The power of the ecosystem: Magic happens!
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Throughout the year, I've blogged about the power of the ecosystem. Whether it was a focus on the http://socialbusinesssandy.com/2014/02/27/pulse-cloud-ecosystem-announcements-a-summary-infographic, the http://socialbusinesssandy.com/2014/02/05/the-power-of-the-entrepreneur-and-the-ecosystem-ibm-entrepreneur-week/">entrepreneur ecosystem, or <a href="http://socialbusinesssandy.com/2014/01/07/social-business-is-all-about-people-in-2014-3-big-priorities/">empowering folks to create a digital ecosystem</a>, I'm a big believer that nurturing an ecosystem is essential to success.
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I'm always encouraging companies who have smarter, game-changing, industry-disrupting solutions to build and engage their ecosystem. As a result, I've seen tremendous opportunities come to life... magic happens!
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At the IBM Connect conference in January, two IBM Business Partners, <a href="http://www.isw.com.au/wps/portal/isw">ISW</a> and <a href="http://www.trustsphere.com/">TrustSphere</a>, met for the first time on the trade show floor. What makes this really special is that ISW and TrustSphere both have a presence in Australia, but met for the first time in Orlando, Florida. They quickly realized the value that could be gained for each company in collaborating with each other!
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Working together, these two companies developed a new social solution, called <b>Kudos Insights for IBM Connections</b>. According to the TrustSphere website, "Kudos Insights for IBM Connections can now leverage the power of Messaging Intelligence to deliver better collaboration insights when managing on line communities and accelerating social adoption."
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What a great business success story! And I can't think of a more powerful way to underscore the value of participating in an ecosystem, and, of course, on being an IBM Business Partner!
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How can you do the same? Attend our next conference: <a href="http://www-01.ibm.com/software/events/insight/">IBM Insight 2014</a>! Early registration discount is available.
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I hope you will attend. Magic can happen!
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Los Angeles SmartCamp Winners Rethink Healthcare Coordination and Business Communications!
Los Angeles held their SmartCamp event September 9th at accelerator partner Amplify.La in Venice Beach and what great talent they saw!
Despite the amazing turnout and number of competitors, it was clear that this city needed to choose not one SmartCamp winner, but two.
Congratulations to Yosko and BizTexter, two innovative startups who are leading the way in taking a new approach to healthcare coordination and business communications.
Who are these game changing young companies? Yosko is a mobile care coordination platform for hospitals aimed at reducing the amount of errors during patient hand-offs, and BizTexter provides an intelligently automated text message customer service and follow-up marketing system for businesses. It is an affordable and easy to deploy app/cloud hybrid mini-CRM hosted on IBM Softlayer and integrated with Bluemix API's.
How do they work? Yosko is based on three important pillars which reflect the everyday hospital workflow: 1) seamless access to the existing hospital electronic system, 2) structured hand-off modules and 3) instant team communication. Yosko boasts a signature user interface with every functionality optimized for maximum efficiency.
BizTexter is an app which uses artificial intelligence for answering frequently asked questions and handling most of the triage questions coming from customers. The app does a great job answering questions like: Are you open? What is your address? Having any specials deals right now?
We were pleased to see the Los Angeles SmartCamp pack a full house at Amplify.La, when asked what he thought of the event, here's what one of the judges had to say, "Your Finalists are all solid. Being an accelerator, we see many, many pitches of course. The six we saw here today are all top notch, among the best we usually see."
Here's what an audience member had to say, "I had no idea IBM was doing all these great things - I though you sold hardware. I'm part developer, part business consultant and move from idea to idea very fast - I can see Bluemix as a great way for me to try my ideas quickly."
Congratulations again to Yosko and BizTexter. Follow their stories on Twitter at @YOSKO and @BIZTEXTER.
For a complete look at application deadlines and public SmartCamp events, click here: http://www.smartcamp2015.com/cities/. Stay tuned for more SmartCamp stories in your city.
Reimagining Optometry in Chicago! Smart Camp Winner!
Just when you thought getting an appointment with your optometrist was going to take months, a new healthcare startup comes along and completely reinvents eye-care from the comfort of your own home!
Congratulations to Opternative, the winner of this year's SmartCamp kick-off event held in Chicago on August 26th!
The Opternative team has created the first-to-market eye exam and prescription company that costs less than a traditional refractive eye exam. In just twenty-five minutes or less, you can get a quick eye exam with nothing but a smart phone and a computer. A digital eye glasses prescription is provided in less than twenty-four hours, and you can then shop for glasses or contacts anywhere.
Opternative is registered with the FDA and has undergone studies that have proved it just as accurate as an in-office eye exam.
What does Opternative have to say?
"Eye exams for glasses and contact prescriptions are just the beginning. We envision a world where technology allows patients to connect with doctors to make all aspects of vision care more convenient, accessible, and even fun!" (https://www.opternative.com/about)
Thanks for participating in Chicago's SmartCamp event Opternative!
Follow Opternative's story on Twitter at @opternative. For a complete look at application deadlines and public SmartCamp events, click here: http://www.smartcamp2015.com/cities/. Stay tuned for more SmartCamp stories in your city.
An Entrepreneur's Thoughts -- in a plane ride bite size snack!
While flying to Dallas, I sat beside a serial entrepreneur! He shared some interesting points with me that were impactful in his quest for entrepreneur success -- of which he has had at least 3 successful exits!
Here's what I drew as I talked to him!
The Best Ideas: Entrepreneur creates WishPop
Yesterday, I had a wonderful meeting with Rob Ross who is a natural techy, developer, and entrepreneur.
