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With IBM Sterling and Red Hat OpenShift, clients can build intelligent, self-correcting, Watson AI- and IBM Blockchain-powered supply chains and modernize existing supply chain applications

ARMONK, N.Y.,  — IBM (NYSE: IBM) today introduced a new integrated supply chain suite, embedded with Watson AI and IBM Blockchain and open to developers, to help organizations make their supply chains smarter, more efficient and better able to make decisions to adjust to disruptions and opportunities in an era when globalization has made supplier networks more complex and vulnerable than ever.

The new IBM Sterling Supply Chain Suite, built on the market-leading foundation of Sterling B2B Network and Sterling Order Management, enables manufacturers, retailers and other types of businesses to integrate critical data, business networks and supply chain processes while capitalizing on the benefits of technologies like Watson AI, IBM Blockchain and the Internet of Things (IoT). These intelligent, self-correcting supply chains are designed to learn from experience, creating greater reliability, transparency and security while providing new competitive advantages.

With this launch, IBM is delivering a secured, open platform with hybrid-cloud support that enables organizations to integrate their own data and networks – and the data and networks of their suppliers and customers – with the Sterling Supply Chain Suite. This flexibility enables enterprises to update and tailor their supply-chain solutions to meet their unique business needs. The open-architecture capabilities are strengthened by IBM’s recent acquisition of Red Hat, the world’s leading provider of enterprise open-source solutions.

“Supply chains are now mission-critical systems for all businesses to drive success and profitability,” said Bob Lord, Senior Vice President, Cognitive Applications and Developer Ecosystems, IBM. “Many organizations have risen to the top of their industries by building efficient and agile supply chains. By modernizing supply chains on top of open, hybrid-cloud platforms and infusing Watson AI, IBM Blockchain and IoT into their networks, the IBM Sterling Supply Chain Suite can help companies across all industries enter a new era of global competitiveness.”

IBM sees a $50 billion market in technologies that will enable global businesses to digitally transform their supply chains. “IBM,” Lord said, “means to be number one in that market.”

Current IBM Sterling clients include leading companies in distribution, industrial manufacturing, retail, and financial services, such as Adidas, AmerisourceBergen, Fossil, Greenworks, Home Depot, Lenovo, Li & Fung, Misumi, Parker Hannifin, Scotiabank, and Whirlpool Corporation.

With retail locations across Spain and Portugal and operations in many other countries through resellers and e-commerce, El Corte Ingles, headquartered in Madrid, is the biggest department store group in Europe.

“The complex, global nature of our omni-channel operations presents a significant supply chain challenge that could be turned into a business opportunity, if the right technology is applied,” said Juan Andres Pro Dios, CIO, El Corte Ingles. “The IBM Sterling Supply Chain Suite provides open development capabilities that let us quickly tailor solutions to meet our unique business needs. This allows us to embrace operational complexity while optimizing operational performance and improving omni-channel customer experiences.”

“Publicis Sapient’s global brand is tested daily in our client engagements as we collaborate to modernize purpose-built supply chain solutions. Speed and delivery are essential to our shared success,” said Chris Davey, Chief Strategist, Publicis Sapient. “How we transform supply chain is in the ability to quickly customize solutions by empowering clients with APIs, reusable assets and connectors to incorporate third-party applications and data, while connecting to critical business networks to extend the IBM Sterling Supply Chain Suite in ways that drive competitive differentiation for our clients.”

The Importance of Open, Trusted Collaboration
IBM believes the global economy is becoming ever more reliant on the interactions of connected companies that can tap into data troves from sources like IoT, GPS positioning and continuous weather monitoring. In this data-rich environment, the potential business value of the modern supply chain has never been higher.

And yet, critical business relationships often hinge on continuous collaboration, transparency and trust to succeed. While some applications and processes must remain safely tucked inside an organization’s four walls, many others must find their way to the cloud to take full advantage of the benefits of AI-enabled open collaboration by companies, suppliers and customers.

“Optimizing individual supply chain functions and processes has helped enterprises progress as far as they can,” said Simon Ellis, Vice President, IDC. ”But the growing complexity of global supply chains continues to increase beyond the capabilities of traditional or legacy systems.”

