Common Grounds Episode 1 featuring Rob Thomas and SAP's Scott Russell

Press release:

Consumers Defer Back to School Shopping in Favor of Purchases for the Home, IBM Reports

Social Channel Sales Up Nearly 70 Percent for Students Seeking Early Back to School Deals; Mobile Commerce Rises Again

Tab navigation

• News release
• Related XML feeds

• Contact(s) information

Armonk, N.Y. - 18 Sep 2012: While U.S. consumers shopped this July and August, they were not buying clothes and notebooks for their children but rather items for the home. According to findings from IBM (NYSE: IBM), the biggest retail gains this back to school shopping season came from home goods purchases which increased 30 percent in July and more than 25 percent in August over their respective months in 2012.

While experts speculate that consumers were holding off on back to school purchases to eye the choices of their peers, social networks appeared to drive purchases with social sales increasing 69.7 percent. The social influence was especially apparent when it came to apparel, where shoppers referred to online stores through social networks generated a 2.2 percent of all sales in August, an increase of more than 113 percent over 2011. 

Mobile commerce also continued to grow with sales increasing 15.7 percent in July and 15.4 percent in August. For home goods mobile sales reached a high of 20.1 percent. 

The growing influence of both mobile and social media further validates the need for a Smarter Commerce approach that helps retailers attain, understand, and act – in real-time – on deep insights about their customers in order to meet the unique needs of each. 

“Back-to-school season is proving to be a trigger event that spans across categories beyond just notebooks and backpacks. Retailers that are cashing in are those who understand how this trigger drives sales for home furnishings, as well as for apparel, and can target their inventory levels and promotions accordingly,” said Jill Puleri, Global Retail Leader, IBM. “This year's winners were the companies that successfully connected consumers with the right products, at the right price, and through the right medium–whether in a store, a mobile device or through popular social media channels." 

"When I speak to executives at the leading companies, one of the discussions that continues to come up most frequently is around harnessing big data and their efforts to try and understand how to take all the noise and word of mouth that is being generated and make sense of it," added W. "RP" Raghupathi, Professor of Information Systems, School of Business, at Fordham University. "Today, with so many consumers shopping and sharing their opinions online, we are seeing more and more retailers tap into the power of sophisticated analytics technology to help them react faster to evolving trends and customer needs." 

Part of IBM's Smarter Commerce initiative, the IBM Benchmark is the only analytics-based, peer-level benchmarking solution that measures online marketing results from the web sites of more than 500 leading U.S. retailers. 

The IBM benchmark reveals the following back to school trends that are critical to chief marketing officers (CMO), e-commerce leaders and customer service professionals: 

·   July and August Online Sales: Overall sales for July increased more than 11 percent over July 2011 while August slowed with sales up 3.9 percent compared to last year.

·   Social commerce: In July, shopper referrals to retailer sites from social networks generated 1.6 percent of all sales, an increase of 25.1 percent over last year. This trend continued in August reaching 1.8 percent, an increase of 69.7 percent over the previous year.

·   Mobile commerce: Mobile commerce remains strong with sales from mobile devices reaching 15.7 percent in July and 15.4 percent over the month of August. 

As for vertical industries the following categories experienced success over this timeframe: 

·   Home goods: In July online sales grew by just over 30 percent and 25.5 percent in August with consumers shifting some back to school purchases toward the home. Over this period mobile sales also thrived, reaching 19.1 percent in July and topping out at 20.1 percent in August.

·   Department stores: Online sales grew 22.1 percent in July and 28.7 percent in August. Over this period mobile sales were strong, hitting 19.2 percent in July and 18.9 percent in August.

·   Apparel stores: Online sales were up 9.2 percent in July and 9.8 percent in August. Over this period mobile sales reached 15.1 percent and 16.4 percent in August. Apparel stores also experienced strong social commerce with shoppers referred to their sites from social networks generating 1.4 percent of all sales in July and 2.2 percent in August, up more than 113 percent over 2011, more than any other industry.

·   Office Supplies/Electronics: Online sales grew by 6.3 percent in July while dropping by .92 percent in August. Mobile sales reached 5.7 percent in July remained steady in August a 5.9 percent. 

Part of IBM's Smarter Commerce initiative, the IBM Benchmark provides intelligence on how consumers are responding to the products and services being offered to them. With these insights CMOs and teams gain deeper insight into each customer which they can use to present personalized recommendations, promotions and other sales incentives across the wide variety of channels—including social networks and mobile devices. 

More information on Smarter Commerce can be found atwww.ibm.com/smarterplanet/us/en/smarter_commerce/overview/. 

