IBM Offers Tools Building An Information Asset Strategy

IBM debuted new software tools and services businesses can use to develop company-wide strategies for managing information assets. IBM said the tools and services could be resold by channel partners or used by solution providers to provide services to their customers.

The tools, industry-specific data models and blueprints are designed to help businesses take the first step toward developing a unified approach to identifying, accessing and using information as a strategic asset, independent of the applications and business processes that generated the data.

The announcements, which also included new consulting services, are IBM's latest addition to the "Information on Demand" initiative the company launched in early 2006. The offerings, announced Monday, are in response to questions from customers asking how to get started developing a comprehensive information-on-demand strategy, said Tim Paydos, director of InfoSphere strategy.

IBM will extend a subset of the tools to its channel partners that they, in turn, can use to help their customers develop an information strategy, said Nancy Toda, director of channel and SMB marketing for IBM's Information Management business.

The new tools, which focus on 18 vertical industries, include a set of IBM Foundation software for discovering and understanding information assets. One example is a glossary for defining different data types. Also offered are guides and workshops for building an information strategy, data models for improving business performance, and information on establishing information-on-demand competency centers.

The 18 industries covered by the tools are aerospace and defense, automotive, banking, chemical and petroleum, consumer products, electronics, energy and utilities, federal government, healthcare providers, healthcare payers, industrial products, insurance, media and entertainment, pharmaceuticals, retail, state and local government, telecommunications, and travel and transportation.

IBM also announced that its IBM Global Business Services operation will offer an enterprise information strategy and roadmap service to help businesses manage information as a strategic asset.