Archive for the ‘smarter commerce’ Category
Live @ IBM InterConnect 2012: A Q&A With IBM’s Alisa Maclin On The IBM Marketing Center
lisa Maclin is Vice President of Marketing for IBM’s Smarter Commerce initiative. IBM’s Smarter Commerce portfolio consists of software solutions, including over $2.5B in recent acquisitions, as well as consulting and implementation services and workload optimized systems.
Alisa Maclin is Vice President of Marketing for IBM’s Smarter Commerce Initiative. Smarter Commerce is a unique approach designed to help companies better integrate and more effectively manage their value chain — including buy, market, sell, and service processes — to put the customer at the center of decisions and actions.
IBM’s Smarter Commerce portfolio consists of software solutions, including over $2.5B in recent acquisitions, as well as consulting and implementation services and workload optimized systems.
Previously, Ms. Maclin was Vice President of Market Strategy and Planning for IBM Global Business Services, with responsibility for developing and executing marketing strategy for IBM’s consulting and application management business worldwide.
Ms. Maclin has more than 20 years of global marketing and sales leadership experience at IBM, including executive roles in IBM’s Software, Global Services, and Sales and Distribution divisions.
We sat down with Ms. Maclin recently at the IBM InterConnect event in Singapore to better understand the evolution of the Smarter Commerce story over the past few months, including the announcement of the new IBM Marketing Center, which has been described as a “multipurpose cloud-based suite aimed at organizations that want to take advantage of the Smarter Commerce capabilities without having to invest in their own IT infrastructure.”
We discussed this, and much more, during our few minutes together in Singapore.
Live @ IBM Smarter Commerce Global Summit Orlando: IBM’s Jay Henderson On The IBM Holiday Benchmark Online Shopping Analysis
Jay leads product strategy within IBM’s Cross-Channel Marketing team. His team is responsible for market analysis, customer insight, and industry marketing functions. He came to IBM through its acquisition of Unica, and has over fifteen years’experience in multi-channel marketing and customer analytics. Previously, he served in various marketing roles at predictive analytics leader SPSS (also part of IBM), web analytics pioneer NetGenesis, and management consulting firm Cambridge Technology Group. Jay holds degrees from MIT’s Sloan School of Management and the Sorbonne (Paris IV).
Jay Henderson has been there, done that, and got the t-shirt when it comes to marketing analytics…one he probably bought online.
Currently the strategy program director at IBM Cross-Channel Marketing, Jay’s team is responsible for market analysis, customer insight, and industry marketing functions, and I had the privilege of sitting down with Jay last week at the IBM Smarter Commerce Global Summit to talk many things analytics.
Jay’s heritage pre-dates his tenure at IBM, joining Big Blue through its acquisition of Unica.
Jay has over fifteen years’ experience in multi-channel marketing and customer analytics, and prior to joining Unica, he ran marketing for text mining pioneer ClearForest, the technology from which was later acquired by Thomson Reuters.
Jay’s most recent claim to fame has been the preparation of the IBM “Holiday Benchmark,” a near real-time analysis of the e-commerce retail activity during the annual holiday shopping season.
If you want the inside skinny on Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and other key shopping inflection points, the IBM Holiday Benchmark provides some excellent benchmark statistics. During our chat, Jay also made some news when he revealed that IBM is also going to be issuing soon some new reports, including a “back to school” retail analysis.
So, wanna know about major trends in the e-commerce realm? Watch the interview with Jay and find out!
Live @ IBM Smarter Commerce Global Summit Orlando: IBM GBS Exec Paul Pappas On IBM’s Smarter Commerce Consulting Capabilities
Paul Papas is an executive with over 22 years of experience in consulting and over 15 years of specialization in customer relationship management and business analytics. He leads a global practice that helps clients use digital technologies to increase the value they provide to their customers and business partners. He is a frequent public speaker and blogger on the subject of digital transformation.
If you’ve ever wondered just what part of IBM it is that helps bring IBM Smarter Commerce solutions to life on behalf of our clients, you need look no further.
Paul Pappas, the Smarter Commerce Global Leader for IBM’s Global Business Services unit, is an executive with over 22 years of experience in consulting and over 15 years of specialization in customer relationship management and business analytics.
Paul now leads a global practice that helps clients use digital technologies to increase the value they provide to their customers and business partners.
Paul was formerly a partner at PriceWaterhouseCoopers and has held several practice leadership roles throughout his career.
Prior to assuming his role as the Global Smarter Commerce leader, Paul led IBM’s Life Sciences practice and is a recognized industry subject matter expert.
