Showing posts with label Business Analytics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Business Analytics. Show all posts

Thursday, December 27, 2012

Building Customer Loyalty With #Analytics

by Rick Robinson
Originally posted on IBM's Midsize Insider blog on December 27th, 2012.
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Building and retaining customer loyalty is one of the biggest challenges that midsize firms face. Conventional wisdom, after all, has it that consumers are inherently fickle. They are hard to win over and all too easy to lose. They may love you one day and turn their backs on you the next.

But the conventional wisdom is mostly wrong. Customers, by and large, would like to be loyal. After all, sticking with a trusted company or brand makes their life a good deal easier. To walk into, say, a grocery store to buy a new product is to be confronted with too many choices. How do you choose among dozens of similar products or services? Far easier to just go in and get a brand you know you can depend on.

For companies, however, this does not make loyalty easy to build or keep.

Customer by Customer, Analytics Add Up

Establishing and retaining customer loyalty is all about listening to your customers. For a small storefront business this can be relatively simple, if not always easy. Customers will come right up to the counter and give you an earful.

For midsize firms it can be more complicated. The most important customers may not be the most vocal ones. But analytic solutions from IBM can help make the listening process more reliable and effective.

Analytics tools can help a company determine what makes for satisfied--or dissatisfied--customers. And analytics can provide an ongoing picture of customers and their reactions. Potential problems, or opportunities, can be identified and tracked in real time. Thus, firms can act promptly to retain customers at risk or identify new customers who can be brought into the fold.

Likewise, analytics can help to identify your best customers, and help you build a stronger relationship with them.

Detecting Subtle Signals

Analytics are powerful because they don't just track what customers say, but also what they do. Big data has become a popular buzzword in the tech world. When it comes to customer behavior, however, big data is a reality as well as an opportunity that midsize firms should not ignore.

From subtle trends in buying behavior to comments on social media such as Facebook or Twitter, customers and potential customers are constantly sending signals about what they like and what they want more of. Combining these different signals can provide information that would have otherwise remained undiscovered.

IBM's analytics tools can help you hear what your customers are thinking, so you can respond to their needs more quickly.

Monday, November 19, 2012

Understanding Business Analytics

The following was originally published on IBM's "Midsize Insider" blog
by Sharon Hurley Hall on November 19th, 2012.
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Many company owners wonder how business analytics can help them. The truth is, it's the best way to keep your business healthy. Every business has streams of data generated from both internal and external operations. This type of analytics helps you to aggregate and explore data in order to make better business decisions. It is a key part of gaining business intelligence and can allow you to address multiple areas from product creation to customer retention and everything in between. Any analysis must be tied to business goals.

Types of Analytics

There are many ways of thinking about analytics for your business. Some analysis will concentrate on what has happened in your business in the past, using that information to identify patterns. That's called descriptive analytics. When you use the data you have to think about what might happen in the future, that's called predictive analytics. Many companies also use the data to do predictive modeling to improve the decisions they make.

Comparative analytics compares similar metrics, such as sales, and looks for variables that might affect the figures. Some businesses also think about analytics in terms of whether it is affecting operational, tactical or strategic goals. Using analytics is an ongoing process as every iteration of analysis throws up new areas to explore. As well as mining the data for patterns to uncover the reasons for events and predict whether they will occur again, analytics can also help businesses plan for the unexpected.

Getting the Data Out

One of the most important aspects of business analytics is finding a solution that crunches all the data yet supplies only the information needed to the right people. IT administrators can do this by enabling solutions which provide visual dashboards and reports to employees and managers at different levels. Analytics allows companies to get a holistic picture of their business and to gain insight on historical, real-time or future business events. Done right, it results in a better informed workforce, reduced business risk, and better strategic planning and decision-making, with a corresponding impact on performance and finances. It can help midsize businesses optimize their operations to assist their growth.

The Role of IT Administrators

IT administrators have a significant role to play in the implementation of any business analytics system. This ranges from establishing the parameters of the data needed, to managing data harvesting, storage, and mining as well as creating and deploying systems company-wide and educating users on analysis and reporting features. And, as a recent Midsize Insider article suggests, they may need to increase their skills in data analysis to help businesses evaluate the data and find trends.

