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See How IBM’s IT Team and SAP Concur Empower Travelers Globally

IBM focuses on solving clients' business problems through innovative solutions, a mission that takes its employees around the globe. The IBM CIO organization strives to ensure each business trip is successful by implementing leading-edge IT solutions that make the travel and expense experience as simple as possible.

IBM worked with SAP Concur to ensure a smooth implementation of a connected travel and expense solution in over 100 countries. Now, IBM’s travelers can now book reservations and expense travel in one solution, and even on-the-go when using the SAP Concur mobile app. Their successful implementation, and the usability of SAP Concur solutions, resulted in excellent user adoption – mitigating the strain that often comes with the introduction of new technologies.

Watch the video and see how SAP Concur helps the IBM CIO Organization run at their best. For more, see IBM's SAP Concur Innovation Award story .

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Discover how high-tech giant IBM embraced SAP Concur solutions for its new, cloud-based travel and expense platform to track more than 400,000 users worldwide and provide them with the flexibility to manage expenses anytime, anywhere.

“We had to choose the best possible solution that meets our scale and complexity being a global company.” - Chris Hood, Director, Global Travel & Expense Strategy & Operations

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IBM Watson Is Changing Travel in Ways Nobody’s Expecting

Greg Oates, Skift

March 29th, 2016 at 6:30 AM EDT

IBM is attempting to build a global business around its Watson cognitive computing platform, but there are significant challenges for many C-suite executives in travel and transportation to understand how to develop new strategies in the fast moving data and digital landscape.

For the last five years, IBM has strived to reinvent itself as a cloud computing and cognitive platform company to support its large enterprise clients as they shift their operations online, including many in travel and transportation.

With most large companies today evolving into digital companies, cloud computing is a booming marketplace for the big four industry providers: IBM, Microsoft, Google, and Amazon. Google, for example, stated that cloud could overtake advertising revenue in five years.

Travel companies like Etihad and Lufthansa are helping drive IBM’s cloud sales. The UAE carrier signed a $700 million IT deal with IBM last October, while Germany’s national airline invested  $1.25 billion in Big Blue in November 2014 to integrate cloud computing.

Cognitive, on the other hand, is IBM’s wild child savant compared to its older cloud sibling. IBM’s cognitive strategy is the company’s big push for 2016, based in large part on the IBM Watson artificial intelligence (AI) supercomputer platform that’s designed to grow smarter on its own as it analyzes more and more data, otherwise known as “machine learning.”

Famously, Watson beat the two top Jeopardy contestants in 2011, which showed that a computer can “understand” non-linear structure in human language. Similarly, in terms of inductive reasoning, Google DeepMind’s AlphaGo AI machine bested the world’s top Go player four out of five games earlier this month.

The potential for cognitive is enormous.

The staggering rise of big data that companies now collect year-over-year requires a monster data-crunching AI machine like Watson to cull through and disseminate that data in order to provide any value based on it.

IBM president and CEO Ginni Rometty, who has spearheaded the company’s drive in cloud and cognitive since assuming her role in 2012, suggests that cognitive alone represents an untapped $2 trillion global market .

She has her detractors, based on IBM’s uneven stock history over the last two years. Her supporters, including Warren Buffet, however, point out that restructuring IBM is a monumental undertaking. Furthermore, the ability to leverage cognitive technology to offer real world deliverables around big data is still an evolving science.

“Companies are realizing they need to start acting in a more agile fashion because they’re seeing data as a new natural resource,” said Dee Waddell, general manager, global travel & transportation industry at IBM. “That’s happening at every intersection of travel and transportation. Currently, it’s estimated there’s 2.5 quintillion bytes of data produced daily, and about 80% of that is unstructured, typically making it invisible to current technology.”

Explaining that “Watson is a cognitive system that can understand this data, learn from it, and reason through it,” Waddell told Skift that IBM is leveraging Watson’s ability to become the world’s greatest expert in any field it’s directed at. Presently, IBM is investing heavily in acquiring health and financial companies where it sees the greatest opportunity presently for Watson’s ability to sift through and organize massive quantities of data.

At the same time, IBM is developing a growing list of Watson APIs — application interface protocols that connect companies’ digital platforms with Watson’s big brain. Those APIs can be seen at  IBM’s Bluemix  online marketplace, which are basically just a few lines of code that directly access individual cloud-based Watson functionalities.

Those APIs include things like Visual Recognition, Retrieve & Rank Search, Tone Analyzer, Natural Language Dialogue, and Personality Insights, among a couple dozen more, which all analyze data through Watson’s cognitive backend. They are then licensed to third-party, industry-specific companies such as WayBlazer , which operates in the travel and tourism sector, to customize for a specific consumer audience.

