IBM to acquire Irish tech firm The Now Factory for an undisclosed sum

1 Oct 2013

The Now Factory, an Irish company providing communications firms like telcos and ISPs with analytics software, has been acquired by IBM for an undisclosed sum.

Telecoms firms from 29 countries use The Now Factory’s technology to engage with more than 500m customers.

The challenge these companies face is analysing the enormous amount of data that smartphones and tablets are producing.

Analyst and research firm Informa Telecoms and Media predicts that by 2016, the average mobile phone subscriber will use 6.5 times as much video, 10 times as much gaming data, and eight times as much content for social media and music than they currently consume.

In addition to its ability to detect and resolve issues, The Now Factory’s software helps CSPs better understand how a subscriber interacts with cloud-based services, such as mobile applications.

The Now Factory’s technology enhances IBM’s big data platform in bringing a new class of analytics to the market.

Real-time decision making and customer conversion

Telcos can use The Now Factory’s software to analyse customer usage of 3G and 4G LTE data services and identify high-volume pre-paid subscribers. This can result in a targeted campaign to convert high-volume pre-paid subscribers into post-paid accounts.

“The Now Factory’s innovative solutions are all about enabling quick insights for better business results in the highly competitive telecommunications landscape,” said Tom Morrisroe, CEO, The Now Factory.

“As part of IBM, we can now extend our technologies to a broader range of clients to help them uncover new, untapped growth opportunities, and achieve tangible business value from big data and analytics.”

The acquisition is part of IBM’s long-term strategy to support strong expected growth in big data and analytics, an area of IBM’s business that is expected to reach US$20bn in revenue by 2015.

“Today’s announcement is part of IBM’s strategy to continually establish leadership in the era of big data and capitalise on the opportunity to analyse data in real time,” said Bob Picciano, general manager, Information Management, IBM Software Group.

“The Now Factory’s software enhances IBM’s big data and analytics portfolio by improving the speed, development and implementation of big data solutions, and gives communications service providers the ability to better service their customers,” Picciano said.

Big data image via Shutterstock

John Kennedy is a journalist who served as editor of Silicon Republic for 17 years

editorial@siliconrepublic.com