ibm introduction to social business

Analysis, collaboration, insight and social sentiment at the touch of a button. Are you ready for the next wave of business?

Are you a socialbusiness?

www.ibm.com/social-business/ 2

Welcome to this special report focused on social business, brought to you by IBM in association with IT Pro.

Prologue p3 An introduction by Daniel Wilks, UK and Ireland business unit executive, IBM Social Business

Why are businesses going social? p5We look at what it means to be a social business and why companies are undergoing such a transformation.

IBM and social business p8This fact sheet looks at the role IBM can play in helping your organisation become a social business.

Social business – the benefits p10What benefits can your organisation hope to gain by becoming more social? And how can it benefit your customers and partners too? We take a look and showcase how organisations of all sectors and sizes are making social work for them.

Social business – the risks p12What do you need to pay attention to in order to avoid the pitfalls when it comes to social? We look at the risks, the challenges and the experiences of others.

Case study: Frontier Medical Group p14Learn how this leading manufacturer and supplier of medical products has improved efficiency and fuelled innovation by taking advantage of collaborative and social tools and technologies.

FAQs p17IBM executives Jon Machtynger and Stuart McRae answer your questions about social business.

CONTENTS

FAQs

What does social

business mean in

real terms?

JM: Social is an

interesting term. It’s

a piece of string – everyone

has their own vision of

social. For me, it’s the

right level of people

interaction with the right

level of transparency.

That means you can

have a social interaction

that is one to one, one

to many or many to

many. It’s really about

embedding social

capabilities into the way

that you do business.

Do you really need

a Facebook page to be

social? Not really - there

are other tools, but it is like

going to a well-known hotel.

You go there because

it has brand value, it’s

understood there’s

quality, and there are

always rooms available.

SM: Even though

people think of it as

something new in the

enterprise there have

been capabilities like this

for the last 10 years or so.

The bulletin board type

thing some people could

do in the 90s is now

something everybody can

do. They don’t have to get

over a technical access or

a learning hurdle.

What are the key

drivers behind this

shift to social?

JM: There’s a

dimension of what

we do in our work lives

and what we do in our

personal lives and

different generations treat

it differently. But each of

them are very social –

from a technical and

personal perspective.

But, if you take all the

tools away, we’ve always

been social.

The tools bring more

impact, more scale

and a more real-time

nature to those types of

interactions.

Marketing has seen

the impact social

can have in terms of

getting a response from

someone, but how do you

convert that? Externally,

businesses are using

social to bridge that gap.

Part of the remit

of social is not about

being sociable. It’s

not about being

warm and cuddly and

doing things for the

greater world good -

it’s fundamentally about

doing something

that serves you as a

business and there are

a number of people who

will participate in that

process.

IBM’s social business and collaboration experts Jon Machtynger and Stuart McRae answer

some of your questions around this important topic.

Frequently asked questions

www.ibm.com/social-business/us/en/

17

Jon Machtynger is CTO of

IBM collaboration solutions

in the UK and Ireland. He’s

been with IBM since 2002

and prior to that held a

number of consultancy and

engineering roles in the IT

industry.

Stuart McRae is executive

collaboration evangelist

at IBM. In his current role

he advises organisations

on the benefits of being

a social business and the

steps they need to take in

order to get there.


11


11


5

Why should you go social?

The world is changing. The

way in which users consume

and digest information is

also evolving, as are their

preferences around how, when and where

they work, rest and play.

Every day, we generate more than 2.5

quintillion bytes of data. That’s a staggering

amount information.

The internet has increased our appetite

for knowledge and accelerated data growth,

but social media, in particular, has played a

key role – some 90 per cent of that data has

been generated in the past two years alone,

according to IBM.

Twitter plays home to 5,700 tweets

per second, some 100 hours of video are

uploaded to YouTube every minute, and

Facebook experiences 2.7 billion ‘likes’ each

day – equating to around 500TB of data.

The business world must at the very least

keep pace with such change, if not try and

stay one step ahead and anticipate future

demands and trends.

In Europe, specifically, use of social

media is not yet fully mature.

That said, more than 63 per cent of the

Western European online population are

currently using social networks – a figure that

will rise to 70 per cent come 2017.

Powering business change

Organisations can turn things to their

advantage and drive real value – for

themselves and their customers, employees

and partners – by deploying social tools

and technologies.

However, those who feel having a social

media presence is enough are mistaken.

Being a truly social business means changing

the very nature of your organisation – from

the culture, processes and technology, inside

and out, and from the highest echelons of

the company down and back up again.

In essence, social needs to become part

of your DNA.

“You need a platform that empowers

employees to build the relationships

they would have built face-to-face or on

the telephone via online media,” says

Stuart McRae, Executive Collaboration

Destination social: Are you

heading in the right direction?

What does it mean to be a social business? And why are organisations

heading in this direction? We take a look…

It’s important that organisations don’t let

a fear of someone saying something bad about

them stop them from participating in social

media.

Analysis, collaboration,

insight and social sentiment

at the touch of a button.

Are you ready for the next

wave of business?

Are you a social

business?

Contents

W elcome to this IBM

special report focused

on social business.

Being a social

business is about so much more than

having a Facebook or Twitter profile and

updating your statuses regularly. Of course,

such social media platforms are important.

But, more than that, the ability to interact

and enter into an enhanced dialogue with

customers, employees and partners alike

becomes increasingly important.

I’m hugely excited by the emergence

of social business as a trend as there are

definitely some parallels as to where IBM as

a business is headed. This, for me, means

we are all working towards a common goal.

By tapping into social connections

and enhanced collaboration, we can find

new ways of working and new ways of

solving problems. I can recall one particular

example whereby a pet food firm found it

had supply chain issues that could have

led to contaminated contents getting into

its products. Left unresolved, this could

have been catastrophic let alone bad for

reputation.

Thankfully, the company made use of

social media and analytics and, as a result,

was able to intervene and remedy the issue

before it was too late.

Social business as a trend does not exist

in isolation. Together with analytics, big data,

cloud and mobile, organsations are able to

both tap into and address customer demand.