The IBM Sterling Supply Chain Suite’s open, integrated platform easily connects to each supply chain’s unique supplier ecosystem. Innovations include:

• Trusted connectivity built to scale, backed by IBM Blockchain. The IBM Sterling Supply Chain Suite provides frictionless, secured connectivity and collaboration with customers, partners and suppliers. Enterprises can quickly leverage IBM Sterling’s existing multi-enterprise business network, a community of more than 800,000 preconnected trading partners executing 3 billion transactions a year.
• Real-time intelligence and actionable recommendations. Applications and control towers, embedded with AI and trained in supply chain, provide end-to-end visibility, real-time alerts and recommendations that can be automated for self-correcting actions to drive better business outcomes. Clients using individual Sterling applications, such as IBM Sterling Fulfillment Optimizer with Watson, in their supply chains today have lowered shipping cost per order by an average of 7 percent. IBM has also deployed these Sterling capabilities in its own global supply chain to reduce disruption mitigation time from days to hours, becoming 95 percent more efficient at tackling recurring supply chain challenges.
• Open to developers to create tailored solutions. The IBM Sterling Supply Chain Suite allows systems integrators and developers to build, extend and integrate tailored supply chain solutions that can interoperate with other business networks and applications. It also enables clients to bring in third party data, so that all connected applications and networks can benefit from it. The Suite’s Developer Hub provides a global community of developers, open-source programs and a library of knowledge resources to help quickly solve unique supply chain challenges.
• Hybrid-cloud integration to extend existing supply chain investments. Instead of requiring time-consuming and expensive migrations, the Suite’s enterprise-ready containerized software, along with IBM Cloud Paks, allows clients to extend the value and reach of their legacy applications and data. This hybrid approach means clients have the freedom to choose where to run their workloads and the ability to link them to value-added services in the IBM Sterling Supply Chain Suite. For example, once certified, IBM Sterling Order Management containers for Red Hat OpenShift will allow clients to continue to run their software in their own datacenter – or in any cloud.

ARMONK, N.Y.,  — IBM (NYSE: IBM) has announced that Gartner Inc. has positioned IBM as a Leader in the 2019 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Data Center Outsourcing and Hybrid Infrastructure Managed Services for Europe and Asia/Pacific. IBM was again positioned the highest in ability to execute.

Today’s announcement falls on the heels of its recent announcement that Gartner positioned IBM as Leader in the same for the North American market.

“As cloud and AI become the price of doing business, we believe IBM’s recognition in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Data Center Outsourcing and Hybrid Infrastructure Managed Services in all three of the markets that Gartner tracks is validation of the IBM Services portfolio,” said Archana Vemulapalli, IBM General Manager for IS Offering Strategy, Management and Development. “Today’s announcement is a testament to our commitment to continue to deliver highly resilient, scalable and secure services, so clients can adopt hybrid cloud with confidence and know that our services integration model will give them the competitive advantages they need.”

According to the reports, Gartner analyzed ability to execute and completeness of vision of the data center outsourcing and hybrid infrastructure services offerings for providers in all three geographies.

The Gartner Magic Quadrant for Data Center Outsourcing and Hybrid Infrastructure Managed Services, North America report (Mark Ray, Daniel Barros, et al., 13 June 2019) can be accessed here under license:
https://www.gartner.com/doc/reprints?id=1-10N39S1G&ct=190701&st=sb

Gartner Magic Quadrant for Data Center Outsourcing and Hybrid Infrastructure Managed Services, Europe report (Claudio Da Rold, David Groombridge, Rene Buest, 18 June 2019) can be accessed here under license:
http://www.gartner.com/reprints/?id=1-1OH43V2O&ct=190909&st=sb

Gartner Magic Quadrant for Data Center Outsourcing and Hybrid Infrastructure Managed Services, Asia/Pacific report (DD Mishra, To Chee Eng, Claudio Da Rold, 24 July 2019) can be accessed here under license:
http://www.gartner.com/reprints/ibm-gbs-pro-services-librarians?id=1-1OD2CVEC&ct=190807&st=sg

IBM Garage underpins Bank of China’s first Global Innovation Lab

September 27, 2019 – Bank of China (BOC) and IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced that they will expand their existing relationship to co-create a new innovation model for the financial industry. The two parties will collaborate on the digital transformation, customer experience enhancement, business innovation, eco-system construction and cognitive technology deployment to accelerate the Bank’s digital transformation and the implementation of BOC’s innovation-driven strategy.

