IBM Study on Big Data and Social Reveals Less Than Half of Organizations Monitor Social Media

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Today, IBM has released a new study on Big Data and Social. The study was done in conjunction with Oxford University and looks at organizations are leveraging (or planning to leverage) big data. The reports is based on a global survey of 1,144 business and IT professionals from 95 countries and 26 industries. It provides a global snapshot of how organizations today view big data, how they are building essential capabilities to tackle big data and to what extent they are currently engaged in using big data to benefit their business.

Reading the report, several things stood out for me:

• Organizations across every industry – from retail and banking to healthcare and government – are trying to tackle big data to drive better business outcomes. And the research shows that the early adopters are gaining a competitive advantage.
• Most big data efforts are focused on improving the customer experience but less than half of the organizations currently analyze data from social media sites. This means that companies are missing out on HUGE insights into their customers
• A reason why social data is underutilized is because of a skills gap. For example, less than 25 percent of the survey respondents say they have the required capabilities to analyze highly unstructured data – a major inhibitor to getting the most value from big data

I definitely recommend reading this report to those involved in the analytics and social world.

To access the full report, visit: http://www.ibm.com/2012bigdatastudy. To learn more about what IBM is doing in Big Data, make sure you follow the Information On Demand conference next week.

The Benefits of Becoming a Social Business

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A quick video that was shared at the opening keynote of the Leadership Alliance conference two weeks back.

Are you ready to reap the benefits of becoming a social business ?

Go ahead and share and this video with your network.

IBM Brings Social to Users with Updated IBM Connections Mobile Apps - Includes iPhone 5 Support

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Over the weekend, IBM updated the mobile apps for its social collaboration platform IBM Connections. The apps for Android and iOS mark the 4th release this year showing IBM's commitment and understanding of the importance of mobile in social collaboration. IBM Connections customers can download the update free of charge.

These releases round up a big week for IBM in mobile as IBM also released a new version of their instant messaging app for Android tablets.

The IBM Connections app for the iPad has become a powerful tool for me. As a remote worker, it's an essential tool to be productive and effective irrespective of where I am.

You can see the full list of new features and enhancements for the iOS app here. Here's my take of my favorite new features:

• Support for iOS 6
• Support for iPhone 5 (tall screen support)
• Infinite scrolling
• Support for IBM Connections 4.0 activity streams
• Launch third party OpenSocial gadgets
• Attach photos or videos to a status update
• Include geolocation information in a status update
• Offline access to forums you have viewed
• Offline access to Community files and forums you have viewed
• Remotely Wipe Connections app data
• Share profile information using QRCode
• Mobile Links in IBM Connection update emails now open in the app

I've also created a demo of the iPad app to showcase some of the new features:

The Android app for IBM Connections was also updated. To see a demo of the Android app, go here.

Download the apps now! You can get the free Android app from here and the free iOS app from here. Oh and keep those reviews coming!

IBM positioned as a Leader in the 2012 Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace

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Today is my 2nd year anniversary as one of the Product Managers in IBM's Social Software team and have some great news to share. Analysts at Gartner have positioned IBM in the Leaders Quadrant of the 2012 Magic Quadrant for Social Software in the Workplace. IBM’s placement is based on its ability to execute and completeness of vision. Just a few weeks ago, IBM released IBM Connections 4.0 the core of the IBM Social Business Platform.

This new report adds to the recent analyst reports from Forrester and Aragon Research which also list IBM as a Leader in their respective research reports. IBM Connections has also been listed as the worldwide market share leader by IDC.

I'm extremely proud to be part of the IBM Connections team! If you want to learn more about IBM Connections, check out this quick 3 minute video created by my colleagueSuzanne Livingston:

Check out the other 9 videos that Suzanne has created. These are great "shorts" you can easily share with your colleagues and even embed directly in Connections to show users what's new in IBM Connections 4.0 and they cover the different components of Connections including Mobile.