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Upcoming #Webcast: 5 Great Business #Analytics Opportunities for #Midsize Businesses

Thursday, November 1, 2012 at 1:00 PM EDT

Many midsize organizations are collecting large amounts of data but lack the resources to mine much value from it. Technical complexity and cost have been major limiting factors, and the result is missed opportunities, wasted time and redundant effort. All of this hits the bottom line and has historically put midsize companies at a disadvantage.

But all that is changing. New tools are emerging that make analytics accessible to almost everyone, and you don't need a Ph.D. in statistics to use them. This session will discuss and demonstrate how midsize organizations can dig into data about their customers and their business and put this insight into action to reduce costs and generate revenues.

Mark Morton describes the revolution in business analytics that's making capabilities that were once available only to large corporations accessible to companies of all sizes. He'll outline the five top opportunities he sees for midsize companies to apply analytics to business success.

The session will also include a demonstration of the powerful but inexpensive offerings from IBM that can be used to analyze customer information, understand who is likely to buy and to focus marketing efforts on most promising market segments. Mark will also share examples of real success stories for midsize businesses in operations and finance in a variety of industries.

About the Speaker

Mark Morton, Senior Manager. Product Marketing, IBM Business Analytics

In his 20+ years at Cognos and IBM Mark has held positions in IT, development, product management and product marketing. He currently has worldwide responsibility for IBM Cognos Express.

Click HERE to register.

Monday, August 13, 2012

Thousands of Hospitals Across the Country to Pay Penalties for Redamissions #healthcare #analytics

What to do?  

If you are in the New York or New England area, there is an innovative solution regarding patient readmission only offered by IBM and one of our premier business partners, New England Systems.


The solution centers around predictive analytics designed to find patients who are likely candidates for readmission. Patient data is analyzed to determine the probability of who would be a likely candidate for readmission. This information is returned in an "executive dashboard" for easy review and analysis.

Having fact-based, predictive, readmission statistics allows healthcare organizations to take proactive measures to reduce the likelihood of a patient returning to the hospital for the same condition. This readmission solution can either be implemented at your organization or easily managed as a service, eliminating the need for additional technology infrastructure.

We would like to give you an opportunity to learn more about this amazing new technology and the possibilities it brings to the Healthcare Industry.

Contact me today at http://www.ibm.com/myrep/jagaeta to set up a consultation with New England Systems.

Friday, August 3, 2012

Asking the Naive Question: Is #Cloud - based #Analytics Right for my Organization?

Originally posted 8/2/2012 on IBM's Business Analytics Blog by Kathy Konkel, Product Marketing and GTM Strategy - IBM Business Analytics.
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At one of the recent IBM Performance events, Paul DePodesta, vice president of player development with the New York Mets, talked about his experiences working with the Oakland A’s Billy Beane to create winning teams and completely change the business of professional baseball.

One of the techniques they used to test the way they were approaching the business was to relentlessly ask “the naive question.”  This is a concept he credited to Peter Drucker and, in everything they did, they would ask, “If we weren't already doing it this way, is it the way we would start?”

This is not always easy to do and this question is not always met with open minds, but it can be very effective when a new kind of thinking is needed in order to survive.

I thought about this in terms of some of the challenges our customers face when it comes to deploying business analytics within their organization – from operational process to infrastructure to culture.

Most organizations today are still not at the point where they are able to take advantage of analytics.  (Those interested can measure your organization’s analytics maturity by taking the Analytics Quotient (AQ) assessment.)

Part of this reason is that IT organizations are spending 70 percent of their resources just keeping the lights on. That’s a lot of overhead and doesn’t leave much room for innovation.

So let’s ask the naive question, “If you were starting over with your IT infrastructure – would you build it the same way?”  Maybe the answers are in the cloud.

When Chet Karwatowski was building the infrastructure for Supplier Connection, a web-based portal that makes it easier for small businesses to become recognized as potential suppliers to large companies, he knew business analytics was going to play an important role in his application, but he knew he didn’t have the skills or resources to set up the infrastructure he needed.  He turned to IBM cloud computing solutions to help him deliver his solution with fewer resources and on a very aggressive schedule.