WayBlazer then licenses its Watson-integrated digital products to companies like Trisept Solutions, which recently embedded the cognitive search API into its VAX VacationAccess travel agent platform. The goal is to help agents provide a more nuanced range of relevant travel information based on the individual traveler’s specific personality and travel behavior parameters supplied online.

To date, a lot of media attention has focused on Watson-supported initiatives in hospitality and tourism, including the new “Connie” AI robot at Hilton and new semantic search capabilities embedded in the Leading Hotels website.

Expect to see an explosion of those integrations coming online over the next year, but they represent only a part of IBM’s overall strategy in cognitive.

“Cognitive, which intertwines with Watson, is really about the opportunity to fundamentally transform our travel and transportation industry,” Waddell said. “Cognitive is really about a new era, with data and digital as a foundation. So the key message here is we’re really in a time of unmatched disruption with lots of stress and anxiety about how to deal with the pace of innovation. That’s what’s on the top of mind for C-suite executives today.”

Redefining Boundaries for the C-suite

In November last year, IBM published a 40-page paper called “ Redefining Boundaries ,” based on insights from a new  Global C-suite Study  that surveyed over 5,200 top senior executives, described as “CxOs,” based in 21 industries in 70 countries.

The results of that research is informing how IBM is designing cognitive and cloud-based products and services for its clients.

The report outlines three strategy frameworks, which forward-thinking companies that IBM calls “Torchbearers” are focusing on in the cloud and cognitive landscape. IBM classifies about 5% of the survey group as Torchbearers and 38% as Market Followers, or what Waddell calls “laggards” lacking a comprehensive digital strategy.

Those three frameworks are: 1) Prepare for digital invaders; 2) Create a panoramic perspective; and 3) Be first, be best, or be nowhere.

The top-line results in the 2015 report show a 26% increase in CxOs who say they see more competition coming from outside their own industries in 2015 versus 2013. This is based on blurring boundaries between business sectors resulting in industry convergence and digital disintermediation.

Further data from the IBM Global C-suite Study:

• 22% of respondents reported a need for more focus on customers as individuals, versus segments.
• 19% anticipate more digital/virtual interaction than face-to-face with customers over the next few years.
• The three technologies growing fastest in importance for CxOs are cloud (63%), mobile (61%), and Internet of Things (57%). Cognitive computing was ranked fourth at 37%.
• Respondents ranked conventional techniques to identify trends — such as brainstorming (80%) and predictive analytics (63%) — higher than new methodologies like crowdsourcing (23%) and cognitive computing (13%).

That last statistic shows a lot of growth potential for cognitive.

“The C-suite Study is really about adding new value, new business models, new ways with better products and services, and building strong customer relationships by leveraging the data out there,” said Waddell.

“It’s also all about reimagining, reinventing and reshaping,” he added. “For IBM, we are reinventing ourselves and you’re seeing a new IBM emerge. Ginni has been very clear that we’re a cognitive solutions and cloud platform company with industries leading the way and informing everything we do.”

The Rise of Design Thinking

That “industries leading the way” phrase references a shift internally at IBM from a product-centric culture to a user-first focus that’s driving IBM’s new Design Thinking platform . It underpins every aspect of the company’s operations moving forward, aligned with the C-suite Study research.

Originally, the design thinking concept, also known as empathy design, evolved around product development at companies like IDEO in Palo Alto, which invented the Apple mouse. Design thinking proposed that product makers needed to study end user habits to identify pain points in the user experience to develop better products.

IBM and other companies have expanded that idea to strategize new business models for their enterprise clients.

To date, IBM has opened 10 IBM Design Studios  around the world to engage with enterprise clients around the precepts of design thinking as they apply to cognitive and cloud-based solutions. Six are located in North America, three are in Europe, and one is in Shanghai.

Promoting that vision at the South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive conference in Austin this month, the IBM Cognitive Studio held design thinking sessions for SXSW attendees.

First, the group was broken up into two teams to imagine the psychographics of people who want driverless cars and those who wouldn’t. Once that information was collected, the two teams then used the most interesting ideas to design amenities that a driverless car should have to satisfy both groups. It was a very rudimentary exercise, but it illustrated the process behind consumer empathy research to drive new product strategy.

The 1-hour session was based on the same process behind IBM’s Reinventing the Wheel initiative, using Watson data analytics, to develop the automotive operating system of the future.

