IBM Cloud Advances Business in the SEE Region

Companies in South East Europe are increasingly embracing cloud technologies - private cloud solutions prevail, however almost half of surveyed companies have chosen hybrid multi-cloud solutions. Clients from across almost every industry in South East Europe are rapidly adopting cloud as a platform for digital transformation and new business value.

According to a recent survey by the research company IDC (*Perception and Use of Cloud Computing & Artificial Intelligence in the Adriatic Region), cloud computing technologies are consistently being adopted in the SEE region as companies seek to accelerate their digital transformation. Financial and telecommunications industries are on the lead. For example, up to 20 percent of the companies across the Adriatic region are planning to implement a cloud solution in the next 12 months. Currently, the most popular cloud is the private one, but as markets transition from private to public cloud platforms, a third of the surveyed companies said they are on the way to implement some form of public cloud in the coming year. Moreover, 44 percent of the companies have opted for hybrid multi-cloud solutions.

With $ 17.7B billion in annual cloud revenue, IBM is the global leader in enterprise cloud with a platform designed to meet the evolving needs of businesses no matter where they are on their cloud journey. Clients are increasingly seeking hybrid cloud environments that offer cutting edge tools including AI, analytics, IoT and blockchain to maximize their benefits. IBM Cloud is tuned for the cognitive and data demands that are driving true differentiation in today’s enterprise. IBM’s private, public and hybrid offerings provide the global scale businesses need to support innovation across industries.

In fact, IBM just announced a major expansion of its cloud capabilities with plans to launch new availability zones for the IBM Cloud across North America, Europe and Asia- Pacific. IBM Cloud continues to build out its cloud footprint with 18 new availability zones in high demand centers in Europe (Germany and UK), Asia-Pacific (Tokyo and Sydney), and North America (Washington, DC and Dallas). While IBM Cloud already operates in 60 locations, it now has even more capacity and capability in these key centers.

Many of SEE companies have chosen IBM Cloud for their critical workloads. For example, KIBS (Macedonia), ActivTrades (Bulgaria), Circeo (Hungary), Croatian Telecom (Croatia), The Atlantic Group (Croatia), The Zavarovalnica Triglav (Slovenia) and CEC Bank (Romania).

• Klirinski Interbankarski Sistemi AD Skopje (KIBS), a Macedonia-based payment system operator owned by 12 banks, has adopted IBM Cloud Private to help meet regulatory, security and availability standards while accelerating the development of digital services.
• ActivTrades, one of the leading UK online stock broker firms with over 50,000 customers providing services in Forex and Contact for Difference. By migrating to IBM Cloud, the Bulgarian branch of ActivTrades was enabled with quick access to the latest accounts status, stock prices, and other features that enable the clients to better manage their financial portfolios.
• A Hungarian fintech Circeo taps IBM Cloud to expand its loan processing capacity to support its overall growth and market expansion to multinational customers. This way, Circeo will be able to provide faster, simpler and better licensing options in highly flexible operating environment. As stated by Matthieu Job, CEO of Circeo: The efficiencies that we received from IBM Cloud has boosted our processing capabilities and makes it possible for us to roll-out our solution for a client much quicker. It has allowed us to expand existing client portfolios and onboard new clients from outside of Hungary into production much faster than ever before.
• Hrvatski Telecom (HT), the leading provider of telecommunications services in Croatia, teamed up with IBM to modernize and advance the company’s customer experience. HT selected IBM Netcool Operations Insight to provide advanced user experience by simplifying network management for rapid problem resolution.
• Atlantic Grupa, one of the largest regional food and beverages companies in Croatia selected IBM Cloud-based data discovery services to support their business. Atlantic Grupa uses Watson Analytics to perform data discovery in the area of Human Resources, Sales and Logistics.
• In addition, the leading insurance-financial group in Slovenia, the Zavarovalnica Triglav, uses IBM Watson Customer Experience Analytics on the IBM Cloud to make smarter and faster marketing decisions. This provides Triglav with an end-to-end view of the customer experience to optimize journeys, boost conversations and maximize the lifetime of customer value.
• One of the largest Romanian banks, CEC Bank, has selected IBM Cloud API Connect to meet the EU and local regulatory requirements. IBM’s solution met CEC’s need to scale, securely expose and manage core banking services in order to expand the reach of their business.

These and other enterprises across a range of industries in SEE are moving to the cloud to tap the powerful new technologies to help them innovate, and automate businesses processes and enable more engaging client experiences.

Find out more how cloud technologies and AI are driving innovation for enterprises in the South East Europe at our third annual Think South East Europe conference in Bled, Slovenia, at November 6-7, 2018. At Think you can also learn how IBM, with its partners and clients, intelligently changes the world. Use this opportunity to meet face to face with IBM visionaries and researchers and peers from your region’s largest companies, as well as key influencers.