By Sonal Desai, CRN, October 21, 2011, 1000 hrs
IBM has announced its new product—Intelligent Operations Center.
The product essentially is software that is bundled with middleware, security, presentation, business intelligence, and is loaded on Linux or the X series of IBM.
As the name suggests, IOC is essentially used by command centers. It is armed with elements of unified communications such as chat, collaboration, video (portal), integration, etc and enables seamless communication between various organizations and the field staff.
IOC works on the basic principle of operator, planner and forecaster. It brings together all elements during an emergency for a faster output. The solutions are built on top of pre-defined data models and can store historical data, contact list, etc. Applications can be customized as per needs.
During emergencies, the BI automatically traces the respective department heads and initiates the communication through voice, online or chat. For example, during accidents it connects the offices of the police commissioner, the hospitals and all the relevant contacts from the directory. It also enables live feed from the site. The department head then instructs his field force through the mobile phone or SMS. All the efforts are co-ordinated; while the police can perform the panchnama, the ambulance can ferry-off the wounded, and fire-brigade can start clearing the debris.
“The software is sold on a per user basis and can be used by concurrent users. It can scale upto support the enterprise,” said Naveen Nagraj, IT Specialist/Consultant, ISL-IBM Lab Services & Solutions. He however, refused to divulge pricing details.
Nagraj said that IBM is developing frameworks for command centers for different industries. “We would also add a predictive element to it at a later date For starters; we are working building an algorithm to predict traffic congestion. For example, if a person has to travel from place A to place B, the predictive analysis would alert him about the time it would take to reach the spot, and the traffic congestion he may/may not face, etc.”
He added that since the elements would be pre-built on the IOC, it would reduce the time taken to set-up a command center from weeks to a couple of days or less. “One has to install the software, customize it and start. It’s almost like plug and play.”
IBM is targeting the tier-2 and tier-2 cities for IOC. “We are targeting cities with a population of two million or more, where the IOC would serve as a nerve center of information of different services, how they work, collaborate and co-ordinate from a central location,” explained Pradeep Nair, Director, Software Group, IBM.
“The market for IOC is hundreds of millions of dollars. WE are delivering on our promise of smart cities through this software. Although, the first few customers would be named accounts, we would start involving a select set of partners as the concept matures,” he added. |