IBM Aims for Israel
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עברית (Hebrew)
IBM signed a cooperation agreement with Israeli company Athena, a Mer Group subsidiary.
The second international Intelligence Big Data Fusion conference was held last week in Israel. Organized by iHLS, participants included some of Israel’s leading companies: IAI, NICE, Verint, Elbit and others.
During a joint presentation given by IBM and the Athena company of the Mer Group (C. Mer Industries Ltd.), it was announced for the first time that the two companies signed a strategic cooperation agreement. According to the agreement Athena will develop intelligence applications based on IBM infrastructure, while IBM will market the product globally using its existing marketing pipelines and very wide customer base.
IBM’s part of the presentation was given by Mr. Ronen Simantov. The company, as part of the abilities and solutions it provides to its customers, takes the holistic approach of end-to-end service. From consulting, through IT infrastructure, Big Data platforms and analytics to implementation services and technical support. Systems like Infosphere, which performs textual analysis, social information analysis and data source fusion, use Hadoop. The Watson system was also mentioned often: IBM’s advanced AI computer, capable of answering naturally phrased questions rather than being limited to machine-language queries.
IHLS – Israel Homeland Security
Mr. Meir Cohen, Mer Systems CTO, presented the concept of systems designed in order to serve analysts – with human users always at the center – as operational insights are never reached automatically. Every client requires extensive mapping of their content and eco-system – installing every system requires many additional characterization, customization and integration services.
Athena developed two leading applications in the field: CK21 and Cy Hummint. Athena is modifying both applications for work over IBM infrastructure, using six leading IBM technologies. Mr. Cohen added that a significant part of the Mer Group development takes place at a recently establoshed software development center in southern Israel – combining international business with Zionism.
