IBM and Accenture invest in information management

IBM is making a $1-billion investment in software and services over a three-year period aimed at more comprehensive information management. It also plans to add nearly 10,000 consultants—for a total of 25,000—who will deliver product solutions and services, and support global centers of excellence.

What's behind this investment, and others made earlier via acquisition of products and services providers. IBM simply wants to empower knowledge workers by freeing structured and unstructured data in the enterprise.

"The strategy goes back three years to our acquisition of PriceWaterhouseCoopers," says Michael Schroeck, Business Intelligence group leader for IBM Business Consulting Services. "It's all about how we deliver hardware, software, and services to address our clients' most important and complex business issues, and leverage information to their advantage."

IBM says it will free transactional data in narrow departmental applications and combine it with unstructured data—estimated to be as much as 80 percent of the information within an enterprise—using integration, aggregation, analytical, and presentation technologies.

David Cearley, VP of research at Stamford, Conn.-based Gartner Group, sees the move as timely.

"At this point, IBM has the most comprehensive set of capabilities to address enterprise information management, including master data management, metadata management, and classic database and data services," says Cearley. "This lets IBM integrate disparate offerings, which is needed in the market."

That need also has been identified by Accenture. The burgeoning information management market prompted this consulting and technology outsourcing leader to make a $100-million investment over three years to bring together three areas of practice—business intelligence, portals & content management, and data management & architecture—under one new Information Management Services group.

"Information management is the future of our business," says Gregg Todd, senior director of business development in the Americas. "The driver for us is recognizing what our clients and Accenture see as the future of information architecture."

That kind of recognition will be a boon for anyone seeking greater value from isolated and disparate data.