Press release:

IBM and Ameriprise Financial Sign Strategic Agreement, Deepen Business Relationship

Tab navigation

• News release
• Related XML feeds

• Contact(s) information

ARMONK, N.Y. - 18 Sep 2012: IBM (NYSE: IBM) announced today a multi-year agreement with Ameriprise Financial, Inc. (NYSE: AMP) in which IBM will continue to support the company’s technology infrastructure with a clear focus on maintaining strong reliability and incorporating innovative new technologies.

Ameriprise Financial is a leading diversified financial services firm with $655 billion in assets under management and administration and top 10 positions of each of its core businesses of advisory, asset management, annuities and protection.

Delivered through IBM SmartCloud, IBM hosts Ameriprise PeopleSoft applications, managing both the application and infrastructure tiers for its human resource, financial management, supply chain, and customer relationship management functions. As a separate part of the agreement, IBM will ensure that the Ameriprise technology infrastructure keeps pace with evolving industry standards.

“We are focused on helping our clients achieve their goals while also providing our advisors with the tools and support to grow their practices," said Randy Kupper, chief information officer of Ameriprise Financial. “To that end, we have extended our relationship with IBM due to the world-class service experience and detailed knowledge they bring to our growing IT and business needs. We will work together to ensure all our constituents – clients, advisors, employees and shareholders – realize the full benefits of IBM’s broad product and service suite.”

“The new agreement further demonstrates IBM’s commitment to deliver high value services to Ameriprise and its clients and advisors to meet current and future business needs,” said Robert Zapfel, general manager, IBM Global Technology Services, North America. “We are partnering with Amerprise in our mutual focus on business outcomes by delivering industry-leading products and services including the IBM Cloud.”

IBM has been working with Ameriprise since 2006, and helped the company integrate its various IT systems supporting a broad portfolio of financial products. The new agreement builds on an existing relationship and includes significant enhancements to each of the core parts of the company’s technology infrastructure, including midrange, mainframe, storage and network.

Today's announcement with Ameriprise Financial is another example of how IBM teams with its clients to help them capitalize on new opportunities. By tightly weaving together business insights, and industry-leading software portfolio, world-class technology research and operations expertise, IBM is redefining what it means to design, deploy and deliver IT services on a global scale. As a result, IBM clients achieve faster return on investment while freeing up resources to focus on innovative projects.

About IBM
For more information about IBM, please visit: www.ibm.com

About Ameriprise Financial
For more information about Ameriprise Financial, or to find an Ameriprise financial advisor, visitameriprise.com.

Press release:

South Korea Ship Builder Tacks to IBM to Help Tame Big Data

Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering adopts IBM XIV storage solution to support core operations, including ERP, mail service, and help manage its more than 255TB of data

Tab navigation

• News release
• Related XML feeds

• Contact(s) information

Seoul, Korea - 17 Sep 2012: IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced that Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME), one of the world’s largest shipbuilding and offshore companies, has engaged IBM to build a stronger and more resilient IT environment around IBM’s advanced storage systems to help the company better manage its Big Data challenges.

DSME, based in the coastal city of Geoje-si on the southern tip of the Korean Peninsula, specializes in building diverse heavy marine equipment, including vessels, offshore platforms, submarines, and destroyers. At 4.3 million square meters, its shipyard is one of the largest and busiest on the planet and seemingly in constant motion with its 900-ton goliath crane moving vessels and equipment 24 hours a day. 

DSME has experienced dramatic growth since its founding in 1973 and has crafted an aggressive long-term roadmap for 2020 with a revamp of its IT infrastructure as a key aspect.

“With a vision of becoming the top general heavy industry group in the world, DSME aims to drive business transformation and innovation for continued growth,” said Seung uk So, Leader of the DSME IT Planning Group. “We look at IT as a strategic imperative for our business aspirations and wanted to work with a service provider that shares our vision and passion. Our engagement with IBM would help create a sophisticated storage environment, a critical infrastructure requirement in this age of data explosion.”

To do it, IBM will help DSME create a storage infrastructure built around four IBM XIV Gen3 high end disk storage systems and the IBM Storwize V7000 virtualized storage system. The systems will integrate with the DSME’s core business applications, including mail service, enterprise resource management (ERP) and database management, among others, and manage the company’s more than 255TB of data. The smarter computing solution will not only create an integrated storage environment for DMSE to better analyze and use data, but ensure readiness for disaster recovery. IBM was selected as the preferred partner over HP and EMC.

