IBM, Ariba Chat Up E-Commerce Collaboration

Big Blue is determined to make its LotusLive collaboration and social networking applications popular in the enterprise. This latest deal will merge its e-mail and Web conferencing tools with Ariba's Commerce cloud for lead generation, spend management and sales through online channels.

As Datamation reports, these additional collaboration features are designed to make it easier and faster to buy and sell products between businesses and to communicate with key sales leaders and decision makers in real time.

Company officials said Ariba will integrate IBM’s LotusLive with Ariba Discovery, a Web-based, e-Harmony-like service that helps buyers and sellers find each other quickly, share proposals and network with others in their industry.

"Like people searching for someone special, businesses are looking for a high degree of compatibility with their prospective partners," said Sean Poulley, vice president of IBM's cloud collaboration group.

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IBM and e-commerce software developer Ariba this week announced a new partnership that will integrate Ariba's Commerce Cloud Web platform with Big Blue's collaboration suite to improve communication between online buyers and sellers.

The pact comes just two days after IBM (NYSE: IBM) acquired Sterling Commerce for $1.4 billion to bolster its software integration, transaction and cloud-computing application portfolio.

Read the full story at Datamation:
IBM, Ariba Get Social in the Cloud