IBM THE ENTERPRISES SOCIAL MARKET LEADER

New York-based international business machines corporation (IBM), one of the worlds
leading business services and software providers, was ranked number one in worldwide
market share for enterprise social software (ESS) for the third consecutive year , by
International Data Corporation (IDC). IBM wrapped all its social networking technologies
into a single packages Lotus connections, a social software suite integrated with
capabilities to work in a corporate setting. It was sold in the social software market for
businesses, government, and education.
IBM recorded revenues of US $106.916 billion for the FY 2011. IN 1896,HERMAN HOLLERITH
German American scientist founded the tabulating machine company . TMC merged with
CTR which was later renamed as IBM





In 1924,CTR was named IBM- Watson sr.
In1930,IBM continued to grow despite GREAT DEPRESSION
In 1952,Watson sr.s son became president of IBM and thereafter he became the CEO after the
death of his father.
In 1960,transformed IBM from a small scale manufacturer of typewriter and tabulating equipment
into an industry leader in computer business.
In the early mid 1971,IBM introduced its own intranet system called VNET in a bid to foster a culture
of collaboration.
In 1971,Watson jr. stepped down as CEO of IBM.
In 1981,IBM launched its first personal computer.

In 1983,John r. opel, president of IBM , succeeded Cary as chairman of the board
In 1984,John F Akers, was selected at the new CEO of IBM
In 1993,copanys annual net loss amounted to US $ 8 billion
The era from early to mid 1990s marked the advent of the internet.

In April 2009,IBM developed a free web based technical resource for offering
valuable resources and info. To people who were not IBM customers.

IBM collaborated with its workforce by conducting several sessions which is generally
termed as brainstorming sessions. These posts were discussed and debated which lead
to valuable suggestions, innovative ideas, and matter of concern.these ideas were
used to redesign policies and practices as well as create new business ventures for
IBM.

In 2003,IBM launched a feature called blog central on w3 to introduce the concept of
blogging.it was done to encourage exchange and learning within the company and
with the clients. The guidelines also specified that clients, suppliers should not be
referred to in the blogs and wikis

In 2007 IBM introduced Beehive with the stated aim of encouraging user interaction,
(Facebook)
1.W3 INTRANET
2. DEVELOPER WORKS
4.BLOGS AND WIKIS
3.Innovation jams
5.Social networking
IBM wrapped these tech. into a single product and sell them to enterprises for
social business. This led to the launch of Lotus Connections in Jan 2007,which was
further renamed as IBM connections.

A DECENTRALISED SOCIAL MEDIA APPROACH
It comprised exceptional collaboration and innovation among its employees. The
community largely self- regulating, and so there hasnt really been a need to
have someone go about and circuit these boards and blogs.

6.WEB 2.0
AS IBM expended into new market extended its partner network and
acquired several software companies , its teams were facing a difficulty in
finding experts and information in the company within the time period
required.
They were entrusted with the task of coaching IBMers on how to use social
tools at works to improve collaboration and share knowledge with other.
Initially, BluelQ target around 16000 sales people. After the program was
adopted virtually , it was extended to IBM S 400,000 PLUS workforce.
The BlueIQ team was also entrusted with the task of making IBMers
understand the impact their work could have on the company by making
their ideas and work products available for sharing.

The BlueIQ team realized that a broader involvement would enable a
successful social business transformation at the company. thus the team
established a community of 1600 blueIQ ambassadors in 50 country to help
demonstrate the benefit the IBMers could reap by using social software.
These 1600 ambassadors were volunteer IBMers represented dedicated
group that was passionate about spreading the value of social software.

Having conquered the social media arena by rolling out several internal
social networking technologies and helping IBMers social software, the
challenge for IBM was to integrate its B2B activities with social media
marketing
IBM began to face a specific problem since 2011- its traditional ways of
finding B2B customers for its hardware and software problem email and
telemarketing- were not delivering the same results compared to selling
web-based service, hence, IBM commissioned a buyer preference study in
2011. the study found that 75% of the respondents were likely to use social
media in future as part of their purchasing decision.
A major obstacle with integrating social media into selling was that it called for
a lot of content and required its sales representative to spend a lot of time
listening. And time was something of which sales representatives did not have in
abundance.
The social selling pilot program ran for six month and the results were
compelling. In the first two weeks of the program, visits to representative pages
increased by 106% and sellers reached 1.9 million contacts.
For the 1
st
quarter of 2011, IBM recorded a 400 percent sales increase from its
social selling pilot project.
In 2010 IBM had over 17000 internal blogs, 1 million daily page views of
internal wikis, and 15,000,000 downloads of employee-generated
video/podcasts. IBM reported that it saved US$ 100 million annually due to
its developer works website as people used this resource instead of
contacting IBM support. Also there was significant reduction in email and
phone mail server costs, IBM reported.
In 2011, internal research that measured the outcomes of IBMs social
business transformation effort from 2007 showed a series of benefit- a 30%
reduction in project completion time, 50% increase reuse of critical software
assets, and an estimated 33% reduction in component cost.
In January 2012, IBM reported that the social media initiatives increased
search satisfaction by 50% with a saving of US$ 4.5 million per year since
2007, IBM added that it also witnessed substation saving due to reduced
travel and communication cost by shifting the dialogue to virtual and more
interactive platforms.
IBM
35%
Jiva Software
22%
Communispace
20%
Telligent
12%
Social Text
11%
MARKET SHARE OF VENDARS IN THE ENTERPRISE
SOCIAL SOFTWARE MARKET (FY 2011)
IBM, 105.4
Jiva Software, 65.3
Communispace, 60
Telligent, 42.7
Social Text, 34.5
SALES OF VENDORS IN THE ENTERPRISE SOCIAL
SOFTWARE MARKET (FY 2011) (IN US$ MILLION)