IBM XIV Gen3 is a multifunction high-end disk storage solution with an innovative architecture that offers exceptional performance and scalability. It also significantly reduces cost and complexity and enables improved performance to the application workload, such as virtualization, analysis, and cloud computing. Moreover, the system can optimize the storage performance of various applications, including database, email, online transaction processing, and ERP applications.  

“IBM is working with organizations across the world to help them build efficient IT environments and enhance operational efficiency,” said Hyungsuk Kim, IBM Korea Storage Business Director. “By establishing the XIV storage system, DSME will overcome existing storage performance limitations and enjoy the benefits of improved performance and cost reduction. We are excited to be able to contribute to DSME’s long term vision and growth plans.” 

IBM services clients and partners in the region from its branch office in the city of Busan, which was recently expanded to support increased local demand for its solutions and services. IBM is currently engaged in a major program of geographic expansion across Korea and other important growth markets including the opening of new branches and facilities, the recruitment of new staff and business partners and investment in training, marketing and citizenship programs. IBM currently has 12 branches in Korea in the cities of Seoul, Changwon, Incheon, Wonju, Suwon, Asan, Daejeon, Jeonju, Daegu, Busan, Gwanju and Jeju. 

About DSME

Started in 1973 at Okpo Bay, Geoje Island, has since grown into the world's premium shipbuilding and offshore contractor who is specialized in building various vessels, offshore platforms, drilling rigs, FPSO/FPUs, submarines, and destroyers. DSME's vessels are highly appreciated for their finest quality in the world's shipbuilding market where established major players in the world economy such as Europe and America compete.  

To learn more about DSME, please visit http://www.dsme.co.kr/epub/main/index.do.  

About IBM

To learn more about IBM, please visit www.ibm.com/storage and follow us on twitter @ibmstorage. 

To learn more about IBM Korea, please visit: www.ibm.com/kr

IBM Scientists First to Distinguish Individual Molecular Bonds

• Atomic force microscopy helps scientists to reveal the bond order and length of bonds within molecules
• Technique can be used to study future devices made from graphene

For details, click the link below:

http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/38856.wss

Press release:

IBM Helps Cities Worldwide Measure Public Social Sentiment on Critical Issues

IBM Social Sentiment Index: Analysis of Traffic in India’s Three Largest Cities Reveals What Citizens Feel is Impacting Congestion in Their City Most

Tab navigation

• News release
• Related XML feeds

• Contact(s) information
• Related resources

Armonk, N.Y. and New Delhi - 13 Sep 2012: Today at the IBM Smarter Cities Forum in New Delhi, India, IBM (NYSE: IBM) unveiled a new social sentiment capability based on sophisticated analytics technologies to help cities around the world better measure and understand public opinions on key city issues and services such as public transportation or education.

The company also unveiled findings from the latest IBM Social Sentiment Index on traffic, which looked at public sentiment across India’s largest cities -- Bangalore, New Delhi and Mumbai. Analysis of publically available social media showed that the worst congestion is primarily caused by accidents and bad weather (three out of four times) when looking at the three cities together. It also indicated some interesting variations between the cities analyzed. For example, social conversation in Mumbai about stress around traffic is about half as high as Bangalore and New Delhi; references to the impact of rush hour on congestion in New Delhi are between five and seven times more negative than in Bangalore and Mumbai. 

With a wealth of online content and public commentary on social channels such as Twitter and Facebook, city officials need new ways to measure positive, neutral and negative opinions shared by citizens regarding important city issues. IBM’s advanced analytics and natural language processing technologies used to analyze large volumes of public social media data in order to assess and understand citizen opinions are now available to city governments around the world via new capabilities delivered with the IBM Intelligent Operations Center (IOC) for Smarter Cities. The IOC – which combines IBM software and services to integrate city operations through a single dashboard view to help cities improve efficiency – is now augmented with social media analytics capabilities that will help city officials make more informed decisions by looking at unfiltered citizen attitudes and actions, distinguishing between sincerity and sarcasm and even predicting trends as they surface online. 

Combining the knowledge that population will rapidly increase in Bangalore, New Delhi and Mumbai in the coming years, with sentiment on commuters’ preferred mode of transportation, could help these cities more accurately plan for needed investments in transportation infrastructure and its potential impact. City officials could also gauge where public awareness campaigns need to be administered to shift commuters to different modes of transport in order to alleviate growing traffic congestion. 

The IBM Social Sentiment Index on transportation in India’s three largest cities surfaced several insights including: 

·     The top three factors impacting traffic congestion that citizens in each city talked about most online were diverse. Delhites chattered about public transportation, weather and the stress of commuting, while Bangaloreans show more concern for their overall driving experience, construction and parking issues, and Mumbaikars are talking about private transportation, accidents and pollution more often.  

