1. IBM Guide to Consumer
Products Industry
Technology Trends
Transformation through
Analytics, Cloud, Mobile
and Security
2. Introduction
The accelerating pace of technological change is transforming the consumer products industry. New
technologies are revolutionizing how people communicate, research and choose goods and services. The
result? Traditional sources of competitive advantage have evaporated and the market is redefining what it
takes for manufacturers to win. Consumer products companies must uncover new ways to serve tech-savvy
consumers, face disruptive competitors, and embrace new operating and partnering models that may be
required to remain relevant.
IBM believes that there are four key imperatives that form a framework for success in the consumer products industry:
1. Deliver a differentiated brand experience using deep shopper and consumer insights.
2. Collaborate more effectively with channel partners to differentiate at the point of purchase.
3. Optimize supply and distribution networks by integrating demand and supply signals.
4. Reinvent processes and accelerate organizational agility to enable new growth.
Because of the speed of technological change, how you satisfy this framework is changing dramatically. Therefore,
in spite of the unprecedented disruption and transformation, to meet the four key imperatives you must:
• Deliver better experiences to consumers.
• Offer unique value to various channel partners.
• Drive efficiency and reliability in the supply chain.
• Maintain consistent and cost-efficient operations across back-office functions.
This revolution relies on successfully navigating four spheres of the IT environment. The first sphere is analytics, or
the ability to generate new and better insights from the explosion of available data to consumer products companies.
As the volume, variety and velocity of data exponentially expand, data is becoming a new natural resource. And while
volume and variety of data have historically been focus areas, velocity and a new “V”, veracity of data, are
driving value today. Companies that master the four “V’s” to extract value from available data uncover new and
unique insights into consumer trends and enterprise performance. These insights can then generate new selling,
marketing, manufacturing and supply chain strategies that increase market share and margins.
Traditionally, companies have used analytics to identify what already happened—such as historical brand sales
performance or how many pallets of inventory were shipped to a retailer. This backward-looking, descriptive analytics
is being superseded by predictive analytics that define likely future events based on analyzing the historical patterns
and relationships, and prescriptive analytics that suggest a specific next-best action given the likely future scenarios. Our
research shows companies that successfully embrace predictive analytics are faster to market, gain more market share
and achieve deeper brand loyalty and better consumer retention than their peers. The reason is that predictive and pre
scriptive analytics help you understand consumers and anticipate their future behavior and needs, so you can deliver the
high level of personalization and brand experience they expect.
The second sphere is cloud computing, which encompasses the delivery of information technology and business
processes as digital services. Because cloud operates on an anything-as-a service model, it is transforming every
industry, through the unprecedented speed and agility it enables. Cloud makes it possible to inexpensively upgrade
both internal and external facing technology infrastructures, allowing you to satisfy today’s customer and consumer
demands while facilitating future expandability. Because of the potential that cloud computing offers, finding the right
balance of on- and off-premises computing for business software and services is rapidly becoming one of the most
important elements of consumer products companies’ IT strategy.
3. The third sphere is mobile computing and the explosion it has brought to social engagement online. How we interact
online and how we connect with others is fundamentally different and continues to evolve rapidly. Mobile technologies
such as smartphones, tablets and location-sensing devices have made connectivity a constant and ubiquitous aspect
of our lives. And as network access now extends to a growing Internet of Things, the physical world is uniting more fully
with the digital and virtual worlds. Simultaneously, social networking technologies have ushered in near instantaneous
communication between people and businesses as well as other organizations and institutions.
For manufacturers, the potential impact of mobile and social technologies is huge. Connecting with your consumers as
individuals, and providing information in-context and in real-time, can foster richer and more rewarding relationships with
them. Social media provides a 24x7, global window into consumers’ behaviors and attitudes toward brands—a capability
that was science fiction just a decade ago. And just as importantly, mobile computing can facilitate interactions between
employees, suppliers and partners to drive significant efficiency and productivity increases.
The fourth sphere is digital security. When a single breach can destroy years of goodwill, digital security has
become one of the most serious concerns for consumer products industry CEOs. Unfortunately, the digital security
practices many businesses have established to protect corporate, customer and consumer data are often grossly
inadequate when compared with the sophistication of today’s international cyber attackers.
The consumer products industry is one of the most exposed of all industries, due to the volumes of information it pro
cesses, the quantities of sensitive internal and external data which manufacturers hold, and the proliferation of entry
points to their networks and systems. A manufacturer’s data must be recognized for what it is: a crown jewel that must
be protected from all angles, with security established as a corporate priority that is governed by value at risk, and not
just by budget. Effective safeguards are indeed available to protect against intrusion, to quickly detect suspicious activity,
and to mobilize resources to ensure containment and defeat.
Consumer products made with IBM
This guide provides a quick overview of what we believe manufacturers need to address within each of these
technological transformation areas and how IBM solutions can support that transformation.
IBM offers manufacturers the integrated solutions and services required to keep pace with today’s transformational
business requirements. Based on the experiences and feedback from working with many leading consumer products
clients around the globe, we have designed a portfolio of offerings that addresses the specific needs of consumer
products companies from strategy and roadmap development to integrated software solution delivery all focused on
using technology enablers to create new value across your enterprise. We help manufacturers deepen their relationships
with their consumers, offer differentiated value to channel partners to generate competitive advantage, establish supply
network improvements to increase efficiencies and achieve operational excellence—all for the express purpose of
supporting continued profitable growth.
Please contact your IBM representative to arrange for a briefing on any of the offerings in this guide.