What business doesn’t want to have

better insight into what customers are

saying or how they’re feeling? Similarly, what

organisation doesn’t want to improve the way

in which it attracts, recruits and maintains

staff? Or indeed, ensure employees remain

safe while in the workplace?

Social technologies have a key

role to play in everything we do both as

business users and consumers. As the

world becomes more digital and more vocal

about the services received and experiences

encountered, it is paramount we tap into

those voices.

Whatever step of the journey your

organisation is on, we hope you find this

report useful and informative in helping

you reach the destination of being a

more effective, productive and successful

social business.

Thanks for reading

Daniel Wilks, UK & Ireland business unit executive, IBM Social Business

I’m hugely excited by the emergence of social business as a trend as there are definitely some parallels as to where IBM as a business is headed.

Going socialBeing a social business is so much more than just Facebook, Twitter et al. Read on and we’ll show you why, as well as how your organisation can be more effective, productive and successful.

3

Prologue: Daniel Wilks

www.ibm.com/social-business/

TURNING CUSTOMERS INTO ADVOCATES.

Social inputs like reviews and comments could already be driving as much as a third of consumer spending. That’s why your brand’s success will depend on its ability to match what it promises with the products and services it delivers.

The Italian poultry marketer Amadori Group did just that by using IBM solutions

It’s easy to forget that e-commerce is a fairly recent innovation. Buying books and shoes online seemed novel until traditional commerce and e-commerce finally merged. Then suddenly, there was no more ‘online business’. Only business.

A similar shift is unfolding now with social technology. Beyond attracting ‘likes’, social technology is about building communities and collaboration within your workforce and empowering your customers and partners to help build your brand.

On a smarter planet, every business is increasingly expected to integrate social into its core practices. Any business that isn’t social by design won’t stay in business.

A SOCIAL WORKFORCE IS A SMARTER WORKFORCE.

Picture a company that thrives as a social network, not as an organisational chart. What if your company’s employees could quickly identify other colleagues and candidates to help them overcome challenges, and could crowdsource their knowledge across departments, across languages, across oceans?

LET’S bUILD A

SMARTER pLANET.

‘LIKING’ ISN’T LEADING.

THE RISE OF SOCIAL BUSINESS.

Could you use an extra day of productivity from your staff each

week? Social technology can increase efficiency by as much as 25%.

IBM, the IBM logo, ibm.com, Smarter Planet and the planet icon are trademarks of International Business Machines Corp., registered in many jurisdictions worldwide. A current list of IBM trademarks is available on the Web at www.ibm.com/legal/copytrade.shtml. © International Business Machines Corporation 2013.

for social business to interpret the web as an infinite focus group. When recent social conversation on sustainability led the company to introduce greener packaging, Amadori turned customers into advocates.

THERE’S NO bUSINESS bUT SOCIAL bUSINESS.

Investing in becoming a social business goes beyond building a social network. It demands capturing and analysing the data that the network creates

to remove the technological and cultural boundaries both inside and outside your company. And before you know it, there will be no more ‘social business’: Only business. Visit ibm.com/socialbusiness/uk

For cement giant Cemex, IBM solutions for social business have helped its teams in 50 countries trade insights in real time. Employees have built a network of communities around shared projects and skills, helping Cemex launch its first global brand in a third of the time it had anticipated.

210x297_MASTER_SOCIAL BUSINESS_UK210x297_Master_BusinessSocial_UK.indd 1 14/06/13 12:28

www.ibm.com/social-business/us/en/ 11www.ibm.com/social-business/us/en/ 115


T he world is changing. The

way in which users consume

and digest information is

also evolving, as are their

preferences around how, when and where

they work, rest and play.

Every day, we generate more than 2.5

quintillion bytes of data. That’s a staggering

amount information.

The internet has increased our appetite

for knowledge and accelerated data growth,

but social media, in particular, has played a

key role – some 90 per cent of that data has

been generated in the past two years alone,

according to IBM.

Twitter plays home to 5,700 tweets

per second, some 100 hours of video are

uploaded to YouTube every minute, and

Facebook experiences 2.7 billion ‘likes’ each

day – equating to around 500TB of data.

The business world must at the very least

keep pace with such change, if not try and

stay one step ahead and anticipate future

demands and trends.

In Europe, specifically, use of social

media is not yet fully mature.

That said, more than 63 per cent of the

Western European online population are

currently using social networks – a figure that

will rise to 70 per cent come 2017.

Powering business changeOrganisations can turn things to their

advantage and drive real value – for

themselves and their customers, employees

and partners – by deploying social tools

and technologies.

However, those who feel having a social

media presence is enough are mistaken.

Being a truly social business means changing

the very nature of your organisation – from

the culture, processes and technology, inside

and out, and from the highest echelons of

the company down and back up again.

In essence, social needs to become part

of your DNA.

“You need a platform that empowers

employees to build the relationships

they would have built face-to-face or on

the telephone via online media,” says

Stuart McRae, Executive Collaboration

Destination social: Are you heading in the right direction?What does it mean to be a social business? And why are organisations heading in this direction? We take a look…

It’s important that organisations don’t let a fear of someone saying something bad about them stop them from participating in social media.




Evangelist at IBM.

“You need the right technology that does

that well. Yes, the UI is important but it’s

actually about a much deeper need to have

the right services delivered in the right way

that actually helps people. Then you need

a cultural change in the organisation to one

that is more open and collaborative rather

than competitive. If you’re not ready to make

that change, I don’t think social is going to

work very well in your organisation.”

The importance of socialThe very nature of social is about sharing and

being more open. By empowering employees

to come up with and exchange ideas that

could be of benefit to the business, rather

than feeling competitive and secretive about

them, everyone stands to benefit.

Employees will feel more motivated

and the organisation is accelerating and

fuelling innovation that can help it stand out

from competitors.

“Younger people come into the workplace

– the millennials – and they just ‘get it.’

That’s because they’ve lived with the internet

from day one. If people weren’t willing to

share and be open on the internet, things

like Facebook simply wouldn’t work,”

adds McRae.

