The Watson Ecosystem: Bringing Smart Software to Market Fast

Share this post:

Doug Schaedler, CEO, inno360

By Doug Schaedler

I was recently describing inno360’s new software release and enhanced functionality to a c-suite executive at a global consumer packaged goods company. He was intrigued by the fact that our latest software, thanks in part to IBM’s Watson technology, has the ability to learn and push more relevant information to employees as they interact with it. He saw that in a short period of time our software could make his whole company smarter and more efficient.

The reaction of this prospective client bodes well for inno360 clients and our recent ecosystem partnership with IBM Watson to deliver Watson cognitive capability. Our software offers the ability for our clients to achieve rapid and enhanced return on investment, but also will increase our revenues and make our software mission critical to our global client base, of which 15 are the #1 ranked leaders in their respective global vertical industries.

Inno360 was launched in 2009 at the peak of interest in a business phenomenon called open innovation. The concept is that organizations should be able to quickly search outside their own borders for experts anywhere in the world who could help them perform specialized research projects. We are one of several companies that were formed to provide networks of researchers and search services, but we are unique in that we are the only one able to provide a repeatable SaaS business solution.  Over the years, we expanded our offering to become a full end-to-end enterprise research and innovation management solution.

I see the addition of Watson cognitive technologies–and IBM’s help in connecting us with potential customers–as important growth components in our company’s future.

We began discussions around joining the Watson ecosystem with IBM early this year, and, already, just last month, we rolled out new version of our SaaS product with the inclusion of seven of the Watson APIs.

One of the more exciting Watson API’s involves Sentiment Tracking: here’s a scenario of how a customer could use that API in our product: A packaged food company is attempting to develop a new breakfast cereal that’s high in fiber but also tastes great. The team searches a wide variety of patents, chemical databases, scientific research papers and popular press articles on topics related to the healthfulness of grains and people’s taste preferences. Within the inno360 software platform Watson provides the user a detailed assessment of the sentiment among readers about the various sources of information. Those insights help the product development team focus their research and more rapidly find solutions that previously may not have been located using traditional methods. The more research projects Watson handles in a particular organization, the better it gets at identifying promising avenues for innovation.

At Inno360, we’re all about delivering solutions to research problems in any area within the enterprise and so they can get products to market quicker and more efficiently.  We believe that our core product and Watson’s ability to learn from interacting with people and data is a killer combination and one that will drive substantial ROI for all our clients.