IMPACT 2010 officially opened Monday in Las Vegas. The day kicked off with a packed opening general session featuring key IBM WebSphere executives, including Nancy Pearson (Vice President of BPM, SOA, WebSphere, and Industry Marketing), Steve Mills (Senior Vice President and Group Executive of the IBM Software Group), and others — in addition to addresses from key WebSphere clients and some special guests.

The overall theme of this year’s event is “What if YOU could change the world?” — based on the IBM Smarter Planet initiative that compels forward-thinking leaders in business, government, and civil society around the world to capture the potential of smarter systems to achieve economic growth, near-term efficiency, sustainable development, and societal progress.

“We are living in the decade of smart, where technology is pervasive, agility is mandatory, and process is king,” said Nancy Pearson in her opening remarks.

In his address to an overflowing keynote audience, Steve Mills described how SOA and BPM contribute to the Smarter Planet initiative.

“SOA makes high business value initiatives possible, including analytics, business event processing, cloud, and decision support,” he explained, adding that IBM has completed 20,000 SOA client engagements.
 
IBM is working on innovative solutions for a smarter planet in healthcare, energy, transportation, and many other areas. Mills predicted that the next decade will see an end-to-end approach to optimization.

Mills introduced a number of guest speakers to the stage, starting with Dr. Rosabeth Moss Kanter from Harvard Business School. Kanter believes that organizations need to be flexible and agile — and have a strong sense of purpose and values — to be successful. But being creative on top of that is what will make organizations stand out. As an example, she cited the IBM World Community Grid, an initiative that incorporates people sharing their computers in down times so others can use that computing power for research to cure cancer, map rivers, or improve the environment.

Mills then introduced Robert LeBlanc, Senior Vice President of the Software Middleware Group, who announced that in just a few weeks, IBM will introduce the 2010 CEO Study. IBM interviewed 1,500 CEOs from 30 industries and 60 countries to understand their challenges, their goals, and how they see IT playing a role. Copies of this study, conducted by the Institute for Business Value, are available here at IMPACT.

Next, David Yoo, Vice President of eBusiness at Kaiser Permanente, addressed the audience. He explained that SOA and BPM have been key enablers in bringing systems together that allow Kaiser Permanente to process 6.9 million prescription refills at a lower cost. “Working smarter has allowed us to fundamentally change the landscape of healthcare,” said Yoo.

Next to address the audience was Paul Nussbaum, Executive Vice President of the Information Technology Office for Ford Motor Credit Company. Nussbaum said that Ford recognized the need to use its global resources to standardize, simplify, and globalize and to build a lean, agile, integrated IT environment. He explained that BPM and SOA played a major role in that achievement.

Using Web services and DataPower, Ford built an environment of innovation that resulted in improved collaboration and connectivity with partners and customers. The company’s innovative IT environment resulted in programs like MyKey, which allows parents of younger drivers to program their car keys to control things like speed limits and stereo volume to improve safety. Processes were a large part of this success, as was Lombardi Teamworks.

Next, Craig Hayman, Vice President of the WebSphere, Application, and Integration Middleware Software Division of IBM’s Software Group took the stage to announce that IBM has acquired Cast Iron Systems, a leading cloud integration company providing the most widely used solution for integrating SaaS and cloud applications with the enterprise. The announcement was met with enthusiastic applause from the audience.

The acquisition expands IBM’s industry-leading business process and integration software portfolio, which grew more than 20% in the first quarter of 2010. Cast Iron Systems has completed thousands of cloud integrations around the world for financial institutions, media and entertainment companies, and retail organizations. The company’s clients include Allianz, NEC, Peet’s Coffee & Tea, Dow Jones, Schumacher Group, ShoreTel, Sports Authority, Time Warner, Westmont University, and many others.

Also today, IBM unveiled Travel and Transportation Framework and BPM Blueprint, a new software framework designed to improve the way airlines and rail companies track and manage their businesses. Check out more at http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/30579.wss

IBM also announced three new products and services designed to simplify the way that clients manage their IT environments by delivering specialized capabilities associated with cloud, integration, and scalability:

•    WebSphere DataPower Integration Blade XI50B: Now available on the IBM BladeCenter, the appliances are easy-to-deploy network devices aimed at untangling the costly and rigid complexity of point-to-point integration

•    WebSphere DataPower XC10: A new appliance that amplifies a client’s ability to cost-effectively extend application performance with a “drop-in cache”

•    WebSphere Cloudburst Appliance: A version of the appliance that improves a client’s ability to create, deploy, and manage WebSphere environments in a cloud, now including environments required to automate business processes and choreograph related services

Read more here: http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/30799.wss

IMPACT 2010 has also delivered IBM’s announcement of its new CityOne initiative. The initiative is being referred to as a new “serious game” that can help customers, business partners, and students discover how to make cities and industries smarter by helping them solve real-world business, environmental, and logistical problems.

According to IBM, “CityOne will be a no charge, “sim-style” game in which the player is tasked with guiding the city through a series of missions that include the Energy, Water, Banking, and Retail industries. For example, one mission involves a city where water usage has increased at twice the rate of population growth, supplies are becoming strained (and possibly polluted); the municipality is losing as much as 40% of its water supply through leaky infrastructure; and energy costs are steadily increasing. To complete this mission, the player would be challenged to institute a Water Management System that would include accurate, real-time data to make decisions on delivering the highest water quality in the most economical way.” Read more about CityOne here: http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/30581.wss

Stay tuned for coverage of IMPACT’s Day 2 tomorrow.