Monday, August 31, 2015

Save The Date: Enterprise File Sync and Share is Just the Beginning of a New Way To Work

A new post on SocializeMe:Save the date. In less than a month, we'll be hosting a webinar to take you through the latest capabilities available in our IBM Connections Files offering, the IBM solution for organizations that are looking for enterprise file sync and share (EFSS) capabilities in the cloud.



IBM Connections Files on Cloud is designed for today’s mobile worker, providing a secure, easy-to-use, collaboration and file management environment for all size businesses. This cost-effective, secure file sharing solution is easy to implement using software-as-a-service (SaaS) on our cloud (or you can run it on-prem too). A user centric design allows anyone to confidently share files with their network of customers and partners, as well as sync online files to their favorite mobile devices and tablets (supports both Android and iOS mobile devices). Here's a quick video I had shared earlier of the IBM Connections for Mac app:


Ready to learn more? One of the Product Managers for IBM Connections, Jim Puckett, will be hosting a webcast. Check out the details below:

Date: September 24, 2015
Time: 1-2pm Eastern Time
Registration:  To register for the event, click here.

See you there!




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Tuesday, August 11, 2015

The Blog Has a New Home!

Think of this not as a farewell but as us just moving across the street. The Social Business Insights blog is now the Social Business Spotlight blog and has a new home at http://ift.tt/1L2J7eM.

Our mission hasn’t changed – we are still dedicated to bringing you great thought leadership around all things pertaining to social business, collaboration, customer and employee engagement and much more, from authors, influencers, millennials, IBMers, industry leaders, and beyond.

What has changed is the look and feel of the site, with easier navigation, a more eye-pleasing design, categories for quick discovery, and links to other eminent IBM blogs. This new platform enhances our ability to shine the spotlight on timely news, trends and opinions from around the industry. We encourage you to start and join in on discussions by commenting on posts.

We thank you for your loyal readership over the years and we would love to hear your thoughts on the new blog. Be sure to bookmark http://ift.tt/1L2J7eM and stay in touch.

Dan Davis and Sam Klein

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Thursday, August 6, 2015

Learning to Fish for Data Insights

A few years ago, the chief data officer was not well known. Now the CDO role is popping up at many organizations as the ocean of business data deepens and the demand for analytics expertise becomes more urgent. Data exhaust will be compounded by the growing number of inputs from marketing, commerce, social media and the Internet of Things.

imageData is fundamentally changing the way business is done. But most companies aren’t anywhere close to being ready. Currently, only 0.5 percent of the world’s data is analyzed. According to Gartner, by 2020 up to 33 percent of data will be valuable if analyzed properly. Some companies, however, are staying ahead of the inevitable.

The new IBM study “Teaching organizations to fish in a data-rich future reveals insights from data pioneers who are investing in highly skilled data leaders – roles such as chief data officers, chief analytics officers and data scientists. These organizations have realized that formalizing data capabilities and roles allows them to turn data into business assets and actionable insights.

In particular, companies create business value as they:

  • Make data a priority: Establishing a data strategy and getting stakeholders across the business involved early to set up a framework and processes allows companies to better use data as a strategic asset.
  • Develop from within: Getting the right data skills sets is important, but that can happen not only through new hires but also training within the company to nurture data skills.
  • Free the data: As the volume of data compounds, extracting value becomes more meaningful in the right hands. Companies should share data through the right tools with the right roles, and shift the company culture to place an emphasis on the value of data insights.

While closely linked to the CIO, the CDO and other data roles permeate departments across the business, providing the framework, tools and insights to enable marketing, sales, customer service and finance. Across the board, data leaders echo the direct correlation between data skills, mining data insights and the impact on the bottom line. In this vast new ocean of data, teaching organizations how to fish may be the biggest opportunity.

 



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Wednesday, August 5, 2015

Life Hacks: Empowering Women in the Workplace

It’s time to face embrace the facts: men and women are different, bringing a diverse set of strengths to the workplace.

