IBM updates and expands ILOG portfolio

IBM completed the acquisition of ILOG in January

IBM has announced updates to its ILOG software portfolio, which it claims will allow customers to make faster decisions.

IBM completed its acquisition of ILOG in January. The company provides supply chain applications and business rules visualisation and optimisation software components that are used in enterprise applications.

The optimisation software allows customers to model business issues and objectives in order to then solve them using algorithms, while the visualisation technology presents the data in the form of detailed diagrams, maps, schedules, charts and dashboards.

IBM has released a new edition of its optimisation software for mathematical programming, ILOG CPLEX 12, which contains specialised connectors and interfaces to allow users to access the program from within Microsoft Excel, as well as other software tools such as MATLAB and Python.

CPLEX 12 now also solves challenging Mixed Integer Programming (MIP) models twice as fast as the previous version, IBM said.

Nancy Pearson, vice president of business process management at IBM, said: “In the face of intense global competition, business success can be defined by the ability to quickly assess complex problems, determine potential outcomes and then make fast, intelligent, informed decisions.

“ILOG products provide professionals from a range of industries with the critical tools they need to adapt to rapidly changing market conditions, conserve resources and achieve their business objectives."

IBM has also added to the portfolio with new products, such as a CP Optimizer, which will provide developers with models to tackle their organisation’s operational planning and scheduling problems.

An OPL-CPLEX Developer Edition and Analyst Studio will allow developers to build models for planning and scheduling applications.

IBM has additionally released an updated version of the ILOG Decision Manager Enterprise 3.3, which lets IT groups build planning and scheduling applications.