NTU and IBM Join Forces for Big Data Development

NTU Professor Shou-De Lin (林守德) of the Department of Computer Science and Information Engineering has been awarded the IBM Shared University Research Award for his development of an analytical software designed to enhance business operations. The SUR award is a global award program established to encourage outstanding research projects in areas of mutual value and interest to both IBM and the university.

Working in collaboration with the IBM Lotus Globalization Center in Taipei, Prof. Lin’s Smarter Process & Gamification Analytics for Optimizing Business Outcomes project is a cloud-based design capable of advanced data analyses. As its name suggests, the software helps businesses identify key components in their operation models to produce improvement recommendations, helping firms establish effective standard operating procedures to increase business output.

According to Market Intelligence & Consulting Institute statistics, an increasing number of enterprises are investing in cloud-based management systems, with up to 30 percent of the enterprises stating that the major reason behind the investments is for optimized management of marketing strategies and customer relationships.

Taking advantage of cloud technology, Prof. Lin’s advanced analytical tool allows for real-time input, output, and monitoring of operations at any location. This important feature makes team collaboration and management more efficient; it also significantly reduces management costs for large and multinational enterprises.

Meanwhile, with the use of advanced algorithms, the tool also serves as a platform in which dynamic operational data (such as the tracking of personnel tasks and the identification of bottlenecks) can be processed. It can also conduct hybrid analysis of diversified target marketing customer information so that customized service plans can be created.

Moreover, the SUR-winning project is an intelligence-oriented process analysis model that allows businesses to optimize operation procedures based on the existing working model. With the benefit of not having to implement an entirely new model, optimization and implementation costs are significantly reduced.

IBM Lotus Globalization Center Senior Manager Ginger Tsai (蔡瑞芬) notes that in paring NTU’s strong algorithm capabilities with with IBM’s experience in cloud computing, the joint research team expects to create a project centered upon the “user” and “operational procedures,” making way for a simple as well as flexible management system that is truly beneficial to businesses.

Tsai adds that through collaboration, the university can gain a better understanding of the company as well as industry needs; meanwhile, IBM can use the opportunity to recruit talented individuals and help train and cultivate cloud computing professionals in Taiwan.

Prof. Lin points out that in an age where cloud computing is ever gaining in importance, information programmers are beginning to emerge from behind their monitors to playing determining roles in business strategy and decision making. In the future, cloud-based programs will become the norm for businesses in such ranges as operation management, human resource assessment, and performance appraisals. With this in mind, the NTU-IBM joint research program aims to develop a computing protocol capable of creating customized recommendations to help businesses optimize their operations for the best results.