In this paper, we explore midsize business challenges from the perspective, not of the IT department, but of the line of business managers they support. Using real-life use cases, we show how cloud services-and in particular, the IBM Smart Cloud offerings-can help midsize business managers reach their goals and transform the business.

Read this analyst brief from IDC to learn about public, private and hybrid cloud models and how your organization can take advantage of them. The paper also looks at how you can integrate cloud solutions into existing IT and offers some principles for measuring the success of your cloud solutions.

This IDC white paper discusses an important sea change happening in IT: the development of expert integrated systems.

There is a fundamental shift in CRM today from simply being customer focused or customer-centric to proactively being customer-activated. Clients in today's consumer economy desire to be treated as individuals with very specific and highly personalized needs and they want their voices to be heard and acted upon.

Today, implementing a customer relationship management (CRM) application may not be enough to remain competitive. To gain market share and grow revenue, many companies complement a CRM application with other technologies. Business analytics, predictive analytics, collaboration and data integration can give you more insights about your customers.

Help create business value by becoming a social business in the cloud. IBM SmartCloud for Social Business social collaboration services provide integrated email, social business capabilities and third-party applications to help deepen relationships, drive operational effectiveness and optimize workforces.

Combining an experienced service partner with an informed ERP strategy helps to maximize ROI. This helps midmarket organizations to contain costs, communicate effectively, and improve to grow into more successful organizations.

Top organizations are looking for a new generation of ERP that supports multi-tiered businesses, is easy to use, flexible, and powerful enough to support a growing organization. Aligning these solutions with a carefully selected service partner can fuel growth and maximize ROI.

Customer relationship management (CRM) is about tracking and managing business relationships. Enterprise resource planning (ERP) is about managing business materials and processes. Together they can transform a business. This white paper examines how you can get the most from CRM and ERP, find the best system for your business and how IBM can help.

In this paper, Ptak/Noel describes the new IBM PureFlex system and the unique management capabilities of the IBM Flex System Manager.

Today's businesses need simpler more efficient and flexible computing models. The IBM PureSystems family is comprised of platform systems and infrastructure systems that include built-in "patterns of expertise" to address complex business and operational tasks for smarter computing.

IBM SmartCloud™ Solutions delivers the SaaS solutions needed to maximize collaborations, accelerate innovations, make impactful, informed decisions and become a truly customer-centric organization. Backed by IBM's deep industry knowledge and desire to continually innovate for the benefit of our clients, this portfolio aligns IT and line-of-business priorities to maximize software investments and streamline business processes. The result is a customer-centric company culture that is nimble and ready to act. Only IBM SmartCloud Solutions transcends other SaaS options by meeting security, extensibility, performance and integration demands. Transform your thinking and invigorate your business with SaaS delivered through IBM SmartCloud Solutions.

SmartCloud Engage is an integrated suite of collaboration tools that combine your business social network with web conferencing and collaboration capabilities, like file storing and sharing, instant messaging and activity management. SmartCloud Engage provides essential collaboration services, leveraging IBM's unique position as a world-renowned security leader and trusted partner. Security is a competitive differentiator for SmartCloud Engage. SmartCloud Engage business-ready security is based on a deep understanding of security and privacy best practices in IBM. Our security controls provide privacy and controlled authorization to sensitive information while enabling business operations. Engage protects our customers' information through governance, tools, technology, techniques, and personnel.

Email will retain relevance as a key business collaboration tool by evolving toward a more integrated approach with these newer tools. IBM Notes and Domino is the right platform for creating social email and application experiences.