ARMONK, N.Y - 27 janv. 2011: IBM (NYSE:IBM) today announced new partnerships and increased adoption of LotusLive public cloud services to help clients innovate faster, improve daily business interactions and reduce computing costs.  LotusLive provides organizations with integrated email, Web conferencing, social networking and collaboration services through the IBM cloud.

As part of today's news, IBM announced partnerships with Ariba and SugarCRM that will help clients take advantage of social commerce and social CRM in the cloud.

IBM also announced the widespread adoption of LotusLive with the following new clients benefiting from IBM's Cloud initiatives: Australian Bureau of Statistics, C&D Foods, Crawford & Company, the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising, General Milling Corporation, General Motors Components Holdings and the Zoo and Aquarium Association of Australia.

Adoption of cloud computing is on the rise. Recent IDC research shows that worldwide spending on cloud services will grow almost threefold, reaching $44.2 billion by 2013, as the cloud computing model offers a lower cost way for business to acquire and use IT (1).  With this rising interest and adoption, businesses across the world are embracing LotusLive public cloud services for easy-to-use collaboration tools to connect with colleagues, partners and suppliers quickly.

Additionally, according to recent IBM survey of more than 2,000 midsize companies, there's growing adoption of cloud computing among midsize firms, with two-thirds either planning or currently deploying cloud-based technologies to improve IT systems management while lowering costs.

Todays news reinforces IBM's Cloud leadership and capabilities helping clients to create better business outcomes leveraging public, private and hybrid cloud approaches.

Integrating Collaboration and Business Processes in the Cloud

IBM LotusLive offers integrated applications from business partners that are designed to help companies of all sizes, in every industry, work even more efficiently and effectively. By adding integrations, LotusLive delivers more cloud-based options to simplify and improve everyday business activities. Today IBM is announcing two integrated applications that deliver collaboration within CRM and commerce.

SugarCRM for LotusLive offers a fully integrated customer relationship management and online collaboration solution that simplifies working with prospects and customers during the lead generation, lead-to-cash and issue resolution processes. For example, a sales agent using the combined solution can instantly launch a LotusLive online meeting with a key prospect right from inside his Sugar system, and quickly and easily share important files and information from that meeting inside SugarCRM with a few simple clicks. This capability provides a more streamlined experience for the prospect, creates greater visibility into account activity, and increases CRM user productivity – which can shorten sales cycles and increase revenue for sales organizations. The service is expected be available during the first half of 2011.

With Ariba Discovery, LotusLive subscribers gain instant access to a global network of sellers from within the LotusLive application. Streamlining the process of finding and selecting vendors to do business with can represent a significant cost savings for companies. Ariba Discovery is a free, easy-to-use service that provides access to more than 325,000 sellers in over 400 commodity categories. Ariba Discovery for LotusLive lets buyers and sellers collaborate by scheduling online meetings, creating web conferences, chatting, and sharing documents, resulting in improved communications and faster decision making. The service is expected to be available during the first half of 2011.

Adopting Email in the Cloud

Due to advances in technology and lowering costs to acquire technology, cloud email is gaining popularity. IBM offers clients hosted e-mail and hosted Web-based email through its LotusLive portfolio. LotusLive Notes and LotusLive iNotes provide enterprise-grade email and calendaring without organizations needing to host the infrastructure required.

Organizations including C&D Foods, Crawford & Company, the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising, General Motors Components Holdings LLC and General Milling Corporation have adopted IBM's cloud based email offerings.

C&D Foods, based in Longford, Ireland, is one of Europe's leading high quality pet food manufacturers producing more than 150,000 tons of pet food annually. C&D Foods needed a quick and cost-effective way to move employees at their canning facility in the Netherlands off Microsoft Exchange.

"We decided to move them to the cloud using LotusLive iNotes. With its simple administration tools and user-friendly interface, LotusLive iNotes helped take pressure of our migration team and an administrative headache off my desk. We were able to move users to iNotes quickly and easily without any interruption to our network or IT infrastructure. And with LotusLive iNotes, users can access their e-mail, anytime, any place," said Rosalyn Donnelly, IT Manager, C &D Foods.

Crawford & Company, based in Atlanta, Georgia, is the world's largest independent provider of claims management solutions to the risk management and insurance industry, as well as self-insured entities.

