Abstract: Potential customer loss is identified under circumstances where structured data may be ineffective. Game theory analytics of customer loss enable the construction of a parameter list to be screened. Concepts are associated with the parameters and their ranges. Keywords associated with the concepts are mined by an extraction engine to identify contact records of customers at risk of loss. Appropriate customized loss mitigation and customer retention strategies can be implemented.

Abstract: A method, apparatus, and computer program product for managing communications between a plurality of applications are presented. A determination is made as to whether an address in a message is a prior address for a second application in the plurality of applications in response to receiving a message from a first application in the plurality of applications. The message is sent onto a virtual network configured to handle prior addresses for the plurality of applications in response to the address in the message being the prior address for the second application being located on another virtual machine from the first application.

Abstract: A virtual machine is migrated between a source cloud and a destination cloud. A temporary storage is mounted to a partition management firmware of the source cloud and to a partition management firmware of the destination cloud. A first storage location migration migrates the virtual machine from the source cloud to the at least one temporary storage. A second storage location migration migrates the virtual machine from the at least one temporary storage to final destination storage of the destination cloud. The temporary storage is then unmounted from the partition management firmware of the source cloud and from the partition management firmware of the destination cloud.

Abstract: A method and system for achieving time-awareness in the highly available, fault-tolerant execution of components in a distributed computing system, without requiring the writer of these components to explicitly write code (such as entity beans or database transactions) to make component state persistent. It is achieved by converting the intrinsically non-deterministic behavior of the distributed system to a deterministic behavior, thus enabling state recovery to be achieved by advantageously efficient checkpoint-replay techniques. The system is deterministic by repeating the execution of the receiving component by processing the messages in the same order as their associated timestamps and time-aware by allowing adjustment of message execution based on time.

Abstract: Analyzing an audio interaction is provided. At least one change in an emotion of a speaker in an audio interaction and at least one aspect of the audio interaction are identified. The at least one change in an emotion is analyzed in conjunction with the at least one aspect to determine a relationship between the at least one change in an emotion and the at least one aspect, and a result of the analysis is provided.

Abstract: Estimating best time to contact a customer may include estimating a statistical model which computes a score for determining a successful contact with the customer for the time period based on a first set of historical customer contact data. A second set of historical customer contact data associated with at least one customer may be received and the score of a successful contact may be provided for the customer based on the second set of historical data and the estimated statistical model.

Abstract: Controlling live migration of a running application between a source machine and a target machine is provided. At least one application characteristic and at least one network characteristic are obtained. An objective function that defines a cost to migrate from the source machine to the target machine as a function such as a weighted combination of at least one cost property is obtained. The objective function is optimized using the at least one application characteristic and the at least one network characteristic to determine a policy specifying when to switch execution of the running application from the source machine to the target machine. Live migration of the application from the source machine is controlled to send pages from the source machine to the target machine in accordance with the policy, and to switch the execution of the application from the source machine to the target machine at a state specified by the policy.

Abstract: A service-level specification for information technology services is obtained from a user. The service-level specification is mapped into an information technology specific deployment plan. Information technology specific resources are deployed in accordance with the information technology specific deployment plan to provide the information technology services.

Abstract: Systems and methods are provided for forecasting event dates. In one method, one or more defined process events are identified. For one event, a duration distribution between two dates is estimated dynamically. The first date may be the start date of the event and the second date may be the end date of the last event in the process. The estimated duration distribution is used for generating one or more modeling parameters used for forecasting.

Abstract: A method, data processing system, and computer program product for managing communications sent to a plurality of customers are presented. A set of features of a customer in the plurality of customers and a plurality of channels for communicating with the customer are identified. A number of times to test the plurality of channels is identified based on a number of customers in the plurality of customers. A weighting for the set of features of the customer is identified from results of testing a channel in the plurality of channels. The weighting is identified in response to determining that the plurality of channels have been tested the number of times. A probability of success in using the channel to communicate with the customer is identified based on the weighting and the set of features. A determination is made whether to use the channel to communicate with the customer based on the probability.

Abstract: Exemplary embodiments of this invention provide a method that includes estimating an empirical distribution of a metric for a company. The method includes estimating a distribution of the metric for a plurality of companies. The method further includes determining whether the company is an outlier, based on the empirical distribution of the metric for the company and the distribution of the metric for the plurality of companies, and generating at least one recommendation based determining whether the company is an outlier.

