IBM to Invest $100 Million in Mobile Communication Research

IBM has announced it plans to shift US$100 million investment over the next five years into developing mobile services. The three focus areas for IBM's research investment are: mobile enterprise enablement, emerging market mobility and enterprise end-user mobile experiences. Analytics, security, privacy and user interface, and navigation will be concentrated on across the Research effort.

"Mobile devices are gradually becoming ubiquitous and helping us transcend many boundaries -- geographical, economic, and social, among others," says Dr. Guruduth Banavar, global leader of the mobile communications focus for IBM Research and director of IBM Research - India. "With high penetration, simple user interface, and significant cost advantage for end users, mobile telephony holds the future of communication and exchange of information for the enterprise."

A glimpse of the possibilities of mobility can be found in a recent pilot performed as part of IBM's first-of-a-kind (FOAK) program, which used a technology named "BlueStar" to develop automated mobile devices and application management services for insurance claims processing. IBM's FOAK program pairs IBM's scientists with clients to explore how emerging technologies can solve real world business problems.

The pilot enabled an insurance enterprise to significantly reduce the amount of time required to process claims by leveraging mobile technology to locate and dispatch the most appropriate and available claims adjusters for each case. The right agents were identified through a combination of GPS location technology, presence awareness capabilities and an analysis of all candidate agents' calendar availability. Once agents were selected, the state of their mobile phone's configuration and security status was acquired by BlueStar, and updated, if necessary. BlueStar then assisted with preparing and formatting necessary claims case information for the specific mobile device configuration, and securely transmitted all data to the device.

This policy-driven approach to configuring information for on-the-go staff simplified the maintenance of mobile service products. Rather than having information dispersed on hundreds -- or even thousands -- of handheld devices, information briefly provisioned by a central server can be better monitored, upgraded and secured.

Emerging Market Mobility

For the 83 percent of the world that does not have easy access to the Web via PCs, IBM is helping mobile phone users become more productive. In these locations, there is a dearth of skills, such as technological and language literacy; a lack of infrastructure, such as reliable electrical power; as well as limited availability of smartphones.

IBM Research has established a pilot program in southern India that allows people, including farmers, repairmen, small business owners, and consumers, to post, retrieve or exchange timely information via voice on cellphones. Content -- such as weather and ocean conditions, grain prices, advertisements, bus schedules, news, class schedules, product catalogues, health information and available services appointments -- is created and updated by entrepreneurs and municipalities.

Inputting and accessing information, as well as processing transactions, such as reservations or payments, is as easy as speaking into a mobile device. In nine months of operation so far, the pilot has won rave reviews from users.

Posted to the site on 17th June 2009