·     Conversation in Bangalore around parking is viewed three times more negatively than in the other cities. 

·     Despite recent infrastructure improvements, less pollution and a solid public transit system, Delhites are experiencing a far higher amount of stress (50 percent) than those in Mumbai (29 percent) or Bangalore (34 percent). Most likely, this can be explained by an uptick in rallies and weather events this year, as well as the recent power outage. 

·     Surprisingly, sentiment on the topic of construction was relatively positive in Bangalore and New Delhi, and positive and negative sentiment on infrastructure in each was relatively even. Together, these may suggest that the transportation infrastructure improvements being made over the last two years in each city are beginning to positively impact citizens. 

·     Analysis shows that the relative negative sentiment for rush hour (35 percent) is one of the key drivers impacting traffic in New Delhi, which may explain why citizens talk about stress significantly more than commuters in Mumbai or Bangalore. 

By applying analytics capabilities to the area of social media sentiment, organizations are able to better understand public opinions, and city officials can gain additional insights in order to draw logical conclusions about where they should focus their attentions and resources. For example: 

·     Take Bangalore, the technology hub of India. Understanding that most commuters prefer private transportation despite negative sentiment around parking and construction may indicate that city officials should consider if it makes sense to advocate for more commuters to use mass transit and invest in infrastructure that will keep up with demand as more companies locate there. 

·     Since Dehlite’s indicate that public transportation is the preferred mode of transportation, city officials could use this insight to study which areas have high ridership and less road traffic and then implement similar actions in highly congested areas.  

·    In Mumbai, negative sentiment around traffic and weather at the peak of monsoon season (August) generated 5.5 times more chatter than in November. If the city could measure the fluctuation of public sentiment on these potential causes over time combined with specific weather data like rainfall or temperature, it might be able to better prepare to divert traffic during monsoon season or determine areas where a public safety campaign is needed. 

“Like all rapidly growing cities across the world, there are infrastructure growing pains in many Indian cities,” said Guru Banavar, vice president and chief technology officer, Smarter Cities, IBM. “However, when city officials can factor public sentiment – positive, negative or otherwise -- around city services like transportation, they can more quickly pinpoint and prioritize areas that are top of mind for their citizens. This could mean more targeted investment, improving a particular city service, more effective communication about a service that is offered, and even surfacing best practices and successful efforts that could be applied to other zones of a city.” 

Methodology

Public social media content was analyzed by IBM Cognos Consumer Insights, which assessed 168,330 online discussions from September 2011 to September 2012 across social platforms including Twitter, Facebook, Blogs, Forums and News Sources and derived 54,234 High Value Snippets through a series of advanced filtration techniques for insight analysis. The IBM Social Sentiment Index helps companies tap into consumer desires and make more informed decisions by looking at unfiltered consumer attitudes and actions, distinguishing between sincerity and sarcasm, and even predicting trends. 

About the IBM Social Sentiment Index

The IBM Social Sentiment Index uses advanced analytics and natural language processing technologies to analyze large volumes of social media data in order to assess public opinions. The Index can identify and measure positive, negative and neutral sentiments shared in public forums such as Twitter, blogs, message boards and other social media, and provide quick insights into consumer conversations about issues, products and services. Representing a new form of market research, social sentiment analyses offer organizations new insights that can help them better understand and respond to consumer trends. For more information about IBM Business Analytics, please visit: www.ibm.com/analytics. Follow the conversation at #IBMIndex on Twitter. 

For more information about IBM Smarter Cities, visit www.ibm.com/press/smartercities. Follow the conversation at #smartercities on Twitter. 

Registered journalists and bloggers can view and download video and images here.

Press release:

IBM Expands Operations in Turkey with New Branches in Adana and Bursa

IBM increases footprint to five branches across Turkey - extending availability of world-class IT solutions and services in line with regional business growth

Tab navigation

• News release
• Related XML feeds

• Contact(s) information
• Related resources

Istanbul, Turkey - 12 Sep 2012: IBM (NYSE: IBM) has announced the opening of two new branch offices in Turkey as it continues to increase its presence in the fastest growing markets in the world.

The two new locations in the cities of Adana and Bursa are IBM's latest additions to a growing network of offices in Turkey including those in Istanbul, Izmir and Ankara. 

“We are seeing increased demand for our solutions and services across Turkey as companies expand their operations and turn to technology to enhance their productivity and improve their competitiveness” said Michel Charouk, Country General Manager, IBM Turkey. “While Istanbul continues to strengthen its position as an important business hub, regional cities across Turkey are increasingly contributing to the country’s economic performance leveraging advanced technologies to compete on the global stage.” 