“Trumping ideas and the internal

competition around whose idea is best so

things are kept secret is exactly the wrong

attitude towards innovating and improving

business processes.”

He continues: “Rewarding people for

coming up with good ideas is very different

from having a set of people compete to come

up with the best idea. It’s a subtle difference

but one that’s really key to making the right

cultural change. Now, organisations are

starting to think about how to leverage the

fact that the people who can make a process

better are the ones doing it every day.”

Giving customers a voiceSimilarly, by tapping into customer sentiment

about your products and services, through

the channels they want to use, your business

will be seen as approachable,

accessible and, more importantly,

responsive.

“Those people are having

a conversation about you

whether you open up

and listen or not,”

warns McRae.

“So do you want to put

your hands over your ears

or do you want to listen? If you

want to listen do you then ignore

the fact someone’s incredibly

unhappy or do you do something

about it? That gets you to the

engagement section where you have to

start managing those conversations.”

Companies that ignore what customers

are saying and fail to pay them the courtesy

of acknowledging their voice will be

penalised, analyst firm Gartner has warned.

“The dissatisfaction stemming from failure

to respond via social channels can lead to

up to a 15 per cent increase in churn rate

for existing customers,” says Carol Rozwell,

vice president and distinguished analyst

at Gartner. “It’s crucial that organisations

implement approaches to handling

social media now. The effort involved in

addressing social media commentary is not

good cause to ignore relevant comments or

solvable issues.”

Treading very carefullyBusinesses should be mindful of three

key things when it comes to social interaction

with customers externally, according to

Rozwell.

“It’s important that organisations don’t

let a fear of someone saying something bad

about them stop them from participating in

social media. Secondly, don’t assume all

You need a cultural change in the organisation to one that is more open and collaborative rather than competitive. If you’re not ready to make that change, I don’t think social is going to work very well in your organisation.

The point at which each business begins its transformation to social business varies, but every social business drives value by making traditional communication and collaboration networks more efficient, authentic and flexible. Credit: IBM Thought Leadership Whitepaper: The compelling returns from IBM Connections in support of social business




comments require the same level of attention

— develop an appropriate response for the

different types of interaction your business

faces,” she advises.

“Thirdly, plan for an increase in social

commentary and adapt communications

practices to cope — this will require changes

to job descriptions, performance metrics and

business processes.”

Getting from A to BBecoming a social business is a journey and

the changes required to get there won’t occur

overnight. Careful planning is key to creating

the right strategy that will ensure you are

successful as a social business rather than

exposing yourself to greater uncertainty and

unnecessary risk.

However, not all social business efforts

will result in the benefits organisations

anticipate, Gartner warns. Indeed, the analyst

firm has predicted that between now and

2015, some 80 per cent of social business

initiatives won’t bear the fruits expected

due to an overemphasis on pure technology

rather than all the necessary elements

required for success.

“IT leaders must keep abreast of this

evolving sector in order to take advantage

of social capabilities and understand

the implications that social software

developments have for related technologies,”

according to Jeffrey Mann, research vice

president at Gartner.

“As social technologies mature and

organisations improve their understanding

of how to apply them, they will be found

in more and more situations. Increasingly,

social technologies are not implemented on

a stand-alone basis, but are tightly integrated

within a variety of other technologies,

including business, IT operations, unified

communications and collaboration

applications.”

The futureYears from now we won’t be talking

about whether businesses should be more

social. We’ll take it for granted that they

are. It will become second nature and as

if it’s always been that way, according to

industry experts.

Gartner has predicted that half of large

firms will have Facebook-esque internal social

networks by 2016 and that one-third of these

platforms will be viewed in the same way

as telephony and email communication in

terms of core value.

“It’s very hard to be a good, engaged

company on external social media but have

your staff work internally in traditional ways.

You have to reach out to partners, suppliers

and customers as well as employees to make

them part of the conversation,” says McRae.

“In the 20th Century we had face-to-face

supported by letters, then telephone then

email. In the 21st Century, relationships

and friendships are online, which supports

face-to-face meetings, often using the mobile

phone. People still want to meet face-to-face,

but a lot of the mechanics of getting there is

done online. Social technologies just change

the dynamics of the way you can work and

amplify what you can do face-to-face.”

Some 63 per cent of the Western European online population are currently using social networks - a figure that will rise to 70 per cent come 2017.


8

Fact Sheet

A social business is an

organisation whose culture

and systems encourage

networks of people to create

business value. Social businesses connect

individuals, so they can rapidly share

information, knowledge and ideas by having

conversations and publishing informal

content. They analyse social content from

multiple channels and sources, in addition

to structured data, to gain insights from both

external and internal stakeholders.

When those things happen, innovation

and business execution rates increase, better

decisions are made, and customers and

employees are more engaged and satisfied.

Social businesses enjoy lower operating

costs, faster speed-to-market, improved

customer and employee engagement, and

increased profitability.

IBM and Social BusinessIn early 2011, IBM publicly declared that it

was becoming a social business, accelerating

existing initiatives to better connect the

organisation’s employees, customers, partners

and suppliers. These efforts to transform IBM’s

culture, business processes and computing

systems — and, ultimately, its business

outcomes — have yielded global, first-hand

experiences with, and knowledge of, social

business.

Not only is IBM a social business itself, but

the company has also helped others on their

journey to becoming social. More than 60 per

cent of Fortune 100 companies have licensed

IBM solutions for social business.

IBM consultants work daily with

organisations from all industries and

geographies to help them tap the

transformative power of social business.

This social business know-how has also

informed the design of related IBM software

and cloud-based services, as well as their

implementation and use, both within the

company and in customer organisations.

When IBM released IBM Connections,

in 2007, it was one of the first enterprise

social software products in a nascent market.

Since then, the IBM social platform has

grown and can now be used to embed social

capabilities in any business process. IBM

WebSphere Portal has proven itself as an

ideal container for role- and process-specific

social activity. IBM Content Manager and IBM

FileNet services marry traditional enterprise

content management practices with sharing

of content in social channels. IBM unified

messaging, analytics and web experience

management technologies have also been

integrated into the IBM social platform.