His creation -- an app for the iPad inspired by his daughter. WishPop allows kids to create wish lists and thank yous to help their "grown ups" know what to buy them!
And Rob did all the right things:
1. First, he got a first class team. While the team was only 8 people, he had experience from Nickelodean, Disney, National Geographic Kids, Game Designers from Ramps, and Acclaim Entertainment. This drove an incredible design.
2. Second, he knew his "client's" pain points. His own daughter served as a chief requirement giver and her 15 BFFs gave constant and consistent feedback.
3. And finally, he learned and pivoted. He noted that the technical platform that he chose to build on didn't allow flexibility. He has since switched over to a developer platform Xamarin.
I love this app and the story!
The evolution of retail: EyeQ and RosieApp from North America Regionals move on to SmartCamp Global Finals
We're seeing an incredible transformation in retail right now driven by Cloud-Analytics-Mobile-Social (CAMS)! Nowhere was this more evident than at the US Regional SmartCamp Finals recently. The winners chosen by our crack judging team of VCs and startup experts both had something in common: they are transforming the customer experience for retailers and brands.
eyeQ gathers data about in-store customers to help retailers understand how purchase decisions are made at the shelf. How does the customer react to a given product? What role does gender bias play? How much time are they taking to make a purchase decision? eyeQ collects all this information on the Bluemix cloud platform, giving brands better customer insight. (Follow them on Twitter @eyeQinsights)
Likewise, Rosie makes it possible for small and medium-sized brick-and-mortar stores to offer a robust online shopping experience for their customers. They collect data on a shopper's buying habits and then translate that into an enhanced online shopping experience. Their platform brings together the whole retail supply chain to deliver exceptional customer experience. The mobile-based RosieApp lets customers keep control of when their key groceries run out and order and deliver them automatically! A powerful recommendation engine suggests relevant products. (Follow them on Twitter @RosieApp)
Winning their second People's Choice Award, BeehiveID's solution for authenticating online identities clearly has a popular following of supporters and customers. Their solution is a critical service in our increasingly mobile and online lives! (Follow them on Twitter @BeehiveID)
Congrats to all our winners! And we look forward to seeing eyeQ and Rosie at our SmartCamp Global Finals!
Helpful links:
eyeQ -> http://www.eyeqinsights.com/
Rosie -> https://www.rosieapp.com/
BeehiveID -> http://beehiveid.com/
Silicon REAL! Why London is HOT and Entrepreneurs are Cool!
Gang; I was just in London and had a great time with the Silicon Real gang!
Take a watch!
Four Colorado Entrepreneurs stand out at Denver Startup Week!
IBM is doing so many things with startups, it's hard to keep up! I've blogged a lot about SmartCamps, so you probably think SmartCamps are the only things we have going for entrepreneurs. But nothing could be farther from the truth!
Case in point, IBM was recently a sponsor of the Denver Startup Week. There were 5,500+ startup community members and over 650 companies engaged in over 125 community-driven events celebrating everything entrepreneurial in the Mile High City!
And I'm thrilled to say that the event marked the first time IBM Global Entrepreneur was involved at an entrepreneurial event in Colorado. Something tells me, it won't be the last!
The four winning startups were B&C Electronic Engineering, SPF Solutions, S'ync, and Enterprise Sentinel.
B&C Electronic Engineering has a solution that shares responding emergency vehicles locations with other emergency agencies (fire, police, ambulance). This is critical for first responders. We all know about the chaotic nature at the scene of an accident, add to that the multiple emergency vehicles that are arriving at the scene. B&C Electronic Engineering's solution can reduce the chaos for the emergency vehicles by giving them critical information about the location of other emergency vehicles.
SPF Solutions' mobile app is going to make your "take-out" experience better! SPF Solutions has created an app for customers that enables them to place their food order and then be notified when it is ready for pickup. With this kind of automation, fewer mistakes are made and it frees up the restaurant staff to do other tasks. Sounds like greater efficiency and better service to me!
S'ync is tackling a huge issue in the realm of smarter transportation. Their solution uses GPS location data to map traffic flow, rates, and conditions to synch traffic lights. Think of it! Improving the flow of traffic is a benefit to everyone!
Enterprise Sentinel monitors enterprise data from any source, providing transactional analytics as well as executing pre-emptive actions to prevent issues from occurring. This predictive analytics capability plays very well in health monitoring as well as other industry use-cases.
Congratulations to these four startups! I know I look forward to hearing more about them in future SmartCamp events!
For more information:
B&C Electronic Engineering -> http://www.911eta.com/
SPF Solutions -> http://www.spfsolutions.biz/
Enterprise Sentinel-> http://enterprisesentinel.com/
SmartCamp Raleigh Showcases Entrepreneurs With "Change the World" solutions!
Two startups offer charity and educational solutions, win SmartCamp Raleigh!
Another week means another round of SmartCamp winners! Congratulations to Livitae and LikeCharity for winning SmartCamp Raleigh!
Livitae, a woman-owned startup (go girl power!), has developed a mobile and cloud-based solution that offers academic institutions a single platform to centralize academic progress, performance, and planning by aggregating student information in a clear and secure manner. The system provides a customized academic roadmap for each student, simplifying degree and career planning by auditing and managing all aspects of the processes.
That means no more confusion for students about what classes to take or their grades! Think of it, even parents could be better informed about their kids' academic performance!
LikeCharity enables you to donate to your favorite charities by simply sending a text message from your mobile phone. Donating via LikeCharity is a quick and easy way for you to help the charities that you really care about!
The power of this solution has the potential to increase donations by automating the entire process via their platform. I'd love to see that used for the Humane Society, one of my favorite charities!
Great ideas coming from Raleigh, North Carolina!