Last week’s news of the IBM Hakkōda acquisition for an undisclosed sum is a move to bolster IBM’s AI and data transformation capabilities and speaks to the very real need to prioritize data and data foundations on the road to AI success. Hakkōda, a specialized consultancy firm focused on data and artificial intelligence services, is known for its agility and for being on the leading edge of the boundaries of data and AI, helping clients not only solve complex data challenges, but also helping with complex data modernization initiatives.
For IBM, this is a strategic move to further strengthen the company’s data transformation capabilities for AI-driven business operations, and for IBM Consulting customers, this acquisition adds expertise that is very much in demand.
Success With AI Hinges on Getting the Data Part of the Equation Right
As organizations the world over race to embrace AI, the biggest challenge they face is a lack of expertise in all things data. In a research study I did last spring for Starburst, The State of Data Management and Its Impact on AI Development, while respondents shared a strong desire to implement AI in the next year, significant challenges relating to organization data were a common theme.
Over half of our survey respondents shared that they were struggling with organization structure data for machine learning (52%), and unstructured data for retrieval augmented generation (50%). They were also challenged by data privacy and security concerns and often overwhelmed by the data volume they needed to manage. Real-time data access was identified as a critical component of success, yet data silos throughout organizations were cited as a major hurdle when it comes to getting to that real-time access needed. Data dispersed across various systems, clouds, and on-prem was a key challenge, and implementing strategies to tackle this was a significant focus.
Not surprisingly, our research indicated organizations understand the importance of data literacy and its impact on AI project success, with 90% of survey respondents sharing they believed enhanced data literacy would have a moderate (50%) to significant (40%) impact on AI project success
Source: State of Data Management Study, 2024
Key Aspects of the IBM Hakkōda Acquisition
IBM clearly understands the reality that success with AI implementation hinges on aligning data strategies and tactics with AI goals and the Hakkōda team brings deep expertise in data migration, modernization, and monetization. Moreover, Hakkōda’s deep expertise in financial services, the public sector, healthcare, and life sciences are all no doubt attractive to IBM, as we see the industry as a whole lean into developing industry vertical-specific solutions.
Hakkōda’s portfolio of generative AI tools designed to accelerate data modernization initiatives speak to the very real need for companies to move quickly to get arms around all things data and help IBM clients accelerate the implementation of AI features within ERP workflows.
Last but not least, with the enterprise intelligence services market projected to reach +$243 billion within the next three years (by 2028), this positions IBM nicely to capitalize on that expected market growth.
The Strategic Benefits of the IBM Hakkōda Alliance
The integration of Hakkōda’s capabilities with IBM Consulting will help accomplish some very pressing objectives for IBM Consulting clients. This includes:
The ability to help clients prepare their data infrastructure for AI apps — because success here is really all about the infrastructure.
- Providing data migration and transformation services, moving and modernizing data from legacy systems. Hakkōda’s ability to fast track modernization projects speaks to the need for speed on the AI front.
- Build data estates that are both comprehensive and optimized for speed and efficiency.
- Reduce time to value on the AI front for IBM clients.
See a theme here? Speed, optimization, efficiency, modernization. That’s what every organization seeks, and the IBM Hakkōda acquisition positions IBM nicely to deliver on that front.
Hakkōda’s global consultant base will fold into the IBM Consulting division. As both a Snowflake and AWS partner, Hakkōda’s capabilities are world-class—exactly what IBM customers expect.
This deal is one of several that IBM has made in recent months to shore up its capabilities on the AI and automation fronts, including the February acquisition of DataStax, a platform for building AI apps, and infrastructure and security automation vendor HashiCorp and it likely won’t be the last such deal we’ll see this year.
This post was originally published on LinkedIn.
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