I heard this software described as 'the Facebook for enterprise' however that could not be further from the whole picture. The new version of Connections, version 2.5, is set to be released; this session focused on the tools added to the connections portfolio.
Some features already available are: Profiles, which are similar to facebook profiles, however they act like associate search linking people in an organisational chart. People link themselves with Blogs, Communities, Activities from there profile.
The key point to make here is that all the services are integrated; profiles can have several related blogs, blogs can be incorporated into communities, communities can containing activities to organise work. Yet even with the integration the services act in a standalone way.
A scenario within Mars could be to have a EUT Innovation Blog (to capture ideas); this is associated with the EUT innovation ‘Community’ which links the team together. Good innovations are assigned to people as activities to complete, the output from completed innovation activities could be documented in the innovation Wiki (Wikis are available in version 2.5). This is a shared Wiki between all the innovation communities within Mars IS. All of these standalone technologies could be integrated using Lotus Connections.
Even if Connections is not feasible for Mars; it could still be good to see how the different social technologies could be integrated in a similar way.
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3 comments:
Nice Post! Every time I hear people speaking about Connections they use the 'recent merger' examples. Given the way our business is currently segmented can you see that working for us?
A truly inspirational post
Connections is the most impressive new product from Lotus since Sametime. There is a lot of focus in collaboration spaces and how to share documents while we overlook the criticality of connecting people in the first place.
IMHO using Facebook references to decribe connections creates a negative impression of the product. Facebook is great for connecting with your friends and making trashy comments but has very little business benefit.
Connections is so much more than Facebook. A profile component linked into Corp Directory, the ability to create communities, social bookmarking, a simple integrated Blog and a personal homepage with basic mash-up support. How much better could it get?
Oh, how about seamless integration to Sametime, Notes 8 sidebar widgets, a Wiki and one of those document collaboration spaces with Quickr.
Joking aside, I think this is a "must have" product for Mars. Lets all club together and buy enough licences for a GIST/WebCC community :-)
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