extend our capabilities in digital commerce and digital marketing technology platforms to provide our clients an unmatched breadth of services to meet their needs.”

The acquisition of ecx.io is the latest strategic move to enhance the design and experience prowess of IBM iX. IBM iX recently announced the acquisition of Resource/Ammirati, a US-based digital marketing and creative agency, and its intent to acquire Aperto, a digital agency with headquarters in Berlin.

IBM iX is a next-generation services organization dedicated to creating personalized experiences. Services span industry strategy, creative and design, to scalable digital, commerce, mobile and wearable platforms. iX specialists work side-by-side with clients across more than 25 global IBM Studios to co-create innovations that drive results.

For more information on IBM Interactive Experience, visit ibm.com/ibmix.

Follow IBM Interactive Experience @ibminteractive on Twitter.

Contact(s) information

Johannesburg, South Africa - 08 Mar 2016: IBM (NYSE: IBM) announced today that it is opening a new IBM Cloud Data Center in Johannesburg, South Africa. The new cloud center is the result of a close collaboration with Gijima and Vodacom and is designed to support cloud adoption and customer demand across the continent. IBM will provide clients with a complete portfolio of cloud services for running enterprise and as a service workloads.

IBM Cloud delivers a global network of 46 cloud data centers. (Credit: IBM)

The new facility underscores IBM’s growing cloud footprint, which now includes 46 cloud data centers across six continents. Today’s news also reinforces the

joint partnership between SAP and IBM

aimed at accelerating a customers’ ability to run core business in the cloud.

“We’re working to drive cloud adoption that best leverages a customer’s existing IT investments,” said Hamilton Ratshefola, IBM Country General Manager in South Africa. “Our new Cloud Data Center gives customers a local onramp to IBM Cloud services including moving mission critical SAP workloads to the cloud with ease. It also gives customers the added flexibility of keeping data within country which is a key differentiator for IBM.”

The IBM Cloud Data Center will provide enterprise customers in South Africa and Africa with access to IBM’s global network of Cloud Data Centers and services expertise. This will enable businesses to run critical applications on the cloud, providing access to a broad array of services for building in-country cloud solutions, while offering faster network speeds to improve performance and reach end users even faster.

“The increase of enterprise cloud computing on the continent is being driven by large enterprise and multinational organisations expanding their presence and IT requirements across Africa,” said Vuyani Jarana, Chief Officer of Vodacom Business. “CIO’s are looking to gain efficiencies and cut cost by moving more of their IT infrastructure, applications and processes into the Cloud. Vodacom’s extensive Fixed and Mobile network infrastructure, Pan African and global footprint and its investment in data center infrastructure provides the ideal platform and environment to deliver cloud services to large and multinational enterprises.“

Today’s news showcases IBM’s global reach and broad portfolio of cloud services capable of supporting very large enterprises like big retailers and financial institutions. Vodacom is committed to delivering enterprise grade cloud solutions and this partnership with IBM delivers on that scale and will position Vodacom Business as a leader in total IT solutions across the continent.

“Gijima as a 100 percent black owned South African company, is proud to be the cloud partner of choice for these unique IBM services,” said Eileen Wilton, CEO of Gijima. The partnership with IBM and Vodacom is an extension of Gijima’s hybrid cloud strategy and is the culmination of two years of hard work as part of our turnaround strategy. Gijima is the ideal partner for this service as we already have the system and SAP integration skills as part of our existing solutions offering.

Bringing together Vodacom’s network and Africa footprint, Gijima’s SAP enterprise expertise and IBM’s cloud platforms will create a powerhouse in cloud services, resolving data latency and in-country regulatory issues through the protection of data in-country and potentially also offset data networking costs. Gijima and Vodacom will both resell IBM’s Cloud Managed Services to the SAP enterprise customer base in the region.

IBM Cloud delivers fast, easy and automated access to public, private and hybrid cloud services to help clients digitally transform. IBM Cloud is a growing collection of services including analytics, mobile, networking, storage, Internet of Things and cognitive computing. With more than 46 global cloud data centers, IBM helps companies securely manage and gain insight into their data no matter where it resides.