IBM is tapping into new growth opportunities in regional cities such as Hatay in Turkey where it is helping the Hatay Archeology Museum to create an online version of its mosaic collection

Through its geographic expansion initiative, IBM is targeting the opportunity in white space territories in emerging markets - high-growth cities and regions where there is significant opportunity for growth and where businesses and government organizations are turning to IT to transform their operations and increase competitiveness. 

The two new offices in Turkey supplement the growing network of locations that IBM has across Central and Eastern Europe. Today, IBM also announced the opening of new offices in the cities of Poznan and Krakow in Poland.

Turkey has experienced strong economic growth in recent years due to a dynamic business landscape and strategic trading links with Europe and the Middle East region. 

“We see Turkey as a top-ten global growth market for the next decade,” said Aidan Manktelow, Europe Director, Economist Corporate Network. “Although the country is still vulnerable to economic volatility, its supportive demographics, resilient banking sector and low indebtedness mean that any interruption to its growth would likely be only brief. We expect total IT spend to rise strongly from just under US$9bn in 2012 to over US$12.5bn by 2016.”  

Accelerating Growth in Adana

Located in the south of Turkey, Adana has emerged as one of the country’s key cultural and commercial cities in the important economic region of Cukurova - often regarded as one of the most agriculturally productive areas in the world. In addition to agriculture, the region has experienced dynamic economic growth in the manufacturing, natural resources and commercial sectors.

“IBM’s initiative to open more offices to deliver solutions to areas outside traditional urban centers like Istanbul is reflective of the industrial growth in those areas and the increasing importance of IT to businesses wishing to compete on the global stage,” said Sadi Surenkok, Head of Adana Chamber of Industry. 

Boosting Business in Bursa

As one of Turkey’s key industrial and production centers, Bursa, located in the northwest of the country, is one of the most industrialized cities in the country and acts as the center of Turkey’s automotive industry. 

IBM is already working with a number of clients in Bursa such as industrial group Aktaş Holding. Through a 5-year agreement, IBM is helping to transform Aktaş’s operations across security, systems performance, business continuity, virtualization, disaster management, control and accountability. 

“IBM’s value proposition is clear - more effective products at an affordable price,” said Ebru Bulut, IT Manager, Aktaş Holding. “Working with IBM we are able increase the speed and efficiency of our operations while at the same time ensuring the security of our data.” 

Operating in Turkey for 74 years, IBM has its headquarters in Istanbul and a recently enlarged Ankara office in addition to its branches in Adana, Bursa and Izmir. Also in Izmir, IBM has a Business Continuity and Resiliency Services Center providing services for leading Turkish companies. 

ABOUT IBM

For more information on IBM, please visit: http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/index.wss

For more information on IBM Growth Markets please visit: https://twitter.com/#IBMGrowthMkts

Press release:

IBM Continues Business Expansion in Poland with New Branches in Krakow and Poznan

Increases support for regional customers in the small and medium-sized enterprise sector

Tab navigation

• News release
• Related XML feeds

• Contact(s) information
• Related resources

Warsaw, Poland - 12 Sep 2012: IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced the opening of two new branch offices in the cities of Krakow and Poznan as it extends its presence in the country’s fast-growing regional cities. The new offices will help increase support for IBM’s customers and partners in the two locations especially those in the small and medium-sized business sector which plays a key role in the Polish economy.

The move follows the opening of new IBM branches in the cities of Wroclaw and Katowice earlier this year - extending IBM’s reach far beyond the country’s capital Warsaw.  

"In recognition of the continued importance of Poland to IBM and to ensure the highest levels of support for our clients and partners, we are strengthening our branch network in a number of strategic locations across the country," said Anna Sienko, Country General Manager, IBM Poland & Baltics. “Krakow and Poznan are dynamically developing cities where we are working with local entrepreneurs to strengthen their competitive positions.” 

Anna Sienko, Country General Manager IBM Poland & Baltics and Aleksander Skorupa, Lower Silesian Governor at launch of Katowice branch in March 2012

Through its geographic expansion initiative, IBM is targeting the opportunity in white space territories in emerging markets - high-growth cities and regions where there is significant opportunity for growth and where businesses and government organizations are turning to IT to transform their operations and increase competitiveness. 

The two new offices in Poland supplement the growing network of locations that IBM has across Central and Eastern Europe. Today, IBM also announced the opening of new offices in the cities of Adana and Bursa in Turkey.

