IBM has announced new services to help organizations use collaboration and social networking to maximize employee talent and performance.

The Enterprise Adaptability services include a unique methodology to determine the return on investment of social networking, use of large scale communications programs to jumpstart adoption, automatic identification of key talent, and social network analysis.

According to IBM's 2008 Global Human Capital Study, which surveyed 400 executives in 40 countries, developing an organization that is adaptable to change is essential. However, the study found only 14 percent of those organizations believed they were highly adaptable, meaning they have the ability to predict future skills, effectively locate experts and effectively collaborate within and outside the enterprise.

With Enterprise Adaptability companies can learn how to embed Web 2.0 technologies into the fabric of business operations, says IBM, allowing employees, partners and customers to communicate, establish new business relationships and make real-time decisions within the context of their everyday work.

The service encompasses three phases:

• Planning: determines the business case for implementing social networking and collaboration capabilities by analysing current interaction patterns among employees, partners and customers. Assesses an organization's current capabilities and barriers to adoption, prioritises focus areas and creates an implementation plan.

Adoption: helps introduce collaborative and social networking technologies to an organization through online collaborative events such as company-wide collaborative events (based on IBM's Innovation Jams) or smaller departmental events. Provides social networking analysis, identifying patterns of interaction and the key topic experts and enablers within the organization.

•Implementation: speeds the adoption of social networking and collaboration technology by embedding capabilities into existing applications and measures the business results and benefits.

“Creating competitive advantage in a global economy requires the ability to recognise, refine and promote good ideas in an organization and turn them into products and services quickly. It means developing the right skills in the right place, applying new tools and technologies that provide access to global expertise and knowledge, while innovating and collaborating across national and organizational borders,” said Tim Ringo, VP and global leader, Human Capital Management, IBM Global Business Services.

• IBM has also announced it is re-entering the PC market in eastern Europe, in partnership with Linux distie Red Hat.