Today IBM announced new software and services that indicates Big Blue can see the forest through the trees in terms of social media's potential impact on business.

The new software is part of Lotus Notes Connections 3.0, a platform that provides enterprises with communities, forums, wikis and blogs to help users discuss and refine ideas. Today's announcement adds social analytics capabilities to the platform, which, In essence, helps close the time-to-answer gap for questions like:

• who worked on that project?
• who is the expert in this field?
• what connections do we have to this reporter?

In addition to the software, IBM is launching a new Global Business Services initiative to help companies understand how social networking is being used and how it'll fit into their business.