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IBM Unveils Smarter Commerce Software and Services Offerings
LAS VEGAS, - 12 Apr 2011: IBM introduced new software and services offerings dedicated to helping businesses swiftly adapt to rising customer demand in today's digitally transformed B2B and B2C marketplaces. The announcement was made at IBM's annual Impact Conference before thousands of IBM clients and business partners.
With its Smarter Commerce initiative, IBM is defining and leading a new market that it estimates will grow to $20 billion in software alone by 2015. Smarter Commerce transforms how companies manage and swiftly adapt to customer and industry trends across marketing, selling and service processes that span the entire commerce cycle, putting the customer at the center of their decisions and actions.
"Customers use social networks, mobile devices, Web sites and influencers to make buying decisions today," said Craig Hayman, General Manager, IBM Industry Solutions. "These businesses must connect to these customers where and how they prefer to buy to be successful. At the same time, they need to make sure they have the means of effectively managing their supplier and trading partner network to ensure they have the products at the right time and place to meet this new customer demand."
Business adoption of Smarter Commerce technology is already underway. IBM client CSX transportation has used elements of Smarter Commerce software to improve partner onboarding in its supply chain and partner communities from two days to 10 minutes. By installing IBM Smarter Commerce software, First Tennessee Bank improved the success rate of its marketing campaigns by more than 3 percent, realizing a return on investment in the software of more than 600 percent.
IBM software has enabled electronic publishing leader Cengage Learning to not only offer a subscription model that allows students to electronically rent textbooks but also electronically or physically receive supplementary offerings of items such as study guides. IBM helped XO Communications reduce customer churn by 8 percent the first year and 18 percent in the second year, delivering a nearly 400 percent return on investment in a matter of months.
The new commerce imperatives are bringing non-traditional IT buyers such as marketing officers and procurement executives into pivotal roles that are supported by Smarter Commerce.
IBM has announced Smarter Commerce services offerings to help these clients deal with these new challenges related to commerce. Customer value strategy accelerator IBM's industry and strategy specialists will work with clients to envision, evaluate and prioritize a set of fresh and exciting new business value possibilities. Clients receive a roadmap and prioritized recommendations for new business models that address the changing needs of the social, digital and mobile consumer. Cross-channel experience assessment IBM's industry and channel specialists will analyze current customer experience by channel, identify pain points and limitations, and map customer expectations and behaviors (based on voice of the customer information). In addition, through a customer experience workshop, IBM explores cross-industry leading practices and creates design principles for the target customer experience across channels.
IBM's Smarter Commerce offerings are flexible and integrated solutions spanning the entire spectrum of commerce phases that include buying activities such as sourcing, controlling and procuring of goods and materials; targeted and personalized marketing capabilities across all customer interactions; sales and fulfillment of products and service across all channels; and service, responding to all customer needs throughout the relationship. |
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Yahoo! Introduces Search Direct A Simpler Way to Find Answers Fast
SUNNYVALE, Calif., March 23, 2011 Yahoo! announced Search Direct, which delivers answers and direct access to websites before you complete a query, hit the search button, or go to a search results page. This search innovation supports Yahoo!s strategy to fundamentally shift the way people experience the Web by providing the richest, most integrated content faster and more efficiently.
This new feature, currently in beta, taps into Yahoo!s unique opportunity to combine content and structured data and to provide a rich search experience. Search Direct predicts search results as fast as a person types, character by character, and presents those results dynamically, generating a fast, simple search experience that goes beyond a list of blue links. Search Direct rolls out in a public beta to Yahoo! users across the U.S. today, and will be available in other Yahoo! products and markets later this year.
With todays launch, direct answers not the search results page is the primary focus. We are redefining the search process and prominently displaying direct answers where search decisions are being made, said Shashi Seth, senior vice president, Yahoo! Search and Marketplaces. Search Direct is evidence of Yahoo! continuing to lead innovation in search, enabling people to take action faster, find what is most important, and sample what is possible with the next stage of search technology.
With Search Direct, Yahoo! content is combined with information from the Web to provide rich answers, not just links, and to give people the option to immediately engage or continue to a traditional search results page. In this beta release, coverage includes top trending searches, movies, TV, sports teams and players, weather, local, travel, stocks, and shopping categories now available at
search.yahoo.com.
Trending Searches The moment the cursor hits the search box, top search trends appear and are updated every 10 minutes to display the latest and greatest search trends.
Search Previews Search Direct predicts the search term as you type, providing the 10 most likely searches. You can then easily scan each option to see the related top results and find the best match for your needs.
Direct Answers For many common searches, Search Direct provides instant answers before you click the Search button. Find an address or phone number, a three-day weather forecast, financial stock performance, the top trending stories at Yahoo! News, or when and where a movie is playing all without going to a results page.
Direct Results When you scan the search options and find the site you need, Search Direct provides exactly that direct access to the site. No more overwhelming pages of links.
Rich Content For all top searches about sports, top news stories, and finance, Search Direct displays rich content that only the worlds largest digital media company can provide. For example, type n to get the Yahoo! News display, which always shows the top two trending stories.
Yahoo! will continue to enhance and update Search Direct with new content, such as popular music and local listings. For more information and a demo video of Search Direct from Yahoo!, visit search.yahoo.com and our company blog, Yodel Anecdotal.
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