A ‘Social Business’ real life scenario
● Business challenge:
─ A transnational company has different business lines and functional groups working around the world with different work hours, languages and operating model. The company has one common goal and vision, but has to allow for quick and efficient collaboration of their employees to meet that common goal. Collaboration and social tools were necessary as the company set an objective to become a social business.
● Solution:
─ The company performed an assessment of the industry’s leading social and collaboration tools and chose IBM’s Social Business platform (IBM Lotus Quickr, IBM Connections and IBM Sametime). These tools allowed Web conferencing, wiki, blogs, chat, team calendars, forums, white pages and activity management tools. Working closely with IBM’s software and services team, the company was able to implement he IBM solution in phases and company-wide in the estimated timeframe.
● Benefits:
─ Company employees have new collaboration tools and have improved their communication methods
─ Work can now occur of a 24/7 basis creating more productivity and revenue
─ Employees have the ability to search for knowledge and experts all over the company
─ There is a new sense of spirit in the company with improved working relationships and new friendships
Being a Social Business
● Have you caught on to the Social wave – Facebook, Twitter, etc? The business world may be ahead of you since the world demands more collaboration. Corporations have to stay connected economically, socially and technically to keep pace in this competitive market. Consumers are transforming the way they interact and methods of purchasing goods and services. Technology has evolved from using the Mainframe to the PC then Internet and now Social. With the emergence of ‘Social’, certain businesses are being deemed ‘A Social Business’. This relates to companies that are:
─ Engaged – Connecting people-whether customers, partners or employees-as networks to drive innovation
─ Transparent – Removing unnecessary boundaries to allow people and culture to reflect the company’s brand and value
─ Nimble – Leveraging these networks to speed up business, gain real-time insight and make quicker and better decisions
─ Nurtures networks of people to create business value
─ Embraces new technologies and operational models to improve business outcomes
● There are many reasons for becoming a Social Business
─ Many companies will focus more on “getting close to the customer” over the next 5 years
─ Standout organizations are more likely to allow their people to use social and collaborative tools
─ People are using social media in all facets of their lives including work
─ Consumers are driving the conversations that define brands
─ Companies are crowd-sourcing ideas to bring new products and solutions to market
● The key drivers for this new style of business and collaboration are:
─ Get closer to my customer and differentiate versus competition
─ Globalization
─ Cost efficiencies
─ Influence of new generations of workers, customers and partners
The force behind being a Social Business
● Unified Communications is what powers a Social Business
─ New social models are changing the way businesses operate
─ But social interactions tend to be asynchronous
─ Unified Communication makes it possible assemble the team, regardless of location and make a decision
● IBM’s Unified Communications and Collaboration vision is:
─ The deep integration of presence, instant messaging, email, unified messaging, telephony, web, audio and video conferencing.
─ Unified communications offers the ability to improve how individuals, groups and companies interact and perform tasks.
─ The largest single value of unified communications lies in its ability to reduce “human latency” in business processes.
● IBM’s Sametime 8.5 provides the robustness and industry knowledge to enable a Social Business
─ Open, Extensible, Scalable and Security Rich
─ Promotes adoption and has a solid ROI
─ Allows for chat, video and on-line meetings
─ Persistent chat rooms, Instant screen share, broadcast tools
─ Enhanced mobility features (Blackberry, Android, iPhone)
─ Integrated with a company’s email platform
The Social Business value proposition
● There are several benefits of being a Social Business and using IBM’s Sametime 8.5 tools:
─ Primarily due to cost savings
─ Reduces Communications and Travel Costs
─ Reduces need for office space
─ Helps people be more productive
─ Improves responsiveness
─ Speeds decision making and problem resolution
─ Improves quality of answers and decisions
─ Accelerates business processes
─ Helps build a high performance organization
─ Facilitates collaboration & innovation
─ Improves interaction and teaming and fosters community
