On Nov. 10, IBM announced the opening of the sixth in a network of analytics solution centers -- this one dedicated to helping federal agencies and other public-sector organizations extract actionable insights from their data.

The new IBM Analytics Solution Center in Washington, D.C., will draw on the expertise of more than 400 IBM professionals. These will include IBM researchers, experts in advanced software platforms and consultants with deep industry knowledge in areas such as transportation, social services, public safety, customs and border management, revenue management, defense, logistics, health care and education. IBM also plans to add an additional 100 professionals, through retraining or new hiring, as demand grows.

The center's staff will work with federal agencies and other clients to apply breakthrough streaming technologies, mathematical algorithms and modeling. Using these tools, IBM will help clients optimize individual business decisions, processes and entire business models, as well as manage risk and fraud, with the goal of improving the delivery of public services.

The new center will be located in IBM's Institute for Electronic Government at 1301 K Street, N.W. It will serve as the hub for collaboration with federal agencies, academia and other institutions in the Washington metro area on analytics projects ranging from transportation and social services to defense logistics and homeland security systems. Washington, D.C. was chosen as the location for the new center because of its access to leading thinkers on the future of government systems, innovations taking place within the U.S. federal government and the dozens of universities in the area.

"Just as analytics is being widely adopted in corporate America to help companies achieve their business goals, there are almost limitless opportunities for the public sector to improve efficiency, effectiveness and overall performance through analytics," said Anne Altman, general manager of IBM's Global Public Sector. "This center will enable greater collaboration on projects that leverage data in real time to aid in decision-making and enhance citizens' lives."

Among the analytics projects already under way with government agencies, IBM is working with the U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) to modernize the planning, programming, budgeting and execution functions within the command. USSOCOM is the combatant command within the Department of Defense that provides fully capable special operations forces to defend the U.S. and its interests. The command also plans and synchronizes operations against terrorist networks. The project consists of the design, development and integration of a Special Operations Resource Business Information System, which speeds access to information for the command.

IBM, the U.S. Social Security Administration (SSA) and MedVirginia developed a unique electronic records exchange system to shave the amount of time to receive medical records from weeks to minutes. In addition, IBM worked with SSA to build a predictive model using text analytics to help identify initial disability applications that are likely quick allowances and helped reduce the amount of time for a favorable initial disability determination on these applications from months to weeks.

The Washington-based IBM Analytics Solution Center, which specializes in the work of the public sector, is part of IBM's business strategy to expand its business analytics and optimization capabilities and services globally. IBM has opened five other analytics solution centers -- in New York, Dallas, Berlin, Beijing and Tokyo -- and expects to retrain or hire as many as 4,000 new analytics consultants and professionals globally as part of these centers. Earlier this month, IBM announced a Business Analytics Center of Competency that will support the Analytics Solutions Centers in crafting advanced solutions.