Collaboration strategyTo support your business objectives

Build your collaboration strategy with IBM.Leveraging technology and cultural change to achieve better business outcomes

Business leaders are recognizing the importance of embracing change. They realize that they need dynamic and flexible organizations that leverage global resources to achieve their full potential. To meet this challenge, successful leaders are building cultures of innovation.

Innovation improves business outcomes, and successful businesses are pursuing

more collaborative models to make it happen. According to the 2008 IBM Global

CEO Study, 71 percent of CEOs plan to place greater focus on external partnerships

and collaboration that extends beyond the traditional walls of the enterprise.1

The benefits of a cohesive collaboration strategy are clear. Businesses can better

leverage their distributed talent, find the best expertise at the right time and gain

deeper insight through better relationships with customers and partners. Good ideas

develop and spread faster, operations become more efficient, and companies can

find new ways to differentiate.

The right collaboration strategy creates a virtuous cycle that helps people connect,

collaborate and innovate. People connect to information, processes and each other

to collaborate more effectively and innovate more extensively. As people connect in

new and richer ways, collaboration improves, kicking off greater innovation. Ultimately,

the collaboration strategy helps build a deeply connected enterprise with a collabora-

tive business model and a culture of innovation.

“‘We have to collaborate to

survive,’ says one CEO in

the United States. ‘There

are fewer things that will be

cost-effective to do on our

own. We will continue to do

less inside the organization

and more with partners and

even competitors.’”

—The Enterprise of the Future, IBM Global CEO Study, 2008

“CEOs told us they are pur-

suing more collaborative

models to gain efficiencies,

fend off competitive threats

and avoid commoditization.

Their end goal is to offer

customers a differentiated

value proposition.”

—The Enterprise of the Future,

IBM Global CEO Study, 2008

2

InnovateCollaborateConnect

Embedded collaboration and communicationSocial computing Mashups

Unified communicationsDirectories and profilesMobility solutions Portals

Insight andinnovation

On demandaccess

Realtimecommunications

Baselinecommunications Instant messaging and presence awareness

Web and video conferencingWeb content

TelephonyE-mail and calendaringFile sharing

Greater collaboration capabilities can help you unlock the power of your people to optimize your organization’s business outcomes.

ConnectTo achieve effective collaboration,

organizations need the ability to con-

nect people to expertise, content and

process, both inside and outside the

enterprise. E-mail and file sharing are

standard tools that employees use to do

their jobs every day. But, as business

continues to evolve, other rich means

of connecting enable organizations to

achieve better business outcomes. From

realtime connections made possible

by instant messaging to insights gained

through social networking tools, employ-

ees can focus on their high-value work,

and do it from virtually anywhere.

CollaboratePeople can leverage connections to

collaborate. Social networking software

and portals allow them to tap into existing

knowledge and discover new resources

to increase the value of collaboration.

A unified communications strategy

helps them collaborate efficiently and

effectively using combined capabilities

within a familiar interface. To foster col-

laboration, organizations must provide

a rich, robust and secure environment

that overcomes the vulnerabilities of

consumer-based social networking

and communications tools. Enterprise

solutions keep information safe while

expanding the possibilities of collabora-

tion in the workplace.

InnovateBy building collaborative business

environments that enable people to con-

nect in richer ways, organizations can

accelerate the pace of innovation. Good

ideas spread quickly and new methods

of working emerge as people embrace

social networking capabilities such as

communities, wikis and blogs. Mashups

enable individuals to solve business prob-

lems in new ways by creating customized

applications from personal, company

and Web resources—without involving IT.

A culture of innovation emerges, one that

supports the business agenda, helps

drive growth and sharpens the competi-

tive edge.

3

Create a collaborative culture of innovationYour business can implement all the

latest technology, but it won’t make

a difference if your employees don’t

actually use it. To truly benefit from

technology, you also need to create a

culture of innovation. New employees in

the workforce might readily embrace—

and even expect—social networking

tools on the job, but not everyone knows

where to begin. Company leaders can

set an example by embracing collab-

orative technology. It’s also important to

solicit feedback from your employees

on what tools are most effective for

them. And training employees to use

newer capabilities, such as blogs and

wikis, can help them share information

and contribute to the organization’s

knowledge base.

Build better business outcomes with an effective collaboration strategyOver the past 20 years, companies

have focused primarily on business

automation as a way to cut costs,

increase efficiencies and drive better

results. But business automation can

only yield so many benefits. Businesses

are looking at their top-line growth

objectives to turn ideas into products

and services that can be delivered to

a global marketplace. Collaboration is

emerging as the surest path to revenue

growth, greater responsiveness and

overall business optimization.

IBM can help you combine technology

and cultural change to develop a col-

laboration strategy that is designed to

produce better business outcomes:

Increased profits•

Lower operating costs•

Stronger client and partner relation-•

ships

A more adaptive workforce•

Greater responsiveness to change •

and opportunity

The ability to innovate by tapping into •

collective talent

An increased ability to leverage and •

preserve tacit knowledge

No matter where your organization is in its journey toward greater connection,

collaboration and innovation, IBM can assist you in developing a collaboration strat-

egy that helps you leverage your existing investments, take advantage of innovations

in technology and implement cultural change to create an enterprise of the future.

Evolve with a cohesive collaboration strategy

D ir

Business characteristics• Internally focused• Slow to respond• Trailing competitors in innovation

Business characteristics• Market focused• Highly responsive to customers and partners• Leading competitors in innovation

Technology• Multiple, nonlinked telephony services and

separate Web conferencing systems• No realtime, team-based content services or

social computing• Only a basic portal

Technology• Unified, security-rich communications and

Web conferencing• Realtime, team-based content services, such

as blogs, wikis and profiles, that support enterprisewide content sharing

• A full-featured portal that supports Web 2.0 features such as mashups

Culture• Work is frequently duplicated• Employees work primarily with the same

internal contacts• It’s difficult to locate content and expertise

Culture• Geographically dispersed and remote workers

can easily collaborate, reducing duplicated efforts

• Employees share knowledge openly with internal and external partners

• It’s easy to discover content and expertise

rr nCU E T ES ED

For more information To learn more about how IBM and IBM Lotus® products can help you develop a

successful collaboration strategy, contact your IBM representative or visit:

ibm.com/lotus

© Copyright IBM Corporation 2008

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1 The Enterprise of the Future, IBM Global CEO Study, 2008

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