Twitter & IBM Announce Partnership To Bring Data Insights To Enterprises

Twitter and IBM today announced a partnership that the companies say will help businesses make better decisions, combining Twitter’s real-time data about consumer preferences with IBM’s analytics and engagement platforms and consulting services.

Twitter vice president of business development Chris Moody explained the value of the partnership in a blog post:

From a data perspective, Twitter represents an enormous public archive of human thought that captures the ideas, opinions and debates taking place around the world on almost any topic at any moment in time. While companies have long listened to what their customers are saying on Twitter, complex enterprise decisions often require input from a lot of different systems. IBM’s expertise is in integrating complex systems and data to make better decisions.

This is why we’re thrilled to partner with IBM, a global leader in helping companies take advantage of emerging technologies and platforms like Twitter. This relationship will enable IBM solutions – like the famous computer Watson – to access Twitter data as an input for multi-variable, pattern-dependent questions like “What do customers like best about my products?” or “Why are we growing quickly in Brazil?”

IBM will offer Twitter data as part of select cloud-based services, including IBM Watson Analytics, “a new cognitive service in the palm of your hand that brings intuitive visualization and predictive capabilities to business users.” It will also offer a “data refinery service” that enables application developers to embed data services in applications.

In a news release, IBM explained some of the other features the partnership will leverage:

New data-intensive capabilities for the enterprise: IBM and Twitter will deliver a set of enterprise applications to help improve business decisions across industries and professions. The first joint solution will integrate Twitter data with IBM ExperienceOne customer engagement solutions, allowing sales, marketing, and customer service professionals to map sentiment and behavior to better engage and support their customers.

Specialized enterprise consulting: IBM Global Business Services professionals will have access to Twitter data to enrich consulting services for clients across business. Additionally, IBM and Twitter will collaborate to develop unique solutions for specific industries such as banking, consumer products, retail, and travel and transportation. The partnership will draw upon the skills of tens of thousands of IBM Global Business Services consultants and application professionals including consultants from the industry’s only integrated Strategy and Analytics practice, and IBM Interactive Experience, the world’s largest digital agency.

Read more about the partnership on the Twitter blog.