IBM sets up Web 2.0 space for global partners
1 min read
IBM says it has set up a social networking community designed to help partners connect and collaborate with each other more easily.
Rich Hume, general manager of IBM Global Business Partners, says it's about communicating from anywhere around the world to bring new technologies to market faster and more efficiently.
He explains that the new community will enable companies to gain real-time access to IBM experts to support sales leads and client implementations etc. Partners can also create personalised profiling tools, he says, to develop online communities that make their skills visible to other partners.
It's one of the results of IBM's recently held online idea exchange involving 1,100 global partners in brainstorming new ways to grow profitability and develop skills.
Based on Lotus Connections – IBM's enterprise networking and collaboration technology – PartnerWorld Communities enables members to collaborate through a secure network designed to connect people around a task or goal.
Hume says it uses blogs, forums, private team spaces for solution design and market planning activities, social bookmarking and RSS feeds for real-time access to key topics of interest.
"We are seeing the emergence of new ecosystems being developed for the IBM smarter planet initiative and key growth plays," says Hume.
"With [our] launch of new skills-building and community opportunities for our partners, we are facilitating more effective, efficient selling in this economic environment, and jointly laying the groundwork, along with our partners for the infrastructure of tomorrow."