“Poland’s resilience in the face of global and Euro-zone troubles, coupled with its large domestic market, has made it a stand-out country for business in Europe,” said Aidan Manktelow, Europe Director, Economist Corporate Network. “Despite some slowing of the economy at present, Poland looks well placed for sustained robust growth. We see the IT market expanding from US$9.8bn in 2012 to almost US$13bn by 2016.” 

Cultivating Business in Krakow

Part of the Malopolska region in the South of Poland, Krakow is one of Poland’s main economic and cultural centers. In recent years, Krakow has been the focus of hi-tech investments with a dynamic IT industry and a growing number of small and medium sized businesses alongside foreign investors. IBM already has two global facilities in Krakow – a  software laboratory and a business process services center. 

IBM is already working in the public and private sectors in Krakow. As part of IBM’s Smarter Cities initiative, IBM is working with the City Hall, the University of Science and Technology (AGH) and the Management of Municipal Infrastructure and Transport to help develop an intelligent solution to support waste management on Krakow’s streets. Thanks to smarter technologies and business analytics, city dwellers may now use the internet to report incidents of road surface waste and debris. The system also helps to schedule work for municipal employees and contractors in order to keep the city’s streets clear of waste. 

“IBM’s analytical tools allow us to better manage and maintain our road systems giving us the insights we need in order to make optimum decisions,” said Michał Pyclik from the Management of Municipal Infrastructure and Transport, Krakow.  

IBM is also working with the University of Science and Technology (AGH) on joint research in the area of cloud computing technology development. 

Positioning for Growth in Poznan

The city of Poznan, in the Wielkopolska region in west-central Poland, is important center of trade with active automotive, transportation, logistics and manufacturing industries.  

IBM is already working with a number of clients in Poznan such Volkswagen for whom IBM has provided a new computing infrastructure and information management system. The system provides efficient access to important information about the company’s operations and customers in the country. The new system has 50 percent more storage capacity and is 8 times faster than the previous system. 

“IBM is one of our strategic partners in Poland. It has helped us to transform the way we work as a company – enabling our employees to perform more effectively and provide the highest possible level of service to our customers,” said Edward Lachowicz, CIO of Volkswagen Poznan. 

IBM is also collaborating with the Faculty of Mathematics and IT Science at Poznan University to help students gain technical and business skills in cloud computing.  

IBM first established its operations in Poland in 1991 with its headquarters in the country's capital Warsaw. Today IBM also has a number of key facilities across Poland serving clients around the world such as the IBM Delivery Center in Wroclaw, the IBM Business Transformation Outsourcing Center in Krakow, the IBM Software Laboratory in Krakow and the IBM Competence Implementation Center in Gdansk. 

ABOUT IBM

For more information on IBM, please visit: http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/index.wss

For more information on IBM Growth Markets please visit: https://twitter.com/#IBMGrowthMkts

Press release:

Primerica Turns to IBM for Social Business Transformation and Improved Customer Experience

IBM software to help representatives reach and engage 2.3 million policy owners

Tab navigation

• News release
• Related XML feeds

• Contact(s) information

ARMONK, NY - 12 Sep 2012: IBM (NYSE:IBM) today announced that Primerica, the largest independent financial services marketing company in North America, is using IBM social business software to transform the way its over 90,000 independent sales representatives will engage with their 2.3 million policy owners and prospective new clients, on the fly, to provide increased value for its customers.

As part of the organization's social business transformation, Primerica has engaged with IBM to adopt social business practices and embrace software as a way to improve customer care and insight, drive a competitive edge, and stay on the forefront of innovation in the financial services industry. 

Financial services firms are constantly evolving amidst increased levels of regulatory scrutiny and competitive pressures. In spite of those issues, firms are beginning to use enterprise social networking technology to improve the customer experience and provide the workforce with access to new information, expertise and insight. These institutions are challenged with managing risk and complying with global regulatory policies while transforming into a social business to better service clients and gain a competitive advantage.  

Facing intensifying competition and a continuous demand for new services, Primerica needed to help its independent sales representatives quickly access, analyze and share information with clients in order to be more responsive and customer-centric. Using a social business solution built on IBM software, Primerica's over 90,000 independent sales representatives, as well as its employees, can gain access to Primerica Online which provides a wealth of information to registered users. 

Today, the site provides insight into sales figures, commission data, production reports, compliance requirements, earnings statements, multimedia presentations, and motivational messages. With the integration of new IBM social business solutions, members will now be able to engage in online community building, expertise location and active information sharing. 

For example, today a representative can drill down and interact with sales data to reveal valuable insights, and also better understand which products and resources move the business forward. With the new software, new sales representatives will have access to a guided training plan about how to earn  certification and collaborate with peers to achieve their certification status, and increase their sales productivity for winning and retaining customers. 

