Ralf Larsson, Electrolux: IBM Software Selected for Social Business

January 16, 2012

Electrolux is leveraging IBM social software to connect its workforce in 60 countries and encourage a deeper level of innovation and knowledge sharing.

To support the burgeoning mobile workforce expected to reach more than 1.19 billion people by 2013, IBM's social software runs on the most popular mobile devices, including tablets, to foster collaboration from anywhere, anytime.

Since the heart of Electrolux's organization is powered through the innovations of its employees, the ability to access content and collaborate on the fly is critical. Whether in the office or on the go, employees can find experts and gain valuable insight from the data on their company intranet portal, IBM Connections social networking platform and IBM Sametime instant messaging software, helping the business outpace the competition.

Working with business partners Infoware Solutions and Avantime, Electrolux has seen the number of internal online communities, networks and microblogs grow rapidly. The intranet, powered by IBM Connections and Microsoft SharePoint, contains more than 100 information portals managed by more than 450 editors, and contains 15,000 monthly and 9,000 daily readers. With over 1,100 collaboration spaces with 8,500 members, Electrolux employees are engaging in ways never seen before.

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

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.

"Our goal is to empower our employees so they have access to content and collaboration tools anytime and from anywhere," said Ralf Larsson, Director Online Employee Engagement and Development, Electrolux. "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."

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