Organizations like Chet’s are using the power of cloud to build enduring customer relationships, deliver IT without boundaries, improve speed and dexterity and transform the economics of innovation.

Putting the two together, cloud-based analytics could be a way to help organizations advance in their analytics sophistication – and quickly.

At its recent Cloud Innovation Forum, IBM discussed the benefits of Business Analytics in the Cloud and some of the considerations that must be taken into account when considering a cloud-based analytic solution.  

Part of this forum included a panel discussion with customers who had implemented analytics solutions using a cloud-based infrastructure.

The main message from all of the panel participants was the benefit of lower costs and allowing them to focus on adding value to the business instead of managing a complex IT infrastructure gave them a competitive advantage.

In addition to Chet, Kevin Hurd from Assimil8, an IBM Business Partner, talked about the efficiencies they were able to achieve when they implemented a solution for Energy Saving Trust (EST) in the UK. Read the recent press release.

EST launched a new “Home Analytics” service based on IBM Cognos and IBM SmartCloud Enterprise that is the primary tool in its efforts to help energy suppliers, green deal providers and local government reduce domestic CO2 emissions across the UK.

They were able to deliver a solution in just a few weeks that would have taken months if they would have had to build up the infrastructure themselves, while still satisfying its own stringent criteria for energy efficient solutions.

Like Paul DePodesta, the Supplier Network and EST, staying on top of the game means always asking the naive question – even when it’s not obvious that a change is needed.

Have you considered a cloud based infrastructure for your next set of business analytics solutions?

For more information:  Read the whitepaper, Business Analytics in the Cloud, to see if the cloud computing model makes sense for your organization.

Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Webinar: A Unified Workspace Instantly Usable by Everyone

IBM Cognos 10 begins a series of new innovations from IBM Business Analytics that will change how
your organization makes decisions, allocates resources, anticipates and shapes future outcomes.
Cognos 10 delivers a revolutionary new experience and expands traditional business intelligence (BI)
with planning, scenario modeling, real-time monitoring and predictive analytics.

On August 7th, learn the many benefits of Cognos 10:
  • A breadth of analytics across historical, real-time, planning and predictive information
  • Unified workspace that is easy to use and delivers greater power and intuitive navigation
  • Add perspective to corporate information to quickly make accurate business decisions
  • Collaborative BI to accelerate alignment and improve decision-making
  • Analytics on the go for the mobile workforce
  • Faster performance and consistent results
  • Continually increase business value and lower TCO with complete lifecycle management
  • Reduced effort to deliver adaptable, extensible and sustainable BI Applications organization-wide
  • Expanded deployment options including Cloud, System z, and Power
  • Governance and content management with integrated storage management.

The Cognos family brings together market leading capabilities, each with hard won reputations for delivering against the most demanding standards.

Micro Strategies, an IBM Premier Business Partner, is proud to present a free webinar on Tuesday, August 7th from 10am to 11am Easter Time.  Your a invited to join presenter Christina Hasse, Technical Enablement Specialist for Business Analytics at IBM as she discusses how seamless integration and greater ease of use makes Cognos 10 essential at all levels and across all functions within your organization.
Contact Micro Strategies today to discuss upgrading your current platform to Cognos 10 or for information on the entire Cognos family.

Michael Schuckman | mschuckman@microstrat.com | www.microstrat.com | 973-625-7721 x 6483

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Aug 15th, Saratoga Springs, NY: #Cognos Day at the Races

Join LPA Systems and IBM at The Horse Racing Hall of Fame in Saratoga Springs, New York on Wednesday, August 15th at 9:00 AM.

You are cordially invited to attend a unique IBM Business Analytics event in Saratoga Springs.  The event will  begin a The National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame, where guests an tour the museum's rich history of thoroughbred racing which includes equine art, artifacts, memorabilia, film, video, books, and historical archives.

You will also learn more about the following topics:
  • Top 10 in Cognos 10
  • Cognos Insight - Individual Desktop Analytics
  • Predictive and Advanced Analytics

Complimentary food and beverages will be provided.  Following lunch, you will be provided tickets to the race track where you can enjoy horse racing on wonderful afternoon in Saratoga.

Tickets are limited - so register today!
Tickets and parking information will be provided after the RSVP is confirmed.

