IBM adds social 'learning' component to cloud portfolio
IBM sure is making good off of its $2 billion acquisition of Softlayer.
The latest product being unveiled based on the cloud firm's resources picked up back in June is a new component for Big Blue's Software-as-a-Service portfolio dubbed as the IBM Social Learning Platform.
Essentially, it's another way for businesses subscribing to IBM's SaaS products to take a pulse on how employees are learning skills and best practices within a given company based on social media and data.
IBM reiterated that Softlayer will form the foundation of its cloud portfolio, but the tech giant is also weaving together plenty of loose ends and acquisitions for both SaaS and hybrid cloud offerings.
For example, the platform also taps into another IBM subsidiary product, Kenexa's Human Capital Management hub, through a new IBM Survey Analytics application.
The app uses text and visual analytics to automatically extract and display more than one million pieces of anonymous unstructured data generated though employee surveys conducted by Kenexa. The program then visualizes the data through a sentiment "heat map," displaying trends broken down by various employee demographics and segments for the purpose of providing insight into performance and morale.
IBM is also already working on integrating mobile messaging service Xtify -- which was brought into the IBM fold just last week -- onto Softlayer technology.
While boasting that these services could serve virtually any vertical, IBM highlighted retail, energy and utilities, government, healthcare and automotive as some of the industries being targeted for potential use.