IBM Watson Analytics Cloud Business Partner Panel

Next up at the IBM Watson Analytics Cloud announcement is a partner panel with SugarCRM, AVENT and Truven Health Analytics:

• AVENT is a global technology company with a deep services company with a group focused on using analytics.
• SugarCRM is a CRM software company focused on helping businesses create extraordinary customer relationships.
• Truven Health is focused on using analytics to drive improved results and lower costs in healthcare.

Clearly all three are very impressed by Watson Analytics, especially by the degree of integration and the quality of visualization/ease of use.  “It’s not a new chapter but a new book”.

Thoughts from the panel:

• Power user is clearly a popular target user. Making data available to these folks has long been a focus for these partners but excited about the new tools for helping folks take advantage of this data.
• Hoping that this kind of technology will help customers see the value of analytics and data, especially more senior folks. Demos of the technology create a very different response from customers than previous generations of analytic technology.
• Sharing best practices is not just about sharing the process followed by the best people but also sharing the insights those best people have. It’s about replicating their decision-making.
• Technology like this used to be available only to the “richest” companies but this approach democratizes it.
• Companies are seeing that they must move from just looking at their data to seeing what that data tells them – their world is changing. Being able to bring in new data, see how this changes results, being able to do all this faster will be a powerful tool for them. Will be able to help these customers react faster.
• The Watson Analytics capability helps move the conversation up the management curve – tells a better story that will attract a more senior audience and take the analytic results further.
• Keen to push analytics also down into the front-line, operational decision-making.
• May make predictive analytics more approachable to smaller companies with lower investment, less need for expertise.
• Earlier and easier detection of trends and  problems have been top of mind for companies for a while and the partners see Watson Analytics as potentially helping with both.
• Exposure of drivers, underlying factors, is important to customers and this is something that Watson Analytics exposes more clearly.
• Getting people to use software often involves telling them something they did not already know and Watson Analytics offers new ways to do this.

Next Step plans:

• Improve partner scorecarding approach, replacing spreadsheets with Watson Analytics.
• Start mining their data to look for trends they have not seen so far.
• Put it front and center in conversations with their customers to change the conversation.