"With a global network of more than 700 locations in 63 countries, we needed a cost effective, reliable email service," said Beverly Trice, Catastrophe Services, Crawford & Company. "We chose LotusLive iNotes so field adjusters could have access to their email whenever, wherever. More over, it's important that the email have a consistent email domain in a security rich environment so the adjusters feel confident to share information with clients and communicate internally with colleagues."

The Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising (FIDM), a private college in California specializing in the fashion design, interior design and entertainment industries, has purchased LotusLive iNotes to provide 7,500 students with low-cost, reliable Webmail that they can access anywhere on or off campus.

FIDM's goal was to offer all incoming and current students email accounts with a consistent FIDM domain so the administration and faculty could communicate with the student body more effectively. In FIDM's eLearning program, where most of the interaction between students and teachers happens electronically, LotusLive provides a consistent and reliable user experience for the entire class which facilitates focused and effective communication. FIDM also wanted to ensure that its students had a professional email account to use when applying for internships or jobs after graduation.  Prior to moving to LotusLive iNotes, students used their free, personal email accounts and the administration did not always have the correct email address for every student on campus. LotusLive iNotes helps the students and faculty stay in touch with each other more efficiently.

General Motors Components Holdings LLC (GMCH) has purchased LotusLive Notes to provide employees with cloud based email, calendar and contact management services. A wholly owned subsidiary of General Motors, GMCH was looking to improve collaboration among its employees in plants in New York, Michigan and Indiana that manufacture HVAC climate control systems, powertrain cooling systems, engine management systems, automotive electronics and related products.  Formerly part of the Delphi Corporation, GMCH needed to move all employees to GM compatible systems after the acquisition from Delphi.  

GMCH wanted a cloud solution that would meet GM's requirements for performance and reliability without the capital expenditure necessary to run email in-house. They chose LotusLive Notes for the flexibility of the service and because of IBM's enterprise experience. GMCH has also purchased LotusLive Connections to facilitate collaboration between employees.

General Milling Corporation (GMC) is one of the largest integrated food companies in the Philippines with offices and plants located throughout the country. In business for 50 years, the company was looking for a reliable and cost-effective collaboration platform as a foundation for growth as they aim to become one of the top food producers in Philippines. The company adopted LotusLive's complete collaboration suite to provide its employees with cloud-based e-mail and advanced collaboration tools.  Moving e-mail to the cloud with LotusLive Notes allows the company to expand IT resources while still having access to business-class messaging and the latest technologies from IBM. GMC also purchased LotusLive Engage to promote greater collaboration among its widely dispersed work-force and its partners and vendors.

Accelerating Cloud Collaboration

LotusLive Engage provides an integrated suite of collaboration tools including Web conferencing and collaboration capabilities, like file storing and sharing, instant messaging and activity management. Organizations including the Australian Bureau of Statistics and the Zoo and Aquarium Association of Australia have adopted LotusLive Engage to drive increased collaboration across geographically distributed teams.

For example, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) adopted LotusLive across its 3,200 person organization for increased project collaboration with other international statistical agencies.  The ABS are members of several international networks developing standards and applications for statistical processing.  By adopting LotusLive Engage,  the international project teams have been able to quickly share skills and intellectual property and assets, design and co-develop statistical standards and applications -- all within a secure, cost-effective environment that LotusLive provides.

The Zoo and Aquarium Association of Australia integrates more than 90 zoos and aquariums across Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific in a network for wildlife conservation, environmental education and wildlife research.  Its main activity is the Australasian Species Management Program (ASMP) which has a mission "to plan and manage animal collections cooperatively, in ways that promote sustainability and contribute to species conservation."

The Association has adopted LotusLive Engage as its collaboration platform to support more than a 100 species programs that involve teams implementing best practice policy across the region. The Association has found the platform to be secure and easy to use and a good way of disseminating current information and collecting feedback.

For more information about LotusLive, please visit www.lotuslive.com  

For more information about IBM's Cloud computing initiatives, please visit http://www.ibm.com/ibm/cloud/  

Sources:

(1) Main IDC Cloud Research Landing Page: http://www.idc.com/prodserv/idc_cloud.jsp