Flu Insights, which is available within both the Android and iOS versions of The Weather Channel app, leverages AI and machine learning to provide users with notifications about the onset of the flu season, confirmed cases of flu outbreak, and if current conditions have increased risk of getting the flu. It also provides a 15-day flu forecast that displays the level of risk on each day, according to area. And includes illness prevention tips and flu reports from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Prior to developing the feature, The Weather Company commissioned a study in partnership with Morning Consult, finding that 83 per cent of people feel that avoiding the flu is important. However, 37 per cent of respondents said they do not get a flu shot. Breaking this down, 62 per cent of Baby Boomers say they always get a flu shot compared to just 23 per cent of Millennials.

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The Confidential Computing Consortium will address the ‘most challenging’ part of dealing with data in cloud computing – the encryption of data in use. Current approaches in cloud computing already deal with the protection of data when it’s not being used and the protection of data when being sent to its destination, but data is vulnerable when it’s actually being used.

The aim is for confidential computing to enable encrypted data to be processed in memory without exposing it to the rest of the system, reduce exposure for sensitive data, and provide more control and transparency for users. The consortium of hardware vendors, cloud providers, developers, open source experts, and academics will also look to influence technical and regulatory standards and build open source tools for Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) development.

“The earliest work on technologies that have the ability to transform an industry is often done in collaboration across the industry and with open source technologies,” said Jim Zemlin, executive director at The Linux Foundation. “The Confidential Computing Consortium is a leading indicator of what’s to come for security in computing and will help define and build open technologies to support this trust infrastructure for data in use.”

Early contributions to the consortium include a Microsoft framework for developers to build TEE apps, an Intel SDK to help app developers protect select code and data from disclosure or modification at hardware level, and a Red Hat project providing hardware independence for securing apps using TEEs.

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SEAT is working with IBM to develop an AI solution that will help people with all of their daily transportation needs, enabling them to plan and choose the most suitable means of transport, including cars, scooters, bikes, and public transport.

‘Mobility Advisor’, which is currently under development and designed to run as a mobile app on both 4G and 5G networks, will make use of IBM Watson AI to provide users with a conversational interface to plan and optimise routes, suggesting the most suitable transportation options.

“Traffic congestion and environmental challenges are putting huge pressure on cities to transform,” said Jordi Caus, SEATs head of new urban mobility concepts. “At SEAT we are leading the way by working with innovative cities and technology companies to come up with solutions to make mobility easier and more efficient. With its advanced cloud and AI technologies, IBM is helping us to innovate new approaches to mobility that will transform our business strategy while improving the lives of people living in urban areas.”

The solution will make use of IBM Watson’s machine learning capabilities to learn the user preferences and make personalised recommendations, while its connection to IBM Cloud means it will be able to adapt to changing conditions relating to weather forecasts, traffic reports, and other occurrences.

“With the roll-out of 5G networks in cities in the coming years, the possibilities for transforming the driver experience are limitless,” said Juan Ramon Gutierrez Villar, industry solutions leader for global markets at IBM. “At IBM, we are working with telecommunications companies and innovative manufactures like SEAT to provide the open technologies which they need to deliver on this vision and create highly contextualised and personalised user experiences that work at lightning speed across multiple clouds and IT platforms.”

Volkswagen-owned SEAT’s R&D mobility is working with IBM technicians to evolve the Mobility Advisor proof of concept into a real-life solution. Working with XMOBA, SEAT’s subsidiary which tests new solutions for better mobility, SEAT will look to integrate Mobility Advisor with Justmoove, a collaborative mobility solutions platform offered by the company to customers. IBM’s side of the project is being implemented by its Viewnext subsidiary.

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Under the agreement, Vodafone Business customers will gain access to the full portfolio of IBM’s cloud offerings, while IBM provides managed services to Vodafone Business’ cloud and hosting unit. Furthermore, the pair will work together on digital solutions relating to the Internet of Things (IoT), 5G, and edge computing.

According to the companies, the venture has been designed work like a startup and “be responsive to rapidly changing market and customer demands”. The venture will become operational in the first half of this year.