Financial technology is rapidly becoming a disruptive force in the industry today. Banks are facing ever intensifying inter-bank and cross-industry competition. In order to meet this challenge, many banks are taking the initiative to actively embrace technological innovation and digital transformation.

To stay competitive and find new ways to engage with both existing and potential customers, BOC has opened a Global Innovation Lab in Singapore that will unify digital systems, introduce automation to processes and establish efficient means to comply with regulations.

Co-created in the IBM Garage, BOC plans to build a further 5-8 Innovation Labs globally to fully leverage global resources and establish a BOC model of financial innovation. The new lab, is a combined client center, an experience center, and a factory for innovation at the same time.

The IBM Garage will help accelerate how the bank unlocks insights and business outcomes by helping modernize existing applications with technology such as AI, blockchain and IoT.

By leveraging experts from across IBM Services, bank subject matter experts, user experience designers, as well as system integrators, IBM will help BOC to build its innovation strategy, enable BOC’s own talent and upskill the organization for its business transformation, to drive technology deployment and incubate innovation.

In the new lab, the BOC teams will sit shoulder-to-shoulder with IBM professionals to jointly integrate IBM’s enterprise design thinking with BOC’s innovation processes, to innovate and upgrade quickly with agility and efficiency. An agile and diverse innovation team will bring together sales, technicians, and clients, enabling them to innovate with online and offline platforms and tools, so as to provide the accompanied service for product design, pilot projects, promotion and publicity.

Initial co-creation work has already started across five initial areas along with the comprehensive training of talent and consolidation of creative incubation resources. Two of the initial projects are already showing quick results with the prototype applications displaying key functions in just two weeks, which originally would have required three months from incubation to prototype.

“Bank of China is committed to becoming a world-class bank with technology and innovation as the cornerstones of our vision,” said Wang Fang, Bank of China Singapore branch vice president, Bank of China Innovation Lab Singapore General Manager.  “We look forward to having IBM as our partner, because we believe that in addition to the assistance they offer with technological leadership and industry expertise, we can learn even more from IBM’s own transformation and innovative models.”

“Reaching out across the globe from the heart of China, Bank of China is without a doubt a visionary enterprise with the power to get things done,” said Wenchao Liu, VP, Managing Director, Bank of China, Integrated Account, IBM GCG. “We are excited to work with them and share IBM’s Garage model, as well as our experience in innovative practices, to help them in the construction of their innovation lab. We believe that with the completion of the eight major global innovation centers and the whole innovation system, that Bank of China will be able to more efficiently incubate and rapidly iterate innovations. Thus, they will be able to achieve their strategic goal of building a world-class bank for a new era.”

As BOC’s first innovation lab globally, it will also act as a base for the bank to cooperate with governments, industries, academia and research institutions to jointly innovate and create new financial ecosystems.

After successful transition to help ensure ISO 20022 compliance, Switzerland’s second largest cantonal bank will use IBM payments platform to offer new digital services to customers

LONDON, Sibos 2019: — Banque Cantonale Vaudoise, Switzerland’s sixth largest lender and a major player on the Swiss banking scene, will expand its longstanding use of IBM (NYSE: IBM) Financial Transaction Manager to explore new use-cases in digital banking. Within the next few years, the plan is for transactions ranging from account openings to mortgage originations and transfers will be seamlessly integrated into the Financial Transactions Manager, a single, extensible platform for orchestrating and monitoring financial transactions.

“The banking sector is undergoing major upheaval,” Serge Messin, BCV’s head of IT solutions, said. “With more people choosing digital payments over cash and governing bodies changing regulations to keep pace with that change, it can be difficult to keep up. We are thrilled to have IBM by our side as we reinvent ourselves for this new landscape.”

