IBM Delivers New Software and Services for Information Governance

New Center of Excellence Brings Industry-Specific Solutions to Businesses

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Feb 03, 2010, 02:31 ET

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 3 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- In conjunction with its Information Governance Council meeting, IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced new data protection software, a line of consulting services and resources and previewed information monitoring software to help organizations expand their use of trusted information to improve decision making.

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Today, the most critical asset to any organization is its business information. Organizations are struggling to use huge volumes of information for better business outcomes. At the same time, the number of high profile examples of data mismanagement is growing, making the need for proper oversight and use of information key to success.

A recent study from the IBM Institute for Business Value found having superior data governance is critical to the success for top performing companies. By a factor of three to one, the study found that top performers were much more sophisticated in their approach to governing organizational information relative to lower performing companies (42 percent versus 14 percent).

To help organizations address information governance – the processes and policies by which a company oversees access and use of their information -- IBM is unveiling IBM Optim Data Redaction and a technology preview program for IBM InfoSphere Business Information Monitor.

Based on work from IBM Research and technology gained during the acquisition of Guardium, InfoSphere Business Monitor tracks the quality and flow of an organization's information and provides real-time alerts of potential flaws. For example, if a health insurance company was analyzing profit margins across different product lines (individual, group, HMO, Medicare, etc.), decision makers would immediately be alerted when a data feed from a specific geography was not successfully integrated.

Also based on work from IBM Research, Optim Data Redaction protects an organization's information by automatically recognizing and removing sensitive content from documents and forms. For example, a customer's credit scores in a loan document could be hidden from an office clerk, while still being visible to a loan officer

As part of today's announcement, IBM Global Business Services detailed a number of expanded offerings for information governance and formally announced IBM Global Business Services' Information Governance Center of Excellence (COE). Within the new Business Analytics and Optimization area, the COE has over 250 professionals supporting clients in multiple industries around the world with deep expertise in the design, development and deployment of information governance initiatives.

The dollars and sense of information governance

More and more organizations are turning to governance to do more than meet compliance regulations. "At Chevron we believe that good information governance will help us drive concrete savings to our bottom line," said Sebastian Gass, Chevron. "We have just begun implementing our information governance strategy and are on track to deliver millions in saving by optimizing how we use our key information assets."

"Information governance has traditionally been perceived as a necessary task that focuses on financial, compliance and regulatory issues," said Arvind Krishna general manager, IBM Information Management. "IBM's information governance strategy combines new software and services with the building blocks companies already have in place to make governance an enterprise wide topic that drives significant growth."

The flow of trusted information

As information flows through an organization, there are many points at which disruptions in quality, protection and management can occur. Information governance provides the framework to ensure that information can be trusted and creates a solid foundation upon which other technologies can be based.

Breakdowns in information flow and accuracy lead to bad business decisions and compliance failures. The health of an organization's information depends on understanding the dependencies between various information assets like databases, content repositories, reports, and business applications. InfoSphere Business Information Monitor automatically detects the connections and relationship between data sources and reports ensuring that when something goes wrong in one area users are notified of all possible implications.

Security and privacy also play a key role in developing a good information governance strategy. IBM Optim Data Redaction helps reduces an organization's risk by removing sensitive data without impacting the organization's ability to use the information. Optim Data Redaction also allows organizations to balance the speed of automated extraction with the precision of human review making it easy to ensure the right information stays private.

IBM's expanded portfolio of information governance consulting services provide clients with tools and methodologies to define, develop and deliver a coherent, consistent and valuable structure to manage their valuable information. This includes assessment offerings, organization design and development consulting, policy development and implementation services.

The IBM Information Governance Council

IBM has been at the forefront of the information governance movement since the formation of the IBM Information Governance Council in 2005. The Council is comprised of 50 global companies from industries such as financial services and health care including the most recent member Charodix. As part of the council, these companies are pioneering best practices around risk assessment and information governance to help the business world take a more disciplined approach to how companies handle information. IBM's new information governance initiative is a result of this collaboration with council members.

Optim Data Redaction is expected to be available in March. A technology preview program for InfoSphere Business Information Monitor is expected to open in March.

For more information on IBM Information Governance: http://www-01.ibm.com/software/info/itsolutions/information-governance/

For more information on IBM Global Business Services and Information Governance visit: http://www.ibm.com/gbs/bao

Twitter: #IBMInfoGov

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