The Use of Virtual Worlds for Sales and Innovation

IBM as a Leader in Virtual Worlds  Over 230 employees working in-world  6 islands (Private & Public)  $10 million spent on virtual worlds in 2007 alone  Expansion in both Second Life and its own 3D intranet  Eyes v-Business as an evolution of e-Business

IBM as a leader in Virtual Worlds  IBM Business Center Sales/client avatar interaction ○ Contract signings, payments IBM sales representatives staff a virtual center Multi-lingual capabilities ○ (English, Portuguese, German, Dutch, Italian, and French, planned Asian languages expansion) Technical Support Library available to visitors ○ Product guides & IT research publication Systems Journal

Virtual Green Data Center  System energy-efficiency demonstrations IBM server & storage systems demonstrations  Energy-efficiency services & case studies Help assessing current status & design solutions for energy and cooling challenges  Guided tours available  Considered a great success at the Virtual Worlds Conference

Global Innovation Outlook  The GIO roundtable explored the current GIO topic of Smarter Cities with students and faculty at Marshall School of Business at USC.  The meeting had four goals: Gain insight from influencers related to smarter cities Explore the effectiveness of virtual space for external collaboration Distinguish IBM® as a leader in collaborative innovation Extend relationships building on an existing IBM partnership  Second Life “meet & greet” held at to help familiarize participants with Second Life at Marshall’s Second Life Island  Roundtable held at IBM’s Systems EduCenter Island 

Part 1 of the roundtable in a meeting room  Meeting first held in conventional meeting room setting

Part 2 of the roundtable around the "Opinionator"  Questions were asked of the group and participants responded through the “Opinionator”  Ex:If you were the mayor of Los Angeles, which urban system would you make a priority?"

Part 3 of the meeting room around the "BrainBoard"  Questions were posed to the group and participants posted their responses to the BrainBoard.  Answers were then organized into categories by facilitator

GIO: Lessons Learned  Use simple virtual world tools and objects. The “Opinionator” proved useful whereas the “BrainBoard” was too complicated for many users.  Ease users into the virtual environment. Meeting room  Opinionator  BrainBoard  Understand your listeners, it is easy to tune out in a virtual setting  Have a plan, it is easy to get distracted or lost in Second Life, flying and teleporting

Virtual World Conference  Pre-conference training for entry into Second Life  October 21 st 2008  3-day Academy of Technology’s Virtual World Conference  200 members attended  3 keynote speakers, 37 breakout sessions Breakout sessions became interactive

Virtual World Conference  Initial investment $80,000  Estimated savings at $250,000 in travel & venue costs  In addition to an estimated $150,000 in productivity gains  Total saved by doing conference virtually = $320,000

Virtual World Conference  “Soft” benefits- socializing & networking  People used the space to network and socialize.  “Conference sessions often ran long, as people continued to chat about breakout topics.”  “And, at the end of each day, participants were found gathering in various places—a favorite hangout being the picnic area— for conversations over virtual cocktails.” -

AoT General Meeting  Success lead to cancellation of Academy’s General Meeting Meeting replaced by Second Life meeting  Second Life used in combination with video conferencing  Cost the company 1/5 the price of a conventional general meeting…and no jet lag  Incorporation of “soft” benefits- time set aside for virtual socializing

Future of Virtual Business  “Second Life provided an opportunity for us to have a positive social and technical exchange, addressing most of our collaboration objectives. And, we delivered the experience at about one fifth the cost and without a single case of jet lag.”  ~  Expansion of Second Life to Web Browser Expands user base  Open-source software More customization Personalization