Sincerely,
Your IBM Global Consumer Products Industry Team
4. Smarter consumer
Experience
WHAT YOU NEED
BUSINESS cONTEXT EXAMPLE
Analytics
Potential benefits
Higher sales and margins
Greater consumer satisfaction
and brand enthusiasm
Larger market share
Lower operating costs
4
Why it’s important
According to EMC’s “The Digital Universe of Opportunities,” data volumes
are growing at a rate of 40 percent per year.1
While this naturally includes all
forms of traditional enterprise data, it also extends far beyond traditional
data to include customer and supplier data, consumer and shopper data
as well as data generated by connected devices that comprise the “Internet
of Things (IoT).” The challenge with data today is that it:
• Belongs to no single institution or enterprise
• Follows no single structure or format
• Constantly evolves, grows and changes shape
Clearly, data is rapidly becoming a global natural resource that can be
mined. Analytics refers to your ability to discover new insights and extract
value from the growing reservoir of information available to you. Examples
of how analytics can help improve your business include identifying emerg
ing consumer purchase and consumption trends, managing operational
resources, maintaining your physical plant and equipment, forecasting
short- and long-term demand more accurately, and understanding individ
ual consumers more intimately than ever before.
The key is proactively using data to reveal the needs of a specific shopper
or consumer segment—or even individual consumers—and then using
those insights to present relevant products, services, and offers to deliver
a compelling brand experience. Imagine the possibilities created by a
consumer’s use of technology throughout the purchase path: researching
products, checking reviews, talking digitally to others and comparing prices
and offers. With IBM analytics, you can provide those consumers with the
right information or engagement at the right time, depending on what stage
they are at in a particular shopping journey.
Of course, consumer analytics is just one area in which leading manufacturers
will mine insight and gain competitive advantage. With the advent of sophisti
cated and less expensive processing power, more sophisticated modeling and
the availability of new data sources, leading consumer products companies will
deploy analytics to improve product development speed as well as manage
the entire supply chain. The combined result is a rapid marketplace evolution
that promises to continue at an accelerating pace.
5. To support those companies IBM is investing USD
3 billion over the next four years to establish a new
IoT unit. IBM estimates that as much as 90 percent
of all data generated by devices such as smart-
phones, tablets, connected vehicles, and appliances
is never analyzed or acted on.2
As a result, more than
2,000 IBM consultants, developers and researchers
will focus on helping enterprise clients reveal new
insights from IoT data. Combining traditional busi
ness data analytics with rich IoT data analytics can
significantly improve your enterprise decision mak
ing. For example, sensor-enabled manufacturing and
plant equipment provides the ability to predict plant
and equipment failures before they occur so you can
proactively take action to prevent costly shutdowns.
IBM teams up with The Weather Company
One example of a nontraditional use of powerful
analytics for the consumer products market is repre
sented by the strategic alliance announced between
IBM and The Weather Company. This alliance will
help enterprises by integrating real-time, analytics-
based weather insights to improve their operations
and decision-making. Through this partnership, The
Weather Company will also shift its massive weather
data services platform to the IBM Cloud and integrate
its data with IBM analytics and cloud services. The
result—easily accessible weather data that can help
consumer products companies with new capabilities
such as forecasting demand more accurately and
optimizing replenishment operations to more effi
ciently and effectively meet local demand.
Core capabilities
Make and act upon better, more timely insights
• Improve operational reporting and planning with
descriptive analytics
• Uncover patterns and trends with predictive
analytics
• Optimize decisions using predictive analytics
• Identify previously unforeseen correlations among
disparate data
• Interact more naturally with consumers with
cognitive computing
Establish an information foundation
• Access, store, archive and analyze many types
and sources of data
• Process and analyze data in near real-time
• Ensure the quality, availability and integrity of data
Enhance IT infrastructure
• Manage new workloads needed for advanced
analytics
• Leverage cloud computing for flexibility, scalability
and reliability
• Develop a comprehensive approach to digital
security
5
6. How we deliver it
To capitalize on the opportunity to
leverage new data sources, develop
new insights, and engage with con
sumers more effectively, IBM offers
a range of analytic capabilities, from
operational reporting to self-learn
ing systems. These include:
• IBM®
Cognos®
Business Intelli
gence provides analytics and
planning that help your managers
understand how stores, channels,
brands, promotions and marketing
organizations are performing.
• Predictive consumer intelligence
(PCI) identifies your consumers’
shopping patterns, preferences
and behavioral drivers, then
predicts the best way to deliver
timely and relevant interactions
with them at each stage of the
buying journey.
Selected IBM offerings
• IBM Decision Optimization on
Cloud incorporates prescriptive
analytics to help improve your
efficiency and effectiveness by
automating complex decisions
that must balance limited
resources as well as optimize
supply chain design, supply
networks and inventory levels
to fulfill the promise of omni-
channel consumer interaction.
To succeed in this increasingly
analytics-driven environment, the
right IT infrastructure is essential.
Consumer products CIOs must intel
ligently manage, store and archive
data cost-effectively. Advanced
technology platforms, such as the
IBM PureSystems®
family, efficiently
consolidate and optimize systems
used to deliver analytics, helping
reduce or eliminate your barriers
to accessing the analytics power.
In addition, a range of improved
deployment options can allow you to
plan how analytics initiatives will be
run inside and outside your organiza
tion. Deployment options can include
on premises, public or private cloud,
Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) or a
hybrid mix of on premises and cloud.
IBM SoftLayer®
gives you one of the
highest performing cloud infrastruc
tures available, providing automated
and efficient ways of optimizing and
procuring computing capacity—and
doing so flexibly across many pro
cesses. This can dramatically reduce
development cycle times. More infor
mation is available in the cloud com
puting section of this guide.
