Duffbert's Random Musings

ARMONK, N.Y. - 07 Apr, 2011:  IBM (NYSE:IBM) today announced increased client adoption of its cloud computing software and services with more than 20 million end-user customers worldwide, making it one of the world's largest providers of software-as-a-service (SaaS).  

New clients include American Airlines, Aviva, CARFAX, Frito-Lay, IndiaFirst Life Insurance Co., Shriram Transport Finance Company Ltd., and 7-Eleven among millions of users of IBM's cloud services focused on business process management and collaboration.

Organizations are increasingly choosing IBM to help them transform their key business processes in departments such as marketing, finance and customer service, and deliver them through the cloud for increased efficiencies and improved productivity and innovation.  

The demand for cloud computing is on the rise as organizations seek to expand the impact of IT to deliver new and innovative services while realizing significant economies of scale.  According to IDC, $17 billion was spent on cloud-related technologies, hardware and software in 2009. IDC expects that spending will grow to $45 billion by 2013. (1)

IBM has helped thousands of clients adopt cloud models and manages millions of cloud based transactions every day in areas as diverse as banking, communications, healthcare and government, and securely tap into IBM cloud-based business and infrastructure services. By offering proven solutions to unify, accelerate and automate these cloud infrastructures, IBM will help global organizations optimize their return-on investment from technology.  In fact, 80 percent of the FORTUNE 500 are using IBM cloud capabilities.

IBM's SaaS portfolio ranges from business process management to collaboration, social business, Web analytics, B2B commerce, supply chain management, marketing and enterprise systems management.   In IBM's new Smarter Commerce business, cloud services from Coremetrics, Unica and Sterling Commerce assist 36,000 marketers, manage more than 6 billion business/consumer interactions, and 1.1 Billion B2B electronic transactions per year worth approximately $15 Trillion of client value with nearly all the top banks, retailers and manufacturers in the US alone.  

BlueWorks Live Helps Company Departments Improve the Way They Work......in Seconds

An example of IBM's SaaS service adoption, BlueWorks Live makes organizations more efficient by enabling social communities to form around a specific line-of-business functions and automating simple processes that run over email in as quickly as 90 seconds.   Blueworks Live improves the way people work by helping them collaborate fluidly across roles, teams and locations while enabling all members to be informed of important changes as they happen.

"We were looking for cloud technology that was easy to use, rapid to implement and would provide immediate, tangible benefits for our key business processes within a couple of days, if not weeks," said Andy Kim, Director of IT Governance at MedImpact Healthcare Systems, Inc., a national pharmacy benefits management company based in San Diego.

In addition to MedImpact, many other industry leaders have moved their business process planning and improvement cycles into the cloud.   Companies as diverse as American Airlines, Aviva, CARFAX, Frito-Lay, and 7-Eleven are using Blueworks Live for a range of activities such as: blueprinting processes for use in training and orientation for employees; documenting key finance processes; capturing and improving process documentation such as audit and order-to-cash processes.  

The newest version of Blueworks Live, available for a free, 30-day trial, will debut at IBM's Impact Conference (http://www-01.ibm.com/software/websphere/events/impact/), April 10--15 in Las Vegas.

LotusLive Delivers Social Collaboration Services to Organizations Around the Globe

IBM's LotusLive social collaboration services deliver easy-to-access integrated email, social networking, and third-party applications from the cloud, helping transform businesses. Joining the millions of users already embracing LotusLive include IndiaFirst Life Insurance, Shriram Transport Finance Company, Bumbu Desa and Lofotkraft.

IndiaFirst Life Insurance, an insurance company headquartered in Mumbai, India, has a branch network of over 4,800 banks across more than 1,000 cities and towns in India. With a large sales force, including office employees and sales agents scattered across the country, the company needed an easy way to hold essential business meetings without requiring all employees to meet in one location. Using IBM LotusLive Meetings,  top management, sales managers and the sales force can meet on the fly and during regularly scheduled meeting to ensure the sales force has all of the information to make successful sales, and to ensure monthly sales goals are being met. With Web meetings, employees can use the "chat room" feature in LotusLive Meetings to communicate with one another, and can share information and charts using the "screen sharing" feature.

Diners are flocking to Bumbu Desa, an Indonesia restaurant chain, with new locations expanding into Singapore and Malaysia.  Growing from three branches five years ago to 38 branches in 2010, the different franchises of Bumbu Desa were having a hard time staying connected with one another. Using IBM LotusLive Engage for essential collaboration tools like Web conferencing, social networking and instant messaging, employees across the franchises can now quickly share information regarding new menus, new ways to greet guests, and other restaurant related issues. For example, each Bumbu Desa franchise can now submit their daily sales reports to franchise headquarters via file sharing in LotusLive Engage, a method that was previously handled using fax or overnight mail. Bumbu Desa is also embracing LotusLive's unique "guest account" model, which provides free-of-charge access of LotusLive to customers and other stakeholders such as cooks or food reviewers.

Shriram Transport Finance Company Ltd., India's largest commercial vehicle financing company, needed a better way to communicate with its field sales force. With 484 office and services centers and more than 14,000 employees and growing, Shriram Transport Finance employees and sales rep found it challenging to do with business with their clients and with one another.  While some employees had access to email, the provider was often unreliable -- emails were lost and performance was low. Shriram needed an email solution that could accommodate rapid growth and perform with speed and consistency. The company chose IBM LotusLive iNotes to provide all of its field sales reps with reliable, cost-effective and easy to use cloud email, which can be accessed on the road, at their desk and from their mobile devices.

Lofotkraft, an energy company serving more than 16,000 customer with operations in five branches throughout the Lofoten Islands, Norway, needed a better way to do business with key external business partners and vendors without worrying about security.  They also needed to better communicate with employees working in the different branches. Lofotkraft chose IBM LotusLive Engage to share files, manage projects, host meetings and chat with partners, vendors and colleagues. They have also been able to reduce confusing email threads and eliminate version control issues.   Because all the services are integrated and available from one single dashboard in the IBM cloud, Lofotkraft and its partners can easily collaborate and meet anytime, anywhere.  

For more information about Blueworks Live, please visit www.blueworkslive.com

For more information about LotusLive, please visit www.lotuslive.com

About IBM Cloud Computing
IBM has helped thousands of clients adopt cloud models and manages millions of cloud based transactions every day. IBM assists clients in areas as diverse as banking, communications, healthcare and government to build their own clouds or securely tap into IBM cloud-based business and infrastructure services. IBM is unique in bringing together key cloud technologies, deep process knowledge, a broad portfolio of cloud solutions, and a network of global delivery centers. For more information about IBM cloud solutions, visit www.ibm.com/smartcloud

Source:
(1) IDC's Worldwide Collaborative Applications 2010–2014 Forecast Update: Market Poised for Slight Rebound Within Next Five Years (#224269, August 2010).