Recap WITI Boston - September 12, 2013

Recap WITI Boston - September 12, 2013
"How Social Collaboration Is Driving Business Value"
By Emily Ubik

A respectable crowd gathered last Thursday night to hear Heidi Ambler, the Director of Product Management and Social Software at IBM, speak about the benefits of social collaboration in the workplace. Sponsored by AT&T and hosted by IBM at their Innovation Center in Waltham, the evening started with lively conversation, a light dinner, drinks and desserts.

Not long after that, the presentation began with some shocking statistics. Did you know that employees spend 28% of the workweek managing email? And nearly 20% of their time is spent just gathering and searching for information or tracking down colleagues. Heidi asked the key question - are we devoting our time to the right things? It's time to face the fact that technology is transforming not only our personal lives, but also the way we work. Because of this, social applications should be taken advantage of to improve productivity.

Social collaboration has the potential to make businesses more efficient. Not only can its flexibility inspire creativity, but it can also reduce travel and meeting time, saving money that can be better spent elsewhere within a company. It even has the potential to enable faster decision-making and even better customer service. Social collaboration can drive employee engagement, and a highly engaged employee is less likely to leave their current company. This saves business money, since a single employee turnover can cost up to 30% of a person's yearly salary. In addition to promoting business interests, social collaboration improves employee satisfaction. The potential return on investment is substantial: 26% more revenue per employee, 33% less time to take new products to market, and 40% year-over-year increase in new business.

Heidi left the audience with some good advice: start now with social collaboration if you haven't already! After all, it helps companies interact more efficiently together. The event wrapped up with a WITI raffle and two prizewinners each won a WITI coffee mug and a business advice book called Rules for Renegades by Christine Comaford-Lynch. After the raffle, attendees continued to network and enjoy the relaxed atmosphere.

Heidi's links to find out more about social collaboration:
www.ibm.com/social-business/us/en/
www.ibm.com/cloud-computing/social/us/en/
www.bloomworldwide.com/ibm-6-patterns-in-achieving-social-business-success/#.UjNNZBamCJU
www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2rvLuzrjq0
www.mckinsey.com/insights/high_tech_telecoms_internet/the_social_economy
www.slideshare.net/soccnx/heidi-ambler-social-connectionkeynotejune2013-final?from_search=1

About Our Guest Author:
Emily Ubik is a junior at Boston University pursuing a double major in electrical engineering and archaeology. She comes to Boston from the Midwest and was interested in getting to know women in business and making connections. She came across Women in Technology through her father, when he mentioned that WITI was trying to become more involved with universities. She is now an active member of the local network and is looking forward to writing more about WITI Boston events.

About the Speaker:
Heidi Ambler, Director of Product Management, Social Software
Heidi runs the Social Software Product Management team that is part of the IBM Collaboration Solutions within IBM. Her team provides the strategy and direction for the area of Social Networking. A key aspect to Heidi's role is meeting with customers and partners from all parts of the globe to understand their key business challenges and translating these requirements into rich capabilities that are delivered by her team into the market leading Enterprise Social Software that is IBM Connections. Consequently Heidi is well positioned to be able to share the insights that she has gained from working with a varied mix of customers globally.

Heidi received her bachelor's degree in Business Administration from Regis College, Westin, Massachusetts and her master's degree in Marketing from Rivier College, Nashua, New Hampshire.

About Women in Technology International WITI Boston
The Boston affiliation of Women in Technology International offers multiple events throughout the year in the metro west area (Waltham), Cambridge and downtown Boston. Our focus is to provide ways in which women of all ages, skill sets and backgrounds connect with other women both locally and globally to advance their careers and improve the leadership development skills. The current Boston leadership team formed in April 2012 and has continually delivered relative leadership development content for members and non-members alike. To learn more and see what's next visit: www.witi.com/boston

Opinions expressed by the author are not necessarily those of WITI.