FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: David Yaun/IBM Research
914-945-3738
dyaun@us.ibm.com
IBM ESTABLISHES INSTITUTE FOR ADVANCED COMMERCE
Institute to Drive Research, Understanding and Development of Next-Generation Commerce Trends and Solutions
Hawthorne, NY, December 8, 1997 -- IBM today announced that it is establishing the Institute for Advanced Commerce, bringing together for the first time leaders in business and academia to explore the impact of emerging technologies on the future of business and commerce.
The Institute will begin operations on January 1, 1998, under the direction of top scholars, researchers and executives from IBM, universities and leading corporations. An inaugural roster of advanced commerce research projects, with an initial funding commitment of more than $10 million, has been identified, and additional projects will be added on an ongoing basis. More than 50 scientists from IBM Research will be dedicated to these projects, which focus primarily on advanced solutions and technologies for complex business-to-business applications.
Stuart Feldman, Ph.D., has been named Director of the Institute. Feldman also directs IBM's worldwide research activities for Internet technologies.
"The Institute combines the best elements of academia and industry to stimulate advanced research, pointed discussion and creative experimentation in electronic commerce," said Feldman. "We're applying IBM's research expertise to address some of the most pressing business and technological challenges companies will face in the coming years -- in effect, practicing 'physics in the marketplace.' The results -- research papers, conferences, products and services -- will benefit scholars and the business community alike."
Feldman, who has 25 years of active software research experience, will manage the Institute with guidance from an Advisory Board comprising leaders in the fields of commerce and computing.
Members include:
- Dr. Douglas Dunn, Dean of Graduate School of Industrial Administration, Carnegie-Mellon University
- Jay M. Tenenbaum, Chief Executive Officer, CommerceNet
- Dennis Walsh, Chief Information Technology Officer, General Motors
- Michael Winch, Information Director, Safeway Plc
- Dr. Irving Wladawsky-Berger, General Manager, Internet Division, IBM Corporation
- Additional Advisory Board members will be named in 1998.
"In many ways, electronic commerce is just beginning to enter its adolescent stage, and will undergo tremendous growth and fundamental changes over the coming years," said Irving Wladawsky-Berger, General Manager of IBM's Internet Division. "We want to anticipate these changes, understand their potential impact on business and then capitalize on this knowledge. By tightly focusing critical research resources on these business and technological issues, we can help the industry, and our customers in particular, to better understand and implement electronic commerce solutions."
According to IBM, the Institute will champion a diverse mix of near-, mid- and long-term research efforts designed to overcome current barriers to robust and widespread electronic commerce. These range from developing new capabilities for cyber auctions and electronic promotions to conducting complex simulations of the "information economies" that could develop in cyberspace several decades from now.
Integrated into the Institute is a business research center that will conduct formal studies on the changing natures of work, industry structure, commerce and technology. In addition, Institute plans call for sponsorship of academic research, publishing technical papers, and hosting international conferences and symposia. The Institute's web site is located at www.ibm.com/iac.
The Institute's headquarters are located at IBM's T. J. Watson Research Center in Westchester County, NY.
# # #
