This is another in a series of my notes on Lotusphere 2011. I am very pleased to be back after ten years. I first came to co-present a Lotus Notes based KM project with my client. Now I return as a blogger. You can see the sunset from my balcony on the left. IBM provided a session for bloggers featuring IBM business partners who are helping their customers become social businesses and served sushi and sashimi whish was much appreciated. IBM defines social business as “the world of possibility that occurs when all of the energy and opportunities that have been generated around consumer-side models such as Facebook and Twitter are focused, and brought to bear on business challenges.”
IBM’s business partners contribute nearly one-third of IBM’s revenue and more than half of the company’s SMB business. In 2011, IBM will invest over $2 billion towards the success of its business partners with a focus on providing valuable education to help partners develop the skills they need to add greater value and meet customer needs.
Ed Brill, Director of Messaging and Collaboration hosted the event. I interviewed Ed on the phone in 2004 for book on business blogging so it was nice to meet him in person. He is currently responsible for the product and market strategy for the Lotus Notes and Lotus Domino product family — market-leading collaborative software; LotusLive Notes; Lotus Symphony; Lotus Protector; and other related Lotus-branded software solutions. Participants included: Jim Engelking, Genus Technologies; Jebb Dykstra, Meetrix Communications; Robert Al-Jaar, Silanis: and Flavien Boucher, Global Lead IBM Cloud collaboration.
Jim Engelking is Director of Business Development and Marketing for Genus Technologies, a US-based business partner specializing in integration between FileNet Content Manger, FileNet BPM, IBM Content Manager and IBM Lotus Software. The firm’s rich media management solution, Media Upshot™, which provides tight services-based integration between IBM ECM repositories and Lotus Connections, Lotus WCM and WebSphere Portal, was recently awarded the 2010 IBM Beacon Award for Outstanding Innovative Collaboration Solution. They make it easier for experts or others to both create and then publish video into such environments as Lotus Cionnections.
Jebb Dykstra is the CEO for Meetrix Communications. Meetrix has created an open standards-based Sametime platform that integrates seamlessly with third party vendors up in the cloud, including integrations with Broadsoft for VoIP/IP Telephony and Polycom. The company has created a patent-protected unified communications and collaboration platform that enables secure, scalable IP-based communications. This platform delivers hybrid, premises-based solutions to enterprise customers, while at the same time enabling commercial hosting of cloud-based unified communications solutions. Meetrix supports the migration of unified communications solutions from their traditional premises-based deployment to centralized cloud environments.
I spoke with Jebb about how the addition of audio and video to SameTime makes it a more robust competitor to webinar services such as WebEx because of the ability to link a more robust set of services that SameTime connects to.
Robert Al-Jaar, is responsible for the Silanis product portfolio. Silanis’ e-SignLive services combines electronic signatures with online collaboration and business networking, available for a monthly subscription fee as part of the IBM LotusLive service. These cloud-based services enable you to electronically sign business deals, legal contracts and other documents over the web, while harnessing the power of online collaboration and social networking during the negotiation and pre-signing process.
I like e-signature as it takes out the last vestige of the analog world from the business processes. Robert made the important point that they discovered that the relationship between them and their customers was not nearly as important as the relationship between their customers and the customers of their customers. They have focused on this. Robert said that they have been integrated into a number of bank portals to support transactions
Flavien Boucher is the Global Lead IBM Cloud collaboration and is responsible for all of Sogeti’s collaboration offerings with IBM technologies. Sogeti is a provider of professional technology services, specializing in Application Management, Infrastructure Management, High-Tech Engineering and Testing. Sogeti is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Cap Gemini S.A., listed on the Paris Stock Exchange. Sogeti uses Connections throughout its own business.
I was also interested to learn that Facebook is the medium of choice for many real estate agencies as they do recruiting through this means.
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