Posts Tagged 'israel'



Twitter in Israel

With twitter gaining momentum, I’m starting to see more Israelies followers – GO Israel! Although the enterprise adoption of twitter in Israel not as the US or European one, there are plenty of people out there twitting, who are working for Israeli companies, ranging from Hi-Tech, Advertising, Consumer Products, Retail and others.

Lev Cinema is one of the veteran chains of cinemas in Israel (25 years), doing its best to succeed in todays world, with broadband internet aceess, DVD, LCDs and video streaming. It recently opened it twitter account, @lev_cinema, and its first action of business was to gather as many followers as possible – # of users is the key indicator when it comes to any web 2.0 business.

I was very happy to see they opted for a unique marketing activity, that has a high cost vs. benefit value – free screening of Coen Brothers‘ latest film, Burn After Reading. It was also an opportunity to meet almost 70 Israeli twitters, most of whom I haven’t met in person.
The screening was super, movie was funny – too bad I arrived late (I was counting on commercials to make it on time, which surprisingly enough, there were none) and missed the gathering.. 🙁 Fortunately, Israel was there to take some pictures, so there’s a proof I was there.
As I (and others) commented in the post (Hebrew), I kind of hoped there would be a more formal gathering, before the movie started. People seating at the cinema, lights on, 15-20min discussion on social media in Israel, ROIs, best practices, ideas and feedback, something like that. I mean, you already have 70 twitters at one place – why not make the most of it? Nevertheless, it was an excellent activity, leveraging the use of social media, specifically social media in businesses.

Guess I’ll meet you guys (and gals) at one of Jeff‘s social gatherings this week.

Army reserve – back after Rosh Hashana

During my mandatory army service, some 12 years ago, I remember spending several holidays at the army. But this marks the first time I’m spending a holiday doing reserve duty.
So, for the coming week I’ll be less available online, as you probably noticed already if you’re following me.

It just so happens that close to my army base lies a remarkable piece of Jewish history, The Herodium Palace-Fortress, which was built by Herod the Great in A.D 23-20. If you’re visiting the Jerusalem area, pin your map for this magnificent fortress.

The photos I took are available at facebook.

Socially connected, all week long…

It’s been quite a week for me, which started with army reserve, followed by spending 8 hours with Jeff Schick (IBM VP, Social Software) and Arjan Radder (Social Software Sales Mgr., IBM EMEA) during their visit to Israel and ended up with more army reserve.

The 36 hours Jeff and Arjan spent in Israel were dedicated to customer meetings, analyst and media interviews and some middle-eastern food (aka Falafel and Humus ;-). The first outcome of their visit has already surfaced: Yuval Dror (aka The Globe) published a well-written article in today’s newspaper (Hebrew), on IBM’s internal collaboration tools and our commercial social software solutions. We also met with Ayelet Noff (aka blonde2.0) – a light and fun meeting that summed up Jeff’s visit in Israel. I’m sure Ayelet will post her impressions soon.


And, to finish the ‘social software week’ IBM announced yesterday the opening of a new research/development center in Cambridge, MAIBM Center for Social Software. Irene Greif, IBM Fellow and Center Director elaborated on the center’s mission: The center will provide additional resources to IBM’s global research teams and external organizations so that they can better test social software “in the wild” – within IBM’s enormous employee base or on the public web.

Links:
IBM Center for Social Software
Employer blocks facebook? Yediot Ahronot article
IBM ups investment in social software – 451 Group
Cambridge IBM facility to focus on social links – The Boston Globe

IBM/Lotus User Forum – 3 days away

Been getting a lot of feedback from customers and colleagues about the importance of this user forum, and we definitely plan to host more like it, with 2-3 customer success stories and an IBM demo. The event page at ibm.com/il is also live (4 days), where we’ll upload the slides and some pics from the event. The expected attendance is surprising, with some 110 people (!): over 70 RSVPed at FB, others commented at TheMarker Cafe (here, here and here), dozens have either email/text me, and some registered at friendfeed. Amazing!

This is actually the first event at IBM Israel (that I’m aware of at least) that was advertised using social media only, without the traditional DM (direct marketing) tactics – email, distribution lists, advertising, articles, interactive, phone calls, etc. Sometime next week, after we’ll have time to study and evaluate the outcome, I’ll post my impressions (and lessons learnt) of organizing an event using social media only.

In the meantime, I’ve conculded my intro presentation (first slide above), which will be posted after the event at ibm.com/il/news/events/cm1 and my slideshare space. The presentations of Sharon Ben Haim (Ministry of Finance) and Gabby Shoval (Menora Insurance) will also be available at ibm.com/il.

See you all Monday @ 15:30 !

IBM Growth Fuels Lotus Momentum Against Microsoft

Although I’m with Lotus Software only a year, reading the latest, very detailed, IBM press release on Lotus 2Q results, was a pure joy. Working for IBM Israel the past 8 years I often hear from customers that we ‘play it safe’, ‘too safe at times’, when it comes to publicizing our success, unlike Microsoft – that glorifies every win, focusing on migration stories even if they are not true.

From the first paragraph you can understand that this press release is different:

Led by strong sales of IBM Lotus Notes and Domino 8 in the second quarter of 2008, IBM’s Lotus software business outgrew Microsoft by winning millions of customer seats worldwide in direct competition with Microsoft, aided by key wins over its Redmond-based rival in emerging markets.

And there is more:

Customers that chose Lotus Notes and Domino over Microsoft in key markets included Max New York Life, Reliance Industries, Vedanta, and Aviva in India; GD Development Bank, Johnson Electric, HKG Environ Protect, CED, DL Cosco Shipyard in China; Affin Bank and Trakando in Singapore; and Russian Railways in Russia.

and more:

Many clients of all sizes are questioning their investments in legacy Microsoft software products. Migrating to new versions of Microsoft Exchange has proven to be a daunting and expensive task. Ferris Research recently published a report (Exchange 2007 Implementation Issues, December 2007) that indicated 70% of Microsoft customers felt that migrating to Exchange 2007 was either “Difficult or Very Difficult.”

The latest report not only states sales numbers and number of sold licenses, but also mentions, by name, 25 recent customer wins:

Other clients who have recently invested in Lotus Notes and other Lotus software over the competition include consumer goods giant Colgate-Palmolive, chemical manufacturer Ineos of Belgium, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, NutraFlo, Dutch Railways, Rohm Haas, Imerys and the Salvation Army. Specifically moving to Lotus Notes 8 were CFE Compagnie d’Enterprises of France, Virginia Commonweath University, Winsol International, The U.S. General Services Administration, the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, Standard Insurance, New York Life, Kentucky Baptist Convention, Verizon, Publishers Printing, Hyatt Hotels, Union Pacific and Nationwide Insurance.

Impressive. Very different from what I, and others, are used to. Every customer and business partner needs to read this. My email/FB/del.icio.us/twitter is already on its way.

Link:
IBM Growth Fuels Lotus Momentum Against Microsoft

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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.