February 12-14, Intellective attended IBM Think 2019 in San Francisco. This marks the 10th year of Intellective’s participation in the event. This year, the expo hall was spread across several campuses designed to accommodate attendees interested in activities tailored for specific topics. When it came time to get across campuses between sessions, many people missed out on exploring other areas due to the heavy rain keeping people inside. Luckily, the IBM Champion section was conveniently located above the expo making it easy for us to access. We weren’t going to let a little rain stop us from getting the most out of the conference!
IBM pulled out all the stops renting the entire Pier 39. We walked through the Pier enjoying stops at the local restaurants, shops, the aquarium, and live entertainment. This made for a spectacular evening following three full days of meetings and demonstrations.
For returning participants, it was interesting to see the influx of new IBM sellers and technologists. Overall, attendees represented 120 countries across 22 various industries. One of Intellective’s biggest Think 2019 highlights was the IBM Champion networking events, where Intellective COO, James Baldwin, participated in two round table discussions covering Open Source and Compliance.
When we weren’t attending Champion sessions and sitting in on round table discussions, we were meeting with potential customers and partners. Our experts scheduled private meetings at the St. Regis Hotel throughout the week to share how we are helping companies transform their business. With our Unity Intelligence Engine, users bring content and process data together into a single source for the rapid creation of line-of-business tools. Our data-first approach gets as close to the pure data as possible and builds intelligent solutions that keep the data clean. We have developed a proven methodology to find quick, portable ways to give customers access to the right information at the time it’s needed. Available soon in the Salesforce AppExchange, Intellective Unity for Salesforce gives FileNet and Case Manager users a 360-degree view of their information with immediate access to cases and content.
Intellective’s
Four Key Takeaways
1. Augmented Intelligence (AI) in everything
IBM made the case for its AI and analytics technologies at Think 2019. Businesses are discovering that they need augmented intelligence to do anything with the amount of data they have. IBM’s AI enterprise assistant is currently helping brands across 20 industries, and the use of intelligent virtual assistants continues to grow. The big push on AI is indicative of market readiness, and it’s the logical next step after years of focus on data virtualization, consolidation, and availability. If the platform and data have been readied, companies can now begin to put AI in place.
2. There is a “new IBM” mentality
The partner ecosystem is getting attention again. IBM knows they can’t, and shouldn’t, do everything themselves. They are actively pursuing partner solutions and doing it in a way we have never seen before. Recent investments, like the $2 billion commitment IBM has made to develop next-generation artificial intelligence software at SUNY Poly, show how IBM is doing things differently.
3. More Open Source
Open design is a philosophy that IMB embraces. Four years ago, IBM started to embrace open source in their data stack through partnerships. Today, open source is how corporations and individuals share and test software, interact with content, and engage with communities. IBM’s sustained commitment to driving innovation in open source keeps them actively looking beyond their own platforms to expand services. The Watson Anywhere initiative, for example, makes Watson AI services available across AWS, Azure, and GCP. Up until recently, these services were only available inside IBM platforms. IBM also recently announced Code and Response, a new $25 million, four-year deployment initiative to put open-source technologies in the communities where they are needed most.
4. Automation Opportunity
Many organizations are turning to robotic process automation (RPA) or AI platforms to drive the next wave of productivity with intelligent automation. Michael Gilfix, Vice President of Digital Business Automation at IBM, spoke on Automation in the ERA of AI at Think. In his presentation, he stated that when you look across industries, there’s a 4-6% opportunity for improvement. This averages out to nearly half a trillion dollars in just banking and insurance alone. You can check out the replay here.
Intellective is proud to have established itself as a knowledgeable and experienced IBM solutions provider. At Intellective, we believe in the importance of leveraging the expertise of IBM’s Business Partners to help you transform your business.
To learn more about Intellective and how we can help your organization, contact us today!