November 9 (SeeNews) - Gobal tech giant IBM said several startups in Southeast Europe, including Serbian blockchain-based digital identity provider Blinking, Slovenian developer and manufacturer of in-wheel electric propulsion systems Elaphe, and Croatia's Careesma, which has built a virtual assistant, have turned to the IBM Cloud for AI, blockchain and Internet of Things technologies.
"Startups and enterprise companies alike find value in IBM's open approach to cloud computing which, coupled with our deep industry expertise, provides the flexibility and services they need as they grow and transform," Michael Paier, IBM Southeast Europe general manager, said in a statement on Thursday.
"By choosing IBM Cloud, organisations are able to do much more than just cut costs. By tapping exciting cloud-based services like Artificial Intelligence (AI), blockchain and Internet of Things (IoT), they are able to innovate new business models and develop new services on the fly that help them differentiate from the competition," Paier added.
Blinking is a blockchain-based digital ID solution provider that gives users control over their data, using Hyperledger Fabric on the IBM Cloud. Individuals create their own digital identity with a Blinking ID and then authenticate themselves using a variety of techniques including password, facial recognition and fingerprint scanning. With the service, individuals can authorize or revoke access to third-parties each time they are required to verify their identity. Using IBM Cloud Private, Blinking is piloting a Know Your Customer service with five Serbian banks.
Careesma has built a virtual assistant called Smarty that simplifies student-facing services at the Zagreb School of Economic and Management. The system can rapidly respond to questions from students on a 24/7 basis regardless of where they are located. Smarty is based on IBM Watson Assistant, a service on the IBM Cloud which uses machine learning to help organizations build solutions that understand natural-language and respond to customers in a way that simulates a conversation between humans.
Elaphe selected IBM Cloud to access IBM's IoT technologies to help advance the safety of next generation autonomous and connected electric and hybrid vehicles. With the IBM cloud, Elaphe is able to analyze real-time information about driving conditions and vehicle performance to generate valuable insight that can aid the development and operation of vehicles using the company's in-wheel powertrain systems.
With $19 billion (16.75 billion euro) in annual cloud revenue, IBM is the global leader in enterprise cloud with a platform designed to meet the evolving needs of business and society. Moving past productivity and cost improvements, the IBM Cloud is tuned for the AI 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.
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