IBM Opens Third Analytics Center in Beijing

The new China Analytics Solution Center just opened by IBM in Beijing joins similar new facilities in Berlin and Tokyo, and employs 300 engineers, mathematicians and scientists, with another 300 to be added, the company says. InformationWeek says the center will initially focus on smart grid application development for the growing transportation and utilities industries in China.

The Wall Street Journal places the first three analytics centers, as well as planned facilities in London, New York and Washington, within IBM's strategic shift into more software and consulting services for both government and private organizations. Marc Chapman of IBM Global Business Services in Greater China, which oversees the analytics center, tells the WSJ that planned rail systems and health care initiatives in China, for example, are ripe for improvement through the addition of the type of sophisticated consulting the new center can provide. He also says IBM's SPSS acquisition is "separate" but "represents yet another capability around analytics that we can bring to our clients, so they are very much linked."