WASHINGTON, Oct 29 (Reuters) - International Business Machines Corp announced on Wednesday a partnership with Twitter to use data collected from tweets published around the world to help shape business decisions.

Twitter will work with IBM's data analytics offerings to trace customer sentiment about brands, help customers engage with products and help business leaders make decisions about the size of inventory and types of products launched.

"Data is the phenomenon of our time," said IBM chief executive Ginni Rometty.

"Twitter has created something extraordinary. When you bring this together with other kinds of information and leverage IBM's innovations in analytics, Watson and cloud, business decision making will never be the same," she said at a company event announcing the launch.

IBM shares were flat at $163.77 (Reporting by Marina Lopes; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)