WATPA: IBM opens sales center in Second Life

FYI -- Second Life is one of the most active of a new generation of
Web-based social software. IBM has begun to treat these tools as a new
metaphor for business automation.

Norm

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IBM opens sales center in Second Life

Sales avatars from IBM can work with client avatars up to the point of
signing contracts and exchanging money

By <http://www.networkworld.com/Home/jbrodkin.html> Jon Brodkin, Network
World, 05/15/07

 <http://www.networkworld.com/news/financial/ibm.html> IBM today is opening
a virtual business center at <http://www.secondlife.com/> Second Life that
will be staffed by IBM sales representatives from around the world.

Clients who want to buy hardware, software or services, or get help solving
a business problem, can meet with a sales rep in the new IBM Business
Center, which can be accessed
<http://slurl.com/secondlife/IBM%20Business%20Center////> here after 1 p.m.
Eastern time today.

"The IBM sales avatar [in Second Life] can work with the client avatar up to
the point of signing contracts and the passing of money or credit
information. That would be handled through a link to IBM's Web site or by
phone," IBM says in a press release.

"We seek to engage with clients in the way they prefer to engage," Lee
Dierdorff, vice president of Web strategy and enablement for IBM, said in a
conference call this morning. "This may be over the Web, this may be over
the telephone, and now it may be over a 3-D virtual world."

IBM sales reps will staff the virtual center during business hours in their
respective countries and will be able to speak the following languages:
English, Portuguese, German, Spanish, Dutch, Italian and French. Asian
languages will be supported later this year.

Visitors will be able to access a technical-support library that includes
guides known as <http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/> IBM Redbooks and an IT
research publication called <http://researchweb.watson.ibm.com/journal/sj/>
Systems Journal. The IBM presence in Second Life also will include an
innovation center and conference center where IBM partners and others can
<http://www.networkworld.com/topics/collaboration.html> collaborate.

C Copyright 2007 Network World Inc.
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2007/051507-ibm-second-life.html
 
Received on Wed May 16 21:06:02 2007