IBM bets on social networks

The new range of software, services and programs are intended to accelerate collaboration, deepen customer relationships, generate new ideas faster and enable a more effective workforce, says IBM.

According an IBM 2010 CEO Study, 57% of companies who have invested in social business tools have outperformed their peers, citing collaboration as having a direct impact on their organisation's growth.

The software will allow organisations to socially enable their business through today’s most popular devices such as the BlackBerry, PlayBook, iPad, iPhone, Google Android and Nokia devices

IBM says it’s enabling the next-generation workforce to collaborate beyond email to include instant messaging, web meetings, and social functions such as blogs, wikis communities and activity streams.

The firm also plans to release new Lotus Sametime instant messaging clients, which is a social client for Activity Streams and extended its support for new mobile devices in the cloud.

IBM will also offer a cloud-based version of LotusLive Symphony, an office productivity suite that will give organisations a social platform allowing them to simultaneously collaborate on documents in the cloud.

New software and programs for organisations using Microsoft Exchange and Microsoft Sharepoint are also in the pipeline. A future release of IBM Connections will enhance its integration to Microsoft Outlook and provide full integration to Microsoft Sharepoint sites.

A full rundown of IBM’s plans can be found here.