During our 11 minute discussion at the IBM Smarter Commerce Global Summit this past week in Orlando, Paul outlined the vision behind IBM’s approach to smarter commerce, the so-called “systems of engagement,” which focuses on customer touchpoints (and not just transactions).
He also explained the four “I’s” — Interact, Inform, Integrate, and Innovate — that drive his discussions with clients.
The IBM Smarter Commerce GBS practice began 18 months ago with just over 1,000 consultants, and in that short time has already doubled to keep pace with market demand.
As Paul explains in the interview, “Every IBM client has a different set of objectives or needs,” and it’s that customer-centricity that has helped IBM rapidly become a market leader in servicing this burgeoning growth area.
Live @ IBM Smarter Commerce Global Summit Orlando: Twitter Editorial Director Karen Wickre On Effective Communication In 140 Characters Or Less
Karen Wickre is Editorial Director at Twitter, where she shapes the way the company communicates publicly. She has worked the editorial side of publishing for 20+ years as an editor, author, columnist and content strategist. Previously, Karen worked at Google, for which she developed the company’s corporate content strategy, and built its blog and Twitter platforms into global channels.
Karen Wickre, currently the editorial director for Twitter, has been on the vanguard of digital and social media communications for over a decade.
During her nine-year stint at Google, she helped found the Google Corporate Blog, which paved the way for Google’s more aggressive embrace of blogging for not only corporate communications, but also knowledge sharing and Google product enablement.
More recently, she’s served as the editorial director for Twitter, helping Twitter employees and customers communicate as widely and engagingly as is possible in 140 characters or less.
During our interview at the IBM Smarter Commerce Global Summit in Orlando last week, Karen and I chatted about the early days of social media, then worked our way forward to more cutting-edge concerns, including Twitter celebrity, Twitter’s key role in helping share the zeitgeist of live events, Twitter’s increasing international reach, and yes, even the ever-feared “DM Fail.”
Karen’s insights into both the philosophy and reality of effective social media communications can impact organizations everywhere looking to build their own smarter commerce strategies.
You can follow her on Twitter at @kvox.
Live @ IBM Smarter Commerce Global Summit Orlando: The CMO Club’s Pete Krainik On The CMO Agenda
Pete Krainik is the co-founder of The CMO Club, and brings over 30 years of experience in marketing, sales, IT, and product management within the consumer goods, high tech, digital and software industries.
Earlier this year, the Gartner Group informed us they were projecting that by the year 2017, chief marketing officers would be spending more on information technology than the CIO.
Yes, that turned a few heads, at IBM and elsewhere in the industry.
But Pete Krainik, the co-founder of the CMO Club, an organization which brings CMOs together in an environment “of openness and contribution that enables them to become better at what they do” explained during our interview in Orlando that CMOs face challenges bigger than simply better embracing IT.
Most CMOs are expected to lead the growth agendas of their organizations, Pete suggested, and yet many don’t feel they have the needed credibility or are not viewed with the same authority as other C-level execs.
Moreover, many are still wrestling with the rapid advent of social media, and the need to provide more aggressive outreach and enablement of their key advocates. As Pete explained, “Advocates have juice,” and yet so many organizations are struggling as to how to most effectively create and foster relationships with their brand advocates.
We discussed these issues, as well as the powerful narrative emerging around IBM’s Smarter Commerce play, in a fun and engaging discussion.
Live @ IBM Smarter Commerce Global Summit Orlando: Social Thought Leader Ted Rubin Talks “Return On Relationships”
Ted is a leading social marketing strategist and in 2009 started using the term “ROR: Return on Relationship,” a concept he believes is the cornerstone for building an engaged multi-million member database, many of whom are vocal advocates for the brand.
“Just be nice.”
Those are just some of the words of wisdom that Collective Bias’ chief social marketing officer Ted Rubin offered up in our interview last week at the IBM Smarter Commerce Global Summit in Orlando, Florida, as Ted discussed the opportunities and challenges of social media marketing.
Ted is a leading social marketing strategist who, in 2009, began using and evangelizing the term “ROR,” or “return on relationship,” a concept he believes is the cornerstone for building an engaged multi-million member database, many of whom have the potential to become vocal advocates for brands.
In our interview, Ted also addressed some key emerging themes in the social media, including the massive opportunity that social media presents to organizations looking to interact at scale with their customers, and how social platforms are increasingly helping to facilitate those interactions.
His book, Return on Relationship, is due to be released in October of this year.
