Nuremberg City Council Drives Efficiency with IBM Analytics Technology

IBM software helps cities make smarter decisions for future urban planning and development

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Nov 13, 2012, 09:00 ET

BARCELONA, Spain, Nov. 13, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- During Smart City Expo and World Congress, IBM (NYSE: IBM) and The Office for Urban Research and Statistics for Nuremberg and Furth today announced that it will use predictive analytics software from IBM to examine and derive intelligence from public data to simplify and improve decision-making for municipal administrators. The IBM software delivers analytic techniques and time-saving features that help municipalities quickly and easily find new insights in data that enable more accurate predictions that result in better outcomes.

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The Office for Urban Research and Statistics of Nuremberg and Furth provides statistics and conducts analyses that are vital for the future development of the German cities of Nuremberg and Furth. Through analyses, projections, and surveys the organization's urban research provides important decision making information to the community and its leaders. The statistical analyses conducted by the office support urban development topics such as integration, education, sustainability and demographic changes to the city.

IBM's software makes it possible to create an accurate data set for decision-making from the city's available records. The software monitors important indicators, going far beyond the possibilities of traditional spreadsheet software, to help the city identify weak points and develop recommendations for further action and resolution. Powerful automated functions boost the department's efficiency and give its staff more time for other tasks.

"The number of tasks that local authority statistics departments deal with is constantly growing," explains Thomas Nirschl, Scientific Employee at the Office for Urban Research and Statistics. "IBM's predictive analytics software enables us to automate routine tasks so that we can make more efficient use of scarce municipal resources and free up time to dedicate resources to new projects."

The Office for Urban Research and Statistics organizes data obtained from regional and municipal statistics, analyzes and enriches that data, and then makes it available to other users. The office is also able to extract existing information contained in administrative registers for further research and analysis.

In addition, the office provides statistical information and decision support to municipal planning committees, local government and the inhabitants of both towns. This includes investigations of economic and spatial development, analyses of living conditions and social structures, as well as population forecasts.

"The success of urban development planning depends on the availability and interpretation of reliable information," said Michael J Dixon, PhD, general manager, IBM Smarter Cities. "Using IBM's predictive analytics capabilities, municipalities are able to continually evaluate and effectively assess population data to identify ways to manage public services more efficiently to positively influence quality of life for citizens and better prepare for future growth."

IBM SPSS Statistics provides the office with an enormous range of possibilities for processing and evaluating data of practically any kind. The software enables the office to integrate, aggregate, and analyze data stored in almost any format via a host of manufacturer-independent interfaces. The processed data records can also be output in a very flexible way and closely adapted to clients' needs for further processing.

Further advantages arise as a result of information being exchanged by statisticians in various parts of Germany, who are members of KOSIS, an organization run by the Association of German Municipal Statisticians, which is headquartered in Nuremberg. Statisticians from more than 150 local authorities in Germany are able to share information beyond municipal borders over the KOSIS platform to collaborate on joint procedures and solutions to problems they encounter.

IBM is building on experience gained from Smarter Cities engagements around the world. Working with IBM, city leaders can now monitor, measure and manage a wide range of city services such as water management and intelligent transportation among others. Using advanced technologies, like analytics software, IBM is helping cities of all sizes apply intelligence to their city operations to deliver better services to their citizens.

IBM has also established the world's deepest portfolio of analytics solutions, growing its business and industry expertise to approximately 9,000 business analytics and optimization consultants and 400 researchers, and created global analytics solution centers in Berlin, Beijing, Dallas, London, New York, Tokyo, Washington and Zurich. In addition, IBM has acquired more than 30 companies to build targeted analytics and information expertise and continues to expand its ecosystem, which today consists of more than 27,000 IBM business partners. IBM has also secured hundreds of patents a year in analytics.

For more information on IBM Smarter Cities, visit www.ibm.com/press/smartercities.

For more information about IBM Business Analytics: ibm.com/software/analytics

CONTACT: Holli Haswell, +1-512-680-0593, [email protected]

SOURCE IBM