Complimentary Certification Exams at #IBMConnect 2013

Originally posted by Debora Cole on IBM's "Collaborate for Success" Blog
on December 6th, 2012
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IBM Connect 2013 will take place from January 27-31, 2013, at the Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Resort in Orlando, FL USA.  We're connecting the longstanding Lotusphere and last year's Connect conferences — and making them one.  IBM Connect combines the deep technical content that you've loved for 20 years with the learning you need to accelerate your move beyond social media to drive real business value with social and collaborative technologies.
Whether a professional has been charged with making their organization more social-enabled or they are focused on building or deploying social solutions, IBM Connect is the place to help professionals grow their social circles and business opportunities.  For both the business-minded and technology-focused, this conference has the tools, tips, and tricks professionals need to exponentially improve their business outcomes with social solutions — from strategic planning and managing to administrating, analyzing, and developing solutions.

One of the biggest draws at this event has always been the certification testing and prep labs, and IBM Collaboration Solutions is pleased to announce that COMPLIMENTARY EXAMS ARE BACK FOR IBM CONNECT 2013. For the first time in years, we have approval to offer a spectacular pricing structure to both IBM Business Partners and our IBM clients and prospects, but conference attendees will have to act fast to ensure they receive their complimentary test(s). Here is how it works:

• The first 500 IBM Business Partners who test at conference are eligible for two complimentary exams.
• The first 500 clients* who test at conference are eligible for one complimentary exam.
• Subsequent exams will be available for $75 each, a significant discount off the developed market price of $200 US (or equivalent).

Though the physical prep lab will be located in the Peacock room of the Swan Hotel, the Virtual Prep Lab will be available 24 hours a day for the duration of the conference. Testing candidates who access the Virtual Prep Lab will find:

• Courses covering Lotus Notes Domino 8.5, Portal 8, and Social Software accessible at no charge
• Online access to prep resources and certification guides
• Assessment tests written by the exam developers available at no charge

Information on the Virtual Prep Lab, including access codes for both e-book courseware and assessment tests, may be found in the prep lab and Testing Q&A areas (outside the Lark and Peacock rooms in the Swan Hotel).

In order to allow for greater flexibility and provide clients and partners with the best possible experience, testing candidates will be served on the spot. There is no need to pre-register and be held to a specific time slot. To take an exam, simply sign-in outside the testing lab in the Swan Hotel's Lark room.  Professionals who have taken certification tests in the past are encouraged to bring their testing ID.

For more information, or to register for the conference, visit IBM Connect 2013.

*IBM employees are not eligible for this offer. 

Unprecedented IBM Software Promotion!

New!  IBM Collaboration Solutions (ICS) Collaboration Loyalty Program

***Hurry!  Offer expires at the end of the year!

Collaboration Loyalty rewards clients who have already invested in ICS Collaboration and Social Software.  It allows clients to receive a 15% discount on new licenses you acquire in addition to 15% off maintenance on years 2 and 3.

If you elect to participate, the value of additional Collaboration Licenses and the out years of maintenance would be blended together to give you 3 equal payments over 3 years to be financed at 0%.  With the Collaboration Loyalty Program, you can purchase any software in the Collaboration Portfolio including but not limited to:

• Lotus Notes and Domino for new employees or applications:  Check out our new "Social Edition".
• Sametime Standard for web meetings and mobile chat
• Quickr for document management or file sharing
• Smartcloud for web based meetings, collaboration, and email in the cloud
• Connections to find experts and share knowledge

To reiterate: as a member of the Collaboration Loyalty Program you would have the option of leveraging IBM Global Financing at rates as low as 0% which could potentially spread out your Lotus Renewal Cost into three equal annual payments and provide you with even more predictable annual costs.

Please let me know if the ICS Collaboration Loyalty Program is something that interests you -- I would be happy to provide you with more information about this very valuable offer.

You can contact me via my marketing page at ibm.com/myrep/jagaeta.

@IBM Customer Testimonial: @Lowes Home Improvement Uses Social Business To "Work Out Loud"

On stage at Connect 2012, Chris Cassell, Director of Future Planning, Integrated Workforce Experience at

Lowes Home Improvement, shares best practices on becoming social with your workforce

to generate new ideas and foster innovation.

Free #Collaboration Entitlements in Your #Cognos Solution

Using IBM Cognos 10?  There are FREE ENTITLEMENTS to IBM Files and IBM Profiles that you might not be aware of!

IBM Connections has been voted #1 enterprise Social software package in the world for the 3rd year in a row by IDC!!   Two  major parts of Connections are Files and Profiles.  IBM Connections is the perfect compliment to your Cognos dashboard, as it allows you to take "what" that Cognos provides and combine it with the "who?" in order to get an all-encompassing view of business issues and their solutions.

IBM business intelligence (BI) software provides collaboration and social networking capabilities to fuel the exchange of ideas and knowledge that naturally occurs in decision-making processes today. With these collaboration capabilities, you can harness the collective intelligence of your organization to connect people and insights and gain alignment in your organization and with key stakeholders.

With collaboration software built into IBM business intelligence software, you can:

• Expand the reach and impact of your information and gather input from different perspectives.
• Share your insights with others and promote organizational alignment.
• Comment on and annotate documents as a basis for informed dialog.
• Take advantage of integration with Microsoft Office to share ideas in a familiar interface.
• Communicate and coordinate tasks to engage the right people at the right time.

Also, here is a very interesting link that describes Collaboration capabilities in IBM Cognos Business Insight provide a bridge between using IBM Cognos Business Intelligence to discover a business problem and acting to resolve it.

Contact me today if you would like to learn more!

Connect People and #BusinessIntelligence for Better Business Outcomes #ibm #bi

Fueling the Exchange of Ideas and Knowledge

IBM business intelligence (BI) software provides collaboration and social networking capabilities to fuel the exchange of ideas and knowledge that naturally occurs in decision-making processes today. With these collaboration capabilities, you can harness the collective intelligence of your organization to connect people and insights and gain alignment in your organization and with key stakeholders.

With collaboration software built into IBM business intelligence software, you can:

• Expand the reach and impact of your information and gather input from different perspectives.
• Share your insights with others and promote organizational alignment. 
• Comment on and annotate documents as a basis for informed dialog. 
• Take advantage of integration with Microsoft Office to share ideas in a familiar interface.
• Communicate and coordinate tasks to engage the right people at the right time.

Contact me today to learn more.