IBM Sample Research Report

The customer interviewed for this study is a large, global manufacturing company of more than 50,000 employees with a complex product set consisting of tens of thousands of product families and more than a million SKUs.

The in-depth interview with the company uncovered the following relevant points:

As with many large enterprises, the company had slowly introduced collaborative tools into the enterprise over many years, mostly in audio/video/Web conferencing and IM. These tools were effective and the investment justified, yet the company lacked a cohesive collaboration strategy that met strategic needs throughout its expansive business. The company realized that the latest Web 2.0 and social networking tools could prove even more beneficial to its business.

The investment in collaboration tools was sanctioned at the highest levels of the senior management within the company. Justification for the investment was facilitated by the CIO working with other senior executives to pinpoint technology investments that met strategic corporate objectives of supporting new market and new product growth.