With the recent acquisition of Kenexa

and its award-winning Human Capital

Management solutions, IBM is able to

offer socially-enabled talent management

capabilities.

Much of the IBM social platform is

accessible on mobile devices such as

tablets and smartphones. In fact, IBM

social capabilities are available as native

applications on a broader array of mobile

operating systems than any of its competitors

offer. IBM’s social business software and

in-cloud services are frequently recognised

as industry leaders by the most influential

analyst firms. Those acknowledgements

include:

✔ IDC has designated IBM as the Worldwide

Enterprise Social Software Market Share

leader for the last four consecutive years

(2009-2012)

✔ Gartner named IBM a “visionary” in its most

recent assessment of the Enterprise Content

Management category

✔ Forrester Research categorised IBM among

the “leaders” in its latest Forrester Wave for

enterprise social platforms and its similar

assessment of providers of cloud-based

collaboration services

✔ IDC named IBM a “leader” in its most recent

market assessment of providers of HR,

learning and recruiting process outsourcing

services.

Through the combination of deep

social expertise, deployment and adoption

services and market-leading social business

capabilities, IBM is uniquely positioned to

help organisations capture information,

create insights and generate interactions that

translate into real business value.

What IBM can do for your social business

Social Business Patterns are similar in concept to business process flows, in that each represents a repeatable, proven set of value-producing actions.

Lowes built internal communities to share best practices and see deeper into their human capital across stores. Clarissa Felts, Lowes VP of Collaboration, presentedat Connect 2013 and mentioned how using IBM Connections has improved their recruitment process within headquarters in finding proven talent that knows the store environment from first-hand experience.

Asian Paints’ sales staff members found it difficult to share best practices and innovative ways of supporting dealers, and they had no way to post issues of concern to the entire sales team. IBM Connections software is heavily used [now] in the sales department, which finds it an excellent tool for solving challenges by sharing innovations, expertise and best practices.


Finding expertise

• Quickly locate the right people, or published content, containing, the expertise needed to solve a problem

• Connect the best possible resources to effectively respond to customer needs

• Document and share reusable solutions to common issues• Create highly-engaged and productive employees.

The IBM experienceBy any measure, the cumulative expertise of IBM employees is staggering. To better tap into that wisdom, IBM has developed analytics, expert recommendation and other expertise-led location capabilities for internal use. Employee profiles, blogs, emails (by permission), as well as content repositories and other information sources, are automatically crawled and manually searched to find expertise.

Gaining external customer insights

• Quickly learn customers’ opinions and preferences related to existing and potential products and services

• Identify and connect with key customer influencers to aid marketing efforts.

The IBM experienceIBM has supplied its expertise and analysis capabilities to some of the premier sporting events in the world, including the US Open tennis and Masters golf tournaments. IBM works with event sponsors to help them quickly harness insights to improve their understanding of the event’s operations. Event sponsors can also learn, in real-time, from customer interaction with the event’s website. IBM has even run its own digital events, called Jams, during which insights are gained from online discussions involving its employees, business partners, customers and other stakeholders. IBM also plans and conducts Jams on behalf of customers seeking to learn more about their employees and external constituents.

Increasing knowledge sharing

• More efficiently and effectively capture, share and access knowledge

• Increase innovation through wider reach of ideas• Reduce excessive, unproductive time spent searching and

exchanging information.

The IBM experienceThe research and professional services organisations within IBM are excellent examples of knowledge-driven businesses. IBM Research employees possess deep knowledge in specific areas of investigation; they include Nobel Laureates and winners of other prestigious awards. Many of the researchers at the IBM Centre for Social Business have been at the forefront of exploring how knowledge is shared within organisations and what can be done to improve those methods and tools. They actively participate in IBM client engagements across all industries. Blue IQ is a program that helps IBMers adopt social business practices, including sharing knowledge. Since 2007, Blue IQ Ambassadors have volunteered their time and expertise to help their peers collaborate more successfully. Ambassadors help their colleagues understand why knowledge sharing and other social practices are important to their work, as well as to the collective business results of IBM.

Improving recruiting and on-boarding

• Collaboratively find and connect the right candidate to the right position

• Streamline assessment and hiring processes• Better connect, engage and retain new hires• Contextually recommend expertise to

increase new hires’ productivity.

The IBM experienceWith a global headcount over 430,000, IBM has large-scale experience in recruiting, hiring and on-boarding new employees. Its Human Capital Management (HCM) processes are frequently optimised and have become socially-enabled in recent years.IBM uses LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to support its external-facing recruiting processes. Potential candidates can be made aware of country- and role-specification positions for which IBM is hiring, as well as interact with IBM recruiters through these channels. IBM recruiters and hiring managers can learn about the candidate by conversing online with them and by visiting their social profiles on the web. During the IBM on-boarding process, new hires establish their internal social profile and connect with their supervisor and team members. New employees are also instructed on ways to find the information and expertise they will need to quickly become a productive contributor at IBM, including the use of social capabilities.

Managing mergers and acquisitions

• Increase overall success rate of merger and acquisition activities

• Raise effectiveness of vision setting and communication before, during and after merger or acquisition

• Accelerate creation of “one company” community and culture.

The IBM experienceIBM has completed at least 120 acquisitions since 2001. Through those experiences, much has been learned about establishing a common vision, creating a single organisational culture, managing integration activities and retaining engaged employees. IBM use of social capabilities has spanned the range of M&A processes. IBM employees work together, and with external partners, to assess and value potential acquisition candidates. IBM teams build business cases together to justify specific M&A action. Acquired employees participate in IBM on-boarding processes, which are infused with social practices and capabilities.

Enabling and improving workplace safety

• Speed communication of new or changed safety regulations, policies and procedures

• Minimise or eliminate project execution delays arising from actual or potential safety issues

• Improve innovation in safety procedures by increasing dialogue between safety experts and workers.