Abstract: A system, program product, and method are provided for copying a virtual machine image. An image library comprising a plurality of system images is provided by a target data processing system. A source image selection is received at the target data processing system. A given image from the image library is selected by the target system based on the received source image. The selected given image is transformed into a copy of the virtual machine image by receiving blocks from a source system that are part of the virtual machine image but not a part of the selected given image, such that only the blocks missing from the selected given image are transferred from the source system to the target system in order to form the copy of the virtual machine image. The source image is preferably a virtual data processing system image.

Abstract: A method, apparatus, and computer program product for managing communications between a plurality of applications are presented. A determination is made as to whether an address in a message is a prior address for a second application in the plurality of applications in response to receiving a message from a first application in the plurality of applications. The message is sent onto a virtual network configured to handle prior addresses for the plurality of applications in response to the address in the message being the prior address for the second application being located on another virtual machine from the first application.

Abstract: A computer implemented method, a data processing system, and a computer readable storage medium having a computer program product encoded thereon for determining a probability of an action being performed by a party at risk of performing the action. Input information that is pertinent to determining whether the party is at risk of performing the action is received by a data processing system. The data processing system forms an incentive structure for the party based on the received input information, the incentive structure comprising a probability of the party performing the action, and determines an optimal probability of the party performing the action based on the formed incentive structure.

Abstract: Computer implemented method, data processing system, and computer readable storage medium having computer program product encoded thereon for identifying a contact mode for contacting parties to maximize a probability of achieving a desired outcome. A plurality of parties are divided into a plurality of clusters of parties according to a list of attributes that are statistically significant with respect to achieving a desired outcome. A subset of parties from each cluster of parties of the plurality of clusters of parties are selected, and parties in each subset of parties are contacted by different ones of a plurality of contact modes. A result of the contacting for each subset of parties is analyzed to identify a contact mode of the plurality of contact modes for contacting the parties in each cluster of the plurality of clusters that maximizes a probability of achieving the desired outcome.

Abstract: A system is provided for use by a caller placing a call with a calling device over a communications network linking a plurality of call destinations. The system includes a call-destination information source containing one or more call-destination characteristics associated one or more call destinations. The system further includes a processing unit communicatively linked to the call-destination information source. The processing unit generates one or more call-destination character indicators based on the one or more call-destination characteristics. A call-destination character indicator is generated in response to the system receiving call-destination identifier that identifies a particular call destination.

Abstract: The invention provides a method, system, and program product for identifying an individual using biometric data based on the individual's brain. In one embodiment, the invention includes constructing a biometric signature based on at least one of: features within a two-dimensional scan of the individual's brain and a difference in features between at least two two-dimensional scans of the individual's brain.

Abstract: System and method for partitioning a video into a series of semantic units where each semantic unit relates to a generally complete thematic topic. A computer implemented method for partitioning a video into a series of semantic units wherein each semantic unit relates to a theme or a topic, comprises dividing a video into a plurality of homogeneous segments, analyzing audio and visual content of the video, extracting a plurality of keywords from the speech content of each of the plurality of homogeneous segments of the video, and detecting and merging a plurality of groups of semantically related and temporally adjacent homogeneous segments into a series of semantic units in accordance with the results of both the audio and visual analysis and the keyword extraction. The present invention can be applied to generate important table-of-contents as well as index tables for videos to facilitate efficient video topic searching and browsing.

Abstract: Computer implemented method, system and computer usable program code for achieving transactional quality of service in a transactional object store system. A transaction is received from a client and is executed, wherein the transaction comprises reading a read-only derived object, or reading or writing another object, and ends with a decision to request committing the transaction or a decision to request aborting the transaction. Responsive to a decision to request committing the transaction, wherein the transaction comprises writing a publishing object, events are delivered to event stream processing queries, and are executed in parallel with executing of the transaction.

Abstract: A service-level specification for information technology services is obtained from a user. The service-level specification is mapped into an information technology specific deployment plan. Information technology specific resources are deployed in accordance with the information technology specific deployment plan to provide the information technology services.