Doing More With Less

IBM and CEMEX Shift wins Forrester’s Groundswell Award for 2010! #LotusKnows #e2conf this is how to do it...

Brian M O’Curran  November 3 2010 03:39:09 PM

I got this good news from my friend Bilal Jaffery, Social Media & Competitive Marketing Leader at IBM.  This kind of announcement can be seen many ways.  I look at something like this and think to myself, how many of my customers have situations where they want to engage with their customers, build their brand, gain or further customer intimacy and build a community along the way.  I can't think of a going concern that doesn't want to do those things.  All that - AND - save $100 million in the process - not a bad days work.  

Collaboration is important.  Business success is now increasingly determined by people and how they connect, engage, and relate to others to create value.

1. Standout organizations are transforming themselves into social businesses that capitalize on trusted relationships among customers, partners and employees.
2. IBM's Social Collaboration platform provides the capabilities that enable organizations to cultivate those relationships, when and where they are needed, enabling them to deliver people-centric web and work experiences.
3. IBM is the trusted partner to help you become a Social Business. We combine our market leading social platform, deep analytical capabilities and the expertise to set-up, secure, comply, and govern the cultural shift of your business model to achieve tangible business outcomes.

Here's a perfect example:

On Oct 29th, Forrester honored 16 winners for excellence in the use of social technologies to advance an organizational or business goal. The 4th annual Forrester Groundswell Awards event supports and recognizes the best in collaboration, social, and innovation programs from all over the world. With nearly 130 entries, the competition was fierce.  Winners in the B2B and B2C divisions were chosen across a number of categories — Listening, Talking, Energizing, Supporting, Embracing, Social Impact, and Mobile Application — that represent the strategic goals that Forrester advises organizations to consider when using social technologies to interact with their customers.

I am extremely proud to announce that IBM developerWorks, powered by IBM Lotus Connections, won the prestigious Forrester Groundswell Award in the B2B Support category. Here's what Forrester had to say:

IBM developerWorks is a free community and social network for 8 million developers and IT professionals worldwide. It includes content and discussions on open standards, open source, and IBM technical resources in English, Chinese, Japanese, Russian, Korean, Vietnamese, Brazilian Portuguese, and Spanish. It includes 30,000 articles, forums that attract 1 million visitors a month, 400,000 active profiles, 800 bloggers, and 450 wikis. IBM saves $100 million annually from people who use this resource instead of contacting IBM support.

You can read the full press release from Forrester on BusinessWire here.  Additional details about IBM developerWorks' submission for the Groundswell Award can be found on IBM developerWorks.

Here's another example of a company using collaboration to drive business results...



CEMEX has implemented an internal collaborative environment...

When employees use Shift, ideas, suggestions, and recommendations bubble up across the network. Communities of interest are formed to tackle challenges common to their locations, markets and skill sets. Projects can move forward without the barriers posed by traditional hurdles, such as over-reliance on e-mail and live meetings. The payoff is lower cycle times, faster time to market, and real-time process improvement. Shift is ultimately designed for a new kind of workforce, one that is mobile, global, and empowered.

Their site goes on to say there's 100's of ideas that are being now acted upon.  How much money will be saved, how much quicker can products be introduced, how much fast can they react to customer opportunities with an infrastructure to support their business collaboration?  

There are also a couple excellent whitepapers posted, one is the business case - link  - and the other is the ROI review - link.  Both as excellent reads.  

Got questions?  Do you want to bring your business together internally?  Do you want to engage with your customers and have a meaningful relationship?  I can help you with that!  Give me a call.

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