IBM's Smarter Commerce for the Midmarket

BANGALORE, INDIA: The customer today wields increasing power and midsize businesses are scrambling to stay competitive. This new breed of consumer demands to engage with a brand in person, or on the go, adding to the growing complexity of global transactions. Businesses today are required to be predictive, efficient and transparent. Achieving an end-to-end balance requires a revolution in the ways products are marketed, sold, manufactured and sources. IBM Smarter Commerce for the midmarket enables medium-sized businesses to analyze operations data across multiple channels, leveraging customer insights from every interaction to create an integrated value chain.

IBM Smarter Commerce

Helping midsize businesses improve marketing effectiveness

Customers now have unlimited access to information, shop and do business from virtually anywhere, anytime, and share their views with the world. Customer expectations of service and price are soaring. And they can make or break brands overnight. We have entered the era of the empowered customer. This is changing the way products are marketed, sold, manufactured and sourced.

To understand the evolving role of CMOs and marketing leaders in this new era, the IBM Institute for Business Value conducted a research study that included face-to-face interviews with 1,734 CMOs from companies of all sizes, spanning 19 industries and 64 countries.

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These conversations and our in-depth analysis of study findings underscore the need to respond to three new realities:

The empowered customer is now in control of the business relationship

Delivering customer value is paramount - and an organization's behaviour is as important as the products and services it provides

The pressure to be accountable to the business is not just a symptom of hard times, but a permanent shift that requires new approaches, tools and skills.

IBM's Smarter Commerce initiative helps midsize businesses address the challenges and opportunities created by these empowered customers.

Source: www.ibm.com