The IBM experience For decades, IBM has owned and operated a number of manufacturing plants, many of which routinely house hazardous chemicals and use potentially-dangerous equipment to produce products. The company formalised its commitment to workplace safety in 1967 and consistently demonstrates low workday case rates. Developments in how IBM communicates workplace safety practices and procedures, as well as learnings from assisting customers on safety issues, inform this social business pattern.

9

Fact Sheet


AccessibilityA social business is a more open, transparent

and, importantly, accessible business. If

customers can communicate in a medium

that suits them and get a satisfactory

response – often in real time – they feel, as

they should, much more than just a number.

It’s a great way to get closer to customers,

employees and partners and complements

traditional channels such as email, face-

to-face, internet, paper and telephone

interaction.

With customers embracing the dawn of

social to share their thoughts and feelings,

organisations that don’t respond through

activity on similar channels may find

themselves at a disadvantage.

Cost savingsBy having a more collaborative and sharing

culture, firms can reduce bottlenecks

and wastage naturally.

The ability to get information and access

to the right people at the click of a button

internally boosts productivity and adds to

the bottom line. Externally, knowing there’s

a problem as soon as possible and having a

chance to resolve it quickly is invaluable and

will save valuable time, effort and resources.

IBM is a case in point – it saves $100

million each year thanks to users heading to

its developerWorks community portal rather

than the vendor’s wider support resource.

InnovationBy improving information flow and removing

silos, employees can better exchange and

share ideas and insight.

Organisations can reduce the time it takes

to get an idea from concept to marketed

product by two-thirds, IBM claims. Such

freedom of innovation can have a visible

effect on bottom line performance. Indeed,

according to Bain and Company, social media

use can boost profits by between 25 per cent

and 125 per cent.

InsightBy gaining greater insight into customer

sentiment, trends and behaviour,

organisations can better target marketing

and product efforts. This enhanced insight

will translate into tangible results.

Social media is hugely influential – a

happy customer might not bother to tweet or

update their Facebook status, yet an unhappy

customer will shout loudly online and

encourage others to amplify their discontent.

Indeed, research by ClickZ discovered that

81 per cent of people seek purchase advice

from social networking contacts before

making a decision.

ProductivityWhen employees are more effectively

sharing knowledge and collaborating,

projects and tasks that would have taken

a long time or seemed unachievable

suddenly seem much more viable.

The old adage of it not being what you

know, but who you know also feels a lot

more real.

In a sales environment, with the right

culture and tools, organisations can boost

revenue generated by each employee by more

than a quarter (26 per cent), according to

McKinsey research.

RetentionIf staff are empowered to innovate and

share ideas, it is likely they will feel happier

at work and more motivated.

This boost in productivity will also

help employees feel like they are adding

value and succeeding in their work-

related efforts. It’s a win/win situation

for both parties.

Furthermore, companies can also use

social tools to disseminate information

about benefits and organisational

activities quickly and easily to employees,

in addition to complementing other,

more traditional, HR efforts.

Social business: The benefitsThere are a number of benefits to being a more collaborative, open and social business. We run down the top advantages here…

10

Social business: The benefits


Birmingham Metropolitan CollegeBirmingham Metropolitan College has used social learning tools to

create a “classroom in the cloud” to boost student engagement.

“We are constantly looking for ways to make the learning

experience more engaging and accessible,” said Jamie Smith, Director

of Systems and Policy at the college.

“Ultimately, we want our students to have the best experience

possible during their time at BMet. We feel certain that giving them

more choice in the tools they use to participate can only be a good thing.”

Wimbledon 2013The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club (AELTC) made use

of collaborative and social technologies to track and analyse user

sentiment about players.

“Understanding the social impact of the tournament as a whole is

vitally important, because it enables us to learn about what fans really

think and to start to build a two-way relationship with them,” said Mick

Desmond, Commercial Director at the AELTC.

“That in turn will help us to focus and enhance our digital platforms

so as to strengthen the tournament in the years to come.”

Social media: Real-world case studiesBeing a social business has many advantages. But don’t just take our word for it, see for yourself how organisations of all sizes and from all sectors are benefiting…

Social business: The benefits

11

Boston Children’s HospitalThe Boston Children’s Hospital has implemented a platform, dubbed

OPENPediatrics, which it hopes will enhance medical training and

improve the care it provides to patients.

“OPENPediatrics is an open forum to connect healthcare providers

around the world,” said Traci Wolbrink, Associate Director of

OPENPediatrics and a doctor at Boston Children’s Hospital. “The idea is

to leverage technology to promote worldwide sharing and exchange of

knowledge to rescue children from crisis.”

CEMEXJust one year after embarking on a social network initiative, building

materials firm CEMEX had more effectively engaged its 20,000-plus

employees. Furthermore, some 500 communities had been created and

a further nine global social-focused programmes were in the offing.

“What started with a few hundred users in April of this year grew to

17,500 today,” said Sergio J. Escobedo, CEMEX’s Innovation Director. “We

see a marked increase in blogs, and blog comments, as well as in the creation

of more than 350 communities to bring people with common interests

and goals together. Now, that’s the power of social networking.”


AnonymityThere is no such thing as the ability to

remain anonymous on social media and

the internet in general. Even if you don’t

use your real name as your moniker, what

you say and the connections you have

may reveal your identity anyway.

As such, it’s incredibly important to

exercise the same common sense and

care when relaying your opinion and

thoughts using social media that you

would in the real world. Hiding behind

an online user name is no excuse –

or get out of jail free card – for being

abusive, breaking the rules or

making disparaging remarks about

customers, colleagues or strangers, or

posting comments that could damage

your employer’s reputation.

User education and guidance and

policy documents are key to ensuring

an organisation benefits from the use

of collaborative tools and social media.

Without such structure, there is a real

danger social media activity could do

your business more harm than good.

Bandwagon

‘Doing’ social just because everyone

else is with no real, relevant strategy is

probably much more dangerous than

not doing anything at all.

Facebook might be an appropriate

medium for some organisations in

some sectors but that doesn’t mean it’s

right for everyone. The same is true of

other social networking tools such as

Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter et al.