Co-Sponsored by:

>>> REGISTER HERE <<<

When:  Wednesday, August 15th, 2012

  • 9:00 AM Registration and Continental Breakfast
  • 9:15 AM Cognos Presentations
  • 11:30 AM Lunch
  • 1:00 PM  Belmont

Location:  National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame
191 Union Avenue
Saratoga Springs, NY  12866

IDC Names #IBM #1 for Business #Analytics Services

Read it HERE.

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

You are invited to a luncheon at The Capital Grille #in Stamford, CT @IBMNetezza

IBM Netezza:  The Simple Appliance for Serious Analytics

Are you looking to gain faster insights into your business information?
IBM Netezza’s high-performance data warehouse appliances are purpose-built to make advanced analytics on data simpler, faster, and more accessible.
  • Exploit the power and simplicity of a purpose-built appliance for high-speed metrics.
  • Improve the quality and timeliness of business intelligence.
  • Efficiently and economically query data at lightning speed.

Join Premier IBM Business Partner, Continental Resources, for lunch
at The Capital Grille and learn more about the following topics:
  • What is an appliance?
  • IBM Netezza:  Innovative “Game Changer”
  • The 4 S’s:  “Time to Value for Our Customers”
  • The IBM Netezza Analytic Warehouse Appliance Architecture

When:  July 12th, 2012 from 11:30am to 2:00pm
Where:  The Capital Grille
               230 Tresser Boulevard
               Stamford, CT  06901


>>>  Register HERE.  <<<
***Complimentary Valet Parking will be provided.***

Local Contacts: Boston | Chicago | New Jersey | New York | Philadelphia | Washington, D.C.
HQ: 175 Middlesex Turnpike, Ste 1 | Bedford, MA 01730-9137

Monday, June 25, 2012

Business #Analytics is High Performance Computing for the Everyday Business #in

Originally published by Colin Parris on The Smarter Computer Blog on June 25, 2012.

Last week, TOP500 announced that IBM POWER Sequoia supercomputer at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) is ranked the world’s most powerful computing system. Sequoia is made up of 96 racks of the IBM Blue Gene/Q system – a platform that IBM specifically designed to help organizations like LLNL solve large-scale scientific and societal problems that make our world smarter. As someone who helped build our Blue Gene system business earlier in my IBM career, I feel a sense of personal pride that this new system achieved record-breaking performance.
The concept of supercomputers can seem like a fantasy to everyday business leaders and not relevant to their own operational challenges. However, the same POWER microprocessor architecture that provides the muscle behind Sequoia also drives many of the world’s enterprise computing systems. Combining the knowledge we’ve gained from supercomputer work, our Power Systems line of servers and industrial-strength, highly secure virtualization technologies, we are helping businesses of all sizes deliver new services faster with higher quality and superior economics.

A prime example of this is in the area of business analytics. In today’s fast-paced marketplace, simply managing information is no longer enough. Companies need to make decisions quicker than ever before and those decisions must be based on facts. Data can provide those facts, but with vast amounts of data available from many sources – such as transaction records of credit card purchases, posts to social media sites, or cell phone GPS signals – it can be overwhelming. Some organizations are finding that there is simply too much data, and too little time and resources to make sense of it all.

Business analytics solutions can help organizations examine that vast amount of data quickly to spot trends and anomalies, and make it actionable through predictive modeling. More insight into current and target customers is an opportunity for every business to build loyalty and gain competitive advantage. The key is implementing a system that enables people to be proactive, rather than reactive, about customer demands and shifts in the marketplace.

Just as a supercomputer can compute trillions of calculations per second when its system is tuned to the scientific task at hand, business analytics software that runs on a server platform that’s optimized for that purpose can really make a distinct performance difference. You can also significantly lower your total computing costs by taking a workload optimized approach to business analytics systems design versus a “one-size fits all” approach.

Turning information into world-changing insights is not just the domain of complex scientific projects. Your organization’s success does not necessarily require the ability to carry out 16 quadrillion calculations a second. What it needs is to be smarter – about the computing systems it uses to anticipate and react to your customers’ needs. In this way, you could say that business analytics has become the equivalent of high performance computing for everyday businesses. Because making computing smarter is beneficial for organizations of every size.

