IBM pushes 'social business'

IBM pushes 'social business' | GMA News Online | The Go-To Site for Filipinos EverywhereVideosPhotosRadio24 OrasSaksiSONAYouScoopPublic AffairsNews TVContact UsJob ClassifiedsBETA VERSIONApril 27, 2012 | 11:50pm PHL TimeGMA Network ?EntertainmentArtist CenterCommunityInternationalRadioFilmsRecordsKapuso FoundationCorporateHomeNewsUlat FilipinoSportsEconomySciTechPinoy AbroadShowbizLifestyleOpinionHumorGMA News OnlineSciTech » Technology IBM pushes 'social business'April 25, 2012 5:58pmCiting the rapid adoption of social networking in business, IBM is pushing efforts to use social business for organizations to gain a competitive advantage. IBM held a "Business Gets Social 2012" in Makati City to help local organizations develop and deepen such skills to accelerate business opportunities. “We Filipinos are inherently social. Being good-natured, good-humored, and witty are key to our being resilient.  And this is why we have taken to Social very naturally – and more importantly, we should harness and take advantage of these strengths by taking these same dynamics into business and making it work for us,” said Ferdinand Macatangay, Channels Manager of IBM Philippines' Software Group. But he said social business goes beyond doing marketing on Facebook or Twitter. Rather, he said it is "taking on social dynamics and applying them on business processes - like HR, Marketing, and Compliance." "To become a Social Business, companies are encouraged to adopt a Social Business Agenda - which encompasses having a digital strategy, having policies in place for risk and reputation management and gleaning insight by use of social analytics,” he said. IBM Asia Pacific Messaging & Collaboration Business Unit Executive Chris Haylock added dramatic shifts are taking place as the global network of people becomes more instrumented, interconnected and intelligent. "The ways in which people interact, relationships form, decisions are made, work is accomplished and goods are purchased are fundamentally changing,” said Haylock. IBM, as the largest consumer of social technologies, is a case study for this transformation into a social business. As a company, IBM uses social networking to develop products and services, enable sellers to find and stay connected with clients, train the next generation of leaders, and build awareness of Smarter Planet among clients, influencers and other communities. For 15 years, IBM said its employees have used social software to foster collaboration among our dispersed 400,000 person team, "long before Generation Y became fixated with social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace." It noted that in 1997, it recommended that its employees get out onto the Internet, at a time when many companies were seeking to restrict their employees’ Internet access. In 2005, the company made a strategic decision to embrace the blogosphere and to encourage IBMers to participate. In 2007, IBM launched Lotus Conenctions, its own social networking software for the enterprise. In early 2008, IBM introduced social computing guidelines to encompass virtual worlds and sharing of rich media. Also in 2008, it opened its IBM Center for Social Software to help IBM's global network of Researchers collaborate with corporate residents, university students and faculty, creating the industry's premier incubator for the research, development and testing of social software that is "fit for business." Social media morphing IBM said social media may be morphing into a key requirement for "social business," including:organizational productivity and culture changeengaging with diverse constituencies of clients and expertsspurring revenue growth and innovation for our global workforce.    It presently has one of the largest corporate-wide communities on social media sites. On the other hand, IBM said its social media activity dates back to the 1970s when its mainframe programmers started online discussion forums on the System 370 consoles. Today, IBM views itself as one of the most prolific users of social networking in the industry.      Some examples of IBM’s internal social media footprint today include;  17,000 individual blogs 1 million daily page views of internal wikis, internal information storing websites 400,000 employee profiles on IBM Connections, IBM's initial social networking initiative that alllows employees to share status updates, collaborate on wikis, blogs and activity, share files. 15,000,000 downloads of employee-generated videos/podcasts  In the first half of 2010, IBM employees participated in more than 126 million minutes of LotusLive meetings, IBM's software for conducting online meetings.  More than 400,000 Sametime instant messaging users send 40 to 50 million instant messages per day. "Our social business initiatives have had a profound impact on IBM's business processes and transformation," it added. Among its initatives are: Online Jams: IBM has conducted 50 Jams over the past 10 years. In 2003, IBM held its ValuesJam to develop IBM values. In 2006, its InnovationJam identified business opportunities that preceded Smarter Planet agenda.  IBM Legal conducted LawJam in 2007 in support of global functional transformation.  Human Resources: social media was used for tech-enabled recruiting, employee education, sales training and leadership development.    Leadership Development from an employee's first day on the job. Also, IBM's recent study of 700 Global Chief Human Resource Officers found that financial outperformers are 57 percent more likely than underperformers to use collaborative and social networking tools to enable global teams to work more effectively together and 21 percent of companies have recently increased the amount they invest in the collaboration tools and analytics despite the economic downturn. For global collaboration and development, IBM's Generation Open  was built around social business tools, processes and management systems. GenO creates instant communities of global teams to collaborate on projects and products. Project managers, team leaders, consultants and IT architects post projects; people who are in-between assignments or have free time opt into these projects to add their talents and expand their skills. "Today, more than 130 communities of IBM professionals around the globe are collaborating virtually.   This has reduced the time it would have taken to complete projects by 30 percent, increased re-use of 'software assets' by 50 percent, and cut component costs by 33 percent," it said. IBM also said it is helping small and medium businesses embrace social media. "Savvy businesses know that creating an online presence can heighten awareness and ultimately bring in new business. What’s often ignored, however, is that without a clear plan and direction in place before a company begins using social media, it can easily fail," it said. It said it has programs to help non-profits and our business partners, who at 100,000 strong are traditionally small businesses, embrace social media. Citing an example, it said it hosts full day workshops, grants, provides toolkits and incentives and free education for business partners on establishing and rolling out effective social media business plans. — TJD, GMA NewsWe welcome healthy discussions and friendly debate! Please click Flag to alert us of a comment that may be abusive or threatening. 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