IBMers in ACTION

Katelyn, IBM client manager for Health Care Service Corp (HCSC) and the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association (BCBS), two major insurance payor companies headquartered in Chicago, is determined to help her clients lower costs - and help patients get the best care and support possible.

She's doing both with Blue Health Intelligence (BHI), a solution originally built by BCBS on IBM's data warehouse hardware and software platform, which is now being leveraged by other plans including HCSC. Blue Health Intelligence is currently the largest healthcare database in the world, containing information on 50 million lives. There is no data set like it, no unique illness or disease, and trends and analyses can be provided in a way not previously possible.

The proof is in the results. Recently, PhDs from the IBM's analytics team helped the BHI team perform a study on the rate of hospitalization for juvenile diabetics. They took a sample data set from the BHI warehouse, and based on that sample, as well as a predictive model built by IBM and BHI, researchers could tell which member groups were at the highest risk for hospitalization, and when they may be at greatest risk.

"That was huge for both the provider side and the payor side, because doctors could now look for signs for when people might run into trouble, as well as manage costs better, and most important, manage patients' health better," says Katelyn. Being able to predict such determinants, and understand them better, has literally saved lives.

Manager of the Centre for Economic Development of the IBM Institute for Business Value, Susanne develops and publishes "Thought Leadership" studies on the relationship between Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) and economic development.

In 2009, Susanne and colleagues published two studies on "Smarter Cities": In June, in time for the first IBM conference on Smarter Cities in Berlin, the first study "A vision of smarter cities (pdf)," looked at the way cities have changed and how they can leverage ICT to their advantage. In October, in time for IBM's second Smarter Cities conference in New York, a second study "How smart is your city - Helping cities measure progress (pdf)" was published, discussing the need to measure the 'smartness' of cities, and a methodological approach for doing just that. Susanne and team are already working on the next study on 'smarter cities,' which will be published at the IBM Smarter Cities conference in Shanghai this June.

All cities around the world stand to benefit from such studies. In fact, Susanne's adopted home town of Dublin, Ireland, (she is originally from Bayreuth, Germany) is one such city. Says Susanne: "For me, any effort to make a city smarter should focus on contributing to the quality of life of the citizens it serves. The two areas that are closest to my heart for making Dublin smarter are transport and the environment."

A smart transport system for Dublin would mean more variety of transport choices in all parts of the city - that are operating efficiently and are fully integrated (in terms of ticketing, timetabling and connection hubs). Making Dublin smarter in terms of preserving and enhancing its environment is also important because the city has so many natural assets. This involves, among other things, enabling Dubliners to get actively involved by providing them with the right tools to measure, monitor, analyze and manage their patterns of resource use.

Winston, project manager for IBM China Integrated Technology Delivery, is an integral member of Junior Chamber International Hong Kong (JCIHK), where he volunteers more than 10 hours weekly. He helps JCIHK members gain international exposure, develop global friendships and derive awareness of cross-border/cross-cultural issues.

Currently serving as the JCIHK's International Affairs Officer, Winston has used IBM's On Demand Community tools to maximize his impact on the organization. They played a key role in helping him plan large-scale events such as the JCI World Congress 2008. Winston's work on the project went over so well that after the conference, he was asked to become a trainer, sharing his personal and professional experiences, mostly related to information technology, with JCIHK members.

Recently, Winston became involved in another JCI project called "Care for Children in China's Suburban Areas." As part of the project, four computers were donated to a rural school in China. Using On Demand Community tools, again, Winston was able to introduce students to the basics of the computer and Internet, even teaching them how to set up e-mail accounts.

"This was a meaningful project as it provided education opportunities and hope to children who had never even seen a computer before," says Winston. "The most touching thing to me was receiving emails from the children once I returned to Hong Kong."

Nathi, a marketing professional at IBM South Africa, worked with a diverse group of colleagues from Japan, Mexico, India, the US, Norway and South Africa during his Corporate Service Corps (CSC) assignment in Egypt. The team's diversity, he says, brought great value to projects for such clients as the Egyptian Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) and its agency, the Internal Trade Development Organization (ITDO), as well as the Luxor Governorate, the Suzanne Mubarak Women's Centre and the Nubian Cultural Village.

One of the team's main projects was to help the town of Luxor become a global tourist magnet, as comprehensively outlined in the "Luxor Master Plan 2030" under the guidance of Luxor Governor Dr. Samir Farag. Luxor is the hub of Egypt's ancient heritage. Such a heritage is represented by the historical tombs of the Pharaohs, some of which are estimated to be more than 5,000 years old. These tombs are preserved in the Valley of the Kings.

Over the years Luxor, like other smaller towns in Egypt, was disconnected from Egypt's mainstream economic activity. The CSC team in Luxor, as with the rest of Egypt, needed to address the growth of the services industry and other sectors of the economy such as agro processing and manufacturing. "As a team, we hoped to leave a foundation upon which to grow viable industries capable of competing on the global stage," says Nathi.

For Rashmi, a business analyst for IBM India, her Corporate Service Corps (CSC) assignment provided an intense bonding experience, not just with her team but also with the people she met along the way. "I heard my Chinese interpreter sing a Hindi song, a Chinese taxi driver discuss the plot of an Indian movie, and my Brazilian team mate explain to me the intricacies of Indian life (thanks to a Brazilian TV soap based on India)," she says.

Although Rashmi had worked with international teams before, the CSC assignment gave her an opportunity to collaborate closely, make friends and "share my life with" people from Brazil, China, Europe, Pakistan and US. Says Rashmi: "Even though we had so much diversity in our team in terms of age, language, culture, food and religion, it was amazing how similar we were in our ideas and thoughts, and how we were all bound together by IBM's shared values - a Globally Integrated Enterprise indeed!"

Working with Chinese clients during the CSC engagement, also made her realize the importance of focusing on building sound client relationships. The assignment helped her better understand how global markets can be so tightly integrated, and how demand and supply truly affects the world. "I realized that soon we will need to cease seeing ourselves as people belonging to different nations, and build better relationships with other countries."