Electrolux Taps IBM for Social Software

ORLANDO, Fla. – IBM announced that appliance maker Electrolux is using IBM social software to connect its workforce in 60 countries and encourage a deeper level of innovation and knowledge sharing.

At its Lotusphere 2012 conference here, IBM announced that Electrolux is using Big Blue’s IBM Connections and IBM Sametime software to connect its employees in the company’s growing community and to help them collaborate on projects with others spread around the world.

"Social business is enabling companies to scale in new ways and drive greater innovation within their organization," Alistair Rennie, general manager of Social Business at IBM, said in a statement. "Organizations can seamlessly connect and share information across a global network of clients, partners and employees through the power of social business."

Using IBM’s social software, Electrolux employees in the office or on the go can find experts and gain valuable insight from the data on their company’s intranet portal, IBM Connections social networking platform and IBM Sametime instant messaging software.

Working with business partners Infoware Solutions and Avantime, Electrolux has seen the number of internal online communities, networks and microblogs grow rapidly, the company said. The intranet, powered by IBM Connections and Microsoft SharePoint, contains more than 100 information portals managed by more than 450 editors, and has 15,000 monthly and 9,000 daily readers. There are more than 1,100 collaboration spaces with 8,500 members, Electrolux said.

Electrolux employees are using IBM Connections microblogging to quickly spread information across the organization, including new-product and customer care ideas, and strategic organizational announcements.

In addition, Electrolux employees will also have access to a social-collaboration dashboard. Through integrating IBM Lotus Notes email and IBM Sametime instant messaging, employees will be able to drag an email into a Connections Activity and discuss with colleagues in that specific window. This will help to better engage the team, provide a more comprehensive overview of the project and reduce attachments in the email inbox, the company said.

"Our goal is to empower our employees so they have access to content and collaboration tools anytime and from anywhere," Ralf Larsson, director of online employee engagement and development at Electrolux, said in a statement. "Working with IBM, our employees are now becoming better engaged and more connected into specific business processes that help them expand the scope of product innovation."