IBM and Findability Sciences Tap the Power of Watson to Transform the Social Impact Sector

WALTHAM, Mass. - Oct. 10, 2014 - PRLog -- According to the 2014 State of the Nonprofit Sector report 70% of nonprofits say at least half of their funders demanded impact measurements. While 78% of nonprofits collect program data, 46% say insufficient staff/time hinders their ability to measure impact. One of the biggest challenges for measuring impact is the vast majority of data is in unstructured. Fueled by IBM Watson technology via the cloud, the nonprofit sector will be able to transform how impact is reported by delivering information in an inviting Q&A format, friendly to natural language queries.

“IMA, using Watson’s cognitive computing capabilities, analyzes volumes of unstructured documents & structured data to respond directly to funder or donor questions in natural language regarding the impact of their contributions,” said Anand Mahurkar, Founder of Findability Sciences. “It also helps funders explore and track the effectiveness of grantees’ initiatives to make informed funding decisions,” added Mahurkar.

David Lawson, CEO of NewSci, a Findability Sciences’ group company focused on providing innovative solutions to the nonprofit sector, stated, “IMA is designed for donors, volunteers, and other supporters to access information about a nonprofit’s impact at any time from any device. Leadership and staff can also use IMA to gain insights into patterns of success and challenges. IMA is also offered to funders to analyze grant proposals and impact reports from grantees.”

IBM also announced today (http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/presskit/27297.wss) accelerated adoption of Watson’s cognitive capabilities globally. Today’s news reinforces IBM’s strategy to fuel an ecosystem of innovators who will help make cognitive the new standard of computing.

“IBM is receiving an outpouring of interest from partners in Watson’s cognitive capabilities and supporting industry-changing use cases around the globe,” said Stephen Gold, Vice President, IBM Watson Group. “We are thrilled to be working with some of the industries best and brightest entrepreneurs and established organizations.”

Organizations that are interested in collaborating with IBM to develop Watson-powered applications can visit www.ibm.com/watsonecosystem to learn more.

IBM Watson: Pioneering a New Era of Computing
IBM Watson represents a new era of computing, in which apps and systems interact with human users more naturally, augment our knowledge with Big Data (http://www.ibm.com/big-data/us/en/) insights, and learn to improve how they assist us.

Fueled by innovation from a mission to transform industries and professions, Watson is uniquely positioned at the forefront of the new era of computing, evidenced by an unmatched demonstration of what cognitive systems can bring to transform decision-making. IBM is delivering a range of cloud-based products and services to clients in industries such as banking, healthcare, insurance, retail and education.

In January, 2014, IBM launched the IBM Watson Group, a new business unit dedicated to the development and commercialization of cloud-delivered cognitive advisors. The move signifies a strategic shift by IBM to accelerate into the marketplace a new class of software, services and apps that think, improve by learning, and discover insights from massive amounts of Big Data.

IBM is investing more than $1 billion into the Watson Group, focusing on research, development and bringing cloud-delivered cognitive applications and services to market. This includes $100 million earmarked for direct investment to support IBM’s ecosystem of start-ups and businesses building cognitive apps made with Watson. Currently more than 3,300 organizations and entrepreneurial individuals have shared their ideas for creating cognitive apps that redefine how businesses and consumers make decisions.

For more information on IBM Watson, please visit: www.ibmwatson.com.

For more insights on this story and more, visit the IBM Watson press kit (http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/presskit/27297.wss).

To join the social discussion about Watson, include the hashtag #ibmwatson. Follow Watson on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/ibmwatson) and see Watson on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/user/IBMWatsonSolutions) and Flickr (https://www.flickr.com/photos/55814174@N02/).

About Findability Sciences

Findability Sciences (www.findabilitysciences.com) combines the power of search capabilities provided by the Findability  Platform  and domain expertise with cognitive computing, which learns and interacts naturally with people to extend beyond what humans or machines could do on their own. Waltham, MA headquartered Findability Sciences provides innovative solutions to Higher Education, Not For Profit, Publishing and e-commerce companies. For media and sales enquiries please contact press@findabilitysciences.com

About NewSci
Tampa, FL headquartered NewSci (www.newsci.co), a Findability Sciences Group Company, is focused on nonprofit organizations, education, hospitals, and the funding community. NewSci is bringing the Impact Measurement & Analysis (IMA) to the sector. For media or sales enquiries please contact david@newsci.co (mailto:david@newsci.com)