IBM and ISB partner to create research Collaboratory

IBM and ISB have been working closely on service science research for the last few years.

IBM and the Indian School of Business (ISB) announced 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 ISBs 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.

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Speaking on the need for this Collaboratory,Dr Guruduth Banavar,Director,IBM Research India,said,Innovation is needed to address the worlds 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 IBMs 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.