“Together, IBM and Vodafone will use the power of the hybrid cloud to securely integrate critical business applications, driving business innovation – from agriculture to next-generation retail,” said Ginni Rometty, chairman, president and CEO of IBM.

“This strategic venture with IBM allows us to focus on our strengths in fixed and mobile technologies, whilst leveraging IBMs expertise in multicloud, AI and services,” added Nick Read, Vodafone CEO. “Through this new venture well accelerate our growth and deepen engagement with our customers while driving radical simplification and efficiency in our business.”

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The lawsuit from the LA city attorney claims that The Weather Company, the business behind ‘The Weather Channel’ app, misled users by implying that the location information it collected would only be used to localise weather reports. However, according to the filing, the company also used the data for unrelated marketing purposes.

“For years, TWC has deceptively used its Weather Channel App to amass its users’ private, personal geolocation data – tracking minute details about its users’ locations through the day and night, all while leading users to believe that their data will only be used to provide them with ‘personalised local weather data, alerts, and forecasts’,” reads the filing. “TWC has then profited from that data, using it and monetising it for purposes entirely unrelated to weather or the Weather Channel App.”

The city’s lawsuit comes on the back of a report from the New York Times, which highlighted how companies collect smartphone locations to share with advertisers and hedge funds.

“If the price of getting a weather report is going to be the sacrifice of your most personal information about where you spend your time day and night, you sure as heck ought to be told clearly in advance,” LA city attorney Michael Feuer told the publication.

The suit is seeking civil penalties of up to $2,500 for each violation of the Unfair Competition Law. This could amount to millions of dollars given the potential number of Californians who may use The Weather Channel app.

In response, an IBM spokesman said: “The Weather Company has always been transparent with use of location data; the disclosures are fully appropriate, and we will defend them vigorously.”

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Cisco – Cisco Live 2018
Cisco Live 2018 saw 27,000 attend the technology firm’s annual conference, and as befits such an innovative company, the attendee experience was substantially enhanced by technology deployed prior to and during the event. Badges included wearable beacons, and real-time data was used to guide attendees to a richer and more fulfilling experience that also improved lead generation for Cisco’s partners.

A mobile app created for attendees was able to generate recommendations based on attendee interests and provide precise locations throughout the conference, with augmented reality then used to guide attendees to their next activity. The conference’s Smart Agenda used AI to track real-time behaviour while the beacon technology enabled attendees to find their friends and book one-to-one sessions with experts easily.

Over the course of the conference, Cisco’s machine learning technology processed over 1.7bn data points, with 90 per cent of app users taking advantage of the mapping functionality to find their way around the event. Amongst full conference attendees, the algorithms offered recommendations that were connected to 67 per cent of the behaviours manifested at the event, and 82 per cent of attendees said they were more likely to purchase Cisco products and solutions as a result of the conference.

Chrome River Technologies – Chrome River Expense
Chrome River, provider of expense reporting and invoice management, is the partner of choice for over 800 midsize-to-large enterprises around the world. Many of these organizations select the company specifically for its market-leading mobile capabilities, developed to ensure that the expense reporting system would offer a seamless user experience for all employees on any device, regardless of their location or language.

Expense reporting is no fun for those submitting the claims, those approving them, or the C-Suite. Chrome River EXPENSE aims to eliminate these problems, via a SaaS web app, available in more than 30 languages, that is completely configurable and robust enough to exceed the needs of the largest, global, mobile workforces.

The app was designed to work equally well on all devices and connections and be easy-to-use, secure and up-to-date. For approvers, its automated spend control, allocation coding and approval routing speed up reimbursements and eliminate cross-referencing of submissions with corporate travel policies. The solution even allows expense pre-approvals. When integrated with a companys CRM system, the app also measures sales team travel and entertainment spend against sales outcome and revenue generated, so they can increase investment where it will drive the highest ROI.

To support use with any type of connection, Chrome River also uses single page application technology reducing the need for large volumes of data to be transmitted in order to perform tasks. As a result, it will work just as effectively on a low-bandwidth 3G network or in a rural location with a weak mobile signal as it does on an office’s network or a 4G/LTE mobile network.

