Not Seven of Nine - Eight of Nine! IBM Clear Leader in Social Business according to Experton

Back in 2011,  I told you about my trip to Germany and what I learned about German companies adopting social business principles at great rate, companies like Bayer and Sennheiser.  Even GAD as on stage to tell their Social Business Success at IBM Connect!

And just today, other amazing news has arrived from Germany! It’s about IBM and about our service and product offering being assessed by an external research, advisory and consulting company alongside over 90 other vendors.

Experton, the European Analyst firm, did this extensive vendor benchmark on Social Business for the German market. They are – at least to my knowledge – the first ones collecting data from Social Business Services up to different software components playing into the Social Business space. Just published early 2014 their study shows 9 different quadrants.

SB medium_ExpertonSocialBusinessLeader

And the results remind me of Star Trek Voyager  -- 7 of 9. Why? IBM is in the leader quadrant in 8 of 9 quadrants. The only quadrant not listing IBM as leader is the one for Social CRM. And that’s just because IBM doesn't have an offer in this space...

This is an outstanding and impressive achievement and shows the companies commitment in the Social Business space. You can find more information on the results here including some impressive numbers for the social business market in general.

According to Experton, the market for social business for communication & collaboration (SB4CC) even outpaces cloud computing as IT and business driver with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 50% by 2016!

You want to get a summary of the study? Send a note to Stefan.Pfeiffer@de.ibm.com. He will make sure, that you get the PDF as soon as it’s available.


Create an App for Cloud and Mobile at PULSE!

With the world's mobile worker population expected to reach 1.3 BILLION by 2015, we need some expert app developers to keep up!

With this in mind, I want to share with you some interesting facts and statistics you should know as you consider the value of attending an event like Pulse for your cloud business.

pulse2014-facebook-9bpulse2014-facebook-7b

Our App Throwdown event at Pulse is not just a competition. It's core intention is to get you in the game! The tiles above are not just describing what's going to happen in the industry, it's potentially describing your cloud business.

The App Throwdown will take place on Monday, February 24th. The winner will be on main stage on Wednesday, February 26th, in front of over 8,000 re-sellers, clients, and IBM sellers – giving you the opportunity to reach a new and broad audience!

This is your chance to show off your cloud solution and shine! Register now  https://greenhouse.lotus.com/forms/anon/org/app/d1672a73-80de-473e-8fcf-473f25927516/launch/index.html?form=F_Form1

and get in the game!


Join me at IBM's Cloud Conference in Vegas! 14 Predictions!

The IBM Pulse 2014 conference is just around the corner! As the premier cloud conference, Pulse is an exciting event where you can explore the latest developments in cloud, security and asset management. This year's Pulse will be on February 23-26 in Las Vegas.

I invite you to attend my breakout session where I'll be talking about my 14 predictions for social business trends in 2014. I love looking forward as we journey into a new year of social business. To that end, I'll discuss key topics around themes, such as social tools, social talent and social conText.

To get a taste for my breakout session, watch this video I blogged about at the close of last year:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jf5yg_ERDfo&list=UU5uf_n9qa5yQOGEXdGn2uKw&feature=c4-overview]

To add my breakout sessin to your Pulse conference agenda, go to this page <link to https://www-950.ibm.com/events/global/pulse/agenda/preview.html?sessionid=BME-2170A> and click the arrow button.

Hope to see you in Las Vegas, and I'm really looking forward to sharing my predictions with you and hearing some of your own!


Happy Valentines! Digital tip of the week –– Organize your Twitter stream by creating lists

When you follow a high number of profiles on Twitter, it is sometimes difficult to get to know the important and useful tweets in between the “noise” of your timeline. Twitter Lists come in handy to keep up with the best tweets from the people you follow and cut the noise in your stream. You can have different categories of lists eg “customers”, “partners” etc to help you sort the content and you can make your lists public or private. Plus, lists are a form of appreciation on Twitter, a gesture of gratitude. And you might get listed back too.

Learn how to create Twitter lists here.

https://support.twitter.com/articles/76460-how-to-use-twitter-lists


Come THROWDOWN your APP!!! Get Exposure at IBM Pulse!

We’re taking the App Throwdown to IBM Pulse 2014!

Calling all IBM Business Partners! Come and join us for IBM Pulse (Our Premier CLOUD event!) where we'll be holding an App Throwdown! Compete with your best solution and be highlighted in front of Clients and IBM Sales teams during qualifying rounds. The winner will be on main stage on Day 3 in front of over 8,000 Re-sellers, Clients, and IBM Sellers - giving you the opportunity to reach a new and broad audience!

In addition to sharing your solution with the conference audience, we will be leveraging Mutual Minds to magnify the reach of your company and your solution. For example, during the main stage session of the AppThrowdown at our recent IBM Connect event, social impressions totalled over 21.7M! (read more about it here) and the winner already has more leads than they can handle!

The Details:

Is my solution eligible? Your need to demonstrate your solution's use of our Cloud Solution show how your solution runs on SoftLayer or IBM BlueMix. OR integration with IBM Security or Smarter Infrastructure products.

What do I need to do to apply? Submit a 2-5 minute video demonstration of an application that you have built integrating with the solutions above.

How do I register? Click here to fill out this brief form. We're waiting for your submissions!

Please join me there live!!