Process and
implementation services
• IT strategy and performance
assessment
• Enterprise architecture assessment
• Application portfolio assessment
• IBM Business Analytics and
Optimization (BAO) Jumpstart
• Advanced analytics and
recommended next best actions
• IBM IT security consulting services
• IBM security operations optimization
services
• IBM business process management
visioning and roadmap
• Rapid analytics results
Managed services
• Marketing and consumer analytics
• IBM Global Technology Services®
(GTS) team:
– Strategic IT outsourcing
– IBM Softlayer
– IBM Fiberlink®
mobile device
management on cloud
– Backup and archive on the
IBM Cloud
– Managed security services
• IBM Global Business Services®
(GBS) team:
– Application management
– Application testing
– Business Process
Outsourcing (BPO) record-
to-report services
Software solutions
• IBM SPSS®
• IBM Cognos Business Intelligence
• IBM Predictive Consumer
Intelligence
• IBM Social Media Analytics
• IBM Decision Optimization
• IBM DB2®
, IBM Informix®
, and
IBM IMS™
• IBM InfoSphere®
Analytics
• IBM InfoSphere Streams
More information on each of these offerings is available on the ibm.com website. Contact your IBM representative to arrange a briefing.
6
7. Case studies
Amadori Group
This leading food company in Italy
used sentiment analysis to better
understand brand health and to
create targeted digital marketing
campaigns. As a result, they:
• Boosted the company’s ability to
use predictive analytics to track
and visualize what is said about
the brand
• Improved the company’s social
media presence by 100 percent
using near-real-time marketing
insights
• Established direct
communications with the target
market segment through web
integration with social media
Blizzard Sport GmbH
The Austrian ski and winter
sporting equipment manufacturer
built a near real-time production
management system that uses
sensors to capture in-process
product data and embedded
analytics to pinpoint manufacturing
flaws as they occur. Because floor
staff can now address problems
proactively and minimize downtime,
Blizzard Sport:
• Slashed manufacturing pass-
through time from 38 to 18 days
• Reduced average inventory by
49 percent
• Cut materials inventory space
requirements by 40 percent
ConAgra Mills
Using powerful models and
algorithmic engines, ConAgra Mills
enabled translation of a vast array
of market and production
information into smarter
recommendations. This led to
higher margins and:
• Achieved 100 percent payback
in less than three months
• Increased capacity utilization
by five percent
• Maximized revenues through
improved margin decisions
• Enhanced focus on the most
profitable products through
more accurate reflection of
underlying costs
• Boosted ability to realize
emerging business opportunities
without risking “oversold”
production capacity
7
8. Smarter consumer
Experience
WHAT YOU NEED
BUSINESS cONTEXT EXAMPLE
Cloud Computing
Potential benefits
Faster IT responsiveness to
changing business needs
Higher consumer satisfaction
Lower operating costs
8
Why it’s important
Technology is transforming how consumers shop. How you adopt and imple
ment that technology can determine whether it becomes a vital enabler of
success—or a crippling impediment. To empower a profitable consumer prod
ucts business, information technology must be dependable, secure, flexible
and affordable. At IBM, we believe there are areas within the manufacturing IT
infrastructure where cloud computing offers clear advantages over other
deployment options.
IBM studies reveal that technology infrastructure underutilization wastes signif
icant resources. The most fundamental advantage of cloud computing is
addressing this waste. By running applications on a shared set of computers,
very large amounts of computing power can be supplied to each process
when needed. This allows computing capacity to be continuously adjusted
and appropriately allocated to the intense processing bursts that occur at
different times throughout concurrent processes.
Our experience suggests cloud computing is more relevant and holds more
potential than ever before. One large reason is the IT infrastructure flexibility
and cost-effectiveness required to meet emerging computing demands
associated with analytics as discussed earlier in this guide.
Further, cloud computing is rapidly becoming recognized as a proven way you
can quickly and inexpensively deploy new capabilities to support your pursuit
of innovation in a more accessible and cost-effective manner. Because secu
rity concerns continue to grow, it bears noting that with appropriate design and
operational policies, cloud computing can be just as secure as other IT archi
tectures—even those maintained entirely within an enterprise’s firewall.
SAP on the IBM Cloud
In 2014, IBM announced several new and enhanced capabilities for running
SAP on the IBM Cloud. These capabilities range from Cloud Managed Ser
vices (CMS) for SAP HANA and SAP HANA on SoftLayer, to OpenPower on
Softlayer as well as SAP on OpenPower. These Cloud options allow consumer
products companies to lower deployment costs and achieve greater efficien
cies when targeting new markets. By delivering SAP applications on the IBM
cloud, consumer products companies can access a global IT infrastructure to
quickly and consistently expand their businesses into new geographies while
simultaneously improving security and boosting compliance with local laws.
And with typical SAP deployments on SoftLayer, customers can lower support
costs, accelerate development and testing, and improve deployment.
9. Core capabilities
Software as a Service (SaaS)
• Commerce as a service
Highly configurable, multi-tenant software
Business Process as a Service (BPaaS)
• Human resources
• GNFR/indirect procurement
• F&A reporting
• Manufacturer-dedicated or private
Managed processes, typically non-core
consumer products functions
Solutions as a Service
• Customer experience
• Customer intelligence on cloud
• Digital commerce
• Digital marketing and lead management
• Digital analytics
• Mobile web push
Engagement derived from targeted insights
Platform as a Service (PaaS)
• Mobile and loT development/mashups
• IBM analytics
• Cloud applications development
“Born on the web/cloud” applications
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
• Digital channel/e-commerce platform
• Cross-channel operations/distributed order
management
• Consumer analytics
• Enterprise marketing
• Consumer care
• DevOps, continuous delivery
Applications, benefiting from flexible capabilities
Hosted private cloud
• Product development
• Supply chain optimization
• Supply chain visibility
• Supply chain logistics
Typically packaged, interchangeable applications,
where PaaS is typically built on top of IaaS
On-premises private infrastructure
• Finance
• Master data management
• Data repositories & business intelligence
• Enterprise integration
• IT Ops management
Typically custom, legacy applications
Hybrid cloud infrastructure
• Enterprise resource planning (ERP)
• Master data management
• Data repositories & business intelligence
• Enterprise integration
• IT Ops management
Typically custom, legacy applications
9
10. IBM SoftLayer
Cloud computing is the delivery of
on-demand computing resources—
everything from applications to data
centers—over the Internet, on a
pay-for-use basis.
