FedEx jumps on the "smart" wagon with a new web-based service.

Shipping gets smart, says CIO Carter. Photo: FedEx

FedEx Corp. (FDX) today is announcing a sensor-enabled device that can wirelessly feed real-time data about a package's whereabouts, condition and other metrics to the Internet.

The service, called SenseAware, will launch this spring. Its initial target markets are the health-care and life-sciences businesses, industries that often need to know the precise location of the products (drugs, test results, samples) they ship.

The new device, when attached to a parcel, contains sensors that can provide temperature readings, data on whether a shipment has been opened or exposed to light, and precise data about a package's location.

"We think there’s an emergence of personalized medicine that has the highest levels of consequences," says Rob Carter, CIO of FedEx. Many health and life sciences items "have journeys that they have to make, and there are time constraints."

But FedEx says the new service will allow shippers and recipients to do more than merely track a package and its condition. The platform will help customers compile and aggregate data about shipments that will help them monitor quality or make better decisions about how to deploy their resources. More

Live from New York, it's Sam Palmisano.

Palmisano is spending almost two days talking about smart stuff. Photo: IBM

The business strategy made possible by $50 billion in acquisitions, hundreds of millions on marketing, and various forms of ecological disaster, is taking the show on the road–to Manhattan's Lincoln Center.

For the next day and a half, IBM's (IBM) Smarter Planet initiative will occupy New York City's Lincoln Center in the form of a conference on developing smarter cities. IBM CEO Sam Palmisano and Mayor Michael Bloomberg will kick off the event this afternoon with a discussion about the steps New York City has taken to employ a combination of data-gathering and analytics software to reduce crime, minimize risk for firefighters, and monitor water conditions.

The remainder of the sweeping agenda will cover everything form education, healthcare, energy, and transportation, to government services. Weighing in on such heady topics will be political heavyweights–including the governors of Vermont and Georgia as well as the mayors of Atlanta, Charlotte, Phoenix, and San Jose.  Business leaders, including the chairs and CEOs of ABB, Mayo Clinic, National Football League, and Verizon Communications (VZ), among many others, will offer their perspectives. More