The 2013 IBM Exceptional Web Experience Conference takes place from 5/20 to 5/23 and was kicked off by a Larry Bowden, Vice President, Portals and Digital Experience Software, with a overview of the progression of portals from 2001 to 2013. The session focused on IBM’s digital experience direction and how various technologies and concepts are converging today. Mobile, content and rich media, analytics, social, integration and cloud are at the heart of this of convergence. A few of the key points made are:
- IBM Project Northstar is becoming Next Generation Northstar. This includes adding rich content media management, cloud and marketing management to the existing Project Northstar strategy.
- Rich media is growing fast and this is driving the need for rich content management. By 2014 90% of web trafic will be video.
- Key investment directions are being made in Enterprise marketing management, smarter workforce, smarter commerce and digital experience updates. These include new products (such as IBM Web Content Manager Rich Media Edition and IBM Connections Content Manager,) acquisitions (such as Kenaxa for Smarter Workforce,) and IBM Web Content Manager for WebSphere Commerce supporting the Smarter Commerce initiative.
- Partnership activities include Clay Tablet for content translation management and Brightcove for online video.
The session was the turned over to Gary Dolsen, Director, Portal & Digital Experience Software. The LOB and IT partnership is more important than ever. Project success is being measured by business metrics more than ever.
There are a few updates released in 2013 to the suites: IBM Customer Experience Suite V8 and IBM Employee Experience Suite V8: The V8 update includes:
- Digital Asset Management capabilities.
- Forms Experience Builder.
- Connections 4.5 Portlets.
- Kenexa & Smarter Workforce.
- Areas of focused investment in Digital Experience Software are being made around end users, business users and IT.
Other key topics included:
- Social – IBM Connections 4.5 portlet integration is available.
- Content – Key investments, especially in digital marketing.
- Analytic and Optimization – In place real-time analytic.
- Integration – Continued effort to integrate internal and external products, content and applications both in house and in the cloud.
- Mobile – High investment, everything that is released going forward supports mobility.
The session then transitioned to some demonstrations of the Customer Experience Suite, Employee Experience Suite and then transitioned to a case study of how Cigna has delivered innovative customer experiences using IBM technology and wrapped up with a summary by Larry Bowden.