(Almost) Live @ IBM Smarter Commerce Global Summit: That’s A Wrap
I’m still on the ground here at the IBM Smarter Commerce Global Summit in Orlando, Florida, but time is short and I have a plane to catch.
I bagged at least 14 on-camera interviews yesterday, for me a new record, and Scott Laningham and I bagged another 8 or 9 on Wednesday.
Tell me what day is is again?
Ohhh…oh yeah, it’s Fridayyyy! TGIF!
I get to go home today!
So here’s the deal: I was SO busy conducting the video interviews in the Smarter Commerce Solutions Center, I had precious little bandwidth for sharing all the great news emerging at the event here in the Turbo blog.
So, I’m going to try and do a quick little catch-up here.
First, today’s news: New Services From IBM to Accelerate Customer Engagement Efforts for CMOs and CIOs
This is a new set of services from our own IBM Interactive digital arm to help businesses build and expand their digital presence. Mucho mas details here.
From Wednesday: IBM Accelerates Smarter Commerce through Intelligent Guided Customer Experience
This is new software and services designed to help Chief Marketing Officers (CMO), Chief Procurement Officers (CPO) and other key line-of-business executives realize quicker business results by delivering intelligence guided customer experiences, across all digital channels, aligned to the buying and shopping preferences of each individual.
This new Smarter Commerce initiative consists of cloud-based software and services, including:
- IBM Marketing Center, an IBM SmartCloud Solution that integrates digital analytics with real-time marketing execution capabilities into a single solution that allows CMOs to better meet customer needs by quickly analyzing customer shopping patterns and turning these insights into intelligent offers that are personalized to each person.
- A new Smarter Commerce managed services offering that helps clients more rapidly and effectively deploy and manage their ecommerce environments.
- A new offering for Strategic Supply Management, available on-premises and as a SmartCloud solution that speeds and improves supplier governance, risk and compliance.
IBM currently analyzes more than $100 billion in commerce transactions per year in the cloud. Current IBM customers that have embraced cloud-based Smarter Commerce offerings include RadioShack, Bank of Montreal and Urban Outfitters.
With these new offerings, IBM can provide customers with automation and intelligence while accelerating and improving marketing, sales, customer service, procurement and supply chain management. More on that announcement here.
The Emerging CMO
I mentioned earlier we conducted a number of interviews, which Scott and I will be featuring in our respective blogs over the next few days (weeks?) as time and space permits.
I’ll start with our first day of interviews, where Scott and I had the opportunity to speak with Forrester Research “boomeranger” David Cooperstein, who’s in his second stint at that consultancy and focusing on the milieu of the Chief Marketing Officer.
David spoke to some of the concerns he’s hearing from CMOs, including the real fear of losing control of their brand and the emerging focus shift from creative- to analytical-driven marketing.
Live @ IBM Smarter Commerce Global Summit — Opening Keynote Debrief: Motivate the Elephant
Click to enlarge. The IBM Smarter Commerce Global Summit kicked off earlier today in Orlando, Florida. Over 200 IBM executives, industry specialists, and other thought leaders will be sharing their insights and expertise there over the next three days, including factoids like those seen in the infographic above.
If you love nothing else about IBM’s Smarter Commerce initiative, you have to love the fact that it’s driven by results.
Here in Orlando, day one of the IBM Smarter Commerce Global Summit has already revealed some of those facts, or business outcomes, that demonstrate the power of a more integrated customer experience in action.
By way of example: I mentioned earlier via Twitter that over $27 billion in sales generated by the Internet Retailers Top 500 is powered by IBM Commerce software.
Another example: IBM manages $57 billion in annual procurement spend managed on behalf of our clients.
Yet another: IBM analyzes over $100 billion of commerce transactions each year in the cloud and conveys that insight back to our customers.
But those are results on the so-called “back-end.”
Let’s turn our attention for a moment to the newly empowered consumer: 86 percent of them use multiple channels in their shopping efforts, and they spend four to five times more than the average.
Four in ten smartphone users search for an item while in the store, and yet online sales via mobile devices were up 300 percent over 2010.
Or how about this one: 77 percent of the global population are now mobile subscribers.
That’s an immense opportunity.
Guy Kawasaki On Enchanted Customers
As former Apple evangelist and social media thought leader and author Guy Kawasaki kicked off today’s keynote session here at the IBM Smarter Commerce Global Summit, he explained to the audience that we had over 200 interesting and very valuable sessions of the audience’s peers and outside industry experts sharing their own insights.
