LotusLive online services….

… uniquely integrates through open standards with existing, on-premise customer solutions

… access through a familiar web 2.0 user interface

… makes it easy for customers to extend collaborative capability to the cloud

LotusLive is IBM Lotus’ portfolio of solutions that offer Software as a Service (SaaS) for organizations to leverage in the cloud. In addition, LotusLive Solutions can extend your on premise investments to the cloud.

SaaS became a well used word in 2009. Organizations found that they needed to find ways that they could cut IT costs, simplify end user connectivity, managing help desks and streamline costs associated with upgrades. Software as a Service offers a cloud model of delivering software, on demand, managed by an outside source. It is very structured and controlled, with Service Level Agreements (SLAs) being offered and just enough capabilities. Business are finding that while this is an attractive offering, once getting down to the realities of it, there are limitations. There are challenges with an all-inclusive approach. It would be difficult to deliver all the services that a customer needs to run their business including business applications, telecom, help desk all in one place. There are many concerns regarding volumes of existing information, data migration, mobile access, all or nothing solutions, integration with their internal applications and security models, let alone having someone else manage all of your content.

IBM has recognized this. In talking to our customers regarding their needs, IBM has found that not one size fits all. In the LotusLive Portfolio, IBM offers technical delivery solutions that can help to bridge the needs of the end users, the requirements of the business, and balance some of the financial relief that the business is looking to solve. In the LotusLive offerings we have a portfolio that allows for a hybrid model which extends On-premise investments to, hosted and cloud solutions.

The rich portfolio of service offerings of LotusLive that make collaborating across boundaries easy for business of all sizes.

There are some basic common needs, but we all know that the requirements for communication is not the same for everyone in your organization. Corporate Directors and C-Level executives have very different needs from the needs of the janitor.  That is an easy one.  However, there are more gradient levels and companies need to figure out how to profile their user communities.

IBM understands this. We have reviewed the user communities of customers, IBM internally and worked with analysts, and have defined three primary categories based on their business and collaborative requirements. The following three categories cover the distinctions – however there are also gradients inside of these categories as well.

• Knowledge Workers - requiring the most sophisticated messaging and collaboration
• Task Workers - these needs vary by function, some need full collaboration, others over-served
• Boundary Workers - clearly need just the essentials for email and calendaring

This approach of profiling the users, offers the customer the ability to determine what level of capabilities are needed and how to deliver these the abilities, all the while being able to leverage the capabilities of the SaaS model. By understanding the needs of the users, and the business, this is where you build the strongest case for Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). Leveraging costs across the organization, based on end-user requirements, provides the best overall TCO

IBM offers two different workshops to help customers:

User Segmentation Workshop

IBM helps to define the collaboration culture in your organization. We then conduct an exercise to help develop corporate personas. Once these personas are identified, we analyze their categories based on their social networks and sub networks. Once these have been outlined, use cases are built to help define vision and approach to delivering email and collaborative tools to the business.

TCO Value Workshop

In this workshop, IBM works with the customer focusing on data specific to their environment to review existing options. In evaluating all the delivery options available, we are able to help the customer build distinctions to provide a complete TCO view of each of the delivery models. We compare these options side by side regardless of whether it is SaaS, on premise, a hybrid implementation with on premise and SaaS, on premise with appliances, or all three.

So when you think of SaaS, consider the bigger picture, and be sure to engage IBM to assist you in examining the options. Remember that IBM has the experience in running efficient, reliable, secure and large scaled computing environments. The flexibility of options for delivery models. The innovation of Enterprise Web 2.0 based social computing paradigm that will allow more effective collaboration among employees, customers, and partners. All of this while leveraging our internal resources to partner with customers to develop cloud strategies and implementation plan that’s the right fit.

For more information please see http://www.lotuslive.com or contact me directly and I can get you in touch with someone that can help you.

In a world of on-line collaboration, sometimes there’s nothing like meeting face-to-face! So we’re kicking off a new series of events aimed at helping you and your teams better understand how to embrace the power of collaboration, regardless of where you are in the process, or which Lotus software products you currently use.

Get up close and personal with our executive team and product experts for a day of interactive sessions, demos and one-on-one meetings, and even some sneak peaks of what we’ll be showing at Lotusphere in January. Come see us at one of of our upcoming events we have planned this fall. We have a lot up our sleeves!

If you want to learn how to benefit from your existing collaboration infrastructure, or maybe even looking for some new ideas — you’ll want to be here.

UPCOMING EVENTS:
* Chicago: October 6th
* New York: October 22nd
* San Francisco: November 5th

Register today at: ibm.com/software/lotus/events/smarter-collaboration/live/

Get Smart. Start the conversation. Be the visionary. Shape the future. See you there!

WHAT? Lotus Knows Bus Tour WHEN? Tuesday, October 13, from 11 to 2
WHERE? The bus will be parked at Market Street and the Embarcadero. And we will also be hosting lunch, live demos, video vignettes and discussions at the IBM Office (425 Market St, Floor 20, Room 420)
WHY COME? Free lunch! Prizes! Check out the cool bus! And learn more about what Lotus knows regarding collaboration and communication To RSVP, please email Steve Bauer bauerst@us.ibm.com or 303 570 5511

Great reading! Holli

Pre-order this new book on Amazon

IBM Lotus Connections: Planning and Implementing Social Software for Your Enterprise (Paperback)
by Stephen Hardison (Author), David Brooks (Author), David Byrd (Author), Gary Wood (Author), Saurabh Calla (Author), Tim Speed (Author), Michael Martin (Author), Suzanne O. Minassian (Author)

Also don’t forget that you can go to http://ibm.com/think for more excellent information on Building a Smarter Planet.

Negotiate a better enterprise agreement

Ever wanted to be the big hero and save the company millions of dollars?  Well… I have a secret… we have seen drastic calculations regarding saving across the board for evaluating the Microsoft Enterprise Agreements, leveraging what you have in your organization, vs what Microsoft is bundling in their agreenments.   IBM offers a site that can help you understand how doing an evaluation of your environment could save you money.

Customers with Microsoft Enterprise Agreements might be able to save up to 40% or more on the cost of their renewal through this “no-charge” evaluation of their current Enterprise Agreement.

Click here for more information on IBM’s Project Liberate

If you are interested in setting up a conversation with one of our consultants, please feel free to contact me directly @ holli.konig@us.ibm.com and I will assist in getting you to the right people for your organization.

I say Social media, collaboration, marketing anything related to socializing a group does require a level of integration of the people you are integrating with.  This is a for mof collaboration.  It is no good to try to socialize something alone, and you need to be able to understand your targeted audience.

Rick Sanchez of CNN leverages Twitter into his talk show, allowing himself to not only get questions regarding his broadcast, but to get the tempature of the audience responses.  This is a clever way of using Social Media, in is interactive, it is investigative, it builds an instant community and it is collaborative.

I feel the same way about businesses jumping on the Virtual World band wagon too.  They come in, build a sexy, sharp looking build or island and then they walk away, saying there is no value.  They don’t do anything to foster community, to know their targeted audience, to add value. 

Collaboration, Social Marketing, Viral Marketing all of it is not possible without the people, the community, the sum of the whole.