My perspective on how organisations implement social networking would be, ‘hmmm… not bad’. Lately, I came across one such organisation which has certainly gone an extra mile to impress its customers, and I really liked the way it had collaborated social technologies into its business. My post for this week would be on, how IBM has managed to use social platform as a base for socializing itself to the outside world. IBM is a popular multinational technology and consulting company, which has revolutionised computer engineering to a new level. The company has not only been successful in research and inventions, but also it has never failed in proving its presence worldwide. This definitely wouldn’t be possible without the proper implementation of the social platforms.
How has IBM developed
into a Social business?
IBM has a community for developers,
where individuals can share and learn from experts. This community reflects an
overall experience of a social platform which comprises of blogs, wikis,
forums, podcasts, events and a personalised profile for every user. The
access to this community is publicly available which requires registration.
With access to this community, one can participate in various discussions with
IBM experts and other developers worldwide. You can have a look at the IBM developer’s
community by referring the following link:
Further, IBM has been developing
various social collaboration solutions for business, through which employees
can share ideas, insight and information in the enterprise level. This has
empowered the management to take quick business decisions in an efficient
manner. These products are named as ‘IBM Connections’,
and they consist of diverse range of products to satisfy different business
needs. ‘IBM Connections’ have been implemented in various Australian organisations
which has resulted in better work experience, increase in productivity, proper
human resource management and easy interaction between the employees. Following
is a video of Australian Bureau of Statistics, Assistant Director Stephen
Wellington, in which he has conveyed on how ‘IBM Connections’ has helped his
business.
How has IBM made use
of Blogs and Wikis?
Blogs:
IBM has managed internal and
external blogs through its community. This has encouraged visitors and bloggers
to socialize and share their blogs within the IBM community. Blog listing
consists of the latest blogs and featured blogs, which are decided on the likes
and votes from the community members. Also, they have got a platform where only
the employees can advertise their blogs, which is known as ‘IBMer’s blog’. ‘IBMer’s
blog’ generally consists of all the internal blogs, where the IBM employees
present their blogs on technology, enterprise and IBM products. IBM has another
blog named as ‘IBM software blog’ which is related to the software and
business prospects of the company. In this blog; bloggers and visitors post
articles, discussions, case studies and information on various softwares and
packages that serve the growing business needs; to be more precise it’s a business
and technology oriented blog. There’s another similar blog named as ‘IBM
Impact blog’ which shares the same objective as the previous one. Following
are the links to the various blogs of IBM:
Wikis:
Wiki’s is another social platform
utilized by IBM to educate the employees and for public use. Wiki consists of
ample of information pertaining to the products, technological concepts, business
modules, guidelines, documentation, presentation, and audio/video tutorials. ‘IBM
Connections Wiki’ is a platform, which has a collection of all the relevant
wikis, and are publicly accessible to its customers who have implemented the
product ‘IBM Connection’. IBM also has another Wiki for general topics which is
a knowledgebase source for all its users. Following are the links, to two of
the IBM Wikis:
Following is a video on public
Wikis by IBM:
Analysis on the publication
‘McKinsey Global Institute 2012’
After a keen research on IBM
social technology implementation, I was able to co-relate with the few among
the 10 value levers of social technology published by McKinsey. After my analysis,
I derived the following conclusion on IBM way of handling its customers and
employees:
i) Encourage consumers to share
their views and thoughts towards the development of new products.
ii) Frequent analysis on the
consumer requirements and feedback.
iii) Use of the product ‘IBM
Connections’ has certainly paved the way for quick business decision making.
iv) Customer’s have been provided
with support and assistance through social platforms like Blogs, forums and
Wikis.
v) Interaction within and outside
the organisation has been improved with the introduction of internal and external
blogs and forums.
Considering all the above
factors, I can say that IBM has been focusing on aspects such as ‘Product
Development’, ‘Operations and Distributions’, ‘Customer Service’ and ‘Business
Support’. With this I conclude that, IBM has certainly made the best use of
social technology than its current competitors. Further, we can hope to witness
more of a social technological oriented market in the near future.
And to all my blog visitors, thank
you for going through my blog. Please leave a comment on the following query. According
to you, what possible social platforms could replace the use of blogs and wikis?
I would really appreciate any sort of suggestions and opinions.
References:
http://www.ibm.com/us/en/
References:
http://www.ibm.com/us/en/
