The Value of the Social Media Economy is $1.3 Trillion

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The McKinsey Global Institute recently released a report titled: The social economy: Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies. I stumbled upon this report on Friday and spent some time at nights reading it over the weekend.

What's impressive is how McKinsey has been able to quantify the value of what social technologies can add into the economy. The total? A massive $1.3 Trillion ! Yes, Trillion! 70% of organizations are already using social technologies and 90% of those report some benefit. And most companies see a 20-25% increase in knowledge worker productivity. I for one have shared how social tools make me productive. This report also reminded me how IBM and MIT scientifically proved the value of social networks at work.

In the McKinsey report, a familiar use case, among many others, was included: TD Bank who leverages IBM Connections as its social business platform. (coincidentally, IBM Connections 4.0 was announced today)

One of the things I liked about the report is that it includes a lot of examples from companies in a wide variety of industries: Financial Services, Consumer Packaged Goods, Professional Services, Manufacturing, and more. Therefore, irrespective of the industry you work on, you are likely to find a success example in the report.

Over the weekend, I also stumbled upon this quick video that (while an ad for another company) has some nice visuals to explain the power of social media for your business

Are you still considering becoming a social business? Or do you want to learn tips on how to become a social business ? Want to learn how other companies are getting value from becoming a social business? If so, then you *must* attend the following webcast next week:

Register today!!

To download the 184-page McKinsey report (for free) or even get a free eBook copy for your iPad, go here. I also recommend that you listen to the 10 minute audiocast embedded on that page with lead researcher Michael Chui.

Scan Documents Directly into IBM Connections with Cobra Image Router

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Do you work for an organization that it's very paper intensive? Would you like an easier way to get paper documents into IBM Connections? Well, here's the solution for you!

Cobra Image Router v6 is now available and integrates directly with IBM Connections. Cobra Image Router (CIR) 6 for IBM Connections enables capture of paper content using any network connected scanner or multifunction device - and intelligently delivers content to your IBM Connections Files environment.

CIR will :

• deliver content directly from scanning device to your on-premise or cloud based Connections environment
• allow the user to distribute content securely to any audience share - including specific Users, Folders or Communities
• deliver a full-text-searchable PDF via OCR
• allow point-of-scan data entry for profiling content with document title and description, even to add comments and tags!

Take a peek at the demo below:

To download a free trial of the app visit the IBM Connections App Catalog here.

Webcast - What is New in IBM Connections Next

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On September 7th, I will join Joyce Davis' IBM Collaboration Solutions Webcast. This webcast is open to everyone so if you haven't seen what's coming in IBM Connections Next yet, this will be a great opportunity for that. I think a large number of people have already seen and experienced the newest release of IBM Connections in the Greenhouse.

I'm hoping to show you features (yes, via a demo!) that perhaps you haven't discovered yet so I would like to invite you to register and join the event.

Here's the description of the event:

For the 3rd year in a row, IDC ranked IBM number one in worldwide market share for enterprise social software. Also, in Forrester Wave™: Cloud Strategies of Online Collaboration Software Vendors, 3Q 2012, IBM SmartCloud for Social Business, built on IBM Connections, was cited as a leader. And recently, IBM Connections ranked as Leader in the Aragon Research Globe for Enterprise Social Software, 2012 report.

By now, you've probably been using now IBM Connections "Next" on Greenhouse for a few weeks. You think you may have used all the cool new features, but have you really seen them all? Join us as we take you through a tour of IBM Connections "Next" so that you can see first-hand, all the amazing new collaborative capabilities that are available in this new release!

To register for the webcast, click here.

IBM Ranked as Leader in the Aragon Research Globe for Enterprise Social Software, 2012

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And the great news keep piling up. On Tuesday, IBM was cited as a Leader in Forrester's Wave: Cloud Strategies of Online Collaboration Software Vendors.

Today, I've learned that IBM Connections has been ranked as Leader in the Aragon Research Globe for Enterprise Social Software, 2012. IBM Connections continues to be the market leader in enterprise social software !

According to their announcement, the report evaluates 22 social collaboration vendors against 3 dimensions: Strategy, Performance, and Reach. Based on the evaluation of each vendor, each vendor is placed in 1 of 4 spheres: Leader, Innovator, Specialist or Contender. Again, IBM was ranked as a Leader.

Aragon Research is the newest technology research and advisory firm. Aragon delivers high impact research and advisory services to provide enterprises the insight they need to help them make better technology and strategy decisions.

A great example of a customer reaping the benefits of becoming a social business with IBM Connections is Lowe's Home Improvement. Earlier in the year they shared this story:

Needless to say, I'm extremely excited to continue to see IBM Connections being validated by independent research firms as a leader. Exciting times ahead indeed!

If you want to read the report, you can get it from Aragon here.

IBM SmartCloud Cited as a Leader in Cloud Strategies of Online Collaboration Vendors

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Amazing news to share today! As you may have seen in Bethann Cregg's blog entry from today, IBM was among the vendors Forrester Research invited to participate in their latest Forrester Wave™: Cloud Strategies of Online Collaboration Software Vendors, 3Q 2012. In this report, IBM SmartCloud for Social Business, built on IBM Connections, was cited as a leader. W00t !

IBM SmartCloud for Social Business is IBM's premier cloud-based online collaboration platform. Several weeks back I worked with my peers as we prepared our documentation to send it over to Forrester. Needless to say, I'm extremely excited that Forrester considers IBM a leader in this Forrester Wave report!

The BrainYard earlier this week published an article that highlights the vendors that Forrester recognized as leaders. In it, you can see my colleague Ramsey,  who I worked with to get this done, quoted in the article.

More and more companies are looking at leveraging cloud-based collaboration solutions. A recent example is Ricoh who chose the IBM Connections platform on the cloud to better collaborate with its global employees. Check out the video that was recently shared by them:


Other media outlets have picked this up too:

• CMSWire: Forrester Wave: IBM, Microsoft, Salesforce Build Online Collaboration Lead
• SMBNation: 5 Cloud Services Already Replacing Small Business File Servers
• ZDNet: Are Online Collaboration Tools Ready for your Business?

Congrats to the entire team who worked on this. [Updated 30/Aug/2012] - to view the report now go here.