ARMONK, N.Y., Nov. 8, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced that Forrester Research, Inc. has recognized IBM as a market leader in business intelligence (BI) services according to the October 2012 report, The Forrester Wave^TM: Business Intelligence Services Providers, Q4 2012¹. The report, which evaluates the leading BI providers by strategy and technology expertise, cites IBM as leading the market in both areas.

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Based on a 53-criteria evaluation of BI services providers, the report indicates that in addition to having one of the largest business intelligence practices globally, with "capabilities and presence in a broad range of industries, technologies and geographies, IBM has skills in core BI areas (advisory, technology implementation, and outsourcing) and has pioneered some of the most innovative research and offerings in the market today, such as the Watson cognitive computing system."   

The report also emphasizes that while IBM has a substantial number of external alliances, with firms like SAP, Oracle and Teradata, it also has expertise in its own analytics products such as InfoSphere, SPSS, and Cognos. Additionally IBM is the only vendor to get a perfect score for the Strategy, as well as the "Use of BI methodology within one's business," categories.   

"This recognition is an acknowledgement of the significant results we've been able to deliver to clients and our ability to build a capability to deliver at scale. This has been a priority consulting practice for IBM since we announced it in 2009," said Fred Balboni, Global Business Analytics Optimization Leader, IBM Global Business Services. "With its solid Datawarehousing and BI underpinnings, IBM's Business Analytics and Optimization practice continues to help clients exploit Big Data to target customer-centric outcomes, tap into internal data and build better information ecosystems." 

IBM's Business Analytics & Optimization consulting service was founded in 2009 as part of IBM Global Business Services. Within three years, the practice grew from 4,000 to more than 9,000 consultants that specialize in business analytics and information management solutions. IBM currently has analytics solutions centers across the world and has announced it will invest more than $100 million on Big Data research. 

To access a copy of The Forrester Wave (TM): Business Intelligence Services Providers Report please visit: http://bit.ly/S11hk5

For more information on IBM, visit www.ibm.com/gbs 

¹ "The Forrester Wave ™, Business Intelligence Service Providers, Q4 2012", October 2012. Copyright © 2012, Forrester Research, Inc.

SOURCE IBM