 

We fought hard (and are still fighting) for equality and rights, but equality doesn’t mean fitting into a “man’s world,” it means being accepted for the powerful, persuasive team players that we are. For years we’ve been trying to adapt women to the workplace – think shoulder pads and masculine attitudes – instead of adapting the workplace to fit the professional attributes and needs of women. Women are still making less than men for the same jobs … and even in 2015, promotion and rating systems are geared toward rewarding male employees.  

 

Companies that begin to not only understand gender differences, but appreciate and encourage them, will find themselves with a more innovative, thriving and complete workforce.

 

These tips aren’t focused on changing women, but empowering them. As a proud woman, I bring you the next edition of the IBM Life Hacks: Empowering Women in the Workplace.

 

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Tuesday, August 4, 2015

IBM was named the Worldwide Market Share Leader in Enterprise Social Networks for sixth consecutive year by IDC

A new post on SocializeMe:In IDC's recently published report, IBM is ranked number one in worldwide market share for enterprise social software for the sixth consecutive year. According to IDC's analysis of 2014 revenue, IBM continues to hold the lead in market share.



According to IDC, the enterprise social networks market is expected to reach $3.5 billion by 2019, representing growth of 19 percent over the next four years.

If you are not familiar with IBM Connections, check out how you can get started today using the Enterprise File Sync and Share capabilities provided by IBM Connections Cloud.




To view the report from IDC, click http://ift.tt/1Ul8OM0.


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Millennials are screwed

When IBM approached us to become their Social Business Book of the Month for August (as well as when we first started writing 2 Billion Under 20 back in late 2013), if you typed the words “Millennials are” into Google, the autosuggestion dropdown menu would spit out the words “entitled,” “narcissistic,” “lazy,” and of course, “screwed.”

 

Of course, we here at 2 Billion Under 20 (and our new holding company StartsWith Group) and our partners at IBM know that millennials are not, in fact, screwed, and that instead we are the future of the consumer marketplace, workplace, and society as a whole.

 

In our book, which became a #1 New Release in Business Leadership on Amazon, topped ProductHunt on the day of its release, and has even been seen in the hands of Presidential Candidate Chris Christie, we bring together 75 ambitious, talented millennials who share their stories in order to slash negative stereotypes surrounding our generation and replace them with inspiration for young people to act on their passions in life and education for older generations on what makes us “tick.”

 

It’s important for businesses especially to understand how millennials are shaping the workforce, as well as how to market to them, if these companies wish to remain in business, let alone relevant, over the next 15 years as millennials becoming well over 75 percent of the global workforce. To push you in the right direction, we want to give three quick tips, all on how to work better with millennials.

 

When Marketing to Millennials, Include Them in the Conversation

 

When it comes to selling to the savviest consumer group the world has ever seen, made up of people who have more computing power in their pocket than the U.S. government had when they put a man on the moon, maximizing the production of your widgets and squeezing out profit margins at the expense of high-quality solutions or experiences for your customers simply won’t sustain businesses in coming years. Instead, those companies who focus on high-quality solutions to actual consumer challenges, coupled with inclusion of millennials in product, customer experience, and marketing conversation will yield better results. Do you have millennials on your advisory boards (or have you thought about being one of the first companies to have an all-millennial advisory board)? Have you made the product creation process iterative and data-based, opting more for the Silicon Valley model of split-testing everything and creating customer development feedback loops rather than settling for biased and misrepresentative focus groups? Point is: don’t market to millennials. Work with millennials.

 

When Hiring or Recruiting Top Millennial Talent, Are You in Your Own Way?

