i2

I2 company, whose customer base contains over 4500 organizations from 150 countries of the world, is the leading supplier of the advanced analytical solutions intended for the help in prevention of crimes and fraud. The headquarters of the company is located in Cambridge, Great Britain, and the central office of representation in the USA is in the city of Maklin, State of Virginia. Clients of i2 represent the most different countries and economic spheres, including banking services, the Defense Ministries, health care, insurance, retail, a law-enforcement system and national security. Solutions i2 are used today by 12 of 20 leading world retail banks and 8 of 10 largest companies of the world.

The organizations in the state and private sectors face rapid growth of Big Data today – information arriving from diverse and unstructured sources including social media, the biometric systems and databases of criminal cases. When this information is available to people who need it, it can be used for forecasting of potential problems, adoption of more operational and informed solutions, coordination of resources, improvement of service of the population and clients and many other.

This acquisition will strengthen leadership of IBM in assistance to clients in use of these data as the product portfolio and solutions of IBM will be complemented with intellectual i2 technologies in the field of analytics and operational identification of a circle of persons or objects, potentially involved in violation of security. These opportunities help the countries, to the cities, the international organizations and commercial enterprises to fight against fraud and security risks.

Reduction of quantity of cases of fraud and security risks has a strategic importance for all spheres of economy and life today. According to statistical data of FBI, in 2009 in the USA 1.3 million violent crimes, 9.3 million property crimes and 6.3 million thefts and plunders were registered. [1] Only in the field of retail of the United States fraud concerning consumers costs sellers 100 billion dollars annually. [2]

In response to these threats public institutions and private enterprises aim to expand possibilities of the responsible personnel, staff of bodies of public security, heads, analysts, the staff of investigating bodies using special information and analytical means. In particular, state institutions are extremely concerned by growth of threats of public security today that causes need of ensuring safe information exchange.

"The purpose of IBM consists in better to provide supply of state bodies of public security and businesses with information and special means which are necessary for them for support of security in the cities — Craig Hayman, the general manager of IBM on industry solutions (Industry Solutions) emphasized. — The integrated possibilities of IBM and i2 will help clients to reveal patterns and trends which knowledge will allow them to protect more effectively personal privacy, confidentiality of data and safety of citizens, the enterprises and governments".

"Consolidation of products i2 and advanced technologies of IBM for collecting and data storage will be very useful to clients which aim at bigger knowledge and awareness in a situation, and at identification of communications between, apparently, untied data obtained from oceans of information — Robert Griffin, the chief executive officer of i2 noted. — The existing clients of i2 will get strong support of IBM – the company known for the capability to help the organizations to use available information resources with the maximum advantage and benefit".

Applying solutions of IBM for real-time analysis in combination with i2 technologies, public institutions and private enterprises which conduct fight against fraud, will be able to collect with bigger efficiency now, to analyze and process all important data which are available at their order. Earlier the surplus of data often led to losses of crucial information and the missed opportunities. Now the local, regional and federal authorities can use new information opportunities for fast identification and response to security risks. Investigating bodies can quickly check the versions and quicker solve the crimes, promoting strengthening of public security.

Using IBM and i2 clients will get access to a full range of visualization tools and the multidimensional analysis for timely obtaining the necessary data from the available information, including analytical results on cases of fraud and security risks. These tools will help analysts to define quickly interrelations, behavior models, patterns and trends, taking them from huge arrays of diverse data, and with ease to model data according to the thoughts and the ideas, performing all this in a unified environment that promotes fast obtaining analytical results, preparation of strategic reports and the publication of the information message.

The state and transactions i2 will be integrated into division of IBM Software Group which is the main driving force of growth and profitability of IBM.

i2 has additional offices in McLean (State of Virginia), Tucson (State of Arizona), Ottawa (Province of Ontario, Canada) and Canberra (Australia) where 350 employees of the company work. The transaction of acquisition is going to be closed in the fourth quarter 2011, after approval by regulating authorities and completion of normal procedures.