IBM Unveils Industry-Specific Software Platforms, Solutions

At an invitation-only summit for hundreds of its most advanced customers and partners, IBM is announcing additions to its industry framework portfolio. The new technology platform for the manufacturing industry and new solutions will provide real-time tracking for valuable assets and the ability to automate real-time data integration into a central dashboard that aggregates and controls all business operations.

The frameworks consist of products from IBM's software portfolio, server, storage and networking products as well as the industry specific offerings and consulting expertise of IBM Global Business and Global Technology Services. The company says the frameworks act as a type of universal translator for the customized requirements and regulations of each industry that can be bundled together and facilitate the adoption of new technology.

Designed to allow businesses to create and deploy new products and services, the IBM Product and Service Framework will cover a series of industries, including aerospace, automotive and electronics, and span companies that define products, design, manufacture, ship, market, sell and service goods.

The framework provides capabilities in three areas critical to industrial companies: Insight and Product Innovation can reduce the cost and time of product development up to five times; Operations and Supply Chain Optimization to maximize the return on assets; and Marketing, Sales and Service Differentiation to help capture new growth markets, increase revenues and support new business and service models.

By offering increased visibility into business information through its IBM Integrated Information Core, the company says customers will be able to make faster decisions, cut costs, increase product and streamline operations. The IBM Real-Time Asset Locator tracks and monitors assets such as capital equipment like computers, machinery or medical technology, in real-time to provide visibility of resources, and improve asset management processes.Charles King, principal analyst, Pund-IT Research, believes what might be called the Framework portfolio's holistic approach will help clients enjoy specific benefits along the entirety of the product development and delivery journey. "Practically speaking, customers are likely to see the most immediate impact from the Insight and Product Innovation and Operations and Supply Chain Optimization portions of the new Framework solutions. Those are the areas where improved efficiencies will really impact companies' bottom lines."

Overall, he says these new solutions demonstrate further a evolution of IBM's portfolio and strategy around Industry Frameworks, which has increasingly informed a wide variety of company efforts centering on clients and partners. "But the remarkable benefits that IBM has wrested from focusing on the discrete needs and requirements of players in vertical industries are revolutionary in the extreme. Though other vendors pursue industry-specif strategies and solutions, I don't know of any that have been as successful at it as IBM."