BCV, the second largest of Switzerland’s so-called cantonal, or “state” banks, has a longstanding relationship with IBM. Most notably, BCV turned to IBM to help it prepare for compliance with ISO 20022, a new regulatory requirement established in 2015 by the Swiss National Bank to unite the country’s roughly 250 financial institutions on a single, unified standard for electronic data interchange.

By implementing FTM, BCV was able to leverage and streamline its existing and very stable payments core processing engine that still runs on a COBOL framework, similar to when it launched in the 1980s, while also letting FTM do all the ISO 20022 XML heavy lifting.

“IBM has a long history with Banque Cantonale Vaudoise, one of the most respected banks, and we are thrilled to be expanding the scope of our work as they prepare for the world of digital banking,” said Rajesh Venkatraman, director IBM payments solutions.

GMEX Fusion Digital Capital Markets Technology Suite to power live transactions for DAG Global across two leading cryptocurrency exchanges

LONDON,  — GMEX Technologies Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of GMEX Group providing multi-asset post-trade business and technology solutions, today announced the latest release of its GMEX Fusion Digital Capital Markets technology suite (GMEX Fusion), built on IBM (NYSE: IBM) Blockchain Platform, this technical advancement empowers institutional investors with a hybrid solution supporting multiple digital assets, including cryptocurrencies, security tokens, and more.

Already used by multiple exchanges and custodians in both traditional and hybrid environments accessing distributed ledgers, GMEX Fusion is designed to support multi-cryptocurrency transactions. DAG Global is now using it to execute and settle Bitcoin and Ethereum trades, transferring BTC/ ETH between customer accounts held by the two leading cryptocurrency exchanges, Coinbase and Kraken. GMEX Fusion uses the latest state-of-the-art blockchain technology to offer trading and post trade digital asset solutions to traders, exchanges, clearing-houses, central securities depositories (CSDs) and custodians.

Institutional investors interested in digital assets require enterprise-grade market infrastructure which can be integrated with existing technology and processed in regulated, accountable environments. GMEX Fusion now offers a new approach for supporting these assets in areas such as trading, clearing, settlement, registration, custody and management of traded cryptocurrencies.

IBM Blockchain Platform helps enable GMEX Fusion to manage digital assets that represent multiple types of financial instruments simultaneously, including cryptocurrencies, security tokens, tokenised commodities and margin traded crypto derivatives; with inter-bank message flows to facilitate settlement downstream, and exchange messaging upstream.

Sean Kiernan, CEO of DAG Global commented: “Our partnership with GMEX guarantees our success in completing live transactions using GMEX Fusion technology on IBM Blockchain Platform.” He added, “This enables us to trade on multiple exchanges and off exchange over-the-counter (OTC) with consolidation of trading activity and finality of settlement with a single solution.”

IBM Blockchain Platform is a flexible, enterprise-grade blockchain platform built on Hyperledger Fabric. It provides a secured platform to build, govern, operate and grow blockchain networks, with the ability to deploy components in multiple cloud or on-premise environments.

Jerry Cuomo, IBM Vice President Blockchain Technologies commented,” The work underway with GMEX and DAG Global is further evidence that IBM Blockchain Platform is addressing important financial services industry demands in real production environments and across multiple clouds. It is a foundational technology that can help merge old architectures with new, creating a hybrid approach to support the growing demand for digital assets and we’re excited to be working with GMEX on this pioneering approach.”

Hirander Misra, CEO of GMEX Group and Chairman GMEX Technologies added, “We are delighted to collaborate with IBM to power our market leading GMEX Fusion and provide an institutional solution which satisfies the growing demands for digitally enabled market infrastructure fit for regulated environments.” He added,” This is a unique industry approach as it will enable multiple pools of liquidity to connect with multiple custodians with a single aggregated trading, clearing and settlement solution.”

The deal was signed in third quarter of 2019.

ARMONK, N.Y., Sept. 5, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — IBM (NYSE: IBM) has announced that Gartner Inc. has positioned IBM as a Leader in the 2019 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Data Center Outsourcing and Hybrid Infrastructure Managed Services, North America. This year, IBM was positioned the highest in ability to execute.

