The month of July was another busy one at IBM with a flurry of announcements in hardware, software, services, acquisitions, and strategic alliances. See the list of press releases here and an index for prior months here. In addition to the major focus on a "smarter planet", IBM is investing in society. The company's social performance is right up there with it's financial performance.
Right after the fourth of July, IBM issued its annual Corporate Responsibility Report, detailing the company's social performance results and strategies in the areas of governance, supply chain, environment, community engagements, employment policies and practices, and public policy. The 40-page report features IBM's Corporate Service Corps, a program IBM characterizes as a corporate version of the Peace Corps with the goal of developing a next generation wave of IBM leaders while at the same time addressing critical societal challenges in emerging markets. The company is integrating business and social strategies to make significant and lasting impacts in communities. For example, in the Sichuan province in China, the area stricken by a powerful earthquake last year, teams of IBMers engaged in the relief and recovery effort using their technology skills. The development of the skills also presents economic opportunities for IBM so the corporate citizenship goes hand in hand with business.
The report also outlines how IBM is minimizing its environmental impact by developing innovative technologies to conserve more energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, reusing and recycling IT equipment to reduce product waste, and utilizing environmentally preferable materials in its products and processes.
The company report describes how it provides employees with skills training, health and wellness programs, and opportunities to gain global experience. IBM also supports healthcare reform and has been advocating "Patient-Centered Medical Home" (PCMH), a model based on the concept of comprehensive primary care. I am enthusiastic about this initiative because it offers the chance to replace today's poorly coordinated, acute-focused, episodic care with coordinated, proactive, preventive, acute, chronic, long-term and end-of-life care. This approach is fundamental to the transformation of the U.S. healthcare system. Many believe this can be best accomplished by strengthening primary care. The "medical home" is an enhanced primary-care model that provides comprehensive and timely care and emphasizes the central role of teamwork and engagement by those receiving care.
The full corporate responsibility report is at http://ww.ibm.com/responsibility/
Other IBM Happenings for the month
IBM issues Corporate Responsibility Report
IBM's Corporate Responsibility Report details the company's social
performance results and strategies in the areas of governance, environment,
employment policies and practices, and public policy.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/27925.wss
IBM launches analytics center in Tokyo
IBM's new Tokyo-based IBM Analytics Solution center will help clients build
smarter business systems and drive improved decision-making.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/27952.wss
Kennametal selects IBM systems to replace HP servers
Kennametal, Inc., a leading global supplier of tooling, engineered components
and advanced materials that are consumed in production processes, has
selected IBM Power Systems to replace its HP hardware.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/27875.wss
Carrefour signs five-year agreement with IBM
IBM and Carrefour have signed a five-year, euro 180 million agreement
for IBM to take over the transformation, management and maintenance
of Carrefour's IT infrastructure.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/27927.wss
IBM supports Pilsen's 'Smart City' goals
IBM and the Pilsen Municipality will cooperate in building the foundations of
a "smart city" that will use information technologies to improve the efficiency
of the city's internal processes.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/27900.wss
Italy's 'City of Water' gets smarter with IBM
IBM is working with the City of Venice on a mobile phone-based initiative to guide
tourists to discover lesser known parts of the city and provide instant information
on historical sites.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/27926.wss
IBM reports 2009 second-quarter results
IBM announced second-quarter 2009 diluted earnings of $2.32 per share compared
with diluted earnings of $1.97 per share in the second quarter of 2008, an increase
of 18 percent.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/28019.wss
IBM simplifies unified communications for SMBs
IBM's new, self-managing, "office in a box" appliance combines all of the unified
communications and collaboration tools needed to run a business with the ability
to connect to telephony, in a single solution.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/28013.wss
IBM expands enterprise storage offerings
The enhancements to the IBM System Storage DS8000 and the XIV storage
system include better performance, security, manageability and business continuity.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/27996.wss
IBM, Cisco collaborate on smarter energy project
IBM and Cisco are teaming to help the Dutch utility Nuon and the city of Amsterdam
make smarter use of energy by enabling consumers to make informed decisions.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/27995.wss
Alabama turns to IBM for smarter education
Mobile County Public Schools has selected IBM analytics technology to deliver
smarter education services that prepare students with 21st century skills.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/27984.wss
IBM expands networking supplier relationships
IBM announced agreements with Brocade, Cisco and Juniper to help
businesses more effectively route the enormous amount of data and transactions.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/28053.wss
New IBM software reduces data center costs
IBM Systems Director VMControl is designed to help clients plan, build
and maintain data centers while reducing costs.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/28049.wss
IBM helps clients create smarter procurement processes
IBM's new strategic sourcing services and new procure-to-pay services can
help clients increase savings from suppliers and reduce procurement costs.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/28056.wss
IBM assists returning veterans with mentoring program
IBM has teamed with American Corporate Partners to mentor veterans
returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/28045.wss
IBM signs services deal with Sun Direct TV in India
IBM will implement and manage Sun Direct TV's CRM related applications
and end-to-end services, displacing Sun Microsystems, the incumbent provider.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/28054.wss
IBM announces agreement to acquire SPSS Inc.
The acquisition of SPSS, a leading provider of Predictive Analytics software
and solutions, further expands IBM's Information on Demand software portfolio,
business analytics capabilities and strengthens IBM Information Agenda initiative.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/27936.wss
IBM acquires Ounce Labs, Inc.
Ounce Labs solutions use advanced capabilities to scan software source code
and identify potential security and compliance vulnerabilities during the earliest
stages of software development, when they are less expensive to correct.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/27971.wss
IBM introduces Smart Analytics System
The Smart Analytics System is a single, fine-tuned system optimized with the
right balance of software, systems and storage capabilities for deep analytics
computing workloads.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/28093.wss
IBM's Smarter Planet framework to aid Nepal's vision for the future
IBM will create an innovation policy to help the Government of Nepal achieve
its development goals specific to e-government transformation and IT sector
development, as well as key infrastructure and IT skills capacity building.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/28116.wss
Ministry of Defence and IBM enter 5-year agreement
IBM and Defence Equipment and Support announced a five-year strategic
agreement for IBM to manage the UK Air Surveillance Command & Control System.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/28094.wss
Students see into the future during IBM Jam
Nearly 2,000 students from 200 universities participated in the Smarter Planet
University Jam, contributing hundreds of progressive insights during the
massive crowdsourcing session.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/28096.wss
IBM offers midsize companies data protection package
IBM made available a new package of data protection products at introductory
prices for midsized customers.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/28063.wss
Nuance, IBM to develop, market and deliver speech solutions
Nuance and IBM will collaborate to further accelerate innovation and advanced
speech recognition solutions for enterprises, consumers and partners worldwide.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/28085.wss