“I’m not certain a lot of our clients know that we have the pre-eminent, client-accessible design centers in the world,” said Waddell. “It’s not really about the methodology or technology. It’s about the business outcomes and driving new business value, and aggressively jumping on that in an agile fashion. It’s really about getting into the minds of our customers and understanding the stress and anxiety they have around the future of data and digital throughout the travel and transportation continuum.”

Another primary goal of design thinking empathizes with the internal client as well, because there’s so much confusion and lack of understanding around cloud and cognitive.

Based on his experience as a chief digital officer before joining IBM, Waddell said, “Design thinking for us expands the discussion of digital and data beyond the CIO. Next generation CIOs have always desired to drive digital strategy, but talking about technology from the domain of IT has struggled to relate with other C-suite executives.”

Therefore, he said the IBM design thinking methodology prioritizes the studio discussions around new digital technologies in business terms and business goals. The idea is to establish a common language that everyone can understand.

“The transformative aspect is to get various stakeholders in the C-suite aligned around business strategy, using proof-of-concept case studies of disruptors in their space for evolving in the new digital world,” Waddell told us. “That’s the exciting piece of this, when you’re getting everyone excited about Watson APIs and cloud-based solutions, and really giving them a platform to see the future.”

At the IBM Travel & Transportation landing page, there’s a wide range of case studies of various cloud and cognitive platform projects with airlines, airports, hotels, railways, and freight companies. Waddell also writes about cloud and cognitive on IBM’s Insights on Business blog.

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Tags: IBM Watson

Photo credit: The IBM Cognitive Studio showcased advances in cloud-based computing, cognitive intelligence, and design thinking at SXSW 2016. Skift

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• Updated On Sep 23, 2021 at 10:37 AM IST

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IBM Unveils New Flagship Office at One Madison Avenue in New York City

New location reaffirms IBM's commitment to the growing technology industry ecosystem of New York City and State

NEW YORK , Sept. 6, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- IBM (NYSE: IBM ) today celebrated the opening of its new flagship office at One Madison Avenue , marking a significant milestone for the New York -based global technology company. The ribbon cutting ceremony featured remarks from IBM Chief Executive Officer Arvind Krishna , Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer , New York Governor Kathy Hochul , President and CEO of the Partnership for New York City Kathryn Wylde and others, as they welcomed IBM employees, partners and community members.

" One Madison Avenue demonstrates a new chapter in the partnership between IBM and the city and state of New York . It joins a long tradition of IBM contributions to New York's thriving technology industry, including our deep partnerships with academic and research institutions across the state," said Krishna . "This move will allow us to bring our employees, clients and partners together to work on exciting technologies, from enterprise AI to hybrid cloud to quantum."

" IBM's new flagship office in New York is the latest sign that our post-pandemic economy is roaring back to life," said  Governor Hochul . "Since its founding in Endicott in 1911, IBM has been synonymous with science and technology, creating thousands of jobs and boosting economic growth. Innovators, scientists and coders from across the globe are flocking to New York , and we look forward to the next century of success."

"With IBM's new office at One Madison, the future is bright for IBM , for New York City , and for our entire state," said Senator Schumer . "It's a new chapter for IBM in NYC that will support thousands of jobs and contribute to the incredible growth of the tech industry in New York City . I'm proud to support IBM's new investments to reimagine this wonderful, historic building and position New York to be a leader in innovation. I will work relentlessly to make New York City—and all of our state—a leading hub for AI, semiconductor chips, quantum computing, and more."

" New York City's economy is stronger than ever, and we're creating more jobs and opportunities for New Yorkers every single day," said  New York City Mayor Eric Adams . "With yet another global-leading company doubling down on its commitment to New York City , we are continuing to build the foundation for a more prosperous, equitable, and affordable future for New Yorkers across the five boroughs. Thank you to IBM for your belief in our city, and congratulations on this opening."

" IBM as a company has been the anchor of New York City's fastest growing industry – the tech sector – our greatest source of new talent," said Wylde. "The company has played a huge role in the positive trajectory of the city and they are an important source of support to all our member companies keeping New York a global commercial center. Whether it's the work they do for our municipal government, state government, or the education system, across the board they have been the innovation center for the public sector as well as the private sector."

Located at the southeast corner of Madison Square Park , the new 270,000 square-foot IBM office spans five floors of One Madison Avenue – owned and managed by SL Green Realty Corp. – and will be home to more than 2,000 New York -area employees. IBM enlisted global architecture and design firm Gensler to co-create an agile, state-of-the-art workspace that facilitates collaboration, fuels productivity and spotlights innovation.