He began with the notion of the “chief executive customer,” that is to say, with placing customers at the center of the commerce experience.
Citing his own book, “Enchantment,” Kawasaki revealed there are three pillars for building enchantment with your customers. One, you have to be likable. Two, you must achieve trustworthiness. And three, you have to do something “DICEE” (the acronym which translated to “Deep,” “Intelligent,” “Complete,” “Empowering,” and “Elegant.”)
Kawasaki shared some compelling examples of which he spoke. After running into Virgin mega CEO Richard Branson at a speaking engagement in Moscow, Branson cornered Kawasaki and asked him the ill-fated question: Do you fly on Virgin Airlines?
Kawasaki admitted that, as a loyal United customer, he did not. Branson then used his charm and personality, and even a quick shoe shine, to convince Kawasaki he should reconsider.
Kawasaki now also flies on Virgin.
The Legend Continues…
After some other amusing anecdotes, Kawasaki turned the rostrum over to Craig Hayman, IBM’s general manager, Industry Solutions.
Hayman talked about examples of businesses that have had to completely reinvent themselves (Play-Doh, the children’s product, used to be a cleaning goop used prior to World War II!).
Hayman explained that the rate and pace of change in today’s marketplace is soaring, but that ultimately the customer “owns the transaction.”
“If you disappoint them,” Hayman explained, “they’re going to share their point of view (especially via the social media!) and then move on.”
Hayman handed the reins over to Lenovo senior VP of supply chain, Jerry Smith, who explained that Lenovo is a $30 billion global personal technology company with 27,000+ employees and customers in 160+ countries.
Partnering with IBM, Smith explained, Lenovo rebuilt its company around a global supply chain vision whose goal was simple yet straightforward: To become the undisputed #1 supply chain in personal technology by providing a best-in-class customer experience.
As Smith related to the gathered audience, “We need you (Lenovo’s sales force and partners) to sell product on the water,” meaning those units which were already on ships leaving China heading for parts around the globe.
Lenovo’s supply chain overhaul saw delivery performance go up by 15 percent, and onboarding costs/time down some 85 percent, giving them better negotiating leverage, higher order speeds, and leaner inventory, a must for the PC business.
The Grass Always Grows At Husqvarna
Smith’s handoff was to two executives from Husqvarna, the 300+ year-old company that, these days, specializes in outdoor equipment.
Think chain saws and lawn mowers.
“Grass always grows,” explained John Marchionda, Husqvarna’s VP of marketing, as his counterpart from IT, Simon Howard, nodded his head in agreement.
Husqvarna’s most recent marketing investments include a social video education space on its website that are both sales force and tutorial, explaining the likes of using chain saws safely, and effectively, and helping turn the inventory in the process.
The last IBM customer to “testify” in the morning session was Aditya Bhasin, the senior VP for Consumer Marketing and Digital Banking.
“People trust other people, not institutions,” explained Bhasin. He and his team are using that knowledge to make banking better, combining the best of human interaction with a more robust and effective technology system.
One example: “BankAmeriDeals,” a form of digital couponing that combines buyer behaviors, shopping, and payment systems to bring more value to its customers in direct savings on purchases.
Another: Its new Facebook branch, which is helping match consumers with local ATMs and bank branches, and helping answer customer questions through a medium they’re most comfortable with.
Change Is A Four Letter Word
The co-author of Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard, Dan Heath, batted clean-up in the morning session by talking about a theme universal to many of IBM Smarter Commerce clients’ initiatives: Change.
“Change is a four-letter word for a lot of people,” Heath explained, before challenging the audience to think about “what happens when you leave Orlando? Will the change you envision be a change you are willing to fight for?”
Heath explained that change is definitely within the art of the possible: We’re certainly optimistic about change the moment we decide to get married.
With much laughs from the audience, and Heath’s wedding album pictures onscreen as pudding proof, Heath explained that change is made more difficult by the battling two sides of our brains: The Rational, Conscious, and Deliberative side, and the Emotional, Unconscious, and Automatic side.
The emotional side is like a big elephant in our heads, the little devil telling us “We deserve ice cream” or “Call my ex.”
The rational side…well, we like to often ignore that side.
To make his thesis actionable, Heath explained a three-part framework for thinking about change.
One, he explained, we have to “direct the rider.” Point to the way you want to change and “find the bright spots,” those areas of opportunity where you’ve already succeeded.
Second, “motivate the elephant” — give them a compelling reason to change.
And finally, “shape the path,” for change.
That is, “cultivate a culture that’s more conducive to change” and encourages more people to participate.
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