Lotus Connections is used by various organizations to address different challenges: - A global manufacturer used it to reduce costs by leveraging a packaged employee directory solution instead of custom coding, and to improve cross-functional communication. - A global telecommunications firm used it to increase innovation by involving customers and partners in developing new services through an online portal. - A small non-profit used it to collaborate across disconnected teams on education projects through an activities component.

1. Lotus Connections Customer Use Cases The following are stories from early customer engagements. They were created to help people understand the many ways that Lotus Connections can deliver business value to many different industries.

2. Lotus Connections Bridges People and Information Over 320,000 IBMers work in a highly global and mobile environment. They suffer from information overload in their jobs yet lack visibility to identify overlap, related work, and expertise within IBM. Challenge Create networks of people despite global and mobile boundaries Link people to experts quickly to increase the likelihood of project success Increase the pace of innovation within the company, harnessing the knowledge of employees to improve processes and products, reducing overlap in work efforts of teams Business Value Lotus Connections was born from IBM’s own need to address these challenges. IBMers can search for others based on skills, geography & more. They can identify related people, projects, & expertise as well as find & track current topics or experts. They can also work collaboratively in informal & reusable activities. Finally, they can reduce global boundaries & discover colleagues in Communities. Solution

3. Lotus Connections Drives Innovative Product Development In order to grow the business faster, they needed a faster way to develop and evaluate new services concepts and business models. Challenge Increase the number of new services using communities of customers & partners Accelerate the evaluation of new service concepts and therefore be faster to market Grow market share and revenue through differentiated services and business models Business Value Deployed a Innovation Factory portal application that utilized the social software services of Lotus Connections to include communities of employees, customers and partners in the development and evaluation of new Telcom services. Solution Global Telecommunications Firm

4. Lotus Connections Drives Employee Productivity Needed a faster way for individuals to find each other and the information they need to collaborate, innovate, and meet business objectives Challenge Work is accomplished with the best people and information Communities thrive and grow with new members and new ideas that lead to innovation New, inexperienced professionals find the organization’s “wisdom holders” and learn from them before they retire Business Value Piloted Unified Workplace, a set of highly integrated team collaboration and social computing tools and templates that make it easy for individuals to find the right people and information Solution Global Diversified Technology Company

5. Lotus Connections Accelerates Project Execution Needed to improve productivity when working with contractors and partners across the US on education curriculums. Challenge Built strong relationships across several art archival and preservation organizations Improved communication and status tracking of projects Accelerated the delivery of education curriculums created by a disconnected teams Business Value Using the Activities component of Lotus Connections so their entire network of employees, partners and customers can collaborate on the execution of projects. Solution Small Non-Profit Arts Organization

6. Lotus Connections Helps Deliver Expertise To Customers No easy way to find, learn from and work with experts across the company Re-inventing the wheel again and again Challenge Improving the efficiency of key revenue generating employees Increase customer satisfaction with faster service Raising the reach and impact of their subject-matter experts Business Value Corporate white pages directory that allows employees to quickly find expertise in different markets, technology and financial services. Blogs, bookmarks and communities services are used so employees can share knowledge and get feedback from experts. Also, employees are using Activities to execute key deliverables faster Solution Global Financial Services Firm

7. Lotus Connections Improves Call Center Productivity Want to improve employee productivity by delivering the best user experience, increase operational excellence, and foster innovation between teams Challenge Increase communication and coordination of projects between teams Reduce time required to find the correct people with the right expertise Improve collective intelligence of organization by sharing experiences Business Value Deployed enterprise wide implementation of the 5 social software services of Lotus Connections. Focused on enabling users to become more productive by working smarter and finding information – one key area was transfer of knowledge between engineering and call center staff. Solution Network and Communications Provider

8. Lotus Connections Drives Cross-Organizational Collaboration Professional Services companies rely on the strength of their intellectual capital and collaborative capabilities of their employees. This firm was looking for tools that foster innovation and improve organizational collaboration. Challenge Connections has great synergy when rolled out within a B2E Intranet Connections will distinguish the new Intranet app as adding value to end users Substantially improve collaborative capabilities with completely integrated solution Business Value Positioned a long term messaging and collaboration strategy which included Connections, Notes 8 and Expeditor. Solution focused on placing more power and independence for each employee to accomplish their tasks and improve participation in the creative process throughout the organization. Solution Global Accounting & Consulting Firm

9. Lotus Connections Links Employees of a Global Manufacturer Global manufacturer couldn’t easily find expertise and people across business functions. Company was also burdened with a costly, custom coded employee directory which was difficult to enhance. Challenge Reduce TCO by leveraging a packaged solution versus rewriting the custom coded employee directory to add new functionality Improve cross functional and cross-geography communication and collaboration Business Value Deploying a solution which will use the profiles and social bookmarking services of Lotus Connections to improve the identification of experts and critical business content regardless of geography, business function, or management chain. Solution Global Automobile Manufacturer

10. Lotus Connections Breaks Down Organization Barriers In order to improve knowledge sharing, innovation & integrate consortium operations, they needed to break the email barrier & find a better way to collaborate & innovate across consortium member organizations. Challenge Improve cross consortium communication and collaboration among a diverse group of members to more effectively execute projects Evolve collaboration best practices for network centric military environments Improve consortium’s ability to brainstorm and execute on new ideas Business Value Deployed a collaboration and innovation environment that utilizes the social software services of Lotus Connections to include technical, strategy, and advisory communities of consortium members from a diverse set of government and industry organizations. Solution Global Defense Industry Consortium

11. Lotus Connections Captures Critical Expertise Due to an increase in retiring employees, they needed a better way to capture mission critical knowledge from experts and improve efficiency with both internal and outside agencies. Challenge Capture mission critical knowledge and nurture expertise Improve cross agency communication and collaboration Improve responsiveness of employees to Citizen and customer needs Business Value Deployed a collaboration and innovation environment that utilizes the social software services of Lotus Connections to include communities of employees, customers and partners associated with USA federal government agencies. Solution Consortium of US federal agencies