It also features automated reconciliation with US Bank statements and image processing technology including image enhancement, rotation, OCR text extraction and rules logic for data analysis and accurate assignment. Smart OCR reads the information on the receipt (time of day – is this breakfast, lunch or dinner?, amount and currency, merchant name and vendor type) and then maps the receipt to the correct expense line. The system can also recognize a related line item – such as a credit card transaction – and combine the two.

As a company, Chrome River has a customer satisfaction rate of 97 per cent, and an annual customer revenue retention rate of more than 98 per cent. One Expense client estimated that their company had saved over $1m  in travel expenditures in a year as a result of implementing the Chrome River Expense pre-approval process.

Domino’s Pizza Group and Future Platforms – Domino’s Pizza Drivers’ App and Dashboard
The aim of this app is to make Domino’s drivers safer, more efficient, and more productive; bring about business-wide operational improvements; and complete the pizza-tracking cycle.

The app needs to work in multiple different scenarios with a varied user set, so Future Platforms began by establishing personas: Drivers, Store Managers, Area Managers, Head Office/Operations, Customers, and Franchisees. Determining what each would need from the solution, and how they would coexist, the agency created a series of wire flows and user journeys before devising a prototype for the driver’s app and the in-store dashboard.

Future spent prolonged periods of time at stores to observe and test their solutions in real-time, and held held a number of workshops with staff, franchisees and managers across the country, incorporating their challenges and considerations into the solution.
The driver version of the app shows order information, delivery address, and special notes, and the driver can call the store/customer or use integrated Waze navigation for delivery directions.

The app and backend exchange information about the device location and order status, which is fed through to the in-store manager dashboard. Unique colours differentiate drivers currently on delivery from those returning to the store or those imminently available for a new order, with to-the-minute ETAs provided based on traffic and location.

The app records detailed information about the driver’s actions and order activity, and this is fed into Tableau reporting software for analytics. Store owners, area managers and franchisees are then able to generate digital reports on store activity, which can highlight unusual delivery patterns or logistical areas for improvement.

After a proof of concept and trial run in three stores, and a productisation phase in 22 stores, by the end of 2017, the Drivers’ App and Dashboard was operational in 243 UK stores, and by March 2018, GPS was fully operational in 541 stores, putting Future on schedule to reach its goal of being live in all 1000+ stores by the end of the year, where it will be used be 27,000 delivery drivers.

Deliveries are now better organised, with orders timed to be ready just as the next driver returns. When coupled with hands-free GPS that calculates the most efficient route, more orders are being delivered per hour, with additional savings on fuel costs. Tracking helps managers better mitigate against revenue loss from drivers taking their own breaks or being unproductive, and rewarding others for high performance.

The centralised system provides a clear overview of orders, staff availability, delivery status, and more. Drivers are saving fuel by taking more efficient routes, and though a minimal saving in isolation, adds up quickly for an organisation of this size. By monitoring habits like excessive speed and the harshness of braking, and working to discourage them, Domino’s is able to reduce insurance premiums by providing telematic data. Safe driving further impacts fuel costs, makes the brand more responsible, and keeps road users safer.

IBM and Kaon Interactive – IBM Interactive Product Catalogue
Operating in a commoditized market, IBM was seeking a way to differentiate itself from the competition, while simultaneously simplifying the messaging around its complex product set. The company has a large, global salesforce and channel partner network that adds an additional layer of complexity with the challenge of distributing this information, consistently and simultaneously, to all stakeholders.

Additionally, IBM has a vast portfolio of large, heavy products that were are and logistically difficult to ship around the world for trade shows and demonstrations. It was impossible for salespeople to show and demonstrate these products in sales meetings to communicate the business value of their products.

IBM partnered with Kaon Interactive to create an interactive 3D product catalogue, built on the Kaon marketing platform. The IBM Interactive Product Catalog is an immersive experience that provides IBMs sales engineers and reps, marketing team, and channel partners with a tool that is better at demonstrating their products capabilities than the actual physical equipment.
It contains photo-realistic, 3D product models of a large swath of IBMs portfolio built into virtual product tours that enable users to drill down to line diagrams, show switches, and pull out and spin components.