Cloud computing is powered by
physical hardware inside brick-and
mortar facilities, connected by hun
dreds of miles of networking cable.
Therefore, cloud is not a commodity
because no two clouds are built the
same way.
How we deliver it
Your cloud computing journey to
can take a variety of paths. Some
consumer products manufacturers
want to test cloud concepts by tak
ing advantage of IaaS for specific
computing needs. This often yields
valuable lessons they can then
apply towards broader cloud use.
Other consumer products manufac
turers already know which develop
ment, testing and deployment
workloads create the biggest
challenges such as:
• E-commerce and digital
readiness initiatives
• Consumer analytics
• Merchandising and supply chain
To address these consistent chal
lenges, IBM pre-developed solu
tions including Cloud Managed
Services for ERP or IBM Smarter
Commerce®
as well as DevOps.
IBM SoftLayer offers the highest
performing cloud infrastructure
available for both off premises and
hybrid architectures. It provides a
single platform that uses data cen
ters around the world and offers
the widest possible range of cloud
computing options, then integrates
and automates activities such as
cross-channel experiences, analyti
cal insights and decision making so
they become core functionalities.
Occasionally, consumer products
manufacturers have a general sense
they could benefit from cloud com
puting, but are looking for a more
measured analysis on the best
approach. For these companies, we
recommend IBM cloud consulting
services to help identify application
workloads that can immediately
benefit from cloud deployment
and rapidly migrate deployments
to IBM SoftLayer IaaS. Depending
on the application, these migrations
can often be completed in days
or even hours.
At the same time, we perform a
detailed workload analysis of your IT
portfolio. By looking at applications,
data sources, integrated compo
nents, application-affinity, user-
group interactions, service level
agreements (SLAs), connectivity and
security needs, we identify logical
Many cloud and hosting providers
adhere to traditional billing practices,
charging consumers for each and
every communication their servers
send or receive. IBM SoftLayer is
different. Our servers come with
terabytes of outbound bandwidth
included 5 TB for virtual servers and
20 TB for bare metal servers. We do
not charge for inbound traffic or for
bandwidth usage across our global
private network. This allows clients to
effectively build on our global private
network free of charge.
groups of applications that are the
most suitable candidates to be
moved to a cloud environment.
Then, we develop a roadmap to
migrate those application workloads
into cloud environments.
It’s important to remember the
effectiveness of the cloud depends
on technical capabilities such as
capacity flexing, IT task automation,
dynamic provisioning and auto-scal
ing, among others. This dynamic
environment requires iterative analy
sis coupled with the ongoing tuning
of your portfolio. Therefore, the move
to cloud computing is better visual
ized as an ongoing journey rather
than discrete event. And with IBM’s
philosophy to empower your IT orga
nization, you can easily manage this
journey while we supply fully-man
aged cloud services as appropriate.
10
11. Case Studies
IBM Bluemix
IBM Bluemix™
is a strategic cloud-
based application development envi
ronment. Based on the open source
Cloud Foundry project, Bluemix
provides an open-standards-based
platform for building, managing and
running a variety of applications
including web, mobile, analytics
and smart devices.
Selected IBM offerings
Bluemix allows developers to easily
compose new business applications
without setting up an underlying
architecture. Web and mobile appli
cations can be rapidly and incremen
tally composed using services
provided by IBM, the open source
community and an ecosystem of
partners. This means you can quickly
and cost-effectively develop, deploy
and enhance digital applications for
consumers, employees, suppliers
and other business partners.
Delivered as a PaaS model, the
Bluemix platform, combined with
Bluemix capabilities and services,
can help deliver faster, less inexpen
sive and higher-quality applications
than ever before.
Software solutions
• IBM Digital Marketing Optimization
• IBM Digital Analytics
• IBM Digital Commerce on Cloud
• IBM Omnichannel Marketing
on Cloud
• IBM Sterling Commerce®
Transportation Management
• IBM Sterling B2B Collaboration
Network
• IBM Emptoris®
Contract
Management
• IBM DevOps Services
Consulting, process and
implementation services
• Cloud strategy and design
• Cloud security services
• Cloud implementation—IBM
private modular cloud
• Cloud implementation—testing
services on cloud
Managed services
• IBM Cloud Managed Services
for SAP and Oracle
• Managed security services
• IBM Recruitment on Cloud
• IBM Emptoris Spend Analysis
on Cloud
• IBM Counter Fraud on Cloud
Infrastructure
• IBM Mobile Web Push
• IBM SoftLayer
• IBM Bluemix
More information on each of these offerings is available on the ibm.com website. Contact your IBM representative to arrange a briefing.
Case studies
Bacardi-Martini B.V.
One of the largest privately owned
spirits companies in the world
employed an IBM Cloud Managed
Services solution, migrating its
operating environment to a flexible
architecture on the IBM Cloud. As a
result, they:
• Cut their overall IT operating costs
• Eliminated waste and aligned
expenses with actual business
needs
• Realized cost savings from the first
day of the new deployment
American Greetings Corporation
Faced with a growing IT infrastructure
and business pressures to reduce
costs, the world’s largest greeting card
manufacturer sought ways to more
effectively administer their IT. They
looked to IBM to help them on their
cloud journey, and together they:
• Improved administrative efficiency
• Reduced labor expenses
• Slashed hardware costs by
300 percent
Pasqui S.r.l.
