Introduction

For five years, IBMers have been working with companies, cities and communities around the world to build a Smarter Planet.

We've seen enormous advances, as leaders are using an explosion of data to transform their enterprises and institutions through analytics, mobile technology, social business and the cloud.

We've also seen how this new era is starting to create winners. They’re changing how their decisions are made. They're redesigning how their teams work, reassessing how to serve their customers, and changing the very nature of business.

It's the ability to harness data that gives these leaders their competitive advantage in the era of "smart."