Can you please introduce yourself, your background and describe Your role at IBM?
I’m Rand Nezha from Syria and have been living in Milan since 2010. I did my masters degree in Software Engineering, Cloud Computing at Politecnico di Milano. Since then, I have been working in the technology sector for multinational companies. More specifically, I am currently covering an exciting role in IBM during a transformational period in its history. I am a part of the Interactive Experience division, working for the Italian team which is responsible for the Apple- IBM partnership.
I am helping companies within their digital transformation journey to introduce strategically, in their line of business processes, mobile, analytics and Internet of things to achieve their business goals (reduce the costs, better brand perceptions, increase revenue, etc.). My role is being a strategical consultant, analysing the actual pain points and business priorities to introduce innovative and digital ideas based on Apple and IBM technologies and solutions.
Can you explain briefly the approach to Big Data & analytics at IBM and its benefits in your business?
Analytics for my business in IBM as mobile strategy is very important. When we combine analytics with mobile, we can really achieve the power of both. Analytics is to make better decisions, mobile combined with analytics is to take the best decision at the right time, at the exact moment it is needed. Very powerful! Can you see? Especially in this period where the companies need to be more competitive, fast and agile!
Think about a sales person during his critical meeting with a customer. How powerful could a dynamic and immediate solution be to support him or her in suggesting the right and personalised offer for this customer based on its history, preferences and trends. The sales person can then start negotiating with the customer at the exact moment without delay or losing the opportunity, returning back to the office to gather information and prepare a proposal!
Think about a Production Engineer who is responsible for different factory lines. How powerful can it be, receiving real-time notification from predictive maintenance systems alerting that a specific machine could need maintenance in specific period and suggest a new production plan to minimize downtime. The production engineer can approve it and send it to backend systems directly from his phone anytime! No delay and no production loss!
Actually I have a lot of similar examples! At IBM we have already realized different solutions which combine Mobile, Analytics and internet of things to empower enterprises with their internal process or external interactions!
Thanks to analytics, the companies can improve the performance curve of their employee! Think about the power of putting together the know-how of the most experienced employees and insights from company data as a personal adviser in the pocket of all employees, easy to reach any time in any place. In this case the employees no longer need to attend heavy training or hold hundreds of manuals. In addition, new hires don’t need to be accompanied by senior members for long time before being independent… And so on!
Can you explain briefly the reason behind the partnership IM4 – IBM?
IBM Corporation is working with top universities around the world. More specifically, in Italy we have a dedicated team responsible for the relationship with Italian universities. Politecnico is one of the best Italian universities, with which we have historical relations and collaboration.
Politecnico and MIP are considered the excellence school for technology and business where many of current italian leaders come from. For that reason, in 2013 we started a Collaborative Innovation Center on big data & analytics between IBM Italy/IBM research and Politecnico/MIP.
We have two International programs co-branded between IBM and MIP as a part of this collaboration (IM4 and BABD); we helped Politecnico in launching 2 Big Data tracks in the Master of Science programs (Laurea Magistrale); we deliver “Big data & analytics†modules in all the MBA classes.
IBM/MIP partnership is to build together new professional roles with strong competencies on data science and digital skills.
Inside this collaboration IBM is searching for future employees that can join the transformational journey of IBM and our customers. In the last 2 years, IBM Italy has hired hundreds of new Junior profiles, 50 of them coming from Politecnico.
