The message here at the IBM Smarter Commerce Global Summit is all about the customer. It is about connecting them, making them happy and all. But to make them happy requires a different approach than it did just a few years ago. It means connecting through social channels but also with appliances, smart phones, intelligent grids and back-end systems. You have to build that back-end – connect it all, collect the data from the customer and act on it.

During the keynote this morning. Dev Mukherjee of Sears talked about its crowdsourcing, the use of smartphones and how Kenmore appliances connect to the Internet. Whirlpool has a talking dishwasher. They are using a smart grid infrastructure to do energy management.

From a retail standpoint – real-time information at the machine level is important,” said Dev Mukherjee of Sears.

That means the stove remembering recipes or dishwasher emailing you when the load finishes its cycle. From a services standpoint, it’s about notifying the customer when the filters need changing in the dryer.

The reality: this is so new for most of the people here. It’s really new. Most are unfamiliar with the subtleties of Twitter or the need for a Klout score. They know they need to capitalize on it or risk going out of business as have so many retailers over the past few years.

The breadth of what is required spans the infrastructure to outreach to customer intelligence through social tools. That outreach is about reaching out to people and machines, collecting the data and servicing the customer the way they want. That extension means a new way of thinking. Are businesses ready to take their businesses to this next realm?

Services Angle

The span of services to crease these stacks means embracing the gamut of IBM technologies. Sterling for e-commerce; Websphere is for the Web back-end; Neteeza and Cognos for the analytics and the front-end digital marketing. That’s a number of integrations that means a lot of services all managed through IBM data centers. It’s why the Smarter Commerce initiative has a 1,000 person services team.

The problem comes with understanding what this all requires. I am sure 90% of the people here want to do what Sears does. But the know how is another story. And the costs to do it requires a wholesale change int the ways that a business works. Priorities have to be set on digital commerce but the thinking needs to extend beyond the Web site out to the machines that monitor usage and in the end satisfy a smarter, new breed of customer.

Disclaimer: IBM covered my travel and hotel expenses to attend the IBM Smarter Commerce Global Summit.