IBM slowly increasing operations in Buffalo's Key Center

  • 2016-05-20
The Buffalo region is not known for its technology sector, but IBM is trying to change that with its Buffalo Innovation Center, in a temporary location in the Key Center.

The goal of the effort is to create 500 support and technology jobs in the city by Fall 2020.

The Innovation Center will be handling data—collecting it, organizing it, and analyzing it. The ultimate goal is for IBM to help its clients, in both the private and government sectors, use the data to become more efficient. This includes developing new products, and identifying those products and services that work, and those that do not.

The Innovation Center's executive director, Jay Goodwyn, said there is so much data available that companies “drown” in it. “The key is using that data effectively,” he says.
Data flows from such devices as barcode scanners to store loyalty cards, and it all adds up to mounds of information that can be hopelessly confusing. The center will work to make sense of it, in order to help its clients.

Since IBM will be looking for people for some entry-level positions, but will also need experienced data analysts, it might consider working with a brochure printing company to outline what precisely its job requirements are. It could then make the brochure available to employment professionals and college career counselors.