IBM's Integrated Service Management:

A Smarter Infrastructure for a Smarter Planet

It's not about the technology; it's about the services the technology delivers.

Service Management in Action

Organizations today know that by focusing more on how they create, deliver, manage, and improve the services they offer—over the complete service lifecycle—they can get a better outcome. And not just for themselves, but also for their partners, their customers and clients, and in a larger sense, the world as a whole.

Is it going too far to use that phrase—"the world?" Hardly. As our planet's collective infrastructure evolves, it is becoming more intelligent, interconnected, and instrumented. Today we are able to aggregate more information, in more ways and from more sources, than ever before, then analyze it to create the tailored, optimized services we need to solve any given problem or achieve any given goal.

Toward these ends, IBM's vision of Integrated Service Management can play a key role. IBM can help organizations move beyond narrowly defined technology silos to concentrate on the services customers value, then render those services via a linked, optimized infrastructure. And of course, IBM also offers a rich portfolio of solutions and services that can be combined in a modular fashion to create or orchestrate infrastructure in any necessary way.

IBM's value proposition, in short, is true market leadership in the creation of smarter services, spanning many different business contexts and industries of all kinds.

Smarter services change the game through compelling innovation

"Today we are able to aggregate more information, in more ways and from more sources, than ever before, then analyze it to create the tailored, optimized services we need to solve any given problem or achieve any given goal."

What are smarter services? In IBM's outlook, they are innovative IT and business services that leverage assets, devices, and information technology to improve the end user experience while also dramatically reducing operational and developmental costs and business risks of many kinds.

Smarter services are also, in a sense, disruptive. They result in a significantly different implementation or delivery method of services, different services altogether, or both. They are, in current parlance, "game-changers." They redefine both what is possible, and how to go about achieving it.

Consider, for example, the case of the automotive industry. Cars are no longer just internal combustion engines on wheels; today they could just as well be described as mobile computers—or mobile collections of computers. An estimated 40% of the total feature set of a modern car is actually a consequence of its software. This software is driven by over 1,000 smart components with an estimated 10,000 different points of intersection, or interfaces. All told, this is a tremendous amount of new intelligence integrated into the car—intelligence that, if collected, analyzed, and utilized properly, can also translate into remarkable new value to the customer.

How? Already, cars have sensors that track engine components, and detect patterns of use or emerging threshold conditions that suggest a future problem. Based on this information, drivers can avoid mechanical failure and all of its inconvenience, expense, and danger. But this same principle can be leveraged to a far greater extent, and yield far more value.

Going forward, for instance, cars will utilize such sensor information, augmented by global positioning data that's updated in real time, to take appropriate action in the event of a crash. Cars themselves can notify emergency service teams that an accident has occurred, where it has occurred, and how severe it was—a critically important chain of events that an unconscious driver would be incapable of initiating. In this context, the service is the detection and diagnosis of the crash, followed by notification to the people who can help. And technology can be utilized to make that service much smarter.

The energy industry is another in which smarter solutions, aptly deployed and managed, can inspire and drive smarter services, which will in turn generate a better outcome for everyone. In part, this can happen through a reduction of wasted power. At present, an estimated 60% of all power delivered across electrical grids goes unutilized; it is generated not on the basis of actual needs, or workload demands, but instead to support the maximum anticipated need. This is by definition excess capacity, for which we are all paying, and ultimately it leads to increased carbon dioxide generation and contributes to the problem of global warming.

Here, just as in the case of automobiles, new intelligence in the infrastructure can collect and analyze data in new ways to drive smarter services—and get a superior outcome as measured by almost any metric. Specifically, smart meters can be deployed (and, in fact, are being deployed) to give end users, as well as power providers, the information they need.

In the case of consumers, that innovation will empower them to determine not only how they are using energy, but when, under what conditions, and for what purposes. It will, for example, allow them to track how much their energy costs at different times. This new information can then suggest strategies to reduce their electric bills by monitoring and managing their electrical consumption in a smarter way at different times of the day or week, thus accomplishing what they want, yet driving down the total costs.

Furthermore, the energy providers also benefit because those same meters can give them the information they need to distribute energy across the grid in a smarter way—not based on some theoretical maximum that consumers might need, but instead based on a practical knowledge of how much consumers really do need.

And in both cases, as energy consumption declines, the aggregate reduction in the total global carbon footprint will be significant—a very big-picture concept of smarter services driving a smarter planet.

Work with IBM to infuse your services with new intelligence—and get a better outcome

IBM is uniquely positioned to help organizations in all industries focus on what matters most—the services they deliver, and how those services can be optimized to better meet customer needs while also driving down costs and risks.

IBM's vision of Integrated Service Management is essentially one of enhanced visibility, control, and automation. By seeing what's happening in the infrastructure in real time, then taking effective, business-prioritized action, the infrastructure can become a superior instrument of overall strategies, as well as meet the needs of customers and clients more effectively and cost-efficiently. "Integrated" in this sense also means that management of the infrastructure is no longer divided separately into strictly technological or business tools; instead, management converges. One set of tools and information can be used to support both contexts.

Furthermore, IBM can also help organizations translate that relatively abstract definition into an up-and-running reality in the ways that make the most sense for them—today and tomorrow. Perhaps that involves traditional data centers—the heartbeat of IT operations. Perhaps it means new ways to develop and deliver software, the invisible thread linking smart assets and empowering smart services of all kinds. Or perhaps what is needed is an industry-specific implementation of service management. In every case, IBM can serve as the trusted partner needed to transform current services into smarter services—and achieve a better outcome.

Conceive of the data center as a flexible, scalable means to accomplish any given business goal, render any given service, or enhance customer satisfaction via an improved experience. If that's an appealing idea, and it probably is, consider how IBM can help your organization pursue it.

With IBM's assistance, you can create an integrated platform of management, linking assets, resources, and services and implementing best practices to best meet your needs. Modular IBM solutions can be deployed as required to drive up security, resource allocation, performance, energy efficiency, and operational efficiency—in some cases, by automating everyday tasks for superior speed and consistency.

And on a more strategic level, IBM also offers consulting at any level of granularity or stage in a transformation process. Whether you are just beginning to rethink data center design and implementation, or only require assistance in a very specific aspect such as regulation compliance, IBM stands ready to help.

Rendering smarter services often involves new software—and IBM can help you link IT Development and IT Operations in powerful new ways, then deliver the services you've created more effectively and dynamically than ever before.

Imagine, for instance, that instead of a de facto wall separating the development and operations teams, the tools those teams used are integrated—sharing information from one team to the other in any way they require.

Imagine tracking new software builds throughout their complete development lifecycles, from conception to deployment into production, for a faster and more competitive response to emerging customer interest in new services.

And imagine delivering services on a truly optimized architecture, such as a cloud, that can scale up to suit workload spikes or scale down to reduce energy consumption—however will best suit your needs and the needs of your customer base.

IBM also offers many integrated service management packages carefully tailored for the needs of specific industries. IBM can help organizations identify and focus on what "smarter" means in any given case, then refine their service management to match. This takes place via a specific combination of solutions, which integrate seamlessly not just with each other, but also with the existing infrastructure, to suit the needs of that industry.

Among other industry packages, for instance, are those available for aerospace and defense, the automotive sector, banking, electronics, energy and utilities, government, insurance, retail, telecommunications, and transportation—an incredible diversity.

The key takeaway? In every case, IBM can help your organization develop smarter services through a smarter utilization of the infrastructure, leading to a better outcome for the complete ecosystem including your clients, customers, and business partners—even, ultimately, the world as a whole.

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