This news is the latest investment IBM is making in Africa’s future and the development of the continent’s economy including IBM’s Africa Research labs, state-of-the-art Innovation Centers as well as the IBM Technical Academy and IBM University Program.

About IBM Cloud:

For more information about IBM Cloud visit: ibm.com/cloud-computing.

About Gijima:

Gijima is one of South Africa’s leading Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Service companies with 100% unencumbered black ownership and a level 2 Broad Based Black Empowerment rating. Gijima is 100% managed by South Africans, is locally funded and offers application services, infrastructure configuration and implementation and end-to-end managed outsource services through our national footprint, OEM partnerships and our national small, medium and micro enterprise development network.

Our uniqueness lies in the combination of our proudly South African footprint, our proven ability to manage complexity, our track record of delivery across the years and the ability to provide our clients with technology solutions that deliver tangible business benefits. Employing more than 2 000 highly qualified, dedicated and committed employees, Gijima is considered as one of the leaders in the industry remaining well positioned to add value to all our clients, which includes 51 of the top 100 companies listed on the JSE.

About Vodacom:

Vodacom Business was established in 2008 as the enterprise arm of Vodacom Group. It delivers ICT solutions to meet the needs of the public sector, corporates, medium and small enterprises.

Vodacom Business offers solutions that extend from mobile to fixed-line access, Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), Voice over IP (VoIP), hosted facilities, cloud computing, storage, backup, security and application solutions.

Vodacom’s dedicated bandwidth offerings are fully managed and suitable for branch-to-branch connectivity as well as connecting businesses to our IP service offerings at high speeds with dedicated access to your company and its offices. Our last mile access products are delivered via a range of mediums, including ADSL, Wireless, VSAT, Mobile and Fibre technologies. We have eight data centers in South Africa where we deliver a range of business grade cloud solutions, M2M services and a full suite of enterprise mobility solutions.

Contact(s) information

Hulisani Rasivhaga IBM Media Relations, South Africa +27 (0)11 302 6243 [email protected]

Thembi Tulwana Corporate Affairs and Marketing Executive +27 (0)12 675 5564 [email protected]

Replay’s freeD format uses high-resolution cameras and compute intensive graphics to let viewers experience sporting events from any angle

By Wendell Brooks

Nearly every business is being revolutionized by data and the ability to capture, connect, analyze and interact with it. One example that Intel is especially excited about is how data is re-inventing the way people consume and interact with sports media. It is one aspect of what Intel CEO Brian Krzanich calls the digitization of sports. At the recent NBA All-Star Weekend we delivered an immersive 3-D viewing experience to fans watching on TV and online that provided a taste of what’s to come.

The NBA All-Star Weekend experience showcased “free dimensional” or freeD™ video from Replay Technologies, optimized for 6th Generation Intel® Core™ processors and Intel server technology. The freeD technology created a seamless 3-D video rendering of the court using 28 ultrahigh-definition cameras positioned around the arena and connected to Intel-based servers. This system allowed broadcasters to give fans a 360-degree view of key plays – providing thrilling replays and highlight reels that let fans see the slam dunks, blocks and steals from almost every conceivable angle. Intel has been collaborating with Replay since 2013 to optimize their interactive, immersive video content on Intel platforms.

As a natural next step in our collaboration, today we’re excited to announce that Intel signed an agreement to acquire Replay Technologies. Founded in 2011 and headquartered in Israel, Replay’s proprietary freeD format uses high-resolution cameras and compute intensive graphics to let viewers see and experience sporting events from any angle.

Together, we will scale this new category for sports entertainment that we call immersive sports, which is attracting the attention of leagues, venues, broadcasters and fans. Immersive sports requires the high-performance computing Intel is known for, and it’s also data driven – fueling the continued build out of the cloud. For athletes, coaches, broadcasters and fans, the ability to capture, analyze and share data adds compelling new dimensions to the game.

As part of Intel, the team will focus on growing their existing business and advancing their technology with Intel to deliver faster freeD processing and new features like the ability to manipulate and edit personalized content. Technology now plays an unprecedented role in sports … and we’re just getting started.

To learn more about Replay freeD technology, visit Replay Technologies’ website. For more on how Intel is pushing the boundaries of sports, visit Intel’s website.