“We believe IBM’s recognition in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Data Center Outsourcing and Hybrid Infrastructure Managed Services, North America, is a testament to the efficacy of the IBM Services portfolio in this era of Cloud and AI,” said Archana Vemulapalli, IBM General Manager for IS Offering Strategy, Management and Development. “We are dedicated to continually delivering highly resilient, scalable and secure services, so clients can adopt hybrid cloud with confidence and know that our services integration model will give them the competitive advantages they need.”

According to the report, “Gartner analyzes execution, strategic vision, and data center outsourcing and hybrid infrastructure services offerings for North America of 20 DCO/HIMS providers. Sourcing, procurement and vendor management leaders should use this analysis to select the best provider for their strategic initiatives.”*

LONDON, Aug. 28, 2019 — The Vodafone Business and IBM  venture, which launched earlier this year, today announced it has signed an eight-year deal with National Express, a leading UK-based transport provider with services in eight countries. The agreement covers the provision of cloud and digital services that will underpin National Express’ ‘digital first’ approach; to use the latest technologies to raise customer and safety standards, drive efficiencies and grow its business.

Vodafone Business and IBM announced their intent to join forces in January this year, bringing together their respective strengths in connectivity and hybrid cloud.  Together, they offer customers straightforward access to the technologies needed to integrate multiple clouds and prepare for the next wave of transformation enabled by 5G, artificial intelligence (AI), edge computing and software defined networking (SDN).

IBM and Vodafone Venture

IBM and Vodafone Ensure Smooth Ride to Hybrid Cloud for UKs National Express

Under the agreement, the Vodafone Business and IBM venture will first modernise National Express’ IT estate by moving to IBM Cloud and implementing a hybrid cloud strategy, building on the existing connectivity services provided by Vodafone Business. This will enable National Express to effectively manage multiple clouds in different locations and from different vendors; and to seamlessly scale up and down to support usage spikes.  Additional security and risk management will be added to protect the transport operator’s technology infrastructure and provide greater resilience.

This activity will lay the foundation for future innovation and enable National Express to speed the development of new customer-focused innovations – such as personalised passenger experiences, flexible payment options and always-connected vehicles.

Looking ahead, the Vodafone Business and IBM venture will give National Express access to other cloud services and new technologies such as 5G, IoT, edge computing and analytics. Such technologies will enable the transport operator to adapt to today’s digitally savvy consumers, create the best possible customer experience and drive operational excellence.

Debbie O’Shea, Group Chief Information Officer for National Express said, “Working with the new Vodafone Business and IBM venture forms part of our continued investment in technology to better support our strategic ambitions. This partnership enables us to move to a cloud environment giving us a future-proofed platform with increased flexibility that will better support our business.  It also will provide access to emerging and innovative new technologies.”

Greg Hyttenrauch, Cloud and Security Director, Vodafone Business commented, “This flagship win is a powerful demonstration of the value the Vodafone Business and IBM venture can bring to customers. As cloud services and connectivity become ever more inseparable, there is a clear need for the combined expertise we can deliver. We will provide National Express with the holistic solution it requires to drive digital innovation across its business – faster, simpler and at scale.”

“Leading enterprises around the world are turning to IBM and its hybrid cloud capabilities to modernise their businesses and transform operations,” said Michael Valocchi, IBM General Manager of the venture with Vodafone. “By moving to the IBM Cloud and implementing a hybrid cloud strategy, National Express can now tap the combined strengths of IBM and Vodafone and introduce new, innovative services faster and succeed in a digital world.”

Vodafone has a long-standing relationship with National Express and already provides wide area network connectivity and a Secure Internet Gateway.

About National Express
National Express Group is a leading public transport operator with bus, coach and rail services in the UK, Continental Europe, North Africa, North America and the Middle East. Passengers made 898 million journeys on our services in 2018.

About Vodafone
Vodafone UK connects people, businesses and devices to help our customers benefit from digital innovation. Our services span mobile, fixed line, broadband and the Internet of Things (IoT). We employ around 11,000 people across the UK, and operate more than 400 retail stores nationwide.

