IBM Showcases ExperienceOne at Smarter Commerce Global Summit

by Darryl K. Taft

Right before the IBM Smarter Conference Global Summit 2014 is about to start, people are milling around and beginning to be seated. This can be compared with the calm before the storm as e-commerce gets smarter and begins to tap more and more into big data for insight into customer needs and desires.

Enter Craig Hayman, general manager of Industry Cloud Solutions at IBM. Hayman has oversight for a business unit focused on delivering high value, integrated solutions that enable better business outcomes for clients by building smarter industries—a portfolio that includes IBM’s Industry Frameworks, Enterprise Content Management offerings, Enterprise Marketing Management offerings and Industry Solution products.

The theme of the IBM Smarter Commerce Summit was “Moments Matter.” Hayman said, “We at IBM have made it our mission to help you know what moments matter.” The company is largely doing this via big data and analytics.

IBM’s Smarter Commerce technology helped IBM customer Security First Insurance move from handling 300,000 claims per month to handling more than 300,000 claims for one area in a short period of time during Hurricane Katrina, Hayman said.

Jay Baer, a marketing consultant, speaker and author, served as emcee of the IBM Smarter Commerce Summit and identified three trends in smarter commerce: mobile, brevity and visuals. Baer also said he believes content is not king, but relevancy is the killer app “because it enables us to create relationships at scale.”

Keniche Ebina, winner of the 2013 “America’s Got Talent” competition on NBC, wowed the IBM Smarter Commerce Summit crowd with his innovative, special effects-like dancing moves reminiscent of Keanu Reeves in “The Matrix.”

Robert LeBlanc, senior vice president of IBM’s Software and Cloud Solutions Group, takes the stage to make a few announcements and provide context on how users are employing IBM’s Smarter Commerce technology.

IBM’s LeBlanc says an inflection point in the industry is driving IT demand. “We believe the businesses that succeed will be those that reinvent themselves digitally,” he said.

LeBlanc explained how IBM customer Mobily, a Saudi Arabian telecommunications company is using IBM SPSS predictive modeling as part of its Smarter Commerce platform.

IBM’s LeBlanc describes how Aspera fits with the Smarter Commerce strategy. IBM recently acquired Aspera, a provider of software solutions for high-speed data transfer, which removes the barriers of transfer distance, file size or network conditions. Aspera helps address the volume, variety and velocity challenges of data movement. For cloud computing, Aspera provides companies with the ability to transfer large files and data sets in, out and across cloud infrastructure so that it can be analyzed, processed and transformed anywhere, on-premise or in the cloud.

LeBlanc spoke on how systems of engagement are opening new business opportunities for IBM. CEO Ginni Rometty identified three major factors for growth in 2014: data, cloud and systems of engagement.

LeBlanc introduced IBM ExperienceOne, a new integrated portfolio of offerings to help organizations bring marketing, sales and service together.

LeBlanc introduced Maria Winans, ‎vice president of IBM Industry Cloud Solutions and Social Business Marketing. She is steeped in ExperienceOne and spoke about how the company believes it can revolutionize e-commerce.

LeBlanc said IBM is investing now for what it can deliver tomorrow in the cloud. Earlier this year, IBM committed to invest $1.2 billion to beef up its SoftLayer infrastructure.

Billy May, Abercrombie & Fitch’s group vice president of direct-to-consumer, digital and customer marketing, schooled the IBM Smarter Commerce Summit audience about how he perceives moments matter, including “now moments” and “snackable moments.”

Award-winning actor and director Ron Howard joined Jay Baer onstage at the IBM Smarter Commerce Summit to talk about marketing, branding and more. “Do moments matter?” Howard asked. “You’re damn straight they do—in storytelling, that’s what it’s all about,” he said.

“You got a story you want to tell? Then it’s one part intellect and three parts emotion.”

IBM holds a press conference to further detail news from the Smarter Conference Global Summit 2014.

Kevin Bishop, IBM’s vice president of Enterprise Marketing Management, displays his agenda for speaking on IBM ExperienceOne.

IBM’s Kevin Bishop addresses the press corps at IBM Smarter Commerce Summit 2014.

Paul Pappas, managing partner of IBM Interactive Experience, displays his agenda for discussing Interactive Experience and the new ExperienceOne opportunity.

John Mesberg, vice president of B2B and commerce solutions at IBM, displays his agenda for discussing ecosystem engagement, new challenges and B2B solutions.

Kevin Bishop, Paul Pappas and John Mesberg (left to right) prepare to address the press for a panel discussion and Q&A session.