OREANDA-NEWS. September 07, 2016. IBM (NYSE: IBM) has been named a Leader in the IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Oil and Gas Professional Services Vendor Assessment[1] for its cloud, cognitive technology and industry focused thought leadership.

This year’s report - the IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Oil and Gas Professional Services 2016 Vendor Assessment - reconfirms IBM’s position as a leader based on a thorough survey of thirteen leading oil and gas professional services providers. The report measures capabilities in business and management consulting, IT consulting, systems integration (SI), IT outsourcing and business process outsourcing.

“We are investing in industry specific cognitive, IOT and cloud-based analytics to help our clients compete and succeed in light of the dynamic market forces that are shaping the industry,” said John Brantley, general manager, IBM Oil and Gas Industries. “Our continuing leadership position confirms that our unique blend of business expertise and cognitive technology helping our clients dynamically evolve to overcome unique challenges posed by low oil prices."

The survey notes IBM has been serving the oil and gas industry for more than 50 years, with a client list that includes more than 500 oil and gas companies worldwide. It also highlights IBM’s focus on cognitive computing and predictive modeling as unique areas the company has focused on for oil and gas clients. Solutions that the survey calls out include IBM Watson and IBM Bluemix.

IDC Energy Insights said it believes IBM is executing well, its strategy looks excellent, and that the focus on Watson and cognitive will be a key differentiator for IBM in the industry.

“IBM has an excellent ecosystem of partners across the spectrum, which ranges from the real-time system providers (shop floor) to the strategy consulting domain (board room),”said Chris Niven, Research Director, IDC Energy Insights Oil & Gas.  “IBM continues to strategically align people and delivery and is well positioned to deliver against the challenges of the global energy industry.”

IBM has the largest oil and gas ERP practice with highly experienced resources in design, build and manage services. This practice covers complex business areas across upstream, midstream, downstream, trading, retail, and bio/renewables. Additionally, IBM has a well-developed and wide-ranging set of services for upstream including capital projects, petrotech, production, hydrocarbon accounting, Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) and for downstream refining, which includes manufacturing execution system (MES) and real time applications, quality management, fuel retail, energy trading and risk management (ETRM), renewables for the oil and gas clients.

About IDC MarketScape:  IDC MarketScape vendor analysis model is designed to provide an overview of the competitive fitness of ICT (information and communications technology) suppliers in a given market. The research methodology utilizes a rigorous scoring methodology based on both qualitative and quantitative criteria that results in a single graphical illustration of each vendor's position within a given market.  IDC MarketScape provides a clear framework in which the product and service offerings, capabilities and strategies, and current and future market success factors of IT and telecommunications vendors can be meaningfully compared.  The framework also provides technology buyers with a 360 degree assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of current and prospective vendors. 

IBM addresses oil and gas industry challenges with a broad portfolio of cloud and software solutions, consulting, systems integration as well as outsourcing services underpinned by IBM Research. IBM and its alliance partners help clients address their most pressing problems in the areas of Integrated Operations, Major Capital Projects, information technology/operational technology convergence, digital security solutions and information management. For more information, visit www-935.ibm.com/industries/chemicalspetroleum.

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All other company, product or service names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of others. Statements concerning IBM's future development plans and schedules are made for planning purposes only, and are subject to change or withdrawal without notice. Reseller prices may vary.

[1] IDC Energy Insights - IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Oil and Gas Professional Services 2016 Vendor Assessment, Doc #US40842116, August 2016