Specializing in digital printing and
self-adhesive coating, Pasqui S.r.l.
implemented a reliable hosting
infrastructure for its critical SAP
operations including accounting,
logistics, sales and purchasing.
Their infrastructure improvements:
• Lowered maintenance and
management costs by 30 percent
• Enhanced availability, boosted
performance and improved stability
of their SAP environment
11
12. Smarter consumer
Experience
WHAT YOU NEED
BUSINESS cONTEXT EXAMPLE
Mobile and
Social Engagement
Potential benefits
B2B:
Raise service levels
Promote employee
engagement and retention
B2C:
Improve return on
marketing spend
Grow consumer loyalty
Increase sales and margins
12
Why it’s important
The era of constant connectivity is here. With smartphones, tablets and other mobile
devices proliferating, we can connect nearly always and everywhere. And as a growing
majority of consumers worldwide use mobile devices, it becomes possible to paint a
detailed picture of each individual’s activities—and infer a great deal about their inter
ests and momentary intentions.
For manufacturers, this is transformational; it enables real-time awareness, real-time
understanding, and real-time personalized engagement and interaction. As consumers
become continuously connected, manufacturers who are competing for those cus
tomers must become connected and engaged with them in real-time. Using social
engagement, manufacturers can now uncover a new source of consumer, competitor
and shopper insights that can dramatically improve marketing channels, new product
ideas and the supply chain. Understanding what consumers are saying about your
brand, understanding cross-brand affinity, and understanding influencers and product
trends can dramatically impact marketing and product development. And early indica
tors of product demand from social insights can guide supply chain decisions.
Consumers now expect an online experience optimized for their mobile devices.
They demand an experience that is smooth, uncomplicated and personalized
regardless of where they are or what device they may be using. They also count
on speed and responsiveness from a manufacturer’s online outlets when they do
research, buy an item or look for post-sales support. And since they are used to
sharing product advice with their friends and social network, many of these users
now want to be consulted by their favorite manufacturers on the co-creation and
introduction of new products and services.
Consumer products manufacturers are just beginning to discover how mobile and
social capabilities might be used to increase sales, grow market share and strengthen
consumer loyalty. Regardless of channel, you can now invest in solutions that deliver
near real-time information about where shoppers are physically located and what they
are doing, then use those details to enrich their experience with relevant digital content
and personalized, one-on-one engagement. You can then use these ongoing one-on
one interactions as insight to further shape and personalize future social engagement.
In addition, mobile and social technologies can help you become more operationally
efficient. Tools that enable real-time social communication and collaboration can
foster new forms of organizational integration and education, and can enhance work
ing relationships between managers and employees, employees and their co-work
ers as well as between employees and suppliers or other business partners.
Mobile is increasingly being used in supply chain and plant operations to enhance
labor efficiencies, reduce costs and improve preventive equipment maintenance. In
field sales and merchandising, advanced technologies such as automated image
recognition analysis are reforming audit capability, shelf compliance and out-of
stock management. Advanced analytics such as dynamic route optimization, along
with mobile technologies, are driving new value, wringing out additional efficiencies,
and increasing channel sales.
This transformation is pressuring consumer products manufacturers to equip their
associates with mobile technologies, including support for bring your own device
(BYOD) initiatives. Ensuring your team members possess the most pertinent informa
tion on consumers, merchandise, inventory and orders—across all channels and
sources—will position them to make better decisions, deliver a better consumer
experience, increase sales while reducing costs and improve channel collaboration.
13. Core capabilities
• Mobile management
• Device, application and asset management
• Security
• Technical support, services and repair
• Mobile development platform
• Development and lifecycle management
• Scalable back-end services
• Integration services
Apple + IBM
In 2014 Apple and IBM announced an exclusive partner
ship to give business professionals everywhere the
unique capabilities of iPhones and iPads, powered by
the knowledge, data, analytics and workflows specific
to the individual enterprise.
This partnership aims to redefine the ways work is
accomplished, by addressing key industry mobility
challenges and by driving true mobile-led business
change, grounded in four core capabilities:
• A new class of more than 100 industry-specific
enterprise solutions, all with native apps, developed
exclusively for iPhone and iPad from the ground up
• Unique IBM cloud services optimized for iOS, including
device management, security, analytics and mobile
integration
• New AppleCare service and support offerings tailored
to the needs of the enterprise through IBM’s exclusive
partnership for delivering AppleCare
• New packaged offerings from IBM for device activation,
supply and management
The new IBM MobileFirst™
for iOS solutions will be built
in an exclusive collaboration that draws on the distinct
strengths of each company: IBM analytics capabilities,
with the power of more than 100,000 IBM industry and
domain consultants and software developers behind it,
fused with Apple’s legendary consumer experience,
hardware and software integration and developer platform.
The combination will create apps that can transform specific
aspects of how consumer products manufacturers and
employees work using iPhones and iPads, allowing companies
to achieve new levels of efficiency, effectiveness and consumer
satisfaction—faster and easier than ever before.
As part of the exclusive IBM MobileFirst for iOS agreement,
IBM will also sell iPhones and iPads with the industry-specific
solutions to business clients worldwide.
IBM-Twitter partnership
Through a new relationship with Twitter, IBM analytics
can take advantage of social media data to help consumer
products manufacturers:
• Understand consumer sentiment of corporate brands.
• Identify influencers of consumer opinion and, more
importantly, key influencers of the influencers.
• Discover and evaluate emotional triggers behind consumer
sentiment.
• Reveal event drivers behind changes in consumer demand
and sales performance.