In many cases, the application is more current than the physical product racks. No matter where is IBM team is located around the globe, they know they have the latest version available, keeping both internal teams and a diverse network of channel partners in synch.
The app contains more than 80 interactive 3D product tours, is updated regularly with new products and content, and is used by more than 700 salespeople per week. It has helped IBM to engage prospects earlier; onboard sales and channel teams more quickly; and grow net-new business.

Sky, Domestic & General, Rufus Leonard and Pocket App – Sky Protect Engineers’ App
Sky Protect insurance, provided by its partner and warranty specialist Domestic & General, has traditionally been marketed and sold using traditional channels: outbound sales, email and web. In a post-GDPR world, these channels are becoming challenged, as consumers opt out of marketing communications. However, in research commissioned by Domestic & General, it was found that the Sky Protect product is as popular with this difficult to reach audience. The challenge then was how to communicate the benefits of this product to the Sky audience with a light touch and in a privacy-friendly manner.

When Sky engineers visit a property for a new installation or a repair they have a key opportunity to upsell other offers and services, including Sky Protect insurance cover. Previously, this has been achieved through leaflets carried by the engineers and given to customers to read while the installation takes place.

To improve on this, Sky and Domestic & General worked with Rufus Leonard and Pocket App to create a native app for Sky engineers which could engage customers directly. The app was developed to build awareness of the Sky Protect insurance offering, with the goal of leveraging the engineer presence to create a more efficient sales channel. The primary metric for determining the success of this app-based approach would be the conversion rate of plans sold to videos viewed.

On launch, the app guides the consumer through the Sky Protect offer via a short introductory video. The customer then receives a summary of the offer with three clear options – no interest, sign up, or request a phone or email follow-up for further information. Finally, the app confirms via pop-up that the customer has not been pressurised into signing or has any complaints about the app experience. At the time of entry, there had not been a single complaint.

Phase one covered 200 of Sky’s 3,000 engineers in the UK. Phase Two will provide additional consumer benefit, with the app experience splintering based on the type of equipment the customer has installed (HD Box vs Q Box). The relevant deal can then be served up to them seamlessly, without the need for further questions.

The results of the deployment were supplied to the judges in confidence and are extremely impressive.

Join us to find out the winners of our 2018 Effective Mobile Marketing Awards at our prestigious Awards Ceremony on 15 November. Tickets are available now, so book your place and celebrate the industrys best and brightest with us.

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Founded in 1993, Red Hat specialises in Linux operating systems, built on open-source software, and IBM has said it remains committed to the firms open governance, open source contributions and overall participation in the open source community. Red Hats business model sees it charge fees to its corporate customers for custom features, maintenance and technical support, and it is one of very few companies in the cloud computing sector that has seen both revenue growth and free cash flow.

“The acquisition of Red Hat is a game-changer,” said Ginni Rometty, CEO, chairwoman and president of IBM. “It changes everything about the cloud market. IBM will become the worlds number one hybrid cloud provider, offering companies the only open source solution that will unlock the full value of the cloud for their businesses.

“Most companies today are only 20 per cent along their cloud journey, renting compute power to cut costs. The next 80 per cent is about unlocking real business value and driving growth. This is the next chapter of the cloud. It requires shifting business applications to hybrid cloud, extracting more data and optimising every part of the business, from supply chains to sales.”

The acquisition saw IBM purchase Red Hat at a price of $190 per share in cash, a 60 per cent premium on Red Hats closing stock price of $116.68. JPMorgan advised IBM on the deal, and provided most of the financing, with Guggenheim Partners representing Red Hat.

IBM and Red Hat will continue to build and enhance Red Hat partnerships, including those with major cloud providers such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, Alibaba and more. Red Hat will become part of IBMs Hybrid Cloud team as a distinct unit, and will continue to be led by CEO Jim Whitehurst and its current management team.

