IBM has announced three new Europe-based centers focused on analytics in Zurich, Switzerland, Budapest, Hungary, and Vienna, Austria -- part of a network of global centers addressing the emerging market for advanced analytic capabilities needed to drive improved business decision-making.

As a key part of IBM's overall growth strategy, the company is projecting $16 billion in business analytics and optimization revenue by 2015 and has, in the past year, opened analytics solution centers in Berlin, Beijing, London, New York, Dallas, Tokyo and Washington, D.C. The centers -- which draw on more than 7,000 Business Analytics & Optimization services consultants, billions of dollars of investment to create IBM's vast software information management portfolio and the largest corporate mathematics department -- are dedicated to solving the toughest business problems in transportation, social services, public safety, customs and border management, revenue management, defense, logistics, healthcare, education and other areas.

"Today business leaders need to move beyond intuition to a more predictive decision making capability and more certainty about business outcomes," said Adam Klaber, general manager, consulting services and analytics, IBM Global Business Services. "These new centers will allow our clients to collaborate with IBM on systems that see patterns in vast amounts of data, extract critical insights and deliver a new level of enterprise intelligence. This work is fundamental to improving competitive advantage and economic growth."

Zurich, Switzerland

The Zurich Analytics Solutions Center is located on the campus of IBM's Zurich research lab -- the home of two Nobel prizes. The Center will focus on applying analytics to problems in the finance industry and the public sector and will rely on the expertise of on-site IBM scientists active in the fields of business optimization and data analytics.

The Zurich Center will initially focus on risk and fraud analytics, financial analytics, brand and reputation analytics, marketing optimization and enterprise business analytics strategy. The center will also focus on technologies for Smarter Cities, such as analytics for advanced traffic management.

Budapest, Hungary

Located on the campus of the nearly 400 year-old ELTE University, the new Center for Applied Mathematics will prepare students with skills in operations and optimization research -- two skills increasingly in demand around the globe.

Recently opened for the Fall 2010 semester, the new Center focuses on the real-world application of advanced mathematics across many industries as students train for careers in green infrastructure, transportation and logistics and telecommunications, among others.

Fall Semester students are now researching multi-echelon "what if" scenarios for IBM's internal supply chain and studying how to stock and distribute after-service parts more efficiently. The results of this research will be ultimately built into IBM's ILOG business rule management systems, optimization, visualization and supply chain solutions.

Vienna, Austria

The Business Analytics and Optimization Competence Center here will initially be devoted to working with clients on Supply Chain Optimization, Smarter Energy Grids, Smarter Cities, Strategy Management and Planning Optimization.