IBM, who already have literally thousands of employees engaged in the virtual world of Second Life, today opened a fully staffed sales center in a drive toward genuine virtual business in the Metaverse. I must admit to finding the layout kind of confusing, and though I've no doubt some were present in the crowded reception area of the sales center, I couldn't immediately get my virtual hands on an IBM employee. Ian Huges, of IBM's Innovate Quick division did post this neat video though;
I guess the structures themselves confused me a bit at first, as I ended up flying in through the roof and landing amidst a whole heap of Avatars, all with IBM tags above their names (though most of them didn't work for the company). I guess opening day can be a litte hectic, so we'll forgive the fact that nobody turned up when i called for assistance by touching one of the sales desks.
The project is quite extensive, with six individually focused areas to visit:
- Reception
- Sales
- Tech support
- Innovation center
- Client briefing area and lastly,
- The conference center
One key difference from many real life businesses entering the virtual world is that the IBM center is allegedly fully staffed. If someone wants to talk about hardware, software or services, a sales rep should be on hand ot help them. Many native Second Life businesses are fully staffed, but as far as I'm aware, IBM is the first big real life player to staff up a sales center 24/7.
Im going to turn up in virtual false beard and spectacles in the week and start causing a ruckus over a failed hard drive...