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IBM has announced new cloud-based
collaboration services to help U.S. federal government organizations adopt
social computing.
The new set of social collaboration
services, delivered on IBM’s Federal Information Security Management Act
(FISMA)-compliant Federal Community Cloud, addresses the administration’s
drive to adopt a “cloud-first” policy which is designed to help
the government improve its overall IT efficiency and delivery of services to
citizens, IBM said in a press release.
IBM’s new cloud services include social
software such as wikis, microblogs, communities, staff profiles, instant
messaging, web conferencing and email. IBM’s services also support popular
mobile devices including Android phones and tablets, Apple iPhone 4 and iPad,
BlackBerry, and Nokia Symbian platform. Industry analyst firm IDC ranked IBM
first in the social platforms market share for 2009 and 2010.
Accessing social software as a cloud
service can help federal agencies introduce new capabilities at a lower cost and
in a more timely fashion, IBM said. These services can be provided for staff on
demand without long term commitments and help the government reduce waste and
consolidate IT spending.
“The rise in Big Data and the demand for
transparency and collaboration will continue to put pressure on agencies to
embrace new computing environments such as cloud to improve IT capabilities,”
said Todd S. Ramsey, general manager of IBM’s U.S. Federal organization, in a
statement. “IBM cloud collaboration solutions will help agencies gain faster
access to the latest technologies, increase innovation across departments and
ultimately improve citizen services.”
IBM’s social software, which is part of the
new service, has many useful productivity tools including blogs to allow staff
to gather and prioritize community ideas, present their own ideas and learn from
others. And the software’s communities feature enables people to exchange and
share information with others through a web browser, instant messaging, or email
software.
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