IBM and Twitter announced a global landmark partnership they claim will change how institutions and businesses understand their customers, markets and trends. With Twitter's data on people and IMB's cloud-based analytics and customer engagement platforms they plan to help enterprises make better, more informed decisions.
According to auditing firm Cooper Parry, the partnership will give enterprises and institutions a way to make sense of Twitter's mountain of data using IBM's Watson supercomputer. People who have a lead generation business will find this partnership extremely interesting.
The partnership will focus in three areas:
Integrating Twitter data with IBM analytics services
IBM will offer its data to Twitter as part of a cloud-based service. Data will include IBM Watson Analytics, which the multinational technology giant describes as "A new cognitive service in the palm of your hand that brings intuitive visualization and predictive capabilities to business users; and a cloud-based data refinery service that enables application developers to embed data services in applications."
Businesses and software developers will be able to incorporate Twitter data into new cloud services the social networking company is building with Watson Developer Cloud or IBM Bluemix platform-as-a-service.
New data-intensive capabilities
Twitter and IBM will deliver a set of business applications to help a wide range of industries and professions make business decisions.
The two companies will start by integrating Twitter data with ExperienceOne customer engagement solutions, which will allow marketing, sales and customer service employees to monitor behavior and sentiment, which will improve how they engage and support their customers.
Specialized consulting
IBM's Global Business Services employees will be able to access Twitter data to enhance the company's consulting services across a wide range of business types.
Twitter and IBM will also work together to develop targeted solutions for specific industries such as retail, travel, transportation, consumer products and banking.
IBM Chairman, President and CEO, Ginni Rometty, said:
"Twitter provides a powerful new lens through which to look at the world - as both a platform for hundreds of millions of consumers and business professionals, and as a synthesizer of trends. This partnership, drawing on IBM's leading cloud-based analytics platform, will help clients enrich business decisions with an entirely new class of data. This is the latest example of how IBM is reimagining work."
Twitter CEO, Dick Costolo, said:
"When it comes to enterprise transformation, IBM is an undisputed global leader in enabling companies to take advantage of emerging technologies and platforms. This important partnership with IBM will change the way business decisions are made - from identifying emerging market opportunities to better engaging clients, partners and employees."
IBM's focus shifting to cloud-based technology
IBM has been under intense pressure from investors to improve its financial results. It has a strategy of reducing its commodity hardware business and shifting towards a cloud-based technology business model. Watson and Big Data are key components of that plan.
When IBM ventured into the data analytics market it entered a young but extremely crowded and highly-competitive one. The world is flooded with Big data analytics and software solutions.
Despite having heavyweight Watson behind it, IBM needed something to make it stand out from the crowd. Now it has it - social data.