Take the time needed to think through

what it is you want to achieve from being

a social business before doing anything

else. Once you have a clear idea of your

destination and the steps you need to take

along the way you can properly start to

plan the journey.

CultureThere is no point attempting to embrace

a more collaborative and sharing culture

externally if you’re not following the same

approach internally in your organisation. The

same can be said the other way around.

The passion for collaboration must be

both top down and bottom up, inside and

out, in order for an organisation to truly

succeed as a social business. Culture must

blend together with people, processes and

technology to drive business value and

gain real advantage from social interactions

internally and externally.

DisclaimersUsers seem to be under the impression that

adding a disclaimer to their profile saying

‘Views are my own and not my employer’s’

or words to that effect create a clear divide

between business and pleasure. That’s the

theory. The reality is quite the opposite.

Disclaimers in the social media world

mean nothing. Much like the point here

about anonymity, the comments you make

and connections you share in some way identify

who you are. And, whether you like it or not,

your employer still has a vested interest in

the comments you make when not at work.

Of course, you want employees to be able

to freely express themselves and not feel

censored. However, there needs to be clear

boundaries and organisations must lead

by example.

Intern involvement/Separate departments

This is asking for trouble. If we except social

media is an important channel why leave

it to the unpaid worky? That smacks of

laziness and cost-cutting – two things that

can actually cost you very dearly.

Similarly, think carefully before you

create a dedicated ‘social media’ team. If

you go down this road, you need some way

of ensuring you’re on the same page and

have a way of connecting/collaborating.

The people tweeting and updating statuses

and responding to customers on your behalf

must be plugged in to how the people

closest to that particular product or process

behave and think.

Social business: The risksThere are many things to consider when it comes to being a social business. And many of the risks can come from failing to plan and the use of social media in particular. Be careful out there...

12

Social business: The risks


Hashtag misuseWhen former Prime Minister Margaret

Thatcher died, the nation was divided.

Many mourned and lamented the

passing of the Iron Lady, while others

looked upon some of her past decisions

much less favourably and made unkind

comments.

Most of this dialogue took place

on social networking sites such

as Facebook and Twitter and it

wasn’t long before the topic was

trending with the hashtag ‘Now That

Thatcher’s Dead’. Unfortunately in

the social media world that looks like

this #nowthatcherisdead which means

something different entirely.

In a similar vein, McDonalds

ended up paying for negative

promotion when it asked customers

to share their experiences with the food

chain. #McDstories ending up creating

a real-time forum for disgruntled users

to expose and exchange their horror stories.

Social media: When things go wrongYou must be aware of the risks to avoid the worst happening, leaving your organisation’s reputation in tatters. Pay heed to what you need to do or you could end up in one of these rather sticky situations…

Social business: The risks

13

The intern effectIn 2012, Tom Watson MP had to have

a little word with his intern after she

hijacked his account, which he’d left

open while attending a meeting.

Watson took back control of his

account and tweeted a public apology.

He also confirmed that the student

intern, although in hot water over the

matter, would not be sacked and could

remain on her year-long placement.

Singing a company’s praises (not)United Airlines was on the wrong side

of the power of social media, back in

2009, when musician Dave Carroll

wrote a song entitled ‘United Breaks

Guitars.’ After a trip with the airline,

his $3,500 guitar was damaged and,

frustrated with a lack of response and

compensation, he took to social media.

The song was posted on YouTube

and went viral. Some 150,000 people

viewed the video on the first day of

posting and, as of September 2013,

more than 13 million people had

watched it. Shortly after the video

was posted, United made contact with

Carroll to try and resolve the issue.

It is reported by Wikipedia that

United has tried to learn from the

incident and that the managing director

of customer solutions at the time

personally apologised and asked if

the video could be used for internal

training going forward.

Credit: www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/twitter/9041473/Tom-Watsons-Twitter-account-hijacked-by-intern.html

Credit: www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YGc4zOqozo

Credit: @rickygervais

Credit: www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2090862/McDstories-McDonalds-Twitter-promotion-backfires-users-share-fast-food-horror-stories.html


F rontier Medical Group (Frontier)

is a leading manufacturer and

supplier of medical products to

healthcare providers in the UK,

Europe and internationally. A large part of

its business is focused on providing devices

for the safe exchange and disposal of sharps

objects, such as needles and syringes.

Tackling development challenges As a medical device manufacturer, Frontier

operates against a backdrop of strict

regulatory guidelines and increasing cost

sensitivity, as healthcare budgets continue

to shrink. It must work harder than ever

to ensure products are manufactured

to exacting standards, meet customer

requirements and offer optimum cost-

effectiveness.

Faced with these pressures, Frontier

looked for a way to boost efficiencies and

strengthen collaboration between its

product development and sales teams. If

the company could streamline development

cycles, it could get new products to market

more quickly and cheaply, potentially

securing a valuable edge over the

competition.

Dan Taylor, Product Designer at Frontier

Medical Products, elaborates: “In the past,

product development could be held up

because people often weren’t clear about

where they were in a given project. We were

looking for a way to bring team members

together, so they could have a centralised

view of the latest project status, as well as

a way to collaborate and share information

more effectively.”

Choosing IBM Connections In its search for a solution, Frontier reviewed

collaboration software from a range of

vendors, but found that none of the products

fully matched what the business was looking

for. When the company finally had the

opportunity to evaluate IBM Connections,

it immediately recognised that the solution

was a perfect fit for Frontier’s needs.

Stephen Coombs, IT Manager at Frontier

Medical Products, explains: “For us, IBM

Connections offered the total package: it

had the right look-and-feel, offered all the

functionality we wanted, and had the added

advantage of being web-based, so we could

access it from mobile devices. This was a

big plus as our sales teams spend a lot of

time out in the field, and don’t always have

access to a desktop computer.”

Rolling out the solution Frontier started by purchasing a small

number of IBM Connections licenses for a

pilot phase, testing the solution and seeing

how it aligned with users’ ways of working.