IBM teams with Facebook
IBM’s marketing cloud clients can now combine Facebook’s
powerful ad capabilities like Custom Audiences with IBM
analytics to create meaningful experiences for their custom
ers across applications, devices and time. Using the new
IBM Journey Designer, brands can create personalized
consumer experiences across all engagement touch points—
then use IBM Journey Analytics to understand how con
sumers responded at an aggregate level. By combining
IBM analytics and the IBM marketing cloud with Facebook’s
anonymized and aggregated audience insights, consumer
products manufacturers can gain a clearer picture of their
target audiences.
13
14. How we deliver it
At IBM, we start with the concept of
systems of engagement, which are
designed to extend traditional back-of
fice systems of record such as finance,
HR, merchandising and commerce into
the hands of your employees. This
empowers them with new information
and insights so they can collaborate and
make informed decisions, in context,
and in real time. When used effectively,
systems of engagement can revolution
ize interaction by establishing a relevant
and continuous dialog with customers,
and enable collaboration between your
employees, suppliers and partners.
One key to a winning mobile and social
strategy is effectively managing the
app lifecycle. IBM MobileFirst is an
advanced platform that allows you to
quickly develop, test and deploy quality
mobile apps across multiple platforms,
and easily integrate apps with your
enterprise data, systems and services.
Bluemix gives you key mobile cloud
services such as standard APIs, app
usage analytics for insights, workflow
for process automation, cloud storage
for mobile data management and app
scanning for security. And to optimize
mobile performance, IBM Cloudant®
seamlessly manages data between
networks, platforms and mobile devices
so your users experience the quick
and reliable performance they require.
It’s also critical that your mobile apps
engage and add value for your users.
IBM Interactive, the world’s largest
digital agency, teams with IBM
Research to supply you with innovative
digital strategy and application design
capabilities. The result? Appealing
and cutting-edge apps for use by
your customers, employees and
business partners.
IBM and IBM Business Partners also
provide a wide variety of ready-made
mobile solutions that can accelerate
your mobile transformation. IBM
Mobile Push Notification gives you
a flexible, simplified environment for
creating notification campaigns that
engage your mobile app users at the
optimal time and place. To optimize
your users’ experience as well as
detect unintended consumer or
employee challenges with an app,
IBM Tealeaf®
automatically detects
issues and provides recommended
improvements. And IBM Presence
Insights analyzes and acts on data
generated by in-store sensors to
create a seamless consumer experi
ence both in and out of the store.
Security is always a central concern
with mobile apps. As mobile devices
access your servers, databases
and IT infrastructure, IBM MaaS360
Enterprise Mobility Management
protects them by providing enterprise-
class management and security for your
devices, apps and content. To keep iOS
devices operational, IBM provides
AppleCare for Enterprise which
includes 24x7 technical support and
hardware repair and replacement
services.
The IBM Social Media Analytics
solution, which supports analysis in
nine countries and counting, efficiently
synthesizes and analyzes vast amounts
of social media data to discover new
consumer, shopper and competitive
insights. Using IBM analytics solutions,
the social media data can be integrated
with your other structured and unstruc
tured data to augment existing sales and
marketing insights. For example, IBM
Watson™
uses cognitive computing and
natural language processing to discover
new patterns and insights in seconds.
Today, interconnectivity goes beyond
connecting computers and smart
devices—it’s about connecting people.
Leading consumer products organiza
tions recognize social collaboration tools,
whether installed on premises or on the
cloud, can help employees, business
partners and clients engage and innovate
with one another. And because a social
business connects employees, suppliers
and other partners to enable superior
information sharing, IBM Connections
Suite provides you with world-class
social software, real-time social commu
nications and content management to
improve productivity and profitability.
Benefits available to you include relevant
shopping and services for customers,
just-in-time education and insight for staff
as well as, and improved performance
from suppliers and partners.
14
15. Selected IBM offerings
Software solutions Consulting, process and Managed services
Mobile: implementation services • IBM SoftLayer
• IBM Worklight®
Platform • IBM MobileFirst Applications and – Managed marketing services
• IBM Fiberlink MaaS360 Platform Services • IBM Rapid Analytics Results
• IBM Security Access Manager • IBM Interactive Experience
for Mobile Workshop
• IBM Trusteer®
• IBM MobileFirst Studios Infrastructure
• IBM Tealeaf CX Mobile
• IBM Mobile Push Notification
•
•
IBM Ready Apps
IBM Business Process
•
•
IBM Bluemix Mobile Cloud Services
IBM Cloudant
Management
Social: • Consumer and product lifecycle
• IBM Social Media Analytics management
• IBM Connections • Consumer segmentation
• Watson Engagement Advisor • Next best action optimizer
• Watson Explorer • Interactive User Experience/
• Watson Discovery Advisor Web Design
• Watson Analytics
• IBM Presence Insights
More information on each of these offerings is available on the ibm.com website. Contact your IBM representative to arrange a briefing.
Case studies
Dahl Sverige AB Kraft Australia Visa
A wholesaler and distributor of more
than 60,000 plumbing, heating,
industrial and construction materials
products implemented an integrated
an e-commerce solution that
supported a new, cross-platform
mobile app and provided analytics
capabilities for creating targeted
marketing campaigns. Implementing
this mobile and social solution:
• Increased online sales and brand
awareness by recommending sale
items and high margin items at point
of purchase
• Helped both B2C and B2B
customers by optimizing search
and recommending complementary
products
• Boosted marketing campaign ROI
with near-real-time offers tailored to
customer preferences and needs
• Improved customer satisfaction and
loyalty by personalizing and
streamlining online searches and
order processes
Looking to reinvigorate sales of
Vegemite, Kraft Australia used social
analytics to lay the foundation for
the most successful campaign in
the brand’s history. Social analytics
allowed them to:
• Conduct global market research
nearly 70 percent faster
• Identify 32 previously unknown
unique uses of Vegemite
• Discover consumption insights that
would otherwise have not been found
• Generate record sales and
shipments of Vegemite
The world’s largest credit card
company used mobile technologies
to create context-specific promotions
for customers at the time of swipe.
