IBM unveils location-based business finder technology
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When deployed by mobile phone service providers, the business finder technology allows a consumer to find and use the nearest, most highly rated and available service vendors like plumbers, electricians, carpenters or doctors.
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IBM will help people find information in their email databases by identifying the most relevant information in a search query and extrapolating what the user is trying to find.
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Photos tagged with location data are becoming popular, and new devices are tapping into the trend by offering GPS features.
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Route finders, once limited to executive autos, have become part of advanced handsets and are now being designed into mobile phones. New smartphones can load computer-like applications, adding mapping to their bag of tricks.
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IBM Wednesday released new SMB tools on its emerging technology Web site to help customers deal with compliance issues as well as enable Business Partners to build solutions on WebSphere Express software.
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IBM used RFID technology to track the movements of attendees at its Information on Demand conference in Las Vegas.
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IBM announced today the availability of its Retail Integration Framework (RIF).RIF is a SOA-based delivery mechanism that will support Big Blue's four retail process solutions or assets: multichannel retail; merchandising and supply chain; total store integration around point of sale and inventory; and retail business intelligence.Working with its ISV partners, RIF will give companies easier access to these four solutions through an SOA engagement, according to Patrick Gibney, director of industry solutions at IBM."Basically when you need to integrate an Oracle application to the total solution you buy from IBM, the Framework exists to allow the solutions to install quicker with higher quality and benefit from best practices," said Gibney.RIF allows a company to integrate in a heterogeneous environment at a customer location and gives a company a BPM (business process management) approach for the retail market."Model, assemble, run, monitor, and govern is what our BPM approach gives customers," said Gibney. However, he added that there is nothing turnkey about the IBM solution because the company understands that any out-of-the-box item requires some customization.Gibney also remarked pointedly that RIF "is not a product. You cannot go to IBM and buy it."Rather than a product, the Retail Integration Framework represents a long-term strategic platform that incorporates a number of key IBM assets, said Rob Garf, a vice president of retail at AMR Research."It incorporates Websphere but also takes advantage of Tivoli and Rationale," said Garf.The trend in retailing appears to be the adoption of packaged applications rather than the creation of homegrown solutions. The Framework will allow retailers to take advantage of the more innovative packaged applications now available while still giving them the ability to integrate them with their own legacy applications, according to Garf.Rather than just implementing another technology, RIF will also give retailers a governance structure that will allow all future implementations to work together."It also gives IBM stickiness [in retailing]," said Garf.Retail Integration Framework is available now and is an extension of IBM's existing Store Integration Framework.
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Slovenian retail group Mercator has successfully implemented IBM (NYSE: IBM) Self Checkout solutions in its Celje store to improve in-store traffic flows, speed checkout and increase customer service and loyalty, IBM announced. This is the first implementation of this kind in South East Europe.
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A new small-business community Web site and security software are part of IBM's push to make its mainframes more attractive to the SMB crowd.
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IBM Tuesday will announce an expansion of its services for companies seeking help with radio frequency identification technology. Over the past several months, IBM has developed RFID services
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InfoWorld - Location-based services appeared here, there, and everywhere at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this week, as service providers maneuvered to take advantage of the increasing number of mobile phones shipping with integrated GPS (Global Positioning System) modules. Many of the services put the emphasis on finding your friends, not finding your way, as GPS evolves into more of a social tool.
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Yahoo&#39;s new Mobile Internet service lets users obtain localized search results on specific businesses, access maps, and make calls from the results page.
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IBM (NYSE: IBM) is rolling out a new version of WebSphere software, using radio frequency identification (RFID) technology and middleware targeting retail operations.
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(InfoWorld) - Starting on Tuesday, when Sprint Nextel customers use the search bar in their phone browsers the results will automatically incorporate the users' location. Some customers will also be able to use voice commands to conduct searches. The capabilities are an extension of aÂ relationship that Microsoft and Sprint formedÂ late last year that initially involved including Microsoft's Live Search in the browser on Sprint phones. Microsoft is now adding automatic location detection to search results so users won't have to input their zip codes in their phones before getting local search results. Search results will include results from the Web, the phone and local information such as maps. Most recent Sprint phones include location-finding capabilities. In addition, users of five of Sprint's high-end phones will be able to download a client that will let them use voice commands to conduct searches. Once they have the application, users press the talk button on the phone to speak a search term. If the search is for a local business, for example, the results will include directions, the ability to press a button to call the business and the option to send directions to the place to a friend via text message. Sprint users of the Samsung a900, Samsung a920, Motorola Razr, Sanyo 840 and LG 550 phones will be able to download the voice search client. The application is based on technology from Tellme, the speech recognition company that Microsoft bought earlier this year. The services are not exclusive so they could become available via other operators in the future, said Phil Holden, director of mobile services at Microsoft. While other similar services are available to mobile users, this location-based search offering is more apt to be used because it comes built into the phones, Holden said. Earlier this year Ask.com came out with an applications that phone users could download and use to combine search with location information. In August, Nuance Communications began offering a service for BlackBerry users that lets users search and get driving directions using voice commands. Microsoft rivalÂ Google offers a mobile serviceÂ that automatically combines maps searches with a user's location. It's available for download on certain phones with location capabilities. Microsoft earns revenue from such offerings in two ways, Holden said. Microsoft shares in the revenue stream from the data services offered by operators and also from advertising, he said. The software giant hopes that it will be able to deliver more targeted advertising along with services like these that offer local search results.
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By BRIAN BERGSTEIN  IBM Corp. and Yahoo Inc. are teaming up to offer a free data-search tool for businesses, a quirky move challenging Google Inc. and other corporate-search specialists in a blossoming market.
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The software, developed by IBM&#39;s new Sensors and Actuators business unit, is designed to help businesses collect and act on data from RFID and other sensor-based technology.
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InfoWorld - A new chip designed for portable wireless devices combines the coverage of two satellite-based navigation services to offer a location tracking time of less than one second.