IBM has announced that it is to open an analytics solution centre in Berlin to serve healthcare organisations, the public sector and universities.

The company says the centre will help to give clients faster access to high quality data and to help them analyse and interpret it, leading to improved decision-making.

It will also focus on the redesign of front and back office processes, examining topics such as the impact of RFID, telematics, the e-health card and e-file, the use of shared service centers, and IT transformation.

“Precise business decisions with far-reaching consequences for the entire organisation need to be made at ever shorter intervals,” said Martin Jetter, general manager, IBM Germany.

“Wrong decisions often stem from insufficient information at the time of the decision-making process. The public sector—like private enterprise—needs suitable tools and more advanced analytics to have always crucial information and knowledge at the right time and place at its disposal.”

The new centre was announced at the IBM Smarter Cities summit, which looked at how progressive cities are modernising to spur economic development, drive innovation, and meet the demands of more engaged citizens.

IBM said the centre would be based at its Spreebogen site, that it would have around 100 employees and that it would draw on the services of more than 300 consultants, software specialists and mathematicians.

It will have access to IBM’s comprehensive Information Management portfolio, which includes technologies that IBM acqured with the purchase Cognos and iLog. It will also be able to access expertise from the IBM Boeblingen Development Lab.

IBM said the centre is the first step in a recently announced global network to addresses the emerging market for advanced analytics capabilities. Additional centers will be located in Tokyo, New York City, Beijing and Washington, DC.

Link: IBM