Free Analytics for Retail eBook

Here is another Dummies eBook available for free courtesy IBM.

Contents at a Glance
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1
Chapter 1: Understanding Business Analytics . . . . . . . .3
Chapter 2: Meeting the Demands
of the Smarter Consumer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11
Chapter 3: Harnessing the Power of Information . . . . .17
Chapter 4: Measuring the Impact of Decisions . . . . . . .27
Chapter 5: Using Predictive Analytics
to Anticipate and Respond . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .41
Chapter 6: Social Marketing and
Content Analysis Made Easy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .53
Chapter 7: Ten Ways to Improve
Shopping Experiences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .63

Grab it from here

http://www-01.ibm.com/software/analytics/retail/

Free eBook : Agile for Dummies

Download it from here :
http://adtmag.com/whitepapers/2012/08/ibm-agile-for-dummies-ebook.aspx

Free eBook : Private Cloud for Dummies

With compliments from IBM, for a limited time you can download free eBook on Private Cloud.

Grab it from the link below before it goes away.

http://www.dummies.com/Section/id-612075.html

Cloud for Dummies : free ebook

So we have ‘Cloud for Dummies’ available now for free .. courtesy IBM.

Get the free eBook here.

CIOs : Same Vision but Different Goals

IBM’s recent CIO study brings out a very important fact about the diversity in mandate which CIOs worldwide face.

The mandate spectrum spans from as legacy as digitization/computerization to IT being expected of radically innovating.

The report categorizes it into four following zones:

Leverage : Streamline Operations and increase organizational effectiveness

Expand : Refines business processes and enhance collaboration

Transform : Change the industry value chain through improved relationships

Pioneer : Radically innovate products, markets, business models

Every organization’s priority lies in one of these zones and so it becomes very important for CIOs and their teams to operate according to their organization and not just focus on ‘Pioneer’.

But still with all these different expectations with regards to goal, the Vision remains same and that is of creating value for business.

Another fact which report highlights is the industry distribution across these zones. The figure below shows distribution of industries in Pioneer zone.

It clearly shows how Financial industry is pioneering in terms of using IT to their advantage in terms of innovating.

IBM Cloud : The Smart Cloud

Here comes the public cloud from IBM called SmartCloud. It is actually both public and private but I am covering only public in this post.

SmartCloud offers full range of public cloud capabilities IaaS, PaaS and SaaS. Here is the summary:

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

• Provides hardware, software and storage as Virtual Machines
• Option of reserving a VM or ‘Pay as you go’
• Choose either a public cloud solution (IBM SmartCloud Enterprise) or a managed service (IBM SmartCloud Enterprise+)
• Operating Systems available : Red Hat Enterprise Linux, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server & Microsoft Windows Server
• Other Software available for Application dev environments (WebSphere), Application lifecycle(Rational), Application Server (WebSphere), Business Intelligence (Cognos), Database (DB2 only) etc.

Platform as a Service (PaaS)

• Provides an environment for application development, deployment, management and integration in the cloud
• Development  : Rational Tools
• Deployment   : Workload Deployer, WebSphere
• Management : Systems Director, Smart Analytics, Hosted Application Security Management
• Integration     : WebSphere Cast Iron Cloud Integration

Software as a Service (SaaS)

• Provides solutions for following categories:
• Social Collaboration : LotusLive
• Business Process Management : Blueworks Live
• Web Analytics : Coremetrics
• Enterprise Marketing Management : Unica on Demand
• B2B Integration : Sterling
• Supply Chain Management : Sterling
• Governance Risk Compliance : AppScan
• Business Service Management : Tivoli Live