Optimize Your Business to Thrive

In yesterday’s General Session, Paul Papas, Global Leader, Smarter Commerce, IBM Global Business Services, highlighted the key trends that business and IT leaders should consider when mapping their business transformation journey. In a digital age marked by an explosion in social media and the use of mobile devices, with increasing data volumes, the need to share and process content becomes critical to driving measureable business outcomes.

“When companies look to transform, success is predicated on their ability to understand their customer’s needs, but also customize and personalize that experience to maintain customer loyalty and create an optimal brand experience,” said Papas. When integrating value chains, companies should apply three foundational elements: customer value strategy, customer insight, and customer engagement.

IBM created a series of Business Value Accelerators (BVAs) to help companies chart their path to Smarter Commerce, and define a roadmap to achieving desired business outcomes. Three new BVAs are being released this week, covering Enterprise Marketing Management, Supply Chain Visibility and Customer Analytics.

Transforming in the Age of the Empowered Customer

A panel session featuring IBM clients Vivo, Dun and Bradstreet (D&B), and GuideWell, joined by Maria Winans, Vice President, Worldwide Software Industry Solutions Marketing at IBM, shared their business transformation experiences. Francine Geist, Vice President, Enabling Systems and Strategy at D&B, described how the drive to Smarter Commerce started with an audit of what is meaningful to its customers, prior to looking at technology, which has resulted in them becoming easier to do business with. "Leveraging an IBM Sterling solution, the company is now able to engage with customers from a single platform and, as a result of automating processes that were previously manually based, we can focus our resources on driving innovation," said Geist.

Winans highlighted IBM's marketing transformation experience stating, "IBM identified the need to fundamentally transform the way it generates demand and manages customer responses and leads, to accelerate its processes, improve visibility, and increase response rates. Transformation spans technology, skills, and process. For it to be successful, it must be embraced holistically, never losing sight of the customer."

Kawasaki Delights Audience with Fresh Take on Innovation

Crowd-pleaser Guy Kawasaki, Alltop.com co-founder, author, and former Apple Chief Evangelist, shared his unique perspectives on "The Art of Innovation." In his engaging lecture, Kawasaki outlined 10 tips on the importance of innovating, founded not only on customer need, but more importantly, on the ability to add value. Recommendations included: "Making Meaning" ensuring products are unique and valuable, and the ability to "Jump to the Next Curve" in technology revolutions. A final practical take-away, was his 10-20-30 rule for presenters, meaning to use only 10 slides, take 20 minutes or less to present, and use no less than 30 point font.

And The Award Goes To...

IBM created the Smarter Commerce awards to recognize clients who are harnessing the power of the Smarter Commerce portfolio to stay competitive in today's increasingly customer-centric, digitally based market landscape. We had 26 finalists for these awards—all using Smarter Commerce solutions to redefine commerce in the age of the customer.

Congratulations to the 2011 Smarter Commerce Award recipients:

Extend Your Experience – Post Conference Education and Labs

Just a reminder, the post conference sessions are taking place throughout the day, today. These post conference sessions will enable you to leverage and extend your organization’s existing investments in IBM solutions. View and add relevant sessions to your agenda by logging onto the Smarter Commerce Global Summit SmartSite. From the home page, click Sessions >> Thurs. Sept. 22 >> Post Conference Education and Labs.

Note: Space is limited and pre-registration is not available. Each lab can accommodate up to 40 participants. Please arrive early to reserve your space.

Thank You All

On behalf of IBM, thank you. Our clients, Business Partners, and employees, along with analysts and members of the press made the inaugural Smarter Commerce Global Summit a rousing success. I hope you found the keynotes, guest speakers, education sessions, networking opportunities, and client best practices valuable to helping you transform your businesses around the customer. We appreciate the opportunity to collaborate with you and to share our Smarter Commerce strategy, including new and integrated solutions and capabilities announced during the Summit, designed to help you gain and maintain a competitive advantage.

Our goal for the Summit was to offer new insights and resources to help you optimize and integrate your value chain across the Buy, Market, Sell and Service commerce lifecycle, in a market where businesses are, more than ever, driven by demand. I hope you are taking away valuable concepts and actionable benefits from your time here.

We value our relationship with you and we are committed to helping you meet your business goals, now and in the future. We look forward to seeing you at the next Smarter Commerce Summit.

Craig Hayman
General Manager, Industry Solutions, IBM Software Group