Daily Archives: June 10, 2009

Westchester Networking for Professionals (WNFP), a sophisticated social networking for professional men and women. Attendees include business owners, sales professionals, executives and entrepreneurs. Announces its next event “Fast Pace Connections” Speed Networking Event to be held on Wednesday, June 24, 2009 5:30pm to 8:00pm at Blue in White Plains, NY.

This event hosted by Westchester Networking for Professionals and sponsored by Bookkeeping & More Services and Daddy Doggie Daycare. WNFP provides a quick and entertaining way to introduce yourself, promote your business and work your professional pitch with other professionals and business owners with other professionals, one-on-one, a few minutes at a time. Appetizers and “drink specials” will be available.

Attendees should come prepared with a brief introduction of their business and bring business cards. Dress is business casual.

Event Details:

Location: Blue, 99 Church Street, White Plains, NY 10601
Date: Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Time: 5:30pm – 8:00pm
Cost: $25.00

Event Website: http://wnfpevents.webs.com/upcomingevent.htm

Advance registration is required, MUST RSVP at [email protected] or REGISTER ONLINE at http://www.wnfp.org
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About WNFP

Westchester Networking for Professionals (WNFP) is a sophisticated social networking for Professional men and women. Our member network and stylish live events gives professionals and executives an opportunity to unwind, while socializing, networking and building their contacts. Professional men and women can connect with each other and develop long lasting relationships and opportunities for success.

Attending a Westchester for Professionals meeting or social event will give you the benefit to connect with professionals in your area.

Become a “Success Partner” and get listed on our webpage and in our e-newsletter distributions for this event. For more information visit www.wnfp.org or email: [email protected]

Economic declines have led to shrinking budgets for businesses of most sizes across many industries throughout the nation. Despite budget cuts, businesses already active on the Web are realizing the value of Internet marketing and plan to increase their promotional efforts and budgets on the Web this year. That’s according to early results of an informal visitor survey conducted by Toronto Web design and Internet marketing firm, Cost Effective Web Design (www.ekonline.com).
“Our clients and visitors are already actively involved in Internet marketing, meaning they have experience or at least an understanding of its value compared to other marketing tactics,” says Paul Coulter of Cost Effective Web Design. “We asked them to tell us about their upcoming marketing plans–whether they are planning to cut overall budgets or not, and how their future Internet marketing budget will relate to that. We think the results so far say a lot about current trends and the fact that Web-based marketing offers businesses more bang for their buck.”
The following highlights represent preliminary survey results of approximately 100 participants actively engaged enough on the Web to be seeking or soliciting Web design or Internet marketing services:
– 52% of respondents noted that their company recently trimmed budgets, or expects to within a year.
– 76% said their company was expected to increase its Internet marketing budget in 2009.
– 86% of respondents said Internet marketing will account for a larger percentage of their advertising budget within the next three years.
“Almost three quarters of the people taking our survey concede that Internet marketing has been the most cost efficient method of promoting their business,” says Coulter. “That isn’t surprising to us knowing the diverse tactics available on the Web, able to reach hundreds of millions of people around the world, all often costing far less than equivalent print and broadcast campaigns. Of course we at Cost Effective Web Design believe in the effectiveness of Internet marketing. Yet we’re pleased to see that the industry is getting the recognition it deserves from the people who matter most–those putting Web promotion tactics to use to see real growth in real business situations.

IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced a new social networking community designed to help its partners more easily connect and collaborate with each other from anywhere around the world to bring new technologies to market and close sales faster and more efficiently.

The new community enables companies to gain real-time access to IBM subject matter experts to support sales leads and client implementations. Partners can also create personalized profiling tools to develop online communities that make their skills visible to other partners, connect with them on new technology innovations and joint sales leads and develop and deliver new technologies online through interactive forums before test-marketing or taking offerings directly to clients.

