During his keynote address at the annual Lotus DevCon 2000 software developers` conference, Lotus President and CEO Al Zollar today outlined how the use of collaborative technologies will drive e-commerce marketplaces to new heights of profitability, customer satisfaction and business integration. Zollar explained how the delivery of increasingly personal and focused human interaction via collaborative and real-time communications enables businesses of all sizes to execute more efficient e-business transactions and to sharpen their competitive edges.
Outlining several trends in collaborative commerce, Zollar cited collaboration as the critical, missing factor in many business-to-business (B2B) interactions. Due to the complexity and large order sizes typical of most B2B transactions, buyers and sellers are discovering that it is cost-efficient and critical to add human interaction via online collaboration to close more transactions.
"In this global e-commerce marketplace, it is essential that organizations embrace collaboration tools to attain competitive advantages they need and to help to attract, service and retain customers," said Zollar. "Lotus technologies allow organizations to leverage current systems to create collaborative commerce with built-in self-service and real-time support to increase sales and customer loyalty."
Zollar explained how collaborative commerce helps buyers discover appropriate sellers, online learning assists sellers in educating buyers and distributors about their products, real-time online communications sparks interactive selling, virtual workspaces help resolve problems and negotiate terms, and structured workflow speeds process flow between organizations.
State Street Bank gives personal touch to institutional investors
Zollar cited Lotus customer State Street Bank as a primary example of collaborative commerce. State Street Bank has initiated the early deployment and beta programs for the real-time Web-based collaboration of Lotus Sametime and Lotus Domino to stay closer to customers in 23 countries. With $6.2 trillion in assets under custody and $720 billion under management, State Street Corporation is the world`s leading specialist in serving institutional investors. By using Domino and Sametime as the basis of State Street Bank`s customer self-service extranet, Zollar explained how State Street`s customer care managers will be able to serve more customers while delivering the real-time personal interaction expected for such high-value transactions.
Zollar also commented that standards-based collaboration technology will be critical for vendors to compete in this marketplace. The emergence of communication standards such as XML will dramatically expand the role of collaboration beyond the firewall.
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Lotus Development Corp.
Lotus Development Corporation, founded in 1982, is a subsidiary of IBM Corporation. Lotus sets the standard for truly innovative software products and services that reflect the company`s unique understanding of the new ways in which individuals and businesses must work together to achieve success. Lotus is redefining the concept of conducting business through practical knowledge management, e-business and other ground-breaking ways of connecting the world`s ideas, thinkers, buyers, sellers and communities via the Internet. Lotus markets its products in more than 80 countries worldwide through direct and extensive Business Partner channels. The company also provides numerous professional consulting, support and education services through the Lotus Professional Services organization.