Company: IBM, Armonk, NY, USA
Company Description: IBM is the hybrid cloud and AI technology and services company, focused on providing client value through a combination of technology and business expertise. IBM solutions draw from an industry-leading portfolio of capabilities in software, consulting services and a deep incumbency in mission-critical systems, all bolstered by one of the world’s leading research organizations.
Nomination Category: Product & Service Categories - Business Technology Solutions
Nomination Sub Category: Business or Competitive Intelligence Solution
 Nomination Title: Anytime access to insights and analytics with EPM
- Which will you submit for your nomination in this category, a video of up to five (5) minutes in length about the the nominated new or new-version product or service, OR written answers to the questions for this category? (Choose one):
Written answers to the questions
- If you are submitting a video of up to five (5) minutes in length, provide the URL of the nominated video here, OR attach it to your entry via the "Add Attachments, Videos, or Links to This Entry" link above, through which you may also upload a copy of your video.
- If you are providing written answers for your submission, you must provide an answer to this first question: If this is a brand-new product, state the date on which it was released. If this is a new version of an existing product, state the date on which the update was released:
- If you are providing written answers for your submission, you must provide an answer to this second question: Describe the features, functions, and benefits of the nominated product or service (up to 350 words):
Total 242 words used.
IBM Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) is IBM’s trusted source of integrated enterprise data. The platform is built with IBM’s Hybrid Cloud and AI technologies. EPM is Analytics at Scale: it provides the foundation for practically limitless application of advanced analytics across nearly all areas of IBM’s business with the scale to support IBM’s operations in 173 countries, with 280K employees, and several complex business models.
As the internal, strategic platform for IBM’s management and operational systems, EPM makes enterprise data easier to act on by delivering a single trusted source of integrated enterprise data, which accelerates insights and creates new intelligent workflows. Running entirely on IBM’s Hybrid Cloud, EPM aligns and integrates terabytes of enterprise data from hundreds of applications and reporting tools into a common data model.
The platform aggregates and validates enterprise data, including financial insights (revenue, expense, profit, signings, pipeline) and other critical enterprise data (workforce, support, procurement, real estate, marketing). This serves as a catalyst for IBM leaders to make decisions faster by providing anytime access to insights, analytics, and dynamic views to guide discussions.
EPM leverages AI and analytics to create intelligent workflows that connect historically siloed business processes through integrated analytics to transform how work gets done. Machine learning algorithms deliver insights into revenue performance, pipeline health, and business performance against targets. A chatbot called “AskEPM,” created in partnership with the IBM Research, provides insights into business performance through natural language processing and advanced analytics.
- If you are providing written answers for your submission, you must provide an answer to this third question: Outline the market performance, critical reception, and customer satisfaction with the product or service to date. State monetary or unit sales figures to date, if possible, and how they compare to expectations or past performance. Provide links to laudatory product or service reviews. Include some customer testimonials, if applicable (up to 350 words):
Total 304 words used.
Since the EPM platform runs on IBM’s Hybrid Cloud, it easily scales with rapid user adoption and newly integrated data, enabling richer insights and more opportunities for predictive models.
The key to successful adoption is the embrace of IBM’s Enterprise Design Thinking practice to build solutions designed with empathy and focused on transforming user workflows. The team worked with the IBM C-suite to transform the company’s operating meetings to “live on the platform,” replacing static slideshow presentations with live dashboards. This set the expectation for a new way of working for the entire company. The team now engages stakeholders through the IBM Garage; an approach that combines Enterprise Design Thinking, Agile, and DevOps. The EPM team co-creates dashboards through rapid prototyping to quickly provide new analytics. Critical to the team’s success is a comprehensive design guide that sets standards for creating dashboards and incorporates best practices for wireframing, visualization, and optimized performance. The EPM team also engages users through a champions network, Slack, an internal website, office hours, and frequent mixed-methods user research. New hires participate in co-ops that build dashboards together leveraging the EPM platform. Finally, the team tracks user analytics to identify where to focus additional adoption efforts.
EPM saves IBM half a million hours a year in manual work. EPM led to the sunsetting of seven major reporting platforms, aggregated 300 applications and over 3,000 reports and standardized KPIs, and shortened analytics from days to seconds. IBM shares the EPM journey with dozens of enterprise clients and partners with IBM Software products as “client zero” for new features.
Lessons learned from the past year with EPM include strong data governance, business process re-engineering, and Enterprise Design Thinking. For enterprises that want to engage in similar journeys, the IBM Garage offers an excellent way to accelerate progress on this journey.
- You have the option to answer this final question: Reference any attachments of supporting materials throughout this nomination and how they provide evidence of the claims you have made in this nomination (up to 250 words):
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