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IBM: IBM and ISB Partner to Create Research 'Collaboratory' for Service Science

^{Published on 2009-09-14 04:45:12 - Market Wire}
 

NEW DELHI, INDIA--(Marketwire - September 14, 2009) - IBM (NYSE: [ IBM ]) and the Indian School of Business (ISB) announced today that they have established a research 'Collaboratory' at the ISB campus for furthering research in service science. IBM and ISB have been working closely on service science research for the last few years. This Collaboratory marks the beginning of a new phase of an expanded relationship between the two organisations.

Speaking on the setting up of the Collaboratory, Ajit Rangnekar, Dean, ISB, said, "We expect Services Management to be a huge area of focus for leading companies, and we are delighted to collaborate with IBM on this initiative. In keeping with the ISB's emphasis on research, we believe our association will develop innovative solutions to enhance the way services are rendered."

An IBM Collaboratory is a laboratory where IBM researchers co-locate with a university, government, or commercial partner to share skills, assets, and resources to achieve a common research goal.

Speaking on the need for this Collaboratory, Dr. Guruduth Banavar, Director, IBM Research - India, said, "Innovation is needed to address the world's greatest challenges and opportunities; and the responsibility must be shared among industry, government and academia. Meeting market demands for higher service quality and innovation while increasing the efficiency of service delivery requires deep insight into advances in information technology and management sciences. This Collaboratory will expand our expertise in these areas to further differentiate IBM's services offerings in the global marketplace."

The newly established Collaboratory for service science will initially have a team of 10 full-time researchers, five each from ISB and IBM Research - India. The team will focus on developing foundational techniques in service science, including the modeling, measurement, and optimization of "service systems."

Service research is multi-disciplinary and many variations exist today within the domains of management, operations research, and economics to name a few. While most of the existing work has focused on business-to-consumer services, the focus of this research is on business-to-business services.

ISB and IBM

In February 2007, IBM and ISB signed an MoU for joint research on Service Science, Management, and Engineering (SSME) in India. In May 2008, IBM India and ISB signed the first Open Collaborative Research agreement in Asia aimed at improving the competitiveness of the services sector in the region. The joint research resulted in holding workshops, publishing research papers and tutorials in the area of service science. This Collaboratory is the next step forward in their joint exploration of the area of service science.

About IBM

For more information about IBM Research, please visit: [ www.research.ibm.com ]

About ISB

The Indian School of Business (ISB) is a premier management institution established in 2001. In a short span of eight years, the ISB has successfully pioneered several new trends in management education in India and has established itself as a leading B-school across the world. The ISB has a strong pool of research oriented resident faculty and invites high calibre international faculty from reputed B-schools to teach in its Post Graduate Programme in Management/Executive Education Programmes as well as to participate in collaborative research with the resident faculty. Recently, ISB was ranked 15 in Global B-School Rankings 2009 by Financial Times, London.