What worked wonders for IBM in Germany might not necessarily fly in the US. When IBM's AOR Text 100 found that service-oriented architectures worked successfully overseas, the agency brought the concept here. And, according to the firm, it has its in-house communications system, an intranet shared by its global offices, to thank.

Text 100 uses TextNet, powered by Vocus, to keep its staffers in the loop from San Francisco to Singapore, says Scott Friedman, SVP and lead of the firm's ...