Through these centers, IBM is addressing the growing demand for advanced analytics capabilities need to help clients build smarter business systems and drive improved decision-making.

The new center is co-located at IBM's Marunouchi office in Tokyo as well as at IBM's Yamato Lab in Kanagawa Prefecture. It will draw on a wealth of global IBM expertise, including more than 150 mathematicians and software engineers at IBM Research - Tokyo and Yamato Software Development Laboratory to help companies turn data into predictive intelligence. Initially, the center will be staffed by up to 500 IBM Japan consultants, researchers and software experts, with additional expertise added over time.

"Today business leaders need to move beyond intuition to insight, from gut feel to facts -- it is now possible to see key patterns in vast amounts of data to extract critical insights and move to a new level of intelligence," said Takayuki Hashimoto, General Manager, IBM Japan. "Tokyo was chosen for this investment due to its status as a global financial center and world class skills base. The use of business analytics offers an almost unique opportunity to help transform the way business works -- to become more efficient, smarter and subsequently more competitive."

The center will draw on IBM's industry expertise and the analytic capabilities of the new Business Analytics and Optimization consulting organization. It will have access to IBM's comprehensive Information Management portfolio including technologies integrated following the acquisitions of Cognos and iLog. The center will also utilize mathematicians and advanced analytics experts from IBM Research.

The Tokyo center is part of a network of advanced analytics centers recently detailed by IBM as the company expands its capabilities around business analytics. The other centers will be located in London, New York City, Beijing and Washington, D.C. IBM opened its first analytics solution center in Berlin last month.

The new center offers extensive analytics and optimization services based on innovations from IBM Research. Among the solutions featured is the Production Design and Operations Scheduling Solution (PDOS) which combines consulting expertise with advanced optimization technology to help steel industry clients improve steel mill production process design and operation scheduling. In addition, the center will leverage the IBM Banking Data Warehouse, which enables clients to improve business decision-making, as well as IBM's Entity Profile Management System which enables clients to discover crucial information hidden in massive quantities of data. The center will also provide expertise to help firms embed new sensor technology into their processes in order to gather better performance and management data.

The center will collaborate with IBM's banking sector clients to develop systems that provide improved visibility and tracking of risk positions across markets and asset classes, as well as industrial sector clients seeking to optimize supply their chains to drive information management and cost efficiencies. IBM also plans to expand the center to help clients across other critical industry segments like energy and utilities (smart grids) and healthcare analytics.