The enviable position in which growing businesses find themselves today and the relevance of IBM's sweeping On Demand Business strategy to these growing businesses is explained in this booklet.

IBM’s vision of the future of computing and how its evolving technologies, product lines, and services fit into that future are the subject of this broad look at the world’s largest computer company. Discussing IBM’s e-business strategy to leverage Internet technology, its new emphasis on IBM Global Services, and its fast-growing consulting business this overview. profiles IBM’s new eServer xSeries, pSeries, iSeries, and zSeries, showing how each fits into an e-business context. A companion web site accessible only to buyers of this book provides the latest news and additional resources related to IBM technology and product lines.

Covering the functional characteristics of an on demand computing infrastructure, this book describes the IBM software products that can be used to create a computing infrastructure that has these characteristics. Also discussed is how IBM’s on demand strategy can help a business to make more informed purchasing decisions for IBM application software.

Every company can point to a growth strategy. Few, however, systematically implement it; instead, they tweak current products with incremental innovations, or attempt to buy growth through acquisitions. Neither is a satisfactory solution. Internally generated growth accomplished thorugh product line renewal and new service development is essential to the long-term vitality of business across industries. The Fast Path to Corporate Growth takes on the challenge large corporations have in developing new product lines that address new market applications and provide new streams of revenue. The book integrates the key disciplines--new product strategy, user research, concept development and prototyping, market testing, and business modeling--into a practical framework for generating enterprise growth. The book illustrates that framework with in-depth examples of companies--including IBM, Honda, and Mars--that have generated impressive results by leveraging their core technologies to new markets and to new uses. Many of these examples contain templates that readers can use in their own projects. The book also addresses the human side of new market applications, providing advice on what executives and innovation team leaders must do to execute the steps of Meyer's framework for developing new market applications. This comprehensive guide to growth will appeal to R&D practitioners, new business development strategists, product managers, and to students in engineering management, innovation management, and corporate strategy.

Systems of record (SORs) are engines that generates value for your business. Systems of engagement (SOE) are always evolving and generating new customer-centric experiences and new opportunities to capitalize on the value in the systems of record. The highest value is gained when systems of record and systems of engagement are brought together to deliver insight. Systems of insight (SOI) monitor and analyze what is going on with various behaviors in the systems of engagement and information being stored or transacted in the systems of record. SOIs seek new opportunities, risks, and operational behavior that needs to be reported or have action taken to optimize business outcomes. Systems of insight are at the core of the Digital Experience, which tries to derive insights from the enormous amount of data generated by automated processes and customer interactions. Systems of Insight can also provide the ability to apply analytics and rules to real-time data as it flows within, throughout, and beyond the enterprise (applications, databases, mobile, social, Internet of Things) to gain the wanted insight. Deriving this insight is a key step toward being able to make the best decisions and take the most appropriate actions. Examples of such actions are to improve the number of satisfied clients, identify clients at risk of leaving and incentivize them to stay loyal, identify patterns of risk or fraudulent behavior and take action to minimize it as early as possible, and detect patterns of behavior in operational systems and transportation that lead to failures, delays, and maintenance and take early action to minimize risks and costs. IBM® Operational Decision Manager is a decision management platform that provides capabilities that support both event-driven insight patterns, and business-rule-driven scenarios. It also can easily be used in combination with other IBM Analytics solutions, as the detailed examples will show. IBM Operational Decision Manager Advanced, along with complementary IBM software offerings that also provide capability for systems of insight, provides a way to deliver the greatest value to your customers and your business. IBM Operational Decision Manager Advanced brings together data from different sources to recognize meaningful trends and patterns. It empowers business users to define, manage, and automate repeatable operational decisions. As a result, organizations can create and shape customer-centric business moments. This IBM Redbooks® publication explains the key concepts of systems of insight and how to implement a system of insight solution with examples. It is intended for IT architects and professionals who are responsible for implementing a systems of insights solution requiring event-based context pattern detection and deterministic decision services to enhance other analytics solution components with IBM Operational Decision Manager Advanced.

"It argues convincingly that companies should look at what solutions they can provide consumers with, rather than looking at what products they can foist upon them ... This is an effective guide to delivering real value to the customer through genuine innovative thinking." The Marketer "One of the most successful business solutions tomes ever published." PCPlus Business Based partly on IBM's own transformation, and partly on the transformations that IBM has helped its clients to achieve, this ground-breaking book shows how companies can increase sales and improve margins by introducing a range of solutions. Highly readable, motivational and fast-paced, Business Solutions On Demand is packed with examples from many diverse industries. The authors emphasize that for today's business to compete and survive, it has to exceed the expectations of its customers. Technological advancement, globalization, increased competition, market saturation and easy access to information are all conspiring to make traditional business models redundant.

Increasing the chances of a website's success by boosting its ability to entice surfers to stop at the site, absorb what it offers, and return at a later date, this guide provides templates, checklists, and forms--as well as proven techniques such as using e-mail, links, and online advertising--to increase the number of initial users and repeat visitors to a website. Invaluable to entrepreneurs, small business owners, corporate marketing managers, and consultants seeking guidance to make their website successful, this resource is an important tool for those trying to maximize their Web promotion potential.