Smarter commerce leads to happier customers

In today's ever more connected world consumers have much higher expectations of the companies they deal with.

They want businesses to understand their preferences and deliver a personalized, rewarding experience. What's more they expect this all the time not just at the point of sale.

To help organizations deliver for their customers IBM is using its Smarter Commerce Global Summit in Florida to unveil ExperienceOne, an integrated portfolio of cloud-based and on premise offerings to bring together marketing, sales and service practices and help create deeper, more valuable customer engagements.

IBM ExperienceOne draws on innovation from IBM research as well as more than $3 billion invested in organic development and acquisitions. It's also built on best practices drawn from IBM's experience of working with over 8,000 organizations across the globe.

"Smarter Commerce is about helping clients continuously reinvent themselves around the customer experience," says Craig Hayman, General Manager, Industry Cloud Solutions at IBM. "IBM ExperienceOne provides a secure and simplified portfolio -- including innovation from more than 1,200 partners -- to help clients design and deliver more valuable customer engagements. With cloud, on premise and hybrid options, IBM ExperienceOne quickly scales to engage every customer in the moment while protecting their privacy".

New capabilities help to improve understanding of customer relationships, maximize sales by directing the right offer to the right customer, and make use of mobile and social media to deliver better customer experience. Combining ExperienceOne with SoftLayer cloud infrastructure IBM is also able to offer customer data, customer analytics and digital commerce as a service.

The company is aiming to bring similar levels of customer insight to the B2B sector as well with the launch of new partner and supplier engagement software via its Smarter Commerce initiative. This includes a Multi-Enterprise Relationship Management (MRM) platform for better collaboration. IBM Sterling B2B Services Reporting and Analytics to monitor transactions and help business spot trends and make informed decisions. Plus other tools offer better adherence to compliance standards and faster and more efficient sharing of data.

"Now more than ever, the fate of any business is deeply intertwined with the success of its network of partners and suppliers around the world," says John Mesberg, Vice President, B2B & Commerce Solutions at IBM. "By orchestrating these complex engagements with extraordinary precision and insight, organizations can create new gateways to trade that enable businesses to deliver exceptional customer experiences. With today’s news, IBM fundamentally transforms these dynamics with partners and customers to drive faster time to revenue across the extended value chain".

You can find more about IBM ExperienceOne on the company's website. There's also an infographic on how Smarter Commerce can deliver better customer engagement below.

Image Credit: Sergey Nivens / Shutterstock