Posts Tagged 'customer reference'

Social media ROI – IT4 Business Event

Tomorrow will be my last lecture as an IBMer, at the 2009 Israel Chamber of Information System Analysts, at Ramat Gan. Similar to last week’s lecture, I’ll be speaking about social media ROI’s, why should a company consider deploying social media solutions, present some customer references and wrap up with IBM’s own deployment story – all in 30min.. :-))
The presentation (in Hebrew) is already available over at slideshare.
My slot is at 12:30 – see you at the event.

During the presentation I referred to Nielsen’s recent report (March 2009) Global Faces and Networked Places (PDF, 2.1MB), pointing out some of the facts about social media in 2008 and beyond. Definitely worth the read.

IBM Software Forum – Summary

Updated March 11.

The event this afternoon just ended, I’ll upload some pics next week, once I get them from our marketing pips. We had over 500 customers and business partners attending, in the six sessions, covering everything IBM Software has to offer. My presentation from today’s event is below, and also available on slideshare, but I wasn’t the main attraction of the evening.

Amir Belferman’s lecture (Amidar Housing) was excellent and provided everything the audience needed to know, including cost analysis of the various options they considered. Amir’s presentation is available online, at my slideshare space or at ibm.com event page.

Niv Calderon caused some riots in the crowd, showing where the money is in social media, and why local businesses need to start taking it (more) seriously. You can watch Niv’s lecture online here.

Suntel goes with Lotus Notes/Domino, migrating from Exchange

Being without a laptop has its advantages, but also some disadvantages. One of them is not being able to keep track over my Google Reader and check what’s happening in the community (Yes, I know GReader is available for mobile – not the same).

Ed already posted about Suntel’s migration ages ago, but since my Google Alert linked to the CIO.com article, thought this story’s worth another mentioning in the blogosphere.

The main reasons Suntel (Sri Lanka) migrated away from Exchange/Outlook were:

  • lower licensing cost (50% lower than Microsoft) and lower TCO
  • strong value of Lotus Symphony integrated in Lotus Notes
  • strong collaboration and web 2.0 technologies
  • scalability, poised to grow with Suntel

In addition to Lotus Notes and Domino, Suntel will also deploy Lotus Sametime for instant messaging and UC capabilities, as well as Lotus Symphony for creating, editing and sharing documents, spreadsheets and presentations.

TCO, licensing costs and integration of Symphony are some of the answers for ‘what’s the difference between IBM and Microsoft?’ Every company nowadays, especially SMB (small-medium businesses) are looking into ways to cut expenses, improve productivity and increase revenue – and examining your licensing costs is an excellent first step. Three months ago I spoke to CIOs/CTOs of local hi-tech and start-up companies on IBM’s collaboration portfolio, specifically tailered for SMB. Slide 18 showed the difference in licensing, between IBM and Microsoft, in the collaboration space – Lotus full collaoration suite starts at $151 per user (Linux, no support package). How much do you pay for your Microsoft deployment, per user?

You can download that presentation at my slideshare.net space, or view it below.

Links:
CIO.com – Suntel bids adieu to Microsoft, embraces IBM
Ed Brill
Lotus Notes and Domino at ibm.com

Pelephone goes Mobile with IBM WebSphere Portal

Always glad to post success stories and best practices, especially when there’s press involved. Pelephone Communications, one of Israel’s top 3 cellular operators, has launched its new cellular portal (for a small portion of its customers), running IBM WebSphere Portal. This is a great win for IBM Israel, and some of you are more familiar with the details. Pelephone’s 2.1 millions customers are already reaping the benefits of the upgraded portal, with a wealth of content and information, such as TV, Music Videos, Sports, Entertainment and News. C-Soft, an IBM Business Partner, was our partner for this great project, estimated at $250k.

Since the original article is in Hebrew, some highlights:
The new portal performs full adaptation of the content based on the device’s screen size and browsing capabilities. The new cellular portal consumes content from a mobile content management system, that handles the content for both of Pelephone’s networks (CDMA and EV-DO).

Ilan Alter, Mgr. of Cellular Applications, Pelephone:
The new cellular portal is a more stable and efficient platform, that allows us to introduce innovative services for our customers, in shorter development cycles.

Ofer Friedman, Pelephone Communications Account Exec, IBM:
Pelephone’s approach is to supply the customers’ needs, by creating an accessible world of content. We simply delivered the right platform to accomplish that.

Daniel Melka, Telco Executive, IBM:
IBM WebSphere Portal provides an optimal solution in terms of operating flexibility and future growth, that are required from Pelephone, in managing the wealth of information and content they provide.

Links:
Pelephone Communications
The People – Pelephone launches new cellular portal based on IBM WebSphere Portal technology
Web Portal Software from IBM – ibm.com

Ministry of Finance – lesspaper office

Last week, just before Yom Kipur, I drove up to Jerusalem to visit Sharon Ben-Haim (pictured to the left), the CTO of the Ministry of Finance. No, I wasn’t there to discuss the credit crisis, or meet the minister himself, but to have a private, one-on-four customer visit – between Sharon and Taro Pharmaceuticals, another Lotus customer.

Sharon’s lecture at our Lotus event back in September got great feedback from participants, and Taro, which were unable to attend, asked for a private visit – and Sharon was happy to showcase his work, again.

There are no screenshots that I can share (will ask Sharon to send me some), but basically we went over four areas of interest:
Document collaboration (that leads to) better inbox management
Fax servers (incoming/outgoing) and SMS integration
Notes/Domino 8 including Lotus Traveler
Open discussion

The highlight of the ministry’s use of Lotus Notes/Domino as a messaging platform has to be its document repository, which combines capabilities of Quickr and Quickplace.
A scenario we went over: a user wants to create a new document (text, spreadsheet, presentation, fax, etc) he/she goes to the department’s repository. There he chooses the template, recipients (to/cc/bcc), subject, authoring access and hit ‘Edit’. Based on the doc type he wants, the proper application opens up, already filled with the inserted information (to, subject, cc, date, doc #). Just create and save (on the DB). Now you have a single copy of that doc, which you can attach to an email. Ah, but here’s the killer feature (in my opinion) – the DB ‘knows’ who your recipient is, and sends the doc in the proper format: if the recipient is an employee – Lotus link and Lotus url (for web access); if the recipient is external – file attachment; if the recipient is a fax user – a fax cover letter will be added to the doc. Brilliant. And saves on paper, which is the important thing.

The ministry, like any other business in Israel, receives a lot of data as email attachments – analyst reports, media coverage, agreements, spreadsheets, presentations, you name it. The problems begins when you need to share that data with other people in your team/department, and hit ‘Forward’, adds 10-15 names, and hit ‘Send’. Now the messaging system holds multiple copies of the same document, overloading the e-mail system and filling up the storage. Sharon has built another DB, that detaches the document from the original email (similar to Lotus Quickr), and places a link instead. Now, there’s a single copy of that document, and you can share it with your team/colleagues, without putting to much pressure on your e-mail system.

Sharon has something like 9 or 10 different tabs in his workspace, with >12 applications in each tab – so I’ll stop here. But I’ll definitely ask Sharon for some screenshots to spread the word around.

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Mobile & Media Consultant. I help startup companies launch products to the consumer market. Reach out: dvir.reznik [at] gmail.com
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This is my personal blog. The postings here do not represent the thoughts, intentions, plans or strategies of my past employers or of my clients. It is solely my opinion.