As a result, they were able to:
• Realize a 109 percent sales lift
on select initiatives
• Increase consumer loyalty through
instant messaging to targeted
consumers
• Transform existing consumer data
into a new revenue stream with
real-time smart offers
15
16. Smarter consumer
Experience
WHAT YOU NEED
BUSINESS cONTEXT EXAMPLE
16
Potential benefits
Reduce risk
Lower operating costs
Raise consumer confidence
Increase sales
Elevate brand and
corporate reputation
Security
Why it’s important
As the technology landscape continues through accelerating changes, each new
technology and access point introduces another new IT security concern: new data
sources, new device types and applications, expanded social network use, new col
laboration tools and new cloud computing models. With so many new and expanded
opportunities, those who will attempt to prey upon businesses and consumers have
a virtually unlimited selection of threat vectors. The sophistication and scale of their
malicious attacks, as well as the sheer destructiveness, is growing exponentially.
While the news of the latest attacks has come to seem almost routine, the costs are
staggering. In 2014, the average total cost of a data breach was USD 3.5 million world
wide, up 15 percent over the previous year.3
In the United States, the average cost is
higher, an estimated USD 5.85 million for each data breach.4
The issue is particularly
acute for manufacturers because brand assets and data are at stake. That means
without sufficient safeguards, your brand, your corporate reputation and even your
business future may be at stake.
Consumer products is one of the most exposed and vulnerable of all industries
due to the volume of proprietary product research, design and formulation data,
consumer information and processed transactions as well as the proliferating
number of network and system entry points. Consumer products manufacturers
who have experienced a security breach can testify that it is an extraordinarily dis
ruptive and damaging event—disruptive to the business, disruptive to relationships
with consumers, customers and suppliers, and enormously destructive in terms of
public image and reputation as well as in direct costs.
In the face of these mounting dangers, security is obviously critical to all organizations
within the enterprise. But because the enterprise will not likely embrace the required
measures if security is delegated only to a CIO or chief information security officer
(CISO), many consumer products manufacturers are deciding security is a serious
organizational priority that now merits the involvement of the full C-suite. The reason—
only with the senior leadership participation can the right tone be set and an effective
governance model established to ensure the right practices are adopted and followed
across the entire enterprise.
With the right safety measures established, you can position your organization to
reap the benefits of the latest interactive technologies. This will allow you to engage
with consumers and partners in a dependably secure way, raise employee produc
tivity and simultaneously shield the organization from intrusion and from possible
reputational damage.
17. Core capabilities
Detect threats
• Continuously search for patterns
• Advise of threats
• Contain intrusions before they do serious harm
Prevent attacks
• Defend every network access point
• Impede breaches and isolate threats
• Protect sensitive data
Respond continuously
• Develop effective process controls
• Establish rapid response mechanisms
• Initiate quick action when breach occurs
Internet of things
The Internet of Things (IoT) refers to the rapidly expanding
array of things—devices, appliances, vehicles and gadgets of
all kinds—that are becoming Internet-connected. According
to BusinessWire’s article “The Internet of Things Is Poised to
Change Everything, Says IDC,” by the end of 2020 there will
be over 30 billion devices connected to the Internet.5
As the number of Internet-connected devices explodes,
your organization’s opportunities to send, receive, gather,
analyze and respond to data from connected devices will
also expand. For instance, as consumers embrace inter
connected devices, eventually they will possess a system
of linked devices with embedded intelligence which will
work together to simplify and enhance their lifestyle. This
move towards families of interconnected devices will likely
become a significant factor for many consumer products
companies as the data produced by these devices yields
insights into product research, merchandising and market
ing as well as customer relationships.
Therefore, the IoT can be expected to substantially add to the
data consumer products companies can process and analyze
for insights. Because much of this activity occurs in near real-
time, beyond increasing processing and analytics workloads,
additional security challenges will be introduced as data and
insights are coming into and out of the IT network. Those
consumer products companies that quickly embrace this shift,
and discover how to securely create competitive advantages
from the insights provided by this flood of new data, will likely
outcompete the market.
17
18. How we deliver it
To be successful, we know that con
sumer products companies must
address the digital security challenge in
a long-term, strategic way, using a multi-
layered approach built on a foundation
of hardware, software, services and
deep security expertise. Together, this
approach and foundation provide a
comprehensive and robust set of tools
and best practices that can frustrate
intruders, mitigate attacks and help pro
tect your organization. When employed
consistently, they effectively address
security issues through early detection,
removal and remedy.
The road to success starts with leader
ship and awareness. An IBM Cyberse
curity Executive Awareness Briefing
can help educate your top executives
on the latest attack methods, the role of
social media and the leading techno
logical and operational defenses. This
briefing can also help you define quick
actions that can be taken to immedi
ately strengthen your existing defenses.
The IBM Security Maturity Bench
mark Assessment is designed to
evaluate the effectiveness of your
overall security posture, using verified
data to compare your posture with
peer organizations. This assessment
can highlight where you are strongly
defended and where you may be
vulnerable, and can provide the basis
for a strategic action plan to address
identified risk areas.
Prevention remains a vital front-line
element of an overall security strategy.
This require real-time protection that
can frustrate attacks and disrupt attack
chains. The IBM Threat Protection
System breaks critical points in the
attack chain with pre-emptive defenses
on both the endpoint and the network.
Through its unique behavioral-based
approach, the Threat Protection System
detects and prevents even unknown
attacks, including those using advanced
malware.
