New IBM Software Transforms the Digital Experience

ARMONK, N.Y., July 13, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced new software that helps CMOs and CIOs transform the digital experience for employees, customers and fans across a broad range of mobile devices. 

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The new software brings together the power of social networking, analytics and mobile computing to front office operations and externally to clients, allowing companies to create exceptional Web experiences. As a result, organizations can gain faster insight on customer buying patterns and consumer sentiment allowing them to more quickly reach and engage their audiences. 

As part of today's news, IBM is also announcing the completion of a digital transformation project with the All England Lawn Tennis Club. By visiting the new www.wimbledon.com from a variety of devices including the iPhone, iPad, Android and other tablets, fans can share information, interact with and connect to The Championships as if they were actually there seeing the plays in real-time.   

The website also integrates with a new online TV channel, Live @ Wimbledon, alongside IBM's real time match analysis tool, SlamTracker, bringing the most comprehensive digital experience to consumers.

"Working with IBM, we've created a new digital experience that aims to showcase the beauty of Wimbledon to our millions of fans around the world. It allows them to truly engage with the Wimbledon experience as never before," said Mick Desmond, Commercial Director at the All England Lawn Tennis Club.  "Visitors can follow the progress of their favorite players, view clips of live matches, view highlights of the day's action and get scores and results delivered in real-time.  It is an increasingly interactive and engaging online experience that draws fans, players and the media in ever-greater numbers."

With the growing number of mobile devices, social networks and social media tools on the rise, CMOs struggle to reach their audiences. At the same time, CIOs are struggling to provide access to company data on every type of device for a geographically distributed workforce. Given the business realignment between marketing and technology, the CMO and CIO can no longer afford to operate on separate stages. To succeed, they'll have to forge a shared agenda to deliver business results through innovation and efficiency, working together to streamline their technology needs. The convergence of social and mobile is prompting organizations to revisit decades-old website to create exceptional web experiences to reach and engage with their audiences.

Building on these increased demands, IBM is delivering a new Customer Experience Suite giving millions of marketing professionals the power to manage and integrate all types of data on their web sites and then analyze it for deeper insight into customer buying patterns and sentiment. Also delivered today, the new IBM Intranet Experience Suite pulls together company information and data, personalized content and news, and social media and analytics, enabling employees to connect, collaborate and access information at anytime, from anywhere.

At European industrial automation technology manufacturer Omron, employees are connecting knowledge and technical know-how through the organization's Intranet, helping to meet the specific needs of their customers. Omron delivers an exceptional Web experience to its 1,700 European employees through a single communication platform that embeds relevant social data into the daily workflow.  Omron has sped knowledge sharing across boundaries and between departments, enabling employees to support customers better and faster.

"The world is changing and is becoming increasingly connected and social," said Michel Min, Head of Strategic Communication & eMarketing, Omron Europe B.V. "Because of this, we know our clients are changing as well, which is why it's increasingly important to ensure our sales teams have the right information at the right time."

Analytics to Help Marketers Engage Audiences

From digital marketing and mobile commerce, to websites and social media, marketers are inundated -- often paralyzed -- by data amassed from consumers via searches, purchase histories, Facebook "likes" and comments on Twitter. Combine that with data about in-store traffic, conversations with call centers and updates from suppliers, today's marketers confront a daily deluge of data waiting to be sifted for nuggets of intelligence they can act upon to boost their business.

By 2017, the CMO will have greater control of the IT budget than the CIO, according to Gartner(1). Marketing budgets will grow 7-8 percent over the next 12 months, which is 2-3 times that of IT budgets. However, despite their growing reliance on technology and their soaring budgets, CMOs readily admit they lack the skills that IT requires.  According to the IBM CMO Study, while 79 percent of CMOs expect high levels of complexity in their job over the next five years, only 48 percent feel prepared to deal with it. 

Because of this, it's critical for CMOs to not only be aware of and monitor the social conversation, but to truly understand the sentiment and interact one-on-one with that customer. Taking it one step further would be to integrate these conversations directly into the organization's web site, providing one place to both network and shop.

The new IBM Customer Experience Suite provides CMOs with the power to manage and integrate all types of data on their web sites and then analyze it for deeper insight into customer buying patterns and sentiment. Web data has evolved today to include social media, videos, and web-based forms, as well as traditional enterprise data such as financial, customer and order data, and transactions.  The software suite pulls together IBM's market-leading enterprise portal, web content management, forms, and enterprise social networking software into a single view.

CIOs Creating Exceptional Intranets To Help Employees Gain Insight from Data Deluge

The new IBM software also helps business leaders extend their corporate intranet to a broad range of mobile devices in an effort to deepen employee collaboration and information sharing.

According to IDC, employees typically see up to a 30 percent increase in productivity using social tools internally to complete their work(2). With unlimited access to any type of information, consumers expect this same level of information availability in their professional lives, in order to work efficiently and reach business goals quickly.

The new IBM Intranet Experience software brings the power of social and analytics capabilities to CIOs and lines of business employees helping organizations innovate and evolve their internal operations and communications. The solution pulls together company information and data, personalized content and news, and social media and analytics, enabling employees to connect, collaborate and access information at anytime, from anywhere.

For example, IBM's new intranet platform provides HR executives and business leaders with software to help employees better engage across networks and business units, and access information from a variety of sources including external and internal news feeds.

Working with IBM and its partner Portico, Omron created an award-winning business intranet, called Ozone internally, helping to create a single-source communication and collaboration platform for all 1,700 European employees. The IBM Intranet Experience Suite integrates with external social media, including Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube, allowing employees to pick and choose which applications they want in their Intranet view. For example, a sales manager can leverage the Cognos software integration to ensure a clear view into monthly sales reports by region, as well as competitive background on new product updates and forecasts.

"It's essential to offer relevant social information in the right business context embedded in employee's daily workflow," continued Min. "By measuring, analyzing and filtering social information, and then injecting those insights to the right people at the right time, real business value can be generated by bringing technical know-how directly to the customer."

Omron has the ambition to connect employees worldwide, with its Ozone intranet being expanded into Asia today. Omron Europe is also testing mobile access for all popular devices including the iPad.

Sources:
(1) Gartner Webinar, By 2017 the CMO Will Spend More on IT Than the CIO, January 2012 
(2) IDC, Measuring for Success: Social Business ROI, Doc # DR2011_T7_ET, Mar 2011   

Media Contact:
Hanna Smigala
IBM Media Relations
1-720-342-5343
[email protected]

SOURCE IBM Corporation