Maya Shenoi's Tech Notes

Update – Watson Analytics Beta is available now. Signup and try now @ http://www.ibm.com/analytics/watson-analytics/

On16 Sep 2014 IBM announced Watson Analytics, a breakthrough natural language-based cognitive service that can provide instant access to powerful predictive and visual analytic tools for businesses. Watson Analytics is designed to make advanced and predictive analytics easy to acquire and use.

Watson Analytics Sample 1

Watson Analytics offers a full range of self-service analytics, including access to easy-to-use data refinement and data warehousing services that make it easier for business users to acquire and prepare data – beyond simple spreadsheets – for analysis and visualization that can be acted upon and interacted with. Watson Analytics also incorporates natural language processing so business users can ask the right questions and get results in terms familiar to their business that can be read and understood or interacted with e.g.Who are my most profitable customers and why?  or Which customers are showing signs that they might be considering defecting to a competitor? or Which sales opportunities are likely to turn into wins?  or Why are these products being returned?

I think the most amazing aspect is that Watson Analytics not only can show what is likely to happen but also what you can do about it e.g. What actions could I take that would improve my chances of closing specific deals in the pipeline? Where should we be focusing our loyalty programs?

Surely Watson Analytics is a powerful tool for any business. To make it even easier for businesses to use this technology, its being made available over cloud.  It will be hosted on SoftLayer and available through the IBM Cloud marketplace. IBM also intends to make Watson Analytics services available through IBM Bluemix to enable developers and ISVs to leverage its capabilities in their applications. Certain Watson Analytics capabilities will be available for beta test users within 30 days, and offered in a variety of freemium and premium packages starting later this year.

This is where Watson Analytics distinguishes itself from the crowded analytics marketplace. IBM makes really advanced business analytics accessible to any business user anywhere and that too without a cost! In the freemium business model a product or service is provided free to a large group of users, but a premium is charged for access to more data sources, data storage and enterprise capabilities.

Beta for the service is expected to launch September, with availability later this year. Don’t wait! Check out IBM Watson Analytics!