IBM Bluemix, Watson Services; Document Conversion & Rank and Retrieve

One of the areas organizations could gain a competitive advantage is by simply structuring their data. It is estimated that 80% of the worlds data is unstructured. Managing and tapping into that unstructured data, which includes different documents in the form of pdf, html, word, and media in terms of images, audio, and video could lead to more applicable decisions. According to Christie Schneider of IBM Watson, nearly 90% of the worlds data has been created in the last two years. Structuring this data using natural language processing is one of the steps which could lead to better decision-making from business insights, innovations, and investments. To assist in leveraging unstructured data and circling it back to create applications, IBM offers Bluemix, which is a cloud platform designed to help businesses enhance their operations and resolve problems on web services.

IBM Bluemix is an environment where developers can manage their application design, deployment and integrations. IBM Bluemix offers various services that can be merged into an application to fit the needs of a business. With Bluemix, developers spend less time configuring virtual machines but rather focus on the application utility, which could lead to a more efficient implementation of software. Some of the services offered include; Document Conversion and Retrieve and Rank.

Document Conversion is a service that can convert various documents (word, pdf, etc.) into plain text. An example of document conversion application could be a legal company that converts all their hard copy, and electronic files into plain text in conjunction with Retrieve and Rank. Retrieve and Rank uses input methods with machine learning and standard search methods. When the legal documents are converted to plain text, they can be organized in categories that could lead to cognitive machine learning from IBM  using question and answer methods. Imagine a lawyer attempting to review how he/she is going to win a civil case but needs the most recent or relevant documents related to a specific Judge. The lawyer could input their question into the Rank and Retrieve service and obtain an output that is appropriated with rankings and reviews.

Other domains Document Conversion can be used with Retrieve and Rank are software application support, healthcare and finance. Troubleshooting software has been proven tedious at times. Many support systems allow helpdesk staff to document problems and resolutions in different document formats. If the problems and resolutions are organized in a manner that can be queried via questions or user statements, users and helpdesk support can resolve cyclical issues faster and efficiently.  In healthcare, practitioners can structure their data for resolving specific patient issues and make their service more personal. Finance departments could capture their documents and create a time stamped output of their financial statements queried. Services of Document Conversion and Retrieve and Rank are not limited to a small industry because a vast number of businesses could use IBM's products and services to enhance or maintain their competitive edge on the market while solving problems. 

Mwalimu Phiri

References

Heidloff, N. (2016, January 12). Sample of the Watson Retrieve and Rank Service.Retrieved from Heidloff: http://heidloff.net/article/sample-watson-retrieve-and-rank-service-bluemix

Schneider, C. (2016, May 25). The biggest data challenges that you might not even know you have. Retrieved from IBM Watson- Cognitive Enterprise: https://www.ibm.com/blogs/watson/2016/05/biggest-data-challenges-might-not-even-know/