Employees, guests and the community will be welcomed into One Madison Avenue through an expansive street-level lobby, featuring floor-to-ceiling windows and a 40-foot-long Quantum Wave light sculpture, prominently displayed as a symbol of emerging and future technology. An escalator leads to the second-floor reception space, where the circular IBM "Blue Bar" serves as a gathering space overlooking Madison Square Park , and the 22,000 square-foot Innovation Studio brings IBM's latest technology to life through immersive experiences.

Workspaces were purposefully designed to meet the evolving needs of IBM employees and future talent. A variety of different environments have been incorporated throughout – including individual zones (independent work), collaboration zones (meet and congregate) that can accommodate groups of three to 300, and community zones (unwind, reset, socialize) – offering flexibility and choice.

Sweeping park and city views are a focal point of the interior across all five floors, bringing the beauty and energy of the neighborhood inside, while a 25,000 square-foot outdoor terrace features pollinator gardens with over 40 different plant species – 50% of which are native to the region. Positioned to be among the most notable adaptive reuse projects of present-day New York , the LEED Gold CI certified building will utilize IBM solutions including Maximo and Envizi to track, analyze and report sustainability progress.

According to Marc Holliday , Chairman and CEO, SL Green Realty Corp., " IBM is a global technology innovator leading the way in AI, automation and cloud-based solutions. It embodies resiliency, grit and the spirit of progress and constant transformation. One Madison Avenue tracks the history and evolution of New York City and of IBM . We couldn't be more proud to be home to their new flagship New York City office."

" The One Madison Avenue workplace hub was designed as an innovation engine and community forum that will extend IBM's legacy as a leader in New York City's digital economy," said Amanda Carroll , Managing Director, Gensler . "Embedded in the heart of Manhattan's Silicon Alley , One Madison Avenue is an empowering platform for IBM's employees and clients to connect, create and innovate on some of the world's most complex technological problems."

One Madison Avenue consolidates previously held IBM offices across New York City , bringing employees together in one centralized hub. It is expected to achieve full occupancy in October 2024 .

Additional Statements on the Opening of IBM's Office at One Madison Avenue

Joanne Wright , Senior Vice President, Transformation and Operations, IBM "In designing One Madison Avenue , we set a bold vision to create a vibrant, innovative, and inclusive work environment. Today, we're unveiling a modern workplace experience in the era of AI, inspiring a culture of collaboration and innovation that drives growth and prosperity for clients, partners and IBM ."

Sheena Wright , First Deputy Mayor of New York City "The opening of IBM's new flagship office is further indication of New York City's strength as a center for global commerce. The continued commitment from businesses to our city, whether it be international corporations or budding entrepreneurs, further galvanizes our economy and creates more career opportunities for New Yorkers."

Andrew Kimball , New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) President and CEO " IBM's commitment to deepen its roots here in New York City reaffirms that the city's tech sector is unlike any other with its diverse economy, talent pool, innovation ecosystem, and vibrant culture, making it the ideal location for new and established companies to flourish. IBM's brand-new office space at One Madison Avenue in the Flatiron district will undoubtedly contribute to the city's robust tech ecosystem and dynamic economy."

B.J. Jones , "New" New York Executive Director " IBM's new flagship office generates economic opportunity and vibrancy, enhancing the live-work-play power of the Flatiron and NoMad neighborhoods. In creating a place where people want to work, IBM is further making our city the place where people want to be."

Maria Torres-Springer , Deputy Mayor for Housing, Economic Development and Workforce " IBM's new flagship office at One Madison only deepens New York City's strength as one of the greatest tech ecosystems in the world. IBM's footprint in the area will undoubtedly help to shape the future of Midtown, complementing the City's work to create affordable housing and making the area into a truly 24/7 mixed-use neighborhood."

About IBM IBM is a leading provider of global hybrid cloud and AI, and consulting expertise. We help clients in more than 175 countries capitalize on insights from their data, streamline business processes, reduce costs and gain the competitive edge in their industries. Thousands of government and corporate entities in critical infrastructure areas such as financial services, telecommunications and healthcare rely on IBM's hybrid cloud platform and Red Hat OpenShift to affect their digital transformations quickly, efficiently and securely. IBM's  breakthrough innovations in AI, quantum computing, industry-specific cloud solutions and consulting deliver open and flexible options to our clients. All of this is backed by IBM's long-standing commitment to trust, transparency, responsibility, inclusivity and service. Visit www.ibm.com for more information.

Media Contact Jessica Chen IBM Communications [email protected]

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