Friday, June 22, 2012

Smarter Retail: The Competitive Advantage with Analytics - July 18th, 2012 #nyc #in

Please Join Saturn Business Systems and IBM.


July 18th, 2012.  New York City.

At this event you will learn how our analytics solutions and services for retail can help you improve the shopping experience for your customers. Business analytics can help drive profitable growth and offer targeted promotions, drive efficiency throughout your merchandising and supply networks by providing customers what they want while providing the convenience they demand. We can help you develop a solution to optimize your operations by reducing costs, driving efficiencies, staying out in front of a changing marketplace and reduce inventory and energy cost while reducing your carbon footprint.

Join us at this event to find out how Business Analytics can help you:

  • Understand customer behaviors across channels to maximize loyalty and lifetime value
  • Determine the next best action to take with your customers at the moment of impact
  • Drive efficiency through Supply Chain Visibility and Vendor Analytics
  • Use “Big Data”: The latest key competitive differentiator for retailers

Register now to learn more about how Saturn Business Systems and IBM can help your organization with your data and analytics needs.

Please join us for complimentary cocktails and hors d’oeuvres immediately following the presentation.

Please visit www.saturnb2b.com/events for more information.

Please click here to register today.

Event Details:
  • Date: July 18, 2012
  • Time: 3:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.

Agenda:
  • 3:30-4:00 Registration
  • 4:00-6:00 Presentation and Discussion
  • 6:00-7:00 Cocktail Reception

Location:
IBM Client Center
590 Madison Avenue, 3rd Floor
New York, NY 10022

Learn more:
Please visit www.saturnb2b.com for more information.

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Find Out How @GreenwichAssoc Leveraged #BigData Insights To Help Grow Their Business #in

You are Invited! Wednesday, June 20, 2012, 9:00am-2:30pm
Executive Seminar and Golf Outing at Quaker Ridge Golf Club 
- Rated in the Top 100 in the World -

Big Data has grown to epidemic proportions from gigabytes to terabytes to petabytes and beyond. Are you struggling to mine that data? To gain insights into that data? To reduce operational costs?

Hear real customer case studies and learn how you can turn information into profit!

Join us for this informative session given by Keynote Speaker: Ted Hios, VP Client Solutions and Greenwich Associates and play golf on one of the top 100 golf courses in the world.

You will learn how Greenwich Associates leveraged Netezza to:
  • React to market changes by providing unlimited analytic possibilities
  • Identify risks and improve outcomes
  • Provide analysis on complete data sets and eliminate sampling
  • Quickly capture and analyze your data to define strategic business objectives. 
Agenda
  • 8:30am: Registration, Coffee and Networking
  • 9:00am -10:00: Executive Discussion
  • 10:30am - 2:30pm: Lunch and Golf 

--- REGISTER HERE ---
(Scroll down the registration page to find this event.)

Presenters
  • Ted Hios, VP Client Solutions, Greenwich Associates
    • Ted Hios has been with Greenwich Associates for 14 years leading the operations team.  He lead the design and implementation of a new reporting platform and data warehouse.
  • Dwaine Snow, Worldwide Netezza Evangelist
    • Dwaine has worked at IBM for 22 years and has focused on Netezza, Data Warehousing, DB2 and has written and published numerous books and articles.
Presented by Micro Strategies Inc. (IBM Premier Business Partner)
For more information contact: 
Michael Schuckman 
973.625.7721 x6483 | mschuckman@microstrat.com 

  

Monday, June 11, 2012

You are invited to a luncheon at The Capital Grille #in Stamford, CT @IBMNetezza

IBM Netezza:  The Simple Appliance for Serious Analytics

Are you looking to gain faster insights into your business information?
IBM Netezza’s high-performance data warehouse appliances are purpose-built to make advanced analytics on data simpler, faster, and more accessible.
  • Exploit the power and simplicity of a purpose-built appliance for high-speed metrics.
  • Improve the quality and timeliness of business intelligence.
  • Efficiently and economically query data at lightning speed.