This pilot proved highly successful, and the

Frontier Medical Group works smarter with IBM social software

The need Frontier Medical Group (Frontier) wanted to improve efficiencies and collaboration between its development and sales divisions, in an effort to shorten time-to-market for new products.

The solution Frontier is working with IBM Business Partner Codel Software to build a more collaborative business using IBM Connections – social software that supports smarter information sharing and integration.

The benefits Improved project information visibility and team member efficiency, slashing product development cycles and driving greater innovation, which helps the company to stay one step ahead of competition.

14

Case Study: Frontier medical group


company moved ahead with a wider roll-out,

first extending the solution to users in the

product development department, then to

other divisions, such as sales and marketing.

“We felt that the best way to start

bringing users on board with Connections

was to immerse them in the solution

as much as possible,” states Stephen

Coombs. “We developed communities for

specific projects, and added people to each

community so they could get to grips with

using the software and start participating

and sharing information. As more and more

users become familiar with the solution, and

see first-hand the benefits that it can deliver,

we expect Connections to really take off

across the entire business.”

Technical assistance from IBM Business Partner Codel Software helped to guarantee

a smooth implementation. “We have been

working with Codel Software for a long time,

and have built up a solid partnership with

their team over the years. Codel worked

closely with us on the pilot deployment, and

were always there to help put things right

when we hit any bumps during the wider

implementation.”

Fostering greater collaboration IBM Connections allows Frontier to build

better networks between project teams.

It offers an integrated, secure platform

for sharing information, discussing ideas,

planning project tasks and working more

collaboratively.

“With IBM Connections it’s much

easier to bring people together and develop

ideas,” says Taylor. “For each project, we

can create an online community, and set up

features like blogs with the latest project

status and forums for discussing new ideas

and concepts. The image gallery is also

really useful as it helps us to have a good

visualisation of product designs.

“All files get uploaded to a central

location, so we no longer have multiple

copies of documents spread across different

computers. This is helping to cut down on

storage space on our server, and there’s also

no more hunting through emails or system

folders to find the information we need,

which is a big time-saver.”

Accelerating development timelines Frontier expects IBM Connections to

deliver a considerable boost to its product

development processes by facilitating

more efficient communication between

development and sales teams.

“When it comes to developing new

products, we rely a lot on input from our

sales teams: at the end of the day, they are

the ones who are interacting with customers

and working to sell our products, so it’s

crucial that we get their feedback on new

designs,” explains Taylor.

“In the past, it often happened that

the sales team would only see products

near the end of the development cycle.

If they had suggestions about changing

certain elements of a design, it meant

that the development team would have

to take a few steps back to make the

modifications, which ended up lengthening

our development cycles and time-to-market.

With IBM Connections, sales staff are

actively involved at every stage during the

design process, and can give us constant

feedback. This allows us to keep projects

on track, and get better products out

to market faster.”

Secure information exchange In addition to bringing together the

company’s internal departments, IBM

Connections is helping Frontier to

support more secure collaboration with

Solution components Software IBM® Connections IBM Business Partner Codel Software

We believe that selecting IBM Connections represents a very secure investment for our business: it is helping us to work smarter and speed our time-to-market, so that we can stay one step ahead of the competition.

1115



international partners.

“We have a distribution partner

based in Belgium, and work with them

a lot on developing various products for

the European market,” notes Taylor. “IBM

Connections has delivered a real boost

to our interaction with this team, giving

everyone better visibility over projects and

speeding up the design process. “

He adds: “Importantly, Connections

helps us to keep information exchange

highly secure by giving us complete control

over which users can view different types of

information. We can restrict different teams’

access to just the groups that they need, so

there’s no risk of unauthorised users gaining

access to sensitive data.”

Meeting regulatory requirements The solution’s rich document management

capabilities also provide Frontier with a solid

audit trail for various regulatory bodies. The

company undergoes regular external audits,

aimed at ensuring that stringent guidelines

are followed during the product design

process. With full documentation of all

stages of a project centrally available in IBM

Connections, Frontier can easily prove that it

is complying with regulations.

Keeping an edge on market competition

In the future, Frontier is planning to build

on these successes by extending the mobile

capabilities of the solution and issuing sales

teams with iPads. These will be used to provide

on-the-go access to Connections, so that

sales teams can share new product concepts

with customers on site. This will help the

company to get valuable feedback from target

users and better gauge consumer interest.

Coombs concludes: “We are very

pleased to see the momentum that IBM is

building around mobile collaboration, and

feel confident that its solutions will continue

to be enhanced so that we can get great

value out of them for many years to come.

We believe that selecting IBM Connections

represents a very secure investment for our

business: it is helping us to work smarter

and speed our time-to-market, so that we

can stay one step ahead of the competition.”

About Codel SoftwareCodel Software specialises in providing a

portfolio of business solutions, bespoke

software development, system integration

and software support services that help

improve clients’ business performance. As

an IBM Business Partner, the Codel Software

team has over thirty years’ experience

delivering solutions based on IBM

technologies. Its vision is to deliver continuous

improvement through collaborative

solutions. www.codelsoftware.com

© Copyright IBM Corporation 2013IBM United Kingdom Limited PO Box 41, North Harbour Portsmouth Hampshire, PO6 3AUProduced in the United Kingdom May 2013IBM, the IBM logo and ibm.com are trademarks of International Business Machines Corp., registered in many jurisdictions worldwide. Other product and service names might be trademarks of IBM or other companies. A current list of IBM trademarks is available on the web at “Copyright and trademark information” at ibm.com/legal/copytrade.shtml.IBM and Codel Software are separate companies and each is responsible for its own products. Neither IBM nor Codel Software makes any warranties, express or implied, concerning the other’s products.

This document is current as of the initial date of publication and may be changed by IBM at any time. Not all offerings are available in every country in which IBM operates.The client examples cited are presented for illustrative purposes only. Actual performance results may vary depending on specific configurations and operating conditions.

THE INFORMATION IN THIS DOCUMENT IS PROVIDED “AS IS” WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WITHOUT ANY WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND ANY WARRANTY OR CONDITION OF NON-INFRINGEMENT.