IBM recently held an online idea exchange with 1,100 global partners to brainstorm new ways to grow profitability and develop skills. One of the leading ideas from that session called for a Web 2.0 approach to help IBM’s partners improve collaboration with each other and establish new relationships across global markets. IDC states that a typical client implementation usually involves more than one IT vendor to develop, deploy and implement an IT solution. In fact, 40 percent of partners who team with each other and build strategic relationships see greater than a 21 percent increase in sales.(1)

IBM is responding with PartnerWorld Communities, bringing together the best in social computing technologies and online community building tools to connect more than 100,000 partners worldwide on emerging business opportunities such as analytics, cloud computing, green IT and economic stimulus projects. The new online forum aims to facilitate partner to partner relationships and enable joint go to market planning and innovative solution building around smart infrastructure opportunities.

With today’s news, IBM is also making it easier for partners to tap these and other business opportunities with a new online skills resource that offers a single view of smarter planet education tools including more than 60 online classes, webcasts and extensive global in-person events on topics such as building a smarter planet and stimulus opportunities, creating dynamic infrastructures, selling to the midmarket, and selling to the CFO (chief financial officer).

Fostering Global Collaboration For More Effective Selling

Based on Lotus Connections, IBM’s enterprise networking and collaboration technology, PartnerWorld Communities enables members to collaborate through a secure network that connects people around a focused task or goal using blogs, forums, private teaming spaces for solution design and market planning activities, social bookmarking and RSS feeds for real-time access to key topics of interest.

For example, as stimulus funding accelerates smart grid projects across the energy and utilities sector, partners can collaborate real-time for faster access to other partners and IBM subject matter experts with the skills required for client implementation. Users can also tailor their homepage to automatically follow subject matter experts and business topics to connect with them on new technology developments and selling innovations.

Collaboration between partners is enhanced through profiles that make capabilities visible across the network, allowing businesses to match themselves with others who share complementary skill sets. Partners can also develop and deliver new technologies online through interactive forums before test-marketing or taking offerings directly to clients.

“We are seeing the emergence of new ecosystems being developed for the IBM smarter planet initiative and key growth plays” said Rich Hume, general manager, IBM Global Business Partners. “For IBM partners, smarter planet is about engaging clients in higher value discussions. With today’s launch of new skills-building and community opportunities for our partners, we are facilitating more effective, efficient selling in this unique economic environment, and jointly laying the groundwork along with our partners for the infrastructure of tomorrow”

Additional features include:

* Ability to create an open profile which can include a partner’s technology offerings, expertise, market reach and primary business interests.
* Live chat and telephone assistance for partners ready to deliver a new solution to the market
* Access to complementary Business Partners to create new solutions and jointly penetrate new markets, and access to IBM subject matter experts to help connect partners with the necessary skills and resources to close deals in the sales pipeline.

Building Smarter Skills

IBM has launched the Business Partner Development Series, an extensive online education and networking forum that connects partners on key skills building designed to help them identify new partnerships and create new routes to market. The online resource provides partners with a single view of new skills offerings available to help them build smarter infrastructures for clients beginning with 60 no-cost online classes and 25 global in-person education and networking events.

Topics include:

* Smarter planet for a challenging economy
* Dynamic infrastructure for key industries
* IBM Business Partner financial selling to the CFO
* Capturing the mid-market opportunity with infrastructure solutions
* Basic sales skills

In addition to on-line opportunities, the new development series includes several seminars at the 43 IBM Innovation Centers around the world, bringing leading IBM experts into these centers to provide partners with skills training. Scheduled events include Chicago, Boston, Toronto, Madrid, Sydney, Shanghai, Stuttgart, Seoul, Bangalore and others over the coming weeks.

To learn more about IBM PartnerWorld, a comprehensive program that offers marketing and sales resources, training, certification and technical support to help create new revenue and market opportunities for IBM Business Partners, visit http://www.ibm.com/partnerworld.

(1) Source: IDC Multiclient Study, Channel Profitability, May 2008

Web site: http://www.ibm.com/partnerworld/