Join Premier IBM Business Partner, Continental Resources, for lunch
at The Capital Grille and learn more about the following topics:
  • What is an appliance?
  • IBM Netezza:  Innovative “Game Changer”
  • The 4 S’s:  “Time to Value for Our Customers”
  • The IBM Netezza Analytic Warehouse Appliance Architecture

When:    July 12th, 2012 from 11:30am to 2:00pm
Where:  The Capital Grille
               230 Tresser Boulevard
               Stamford, CT  06901


>>>  Register HERE.  <<<
***Complimentary Valet Parking will be provided.***

Local Contacts: Boston | Chicago | New Jersey | New York | Philadelphia | Washington, D.C.
HQ: 175 Middlesex Turnpike, Ste 1 | Bedford, MA 01730-9137

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Great news- @IBM Smart #Analytics System 5170 is now eligible for the Solution Accelerator Incentive #ibmpartners #ibmsmb

Click HERE.

You are invited to a luncheon at The Capital Grille #in Stamford, CT @IBMNetezza

IBM Netezza:  The Simple Appliance for Serious Analytics

Are you looking to gain faster insights into your business information?
IBM Netezza’s high-performance data warehouse appliances are purpose-built to make advanced analytics on data simpler, faster, and more accessible.
  • Exploit the power and simplicity of a purpose-built appliance for high-speed metrics.
  • Improve the quality and timeliness of business intelligence.
  • Efficiently and economically query data at lightning speed.

Join Premier IBM Business Partner, Continental Resources, for lunch
at The Capital Grille and learn more about the following topics:
  • What is an appliance?
  • IBM Netezza:  Innovative “Game Changer”
  • The 4 S’s:  “Time to Value for Our Customers”
  • The IBM Netezza Analytic Warehouse Appliance Architecture

When:  July 12th, 2012 from 11:30am to 2:00pm
Where:  The Capital Grille
               230 Tresser Boulevard
               Stamford, CT  06901


>>>  Register HERE.  <<<
***Complimentary Valet Parking will be provided.***

Local Contacts: Boston | Chicago | New Jersey | New York | Philadelphia | Washington, D.C.
HQ: 175 Middlesex Turnpike, Ste 1 | Bedford, MA 01730-9137

Transform your organization with lightning-fast #analytics driven insights from @IBMNetezza #in


The IBM Netezza data warehouse appliance dramatically simplifies your data warehouse infrastructure while delivering superior performance and enhanced analytic capabilities.  It easily consolidates meaningful data from all of your various existing applications.  IBM Netezza is fully compatible with market-leading BI tools and applications.  This highly scalable appliance boasts 99.99% up-time and is very simple to deploy, to manage, and to use.  No tuning, indexing, or configuring is required!  The IBM Netezza appliance is delivered to you “shrink-wrapped” – the server, storage, and warehouse software is all in there – pre-optimized and completely ready for you to load data and to immediately begin producing reports using your existing tools if desired.  And, it has a low total cost of ownership!


IBM Netezza delivers value and simplicity and it has an extremely fast time to value.  It drives results.  It enables your organization to dive deep into your data and run analytics that were previously impossible or impractical – allowing you to quickly and easily deliver valuable reports to your end-users.  IBM Netezza drives business value.  Our customers are glad to share their success stories – they have realized dramatic benefits to their business at a fraction of the cost of options available from traditional vendors.

The IBM Netezza data warehouse is being used by many of our clients to provide a robust and easy-to-use/easy-to-deploy infrastructure to support additional analytic reporting environments not currently being met by the existing warehouse.  It is also being used by many to offload certain workloads (especially those where superior performance is critical) from an existing warehouse.  Additionally, IBM Netezza is being utilized to reduce the coverall and on-going costs associated with warehouse environments.

This appliance can quickly and easily become a powerful component of your business intelligence environment.

Speed of Installation
  • Installs in about 48 hours

Speed of Development and Deployment
  • No configuration
  • No physical modeling
  • No indexes
  • No tuning – out of the box performance!

Speed of Loading
  • 1.5 TB – 2 TB+ per Hour Load Speed

Speed of Transformations/Aggregations
Speed of Queries
  • 10 to 100+ times faster

Speed of Data Access
  • Lower latency – load and query simultaneously

Speed of Migration
  • Data model agnostic
Let us prove it to you with a Proof of Concept at your site, with you data – at no cost to you!  Contact me today at ibm.com/myrep/jagaeta.