Having made the UK’s first mobile phone call and sent the first text, Vodafone has a history as a tech pioneer. In 2018 we made the UK’s first live holographic call using 5G, and were first to start carrying live 5G traffic from a site in Salford, Greater Manchester. Today we serve over 18 million mobile and fixed line customers in the UK, with 4G network coverage at 99%. Our customers voted us the UK’s Best Mobile Network at the 2018 Trusted Reviews Awards for the second year in a row. To help deliver Gigabit UK, we are rolling out full fibre broadband across 10 cities in partnership with CityFibre, reaching one million homes and business by 2021.

Our ReConnect programme is supporting women and men back into work after a career break, our IoT technology is working to create a low-carbon society and our free Digital Parenting magazine is helping families across the UK to navigate the online world safely. For two years running, we have been named a Top 100 Employer by Stonewall.

We are part of Vodafone Group, one of the world’s largest telecommunications companies, with mobile operations in 25 countries, partnerships with mobile networks in 44 more, and fixed broadband operations in 19 markets.

Anheuser-Busch InBev, Cisco GlaxoSmithKline, Lenovo, Nokia, Schneider Electric and Vodafone to Tackle Supplier Information Management Challenges

ARMONK, N.Y., — IBM (NYSE: IBM) and Chainyard today announced Trust Your Supplier (TYS), a new blockchain network designed to improve supplier qualification, validation, onboarding and life cycle information management. Anheuser-Busch InBev, Cisco, GlaxoSmithKline, Lenovo, Nokia, Schneider Electric and Vodafone are founding participants alongside IBM in the network and share a common goal of solving challenges related to supplier information management. IBM’s industry expertise and Chainyard’s product capabilities building on IBM Blockchain Platform have brought this solution to market.

Traditional methods of managing suppliers often involve cumbersome manual processes, which make it difficult to verify identities and track documents like ISO certifications, bank account information, tax certifications, and certificates of insurance throughout the lifecycle of a supplier. By using a decentralized approach and an immutable audit trail built on blockchain, Trust Your Supplier is designed to eliminate manual time-consuming processes and help reduce the risk of fraud and errors, ultimately creating frictionless connectivity across supply chains. By 2023, blockchain will support the global movement and tracking of $2 trillion of goods and services annually, according to technology research firm Gartner Inc.*

“Blockchain has the ability to completely transform how companies onboard and manage their supplier network for the future,” said Renee Ure, Chief Supply Chain Officer for Lenovo’s Data Center Group. “Through Trust Your Supplier, both buyers and suppliers will the see the procurement benefits of blockchain through reductions in cost, complexity and speed.”

Trust Your Supplier creates a digital passport for supplier identity on the blockchain network that allows suppliers to share information with any permissioned buyer on the network. Blockchain ensures a permissioned based data sharing network. This should help reduce the time and cost associated with qualifying, validating and managing new suppliers while creating new business opportunities among suppliers and buyers. Third-party validators, such as Dun & Bradstreet, Ecovadis and RapidRatings provide outside verification or audit capabilities directly on the network.

The Trust Your Supplier blockchain network can also connect existing procurement business networks by relaying necessary supplier data required for exchanging Purchase Orders and invoices, without the need for suppliers to enter it in multiple different networks and automating on-boarding process to those networks. The IBM Supply Chain Business Network can connect to Trust Your Supplier using open industry programming interfaces for access to existing verified supplier information.

“Working with IBM and Chainyard on this blockchain initiative represents a great opportunity for Nokia to further enhance our suppliers’ experience and optimize the onboarding process,” said Sanjay Mehta, Vice President Procurement, Nokia. “Using the latest technology to address a classical challenge will be of benefit for everyone, and further increase the speed of using innovative solutions.”

IBM has over 18,500 suppliers around the world and will begin using the Trust Your Supplier network initially onboarding 4,000 of its own North American suppliers over the next few months. IBM Procurement projects a 70 to 80 percent reduction in the cycle time to onboard new suppliers, with a potential 50 percent reduction in administrative costs within its own business.

The Trust Your Supplier network is currently in limited availability with existing participants with plans for commercial availability later in Quarter 3 of 2019. TYS is built on the IBM Blockchain Platform hosted on the IBM Cloud.