(IBM: Armonk, NY) -- IBM has created the Services Innovation Lab (SIL), a new global lab that will initially comprise about 200 technology experts hand-picked from around the company. The lab will accelerate the expansion of real-time analytics and software automation in both IBM’s technology services offerings and its global services delivery capabilities.

The SIL significantly expands IBM’s nearly 10-year-old services research program by bringing together services, research, software developers, and industry experts from around the company to focus initially on creating services software applications for cloud computing, analytics, and mobility. IBM invests more than $6 billion annually on research and development and employs about 3,000 researchers worldwide, with about one-third of them focused on services and analytics.

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