IBM Buys British In Big Data Move

IBM continues its quest to help enterprises cope with data in all forms, shapes and sizes after it announced the acquisition of Milton Keynes, UK-based Daeja Image Systems.

Daeja is a maker of software that simplifies access to unstructured data. Essentially its software is designed to make it easier for business and IT professionals to view large documents and images

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Big Data

IBM identified big data and analytics as targets early on and has been on task in delivering new solutions – both organically and through acquisitions – to help customers wrangle big data to get the most out of all the different forms of data they acquire in their daily business activities.

As unstructured business data continues to grow exponentially, business users need to not only have access to information, but a compelling user experience as well, IBM said. By putting content in the context of how people work every day, professionals can solve problems and make decisions that deliver better outcomes faster.

Daeja delivers software that helps line-of-business employees across all industries – especially data-intensive ones such as banking, insurance and health care – get faster access to critical business information. Users can open and view hundreds of document and image file formats, even if the native application is not present on their devices, which saves time and enables social collaboration and document sharing across the organisation.

“IBM is continuing to lead the way in helping organisations access the content they rely upon for everyday operations,” Doug Hunt, IBM’s Enterprise Content Management (ECM) business leader, said in a statement. “The acquisition of Daeja will simplify how business data is viewed by department or line-of-business users.”

The interactive features of Daeja software complement IBM’s ability to mask and annotate documents and images to anonymise or protect sensitive data, IBM officials said. A financial analyst, for instance, can distribute a spreadsheet for review by senior management. Reviewers can view the file and add comments as annotations before sending it back for further analysis. Meanwhile, Daeja software provides control over who can see and modify the document, providing security and privacy throughout the process.

Long-term Partner

Daeja technology makes it easy to view very large files. For example, an insurance agent can view car accident photos and images off-site to speed up the claims review process. Or a doctor can review a patient’s detailed charts or X-rays for more timely diagnosis and treatment.

“As a longtime business partner, Daeja has integrated its solutions with IBM solutions for more than a decade,” Stu Moss, CEO at Daeja, said in a statement. “With our combined strengths, we can help clients manage their data challenges and directly enhance IBM’s key market initiatives for big data, mobile and content management.”

Today’s news complements IBM’s big data capabilities to help organisations find insights in new and emerging types of data and content to be more agile and competitive. The combination of IBM and Daeja aims to provide clients with instant access to this critical data so they can work more productively any time, any place.

In addition to IBM, Daeja technology is used by more than 4,000 clients across a variety of industries to help access, manage and view their data.

IBM plans to incorporate Daeja into the IBM Software Group and its ECM business. According to research firm Gartner, IBM is the ECM market share leader, growing twice as fast as the market as a whole, and extending its lead over that of its closest competitors.

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Originally published on eWeek.