“Working with IBM, we will be in a position to capitalize on our growing representative and client base, helping to ensure our representatives can deliver value to our clients no matter where they're located,” said David Wade, Chief Information Officer (CIO), Primerica. “Becoming a Social Business will enable us to respond to client needs immediately, find help and leverage expertise to solve problems, share knowledge, and ensure our clients have positive, personal interactions with our people and our company culture. 

Primerica Online will use IBM social business software which includes the IBM Customer Experience Suite, IBM Connections enterprise social networking software and Cognos Business Intelligence analytics software.The company is implementing IBM Rational Jazz to help employees more easily track projects to completion. By enabling email eDiscovery, Primerica will be able to collect and retain email beyond its existing capability, to enhance the support of compliance initiatives. Primerica is already using IBM Content Manager  software to better manage the documents created by and distributed to the Primerica workforce and its clients. 

The social business software is also integrated with the Actiance Vantage compliance solution, ensuring that Primerica continues to remain compliant with local laws for producing materials and data as needed. As a result, Primerica's solution will automatically address regulatory considerations while reducing compliance-related and legal e-discovery costs. Actiance Vantage also helps prevent sensitive information from leaving the corporate network in order to protect confidential data and help employees comply with governance requirements. 

An organization that has turned to IBM for its expertise in technology for over three decades, Primerica was spun off from Citigroup in 2010 through an initial public offering. 

About IBM
To learn more about IBM's Social Business initiative, participate in a simulcast on September 13, 2012 at 1 PM ET at bit.ly/Pn9sqd or sign up to attend IBM's Connect conference in January 2013. For additional information, please visit www.ibm.com/socialbusiness or follow #IBMSocialBiz on Twitter. 

About Primerica

Primerica, Inc., headquartered in Duluth, GA, is a leading distributor of financial products to middle-income families in North America.  Primerica representatives educate their Main Street clients about how to better prepare for a more secure financial future by assessing their needs and providing appropriate solutions through term life insurance, which we underwrite, and mutual funds, annuities and other financial products, which we distribute primarily on behalf of third parties. In addition, Primerica provides an entrepreneurial full or part-time business opportunity for individuals seeking to earn income by distributing the company’s financial products. We insure more than 4.3 million lives and approximately 2 million clients maintain investment accounts with us. Primerica is a member of the Russell 2000 stock index and is traded on The New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “PRI.” 

About Actiance

Actiance helps organizations manage, secure and ensure compliance across unified communications, collaboration and Web 2.0 applications such as blogs, wikis and social networks. Actiance’s award-winning platforms are used by 9 of the top 10 US banks and 284 FINRA regulated firms globally. For more information, visit http://www.actiance.com.

Press release:

IBM Redefines Social Business with the Power of Analytics

Fortune 100 Clients Tout Returns on Social Investments

Tab navigation

• News release
• Related XML feeds

• Contact(s) information
• Related resources

ARMONK, N.Y. - 12 Sep 2012: IBM (NYSE: IBM) today unveiled new software and services that bring the power of big data analytics into the hands of today's social savvy workforce anytime, anywhere. Now, organizations can apply analytics to their social business initiatives, allowing them to gain actionable insight on information generated on networks and put it to work in real-time.

As part of today's news, IBM is announcing the availability of its industry-leading social software platform, IBM Connections. IBM Connections incorporates sophisticated analytics capabilities, real-time data monitoring, and faster collaborative networks both inside and outside the organization, whether on premises, in the IBM SmartCloud or using a broad range of mobile devices. View the demo today.

In support of today's news, IBM also announced leading companies around the globe, including Bayer MaterialScience, Colgate-Palmolive Company, LeasePlan, Primerica andTeach for America, are using its social software to achieve real returns on their social business investments.

Today's news builds on IBM's leadership in social software and analytics. For three consecutive years, IDC ranked IBM number one in enterprise social software. Today, more than 60 percent of the Fortune 100 have licensed IBM social software to activate their workforce to improve productivity, and gain insight on data to anticipate individual customers needs. IBM's leadership role in analytics has been established through a thoughtful strategy that required the expansion of R&D, acquisition and business initiatives across its hardware software and services portfolio.

The rise of social media is prompting business leaders, from the CMO to the chief HR officer to the CIO, to evaluate how to create opportunities that drive business transformation through the use of social technology, creating real business value. According to Forrester Research, the market opportunity for social enterprise apps is expected to grow at a rate of 61 percent through 2016*.

