Offering regional and national programs, CIO (and CSO) events bring together some of the most respected names and thought leaders in information technology and security. Presented by CIOs and other senior level executives, these invitation-only programs offer timely topics and strong networking. Learn More »
Webcast: In the Google Apps Cloud: How to Achieve Your Business Objectives
Dec 3rd, '09, 1 - 2 pm US/Eastern (GMT-5)
Join Council member Brent Hoag, Director, Global IT, at JohnsonDiversey, as he discusses the adoption of Google Apps which has helped meet four corporate goals; sustainability, simplification, increased employee productivity and global collaboration.
Webcast: Collaboration Initiatives: Benchmarks & Best Practices
Dec 15th, '09, 4 - 5 pm US/Eastern (GMT-5)
Join Council members Ruth Thorpe, VP & CIO at the U.S. Pharmaceutical Operations of Sanofi-Aventis, and Gary Kuyper, CIO at Bethany Christian Services, as they speak about their collaboration initiatives and experiences in how and why they chose the social networking and collaboration tools they are using and their business goals for collaboration, and facing culture change challenges.
Data Overview: Collaboration Initiatives Field Guide: Benchmarks & Best Practices
This appendix to the Council Field Guide provides an analysis which discusses benchmarks for collaboration IT implementation costs, adoption rates and payoffs. The overview identifies top IT and business goals and satisfaction rates for collaboration initiatives as well as best practices and lessons learned for implementing collaboration IT.
Learn more about the CIO Executive Council »November 15, 2000 — CIO —
With all the dotcoms biting the dust lately, you’re probably getting a clearer picture of what makes a winner and a loser in the race to the Internet land of plenty. Take a look behind the curtain at LearningBrands, and decide whether this e-business model has what it takes to succeed. Form your own opinion, and see how it compares with the experts’ commentary and that of the motley crew weighing in on the Web at webbusiness.cio.com/startup.
After years of throwing silly gimmicks at customers, some websites are now trying to get sticky by offering something useful: "educational" content. Some of these sites create their own content, and some turn to third-party content providers such as Norwood, Mass.-based startup LearningBrands.
Here’s a typical scenario: Potential investors visit the website of financial services company Liberty Funds and sign up for Liberty’s free asset-allocation course to learn the ABCs of saving and investing. What these visitors don’t realize is that they have actually clicked through to a minisite that LearningBrands’ staff wrote and formatted for the Web. Another example: Cooks who want to learn how to make slow-rising pizza dough visit the website of Cook’s Illustrated magazine and click on the How to Make Pizza guide. In fact, these budding pizza pie people are browsing a site designed and hosted by LearningBrands.
The idea, says LearningBrands’ cofounder Seppy Basili, is to use interactive guides full of instructional text to help online companies extend their brand. This notion is not new. For years, brick-and-mortar retailers, such as The Home Depot and Christie’s auction house, have published instructional literature and courses intended to deepen the bonds between their customers and their merchandise. LearningBrands has taken the strategy online, and the young, 48-person company not only creates the editorial content, it also formats it in interactive webpages and hosts it on its servers.
"Companies spend millions to build a Web presence," says Basili. "They’re all seeking deeper, stronger, better relations with customers. We think using learning across the Internet is the way to do it. Learning makes the relationship more personal, more intertwined."
LearningBrands guides can be about anything, from how to build a small business to how to develop black and white pictures. Each guide is written for a single customer, so no two LearningBrands customers will ever offer the same content.
The guides are created by what the company calls an "experiential" design team composed of writers, curriculum developers and information designers who work with clients to establish the guides’ content and structure. The customized content strives to capture the tone and spirit of the company for which it is created, while solidifying its brand so that consumers who read it learn to recognize and trust the name. If a LearningBrands customer is an expert in its field, such as Cook’s Illustrated, LearningBrands simply repackages the customer’s own text into its delivery platform, SmartPlatform.