IBM products are warranted according to the terms and conditions of the agreements under which they are provided. The client is responsible for ensuring compliance with laws and regulations applicable to it. IBM does not provide legal advice or represent or warrant that its services or products will ensure that the client is in compliance with any law or regulation. Statements regarding IBM’s future direction and intent are subject to change or withdrawal without notice, and represent goals and objectives only.

For more informationTo learn more about IBM social software solutions, contact your IBM sales representative or IBM Business Partner, or visit us at: ibm.com/software/lotus/products/connections

To learn more about products, services and solutions from Codel Software, visit: www.codelsoftware.com

16



FAQs

What does social business mean in

real terms?

JM: Social is an interesting term. It’s

a piece of string – everyone has their own vision of social. For me, it’s the right level of people interaction with the right level of transparency.

That means you can have a social interaction that is one to one, one to many or many to many. It’s really about embedding social capabilities into the way that you do business.

Do you really need a Facebook page to be

social? Not really - there are other tools, but it is like going to a well-known hotel.

You go there because it has brand value, it’s understood there’s quality, and there are always rooms available.

SM: Even though people think of it as

something new, in the enterprise, there have been capabilities like this for the last 10 years or so. The bulletin board type thing some people could do in the 90s is now something everybody can do. They don’t have to get over a technical access or a learning hurdle.

What are the key drivers behind this

shift to social?

JM: There’s a dimension of what

we do in our work lives and what we do in our personal lives and different generations treat it differently. But each of them are very social – from a technical and personal perspective. But, if you take all the tools away, we’ve always been social.

The tools bring more impact, more scale and a more real-time nature to those types of interactions.

Marketing has seen the impact social can have in terms of getting a response from someone, but how do you convert that? Externally, businesses are using social to bridge that gap.

Part of the remit of social is not about being sociable. It’s not about being warm and cuddly and doing things for the greater world good - it’s fundamentally about doing something that serves you as a business and there are a number of people who will participate in that process.

IBM’s social business and collaboration experts Jon Machtynger and Stuart McRae answer some of your questions around this important topic.


17

Jon Machtynger is CTO of

IBM collaboration solutions

in the UK and Ireland. He’s

been with IBM since 2002

and prior to that held a

number of consultancy and

engineering roles in the IT

industry.

Stuart McRae is executive

collaboration evangelist

at IBM. In his current role

he advises organisations

on the benefits of being

a social business and the

steps they need to take in

order to get there.


SM: Drivers are always more

powerful when they coincide with other drivers that push them in the same direction.

It’s about the business not about the social. It’s not what you know, it’s who you know. In business terms it’s about going to find more senior people and building relationships with them. That will be key to getting their attention and getting their help in future. Again, in some ways, social business is about doing that but just on an online basis.

Where do other technologies/trends

such as cloud fit in?

JM: Cloud gives users flexibility in

architecture. It gives them commercial flexibility and the ability to reduce costs.

But it’s also a very confusing area. So when a client says to us they want a cloud solution, it’s a great opportunity for us to have a conversation with them about what they mean by that. We can talk about what we’ve seen in other engagements so we’re very much walking into the discussion as peers as opposed to vendor and client. Then they

can work out what they want to use where, for example, collaboration cloud services here versus monitoring cloud services there.

It’s very much an evolution in the way that they conduct business and satisfy IT requirements than simply ticking the cloud box.

SM: It’s not about Facebook

existing, it’s about the fact most people will update their statuses using mobile devices, the fact tweets are short, and that there is a synergy between these

two technologies. Cloud technologies

and the freemium model for delivering services across the internet had to happen at the same time as this mass adoption of a business model people get into very quickly and are willing to pay for later.

How is IBM as an organisation

harnessing the power of social?

JM: IBM’s role is to support the internal

requirements of the ways in which people want to interact and the way they interact externally. And to do so in a way that fulfils what the business wants. We tend to do things in a very social way within IBM. We do a lot of sharing. It’s been a long cultural journey but it’s now second nature to all of us.

SM: If I want to know something in

IBM, someone out of those 400,000-plus people will be able to help me. It’s then entirely down

to my ability to drive the social systems so I can find that person.

They’re probably open to listening and if they’re not I can find someone who has a good relationship with them I know who can step in and I can get to them that way.

What are your predictions for the

future when it comes to social business?

JM: It’s not a race. The difficulty is

many organisations are under pressure to deliver on a quarterly basis so it might seem like a race. Social highlights the complete unpredictability of individuals. But that’s part of the benefit too.

Because things are so unpredictable, because they’re unplanned, sometimes people can surprise you amazingly by delivering incredible bits of innovation or sharing.

Or just by reducing costs like you could never have imagined before. But the fact it wasn’t part of

a plan means no one could put a process around it and constrain its success.

SM: In the future, in business, we will

be using social media in exactly the same way as we do the telephone today.

That is, we won’t even think about it. We’ll just do it. It’s not about the medium anymore, it’s about the content.


18

In the future, in business, we will be using social media in exactly the same way as we do the telephone today. That is, we won’t even think about it. We’ll just do it. It’s not about the medium anymore, it’s about the content.


Assess the benefits of being a social business

Becoming a social business

IBM demonstrates social leadership

IBM empowers firms with new social business tools

Social business in action

The advent of the social business

Further reading

19

Further readingWe’ve rounded up some useful resources and further reading we hope you will find helpful as you strive to become a more social business.

For further information, visit: www.ibm.com/smarterplanet/uk/en/socialbusiness/overview/ To view IBM’s social business videos visit:

www.youtube.com/user/IBMSocialBizFollow IBM social business on Twitter: www. twitter.com/IBMSocialBiz


http://www.ibm.com/social-business/us/en/understand-the-benefits.html

http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/42018.wss

http://www.ibm.com/smarterplanet/global/files/uk__en_uk__socialbusiness__becoming_a_social_business_ibm_story.pdf

http://www.ibm.com/social-business/us/en/customers.html

http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/40875.wss

http://www.ibm.com/smarterplanet/global/files/uk__en_uk__socialbusiness__epw14008usen.pdf