At the same time, business leaders lack the tools to gain insight into the enormous stream of information and use it in a meaningful way.  According to IBM's CEO Study,  today only 16 percent of CEOs are using social business platforms to connect with customers, but that number is poised to spike to 57 percent within the next three to five years. A recent IBM study of more than 1,700 chief marketing officers reveals 82 percent plan to increase their use of social media over the next three to five years.

"To truly realize the full potential of a social business, leaders need to empower a company's most vital asset - the information being generated from its people," said Alistair Rennie, general manager, social business, IBM. "Now is the time for business leaders to embed social into their key business processes to shift their business from the era of 'liking' to 'leading'."

Global Ecosystem Touting Returns on Social Investments

Today, more than 60 percent of the Fortune 100 have licensed IBM social software. There is strong demand for IBM's social business platform in regulated industries, with 41 percent of Connections 4 beta participants in banking, finance and healthcare institutions. 

For example, Primerica, a leading distributor of financial products in North America, will utilize Connections and WebSphere Portal, to transform how its agents engage with its 2.3 million policy holders on the fly, to provide increased value for its customers. The company plans to use social business software to improve the overall client experience, drive competitive edge and stay on the forefront of innovation in the financial services industry.

LeasePlan, one of the leading vehicle leasing and fleet management companies in the world, is using IBM's social software platform across the organization's 40 subsidiaries, in 30 countries and over 6,000 employees. With nearly 800 communities formed, 400 blogs, and over 800 forums, the platform has become an integral component to business operations for the organization, increasing efficiency, enhancing knowledge retention, increasing innovation, and helping to improve customer care and insight. By socially enabling its business processes with IBM's social platform, the organization is seeing significant improvements in workforce effectiveness.

"By collaborating with IBM we've been able to transform our business processes. Our internal social network allows employees to find experts faster, leading to better customer service, superior workforce effectiveness, and enhanced product and service innovation," said Wim de Gier, Senior Global Project Manager Corporate Strategy and Development, LeasePlan. "It's allowing us to transform our organization into a social business."

To support the burgeoning demand for social business solutions in growth markets, in the fourth quarter of 2012 IBM will open two social business customer support centers to serve IBM's Asia-Pacific and Latin American clients. Located in Manilla, the Philippines, and Sao Paolo, Brazil, these centers will support the rapid adoption of social business tools in these growth markets. The Philippines and Brazil centers join a roster of IBM social business centers in North America, Dublin, Japan, China and India.

IBM's growing business partner network of more than 39,000 business partners are bringing new, cutting-edge capabilities to IBM's social platform every day in areas including gamification, video, compliance, project management and mobility. For example, Actianceprovides leading compliance capabilities to thousands of organizations globally, SugarCRMhelps sellers use social networking and analytics for effective selling, and Bunchball provides gamification capabilities to IBM Connections.

IBM Connections, a cornerstone of IBM's social platform

Available on premises, in the cloud, and on a broad range of mobile devices, IBM Connections integrates activity streams, calendaring, wikis, blogs, a new email capability, and more, and flags relevant data for action. It allows for instant collaboration with one simple click and the ability to build social, secure communities both inside and outside the organization to increase customer loyalty and speed business results. The new Connections mail capability provides simplified access to email within the context of the social networking environment.

Now, organizations can integrate and analyze massive amounts of data generated from people, devices and sensors and more easily align these insights to business processes to make faster, more accurate business decisions. By gaining deeper insights in customer and market trends and employees' sentiment, businesses can uncover critical patterns to not only react swiftly to market shifts, but predict the effect of future actions.

"I am thoroughly enjoying the ability to engage with a variety of employees through micro-blogging," said Patrick Thomas, CEO, Bayer MaterialScience. "I can get information out quickly, but even more importantly I can encourage two way communication and stimulate an open communication culture by breaking through barriers."

The new capabilities empower employees from every line of business, such as marketing, human resources and development to gain actionable insight into the information being generated in their social networks. 

For example, the Connections landing page features a single location that allows users to view and interact with content from any third party solution through a social interface, right alongside their company's content, including email and calendar. The embedded experience of the news feed, also known as an activity stream, allows employees from any department inside an organization to explore structured and unstructured data such as Twitter feeds, Facebook posts, weather data, videos, log files, SAP applications, electronically sign documents, and quickly act on the data as part of their everyday work experience.

To learn more about IBM's social business initiative, participate in a simulcast on September 13, 2012 at  1 PM ET at bit.ly/Pn9sqd or sign-up to attend IBM's Connect conference in January 2013.

For more information, please visit www.ibm.com/press/socialbusiness.

*Source: Social Enterprise Apps Redefine Collaboration," Forrester Research, Inc., November 30, 2011.