“Joining forces with IBM will provide us with a greater level of scale, resources and capabilities to accelerate the impact of open source as the basis for digital transformation and bring Red Hat to an even wider audience – all while preserving our unique culture and unwavering commitment to open source innovation,” said Whitehurst.

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With the interactive ads, powered by IBM’s AI computer system Watson, consumers are able to ask Lufthansa general airline questions and interact with travel content across 15 European destinations. The ads feature a ‘destination explorer’ which showcases each location and offers the users local travel facts and tips about different cities, as well as image galleries, videos, and the option to click-through to flight booking.

“Lufthansa continues to drive value to the consumer through the use of new and innovative technologies such as AI, both on our aircraft and off,” said Benita Struve, director/head of marketing communications & campaigns at Lufthansa. “This marketing campaign not only inspires exciting travel, it also utilises the most innovative methods to provide a personalised experience.”

The Lufthansa Watson Ads campaign – part of the airline’s #SayYesToTheWorld campaign – is available on weather.com, The Weather Channel app, and across Lufthansa’s digital advertising ecosystem. Featured cities include Athens, Barcelona, Berlin, Budapest, Copenhagen, Florence, Frankfurt, Krakow, Milan, Munich, Oslo, Paris, Prague, Rome, and Stockholm.

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The distributed ledger technology platform, called LedgerConnect, is designed to give banks, buy and sell side firms, fintechs, and software vendors a way to deploy, share, and consume services hosted on a blockchain network.

“LedgerConnect is part of CLSs strategy to explore how we can provide safe and robust solutions that create efficiencies and reduce risk for a diverse range of firms operating in the financial markets,” said Alan Marquard, chief strategy and development officer at CLS. “We expect LedgerConnect to deliver enhanced efficiencies and economies of scale over single-purpose distributed ledger networks.”

According to the companies, LedgerConnect will provide financial institutions with access to services such as know your customer processes, sanctions screening, collateral management, derivatives post-trade processing and reconciliation, and market data.

Services selected for the proof of concept come from vendors including Baton Systems, Calypso, Copp Clark, IBM, Mphasis, OpenRisk, SynSwap, and Persistent Systems.

Following the test, should it be successful and receive necessary regulatory approvals, CLS and IBM plan to make LedgerConnect widely available to the industry.

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Wimbledon first used AI technology back in 2015 to harness the huge amounts of data generated by the Championship, and provide insights for players, broadcasters and audiences. The latest deployment sees Watsons learning capabilities used to better recognise player emotions, increaasing the quality of the automated video highlights while also shaving 15 minutes off the time they take to produce.

AI-powered video highlights are generated for the most exciting moments of The Championships from the six main Show Courts. With an average of three matches per court, per day, video from the matches can quickly add up to hundreds of hours of footage which could take hours to pull together into highlight packages. The AI system auto-curates footage based on analysis of crowd noise, players movements and match data, all of which helps simplify the highlight video production process.

“If youve got the visual element from the player, and you know that its a tight pressure point in the match, then those are the points that you are going to really target in on in the hightlights package,” said Sam Seddon, IBM client executive for Wimbledon, in an interview with Reuters. “We are listening for the volume of the crowd – if you have got a fantastic rally that noise levels will go up and down during that point. When that is happening, we flag it as particularly interesting.”

The improved AI-generated highlights arent the only new innovations IBM is bringing to this years Championship. The firm has created The Wimbledon Messenger, a chatbot within Facebook Messenger that is powered by Watson and designed to complement the viewing experience. It has also rebuilt Wimbledon.com to improve personalisation and allow for persistant video viewing, and created a new editorial dashboard for the digital team, helping them to leverage content across all channels including social.

“We want to engage with existing as well as new gans around the world, to help them be part of Wimbledon 2018, especially in what will be such a competitive sporting summer,” said Alexandra Willis, head of communications content & digital at the AELTC. “We want to tell the stories of the phenomenal athleticism of our great players, the gladiatorial nature of the matches they play and explain the sporting narratives that will cut through to our audience.

“IBM is critical to us in helping us place content with fans where they want to consume it and acknowledge the ever-increasing focus on video and new content formats in social media.”

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