IBM opens Customer Experience Lab to bring R&D to c-level execs

Armonk, N.Y. -- IBM on Thursday announced the creation of the IBM Customer Experience Lab, dedicated to helping business leaders transform the way customers experience their products, services and brands through the use of mobile, social, cloud and advanced analytics technologies.

The IBM Customer Experience Lab will provide CEOs, CMOs, CFOs, heads of sales and other C-suite executives direct access to a virtual team of 100 researchers, supported by the expertise of thousands of IBM business consultants addressing the opportunities of the digital front office.

IBM scientists and business consultants will co-create with clients to deliver systems that learn and personalize the experiences of each individual customer, identify patterns, preferences and create context from Big Data, and drive scale economics.



In a recent briefing for financial analysts, Bridget van Kralingen, SVP IBM Global Business Services, called “front office transformation” — of sales, marketing or customer service functions — the most important wave of business change since the advent of Enterprise Resource Planning in the 1990s.



“Business leaders realize they need to continuously transform their customer experience in order to be relevant and competitive – from the perception of innovation and value, to the quality of the interaction, to the economics of delivery,” said Mahmoud Naghshineh, VP Services Research at IBM. “What made them successful over the last decade, or even last year, may not be competitive in the future. We will help clients explore the possibilities presented by new assets, technologies and innovation models based on our engagement experiences with thousands of organizations across every industry.”