 

We really hope you’re aware that the 9-to-5, work 40 years and retire model of employed life is well out the window by now. It’s 2015! Millennials are looking to work for companies that give them the opportunity to design work around their life, not vice versa. For companies who are doing this, and providing lifestyle design considerations rather than mere salary and equity considerations in their hiring practices, they are noticing something unique happening. Turns out that when you equip a millennial employee with the space and flexibility to “have a life,” they end up working harder for your company, staying with your group longer, and providing higher quality work, whether they are in the office or at home or on vacation, but still connected via multiple devices and taking care of business … with a smile. Lifestyle design is sexier than salary, so leverage that when recruiting top millennial employees.

 

Are You Losing $15,000 (and Lots of Talent) by Not Taking Care of Your Millennials?

 

Companies who learn how to retain and engage their current millennial employees will be light-years ahead of their competitors at the end of this upcoming generational “changing of the guards.” Each millennial employee who leaves your company costs on average $15,000 to replace, and that doesn’t even take into consideration the amount of brainpower, problem-solving abilities, and overall hit on company culture and employee engagement you will suffer from if that employee leaves on anything less than stellar terms.

 

Keep millennials under your roof and heavily engaged in your company’s success by giving them ownership of various projects, metrics, etc. within your company. We are some of the most entrepreneurial thinkers yet, so utilize that to get the most engagement and entrenchment as possible from millennial employees who wish as much as you do that your social media metrics (or marketing metrics, or sales metrics, etc.) increase by the predetermined goal. Also, open feedback loops with employees and ask them what’s going well in their role, what’s a challenge, and what are some good ideas they may have for your company’s growth. You’ll get great ideas from younger employees who are more technically savvy and on the front lines than from a typically older, less focused C-suite.

 

In a Sentence

 

Understanding the millennial generation starts when you work with millennials.

 

Join the Conversation

 

2 Billion Under 20: How Millennials Are Breaking Down Age Barriers and Changing The World is IBM’s Social Business Book of the Month in August. To learn more about 2 Billion Under 20, StartsWith Group, and everything that co-authors Stacey Ferreira and Jared Kleinert are up to, feel free to say hi at stacey@2billionunder20.com and jared@2billionunder20.com

 

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Monday, August 3, 2015

5 New Ways to Work with IBM Verse on Mobile

Now available for iOS (iPhone and iPad) and Android (smartphone and tablet).

IBM Verse is more than email. It's everything you need to take control of your workday.

The IBM Verse mobile app combines the intuitive functionality of text and messaging services with the most advanced analytics software—giving you a better, smarter way to manage your workday.

View email, event, and action updates, chat and share files from the cloud, manage your to-do lists, and keep track of the people you work with closely. All in one place with IBM Verse on your mobile device.

Take a look at some of the ways the new IBM Verse app is changing the way we work.

imageThe Widget
You don't have to be in the app to stay in control of your day. The drop-down widget displays upcoming meetings and events, pending actions, and email updates from your workplace VIPs. And when a conference call is about to begin, you can join simply by tapping Join Meeting.

Important People
The IBM Verse mobile app identifies the people you work with the closest, so your workplace VIPs' notifications get your attention sooner. From the app or the widget, you can tap on a portrait in your Important People tab to find pending and completed actions, chat threads and email updates.

Message Threads
Enterprise communication should feel as fluid as it does in a messaging app. That's why IBM Verse's intelligent threading model lets you review full conversation threads and individual messages. And the mobile app makes it easy to start a real-time chat with colleagues instead of waiting for their emails.

Meetings and File Sharing
To stay competitive, you need to be able to connect with your team from anywhere at any time. The IBM Verse mobile app lets you join screen-share meetings and share files from the cloud as easily as you could from your desktop.

To-Do Lists
It's time to take control of your email and calendar. The IBM Verse mobile app lets you filter your actions to see only the most pressing deadlines—and it can send actionable notifications to your locked screen. The widget includes your to-do list, so you don't have to be using the app to know what's due.

To learn more about IBM Verse on Mobile, click here.

To learn more about how technologies such as IBM Verse are helping companies take advantage of digital disruption, click here.

 



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