As I’m preparing to attend IBM Connect 2014 next week, I’m starting to reflect on the fact that there are still a lot of marketers in the industry who are reluctant to adopt some of the promising new customer experience and social business technologies.
Whether it’s concerns around implementation costs, justifying new approaches with metrics, or just a lack of familiarity with some of the marketing megatrends, sticking with what’s “tried and true” seems to be the (both conscious and unconscious) strategy—and that’s why I’m really excited about Global Knowledge’s sponsorship at the event.
Whether you want to be or not, all marketers are technologists, and this shift in job description fits really well with our goal of providing training that helps organizations reach and exceed their goals. The conference lineup at IBM Connect looks like the perfect setting for meaningful dialogue with people in all types of job roles, but especially marketers like me. ?
I’m particularly interested in the following three sessions because they’re compelling examples of how IBM Collaboration Solutions are changing how companies reach customers.
UPS: Translating Communications at the World’s Largest Package Delivery Company
Led by Roy Lichlyter of UPS and Luke Cressman of Base22, this session is a customer case study for IT practitioners. For a worldwide organization like UPS, translating and delivering targeted content in multiple languages to a user base spread across multiple business functions, demographics, and geographies is a daunting challenge. In this session, we’ll find out how UPS configured their tools and processes to automate the translation of content delivered through their global employee portal, UPSers.com, into multiple languages. I want to see how they delivered personalized and translated content to their 400,000 employees. Catch this session at 4:15 pm on Wednesday, January 29.
IBM SmartCloud for Social Business Hybrid Model Showcase at Princess Cruises
This session, led by Norm Ayers the Director of Business Continuity, Emergency Response, and Special Projects at Princess Cruises, reviews the company’s planning and implementation of a company-wide IBM Domino messaging and calendar application infrastructure. Princess Cruises developed a cloud collaboration migration strategy back in 2011. Currently deploying IBM SmartCloud for Social Business collaboration services to all remote offices, Princess Cruises wants to also migrate its North American headquarters to SmartCloud for Social Business in 2014. The session reviews the infrastructure and change management required for these cloud initiatives, using Domino Messaging and Utility server, Traveler, Sametime, and SmartCloud. This session is scheduled for 4:15 pm on Wednesday, January 29.
Performance Bicycle: Exceptional eCommerce and Customer Experiences
This session, led by Aaron Pickrell of Performance Bicycle and Paul Bucalo of Sirius Computer Solutions, is part of IBM Connect’s Solutions for Exceptional Customer Experiences track. Chapel Hill-based Performance Bicycle has deployed an initial release of their transformed eCommerce solution that brings together IBM Web Content Manager and Commerce for best-in-breed content management, commerce, and social networking integration. They’ll show how combining these capabilities and the methods employed by Performance Bicycle can successfully integrate the shopping experience with the content experience. They’ll also show how the winning combination adds engaging content in the context of the commerce shopping experience using SEO best practices, social networking, and video integration. This session starts at 11:15 am on Tuesday, January 28.
So, are you (especially you marketer/technologists) attending IBM Connect? If so, stop by and visit us in the Solution Center at Booth #422, or follow us on Twitter @GKonIBM. We’d love to meet you and talk about your experience!
Related Courses
Developing Applications for IBM WebSphere Portal 7.0 (WPL51G)
Developing Websites Using IBM Web Content Manager 8 (WPL43G)
IBM Connections 4.0 — Social Software for Business (CNW42G)