IBM Trusteer Apex™
blocks the installa
tion processes related to malware to stop
malware at the point of infection. IBM
Security Network Protection disrupts
the malware lifecycle by detecting exist
ing malware on the network, and by
blocking command-and-control traffic
to malware websites which can send
further instructions to continue an attack.
IBM QRadar®
Security Intelligence
Platform products provide a unified
architecture for integrating security
information and event management
(SIEM), log management, anomaly
detection, incident forensics, and con
figuration and vulnerability manage
ment. Using either an on-premises
or cloud deployment, QRadar detects
threats by performing advanced analyt
ics and anomaly detection techniques
such as spotting traffic spikes on off-
hours or repeated login attempts—all
across a wide range of data and net
work traffic.
IBM Security X-Force®
Threat Intelli
gence uses the most current information
on potentially malicious IP addresses,
including malware hosts, spam sources
and other threats, to allow you to respond
proactively to known security risks.
IBM Fiberlink MaaS360 helps you bal
ance engagement, productivity and data
security by managing your users, devices
and data from a single console that pro
vides instant visibility into who is connect
ing to your data and from which devices.
With it, you can manage and secure a
variety of devices including desktops, lap
tops, smartphones, tablets or whatever
device comes next—including support
for an organizational BYOD policy.
IBM Endpoint Manager streamlines
remediation tasks by automatically
managing patches to hundreds of
thousands of endpoints, including the
latest mobile devices, and by providing
you with integrated reporting for real-
time monitoring of patch progress.
If an attack is successful, understanding
the magnitude and nature of that secu
rity breach can be challenging, espe
cially with limited resources or minimal
in-house forensics expertise. IBM
Emergency Response Services can
supplement your in-house resources
by providing guidance and support in
the event of a serious security incident.
Today, it is no longer a matter of
whether an organization will be probed
or breached, but a question of when—
and how much damage will occur
before an intrusion is caught and miti
gated. You need the ability to protect
and respond extremely quickly once an
incident is detected. With a full range of
hardware, software, services and deep
security expertise, IBM can help you
create and implement a strategic
security designed to prevent intrusion,
mitigate attacks and protect your
consumer products organization.
18
19. Selected IBM offerings
Software solutions Consulting, process and Managed services
• IBM InfoSphere Guardium® implementation services • Cloud offerings (SaaS, BPaaS,
• IBM QRadar Security Intelligence • Database vulnerability assessment PaaS, IaaS)—IBM SoftLayer
Platform • IBM Cybersecurity Executive • Outsourced or managed security
• IBM Trusteer Apex Awareness Briefing services
• IBM Security SiteProtector™
System • IBM Security Maturity Benchmark • IBM Security X-Force
• IBM Network IPS Assessment • Surveillance application (GTS)
• IBM zSecure™
Suite • IT Security Services for cloud, • IT managed services: security,
• IBM InfoSphere Guardium application, data, emergency mobile, network
Database Activity Monitoring response, identity and access • IBM Threat Protection System
• IBM InfoSphere Guardium management • IBM Emergency Response Services
Encryption Expert • IT risk, security consulting,
• IBM Tivoli®
governance and compliance Infrastructure
• IBM Endpoint Manager
• IBM Security AppScan®
• PCI security • IBM SoftLayer
• IBM POWER8®
, IBM z Systems™
• IBM PureData®
for Analytics
• For storage: IBM DS88xx, IBM XIV®
,
IBM Storwize®
More information on each of these offerings is available on the ibm.com website. Contact your IBM representative to arrange a briefing.
Case studies
Unilever Töpfer GmbH Whirlpool Corporation
A personal care, home care, food and
beverage manufacturer implemented a
single solution to reduce operational
costs, reach higher levels of file transfer
reliability and ensure data security. The
solution helped:
• Provide reliable and security-rich
file transfers
• Ensure service level agreements
were met
• Lower operational costs
A medium-sized food services
company located Germany worked
with IBM Business Partner Wittmann
EDV-Systeme to implement security
monitoring capabilities with IBM
System Networking RackSwitch
G8052 networking, IBM System
x3690 X5 server and IBM System
Storage®
DS5324 storage technology.
As a result, they:
• Increased product quality
• Enhanced security monitoring
• Improved storage performance
by approximately 50 percent
• Boosted end-user productivity
with reduced response times
One of the leading global home
appliance manufacturers created
a fast, simple way to request or change
access rights as well as manage user
passwords and roles for SAP and
enterprise applications—without
having to involve IT personnel.
They replaced disjointed identity
management processes with a
customized, intelligent, adaptive
and intuitive platform based on
IBM Security Identity Manager.
This allowed them to:
• Dramatically reduce provisioning
times
• Immediately achieve 100 percent
accuracy of role assignments
• Significantly streamline auditing
processes
19
20. IBM’s commitment to the
consumer products industry
For more than a century, IBM has been providing consumer products companies the software, solutions
and expertise they need to wincompete in the marketplace. When supplemented with more than 4,000 IBM
professionals, and one of the largest global networks with almost 2,000 IBM Business Partners, all focused
on serving the consumer products industry, you can be confident we will help you succeed as well.
IBM’s pre-eminence in developing leading industry solutions is the direct result of our strong commitment to
research and development. We invest more than USD 6 billion annually in R&D, and for 22 consecutive years
have been the world’s leading patent-earning organization—receiving a record 7,524 patents in 2014 alone.6
These research commitments and technology results allow our software teams, researchers and consultants to
create and deploy innovative solutions that help clients become more customer-centric, deliver compelling brand
experiences, collaborate more effectively with channel partners and most profitably align demand and supply.
Find out more today about how we can help you achieve the same success.
For more information
For more information on any of the solutions described in this solution guide, or for more information about
how IBM can help your consumer products company, please contact your IBM representative or visit
ibm.com/industries/consumerproducts