Are you attending Lotusphere 2011 (#ls11) next week?  Have you considered meeting with Collaboration Matters while you’re there?
Here’s the top 10 reasons why you should get in touch to schedule a chat at Lotusphere (or indeed why you should just say hello when you see me in the hallways of the Dolphin or Swan):
1.  We can help you. That’s what we do!  Provide assistance, ideas, planning, trustworthy advice and an opportunity to chat through any concerns, issues or problems you have with your organisation’s collaboration or social business architecture. Â
2.  There’s no commitment, no charge, no hard sell.  This is the same as when any customer meets us at any time – it’s up to us to prove to you that our assistance is of value.  Else smile, shake hands and that’s fine.
3.  We’re independent.  There are a lot of folks at Lotusphere that will have a product to sell you.  That’s fine, but we’re different.  As an organisation that really truly understands Social Collaboration, we get that one size does not fit all, and that neither IBM as a vendor, or Collaboration Matters as a partner has all the answers.  We partner with the best organisations out there, both at the vendor level (IBM/Lotus of course, plus SocialText, Atlassian, Jive, Google and more) and at the Partner level (Applicable, Elguji, Opus Neo and more) to ensure that we give you the best advice and the best solutions we can deliver.  If we don’t think a product will deliver real value, we won’t sell it!
4.  We’re focused.  There are a lot of solution providers out there that are jack of all trades (if it’s yellow, we’ll do it) but masters of none.  Collaboration Matters is different – Social is what we do.  In fact, it’s all we’ve done.  Since incorporation at the start of 2008, we have been 100% focused on Social Collaboration and Social Business.  If you need an XPages app or a CRM system, we’ll happily point you in the right direction to a supplier you can trust, but we’re about being social – it’s what we live for.
5.  We understand the options. Whether its ‘on-premise’, appliance, private hosting, private cloud or multi-tenant you need, we can knowledgeably discuss the options.  Through our partnership with Applicable we can offer true SaaS delivery of Lotus Connections and Quickr solutions, charged per user per month, including very low cost and fast-provisioned Proof of Concept options.  If you need the solution on-premise, Applicable can manage it there too.
6.  We’re efficient. We know how some organisations charge exorbitant daily rates for low-grade consultants, and how sometimes a few hours becomes several days of paid work.  That’s not our ethic – we have plans that enable both customers and partners to call on our time in small flexible chunks, meaning the security of a relationship with high-quality expert staff but at a low cost of engagement and with fast turnaround on requests.  We know the economy is tight, and we try to ensure our customers get the benefit of calling on the right partner at the right time.
7.  We’ve been there and done it. As far as we’re aware, we’ve completed more successful installs, upgrades, customisations and roll-outs than any other partner in the UK.  So much so, that IBM use Collaboration Matters for a number of their Connections projects too.  We’ve already upgraded multiple customers to Connections 3.0, and with Applicable, have the only hosted Connections 3.0 infrastructure available in Europe.
8.  We know that technology alone doesn’t deliver. Social is different to your traditional collaboration project.  This isn’t about IT, this is about delivering real business value through cultural change – breaking down barriers, flattening organisation structures, listening as well as broadcasting, opening up leadership teams and so.  Social is about use cases, about synergies and about line of business ownership.  Therefore, throwing a Connections installation together in a couple of days won’t make your organisation social.  We understand adoption, overcoming cultural inertia and are used to delivering social workshops and training to everyone from the CEO to the Intern.
9.  We operate worldwide.  Collaboration Matters has direct customers based in the UK (obviously), in the US, Australia and Asia.  However, we also have (and continue to seek) a number of partnerships with organisations that operate in these locations – local business partners and ISVs that know the geography and the industry involved.  We truly are social in our approach – partnerships are one of the demonstrations of this.
10.  We know IBM, so you don’t have to. IBM is a terrific organisation, and Lotus is an amazing brand. However, dealing with either is sometimes complex and tricky to navigate.  Our deep long-term relationship with IBM and its key employees and teams mean that we can work with IBM on your behalf – to get issues fixed, to find the right resources, to get the information you need to plan your route forward.
and lastly:
11.  We’re nice people!  Come have a chat and a beer with Stuart at Lotusphere, and lets see whether we can work together.  Could be the most profitable drink you have all year!
