IBM Connections in the Cloud and Mobile Apps Have Been Updated

Tweet

This was an extremely busy for us for sure.  On Friday, my colleague, Baan Slavens announced the latest release of the IBM Connections Mobile app. And a few hours later our multi-tenant deployment of IBM Connections in the cloud was updated as well with the latest and greatest code.  The timing couldn't have been better!

And speaking of timing, we are just 2 days away from the May 21st webcast where we will be unveiling IBM Connections Next.  If you haven't registered yet, go ahead and register now and invite your friends, family, customers, partners, colleagues and everyone else.

So let's start with mobile.  I had given a quick preview of the new mobile app a couple of weeks ago in this teaser that I created.  The reaction over the weekend has been tremendous in the various social networks. I've captured a snapshot of the reactions below:

So go check out the new mobile app that's probably already updated in your device, or just go to the app stores and get it from there ( iOS or Android ).

And what did we do in our cloud? Well, you can see what's new in this presentation that I prepared below:

What's New in IBM SmartCloud Connections - May 2014 from Luis Benitez

Now in the next couple of weeks, we'll take the code that's already in the cloud today, make a few adjustments and ship it to customers who would like to run this on-prem as IBM Connections Next.  See you on the May 21st webcast for IBM Connections Next!

Embarking in a Social Business Transformation? Check Out These Storyboards to Drive a Culture Shift

Tweet

We are now less than a week away for our May 21st event to unveil IBM Connections Next. If you haven't registered yet, go ahead and register now and spread the word to your friends, family, neighbors, customers, partners, etc.

One aspect to keep in mind is that as you embark on your social business transformation, you are ready to drive a transformation shift in your enterprise. After all, it's people who create value for your business, and without them, you won't be able to reap all the benefits.

One way to do that is via storyboards where you can paint a typical business scenario and clearly highlight how things are jus so much better when using a social platform, such as IBM Connections.

Jim Claussen, the same guy who is doing the daily 5 minute podcast on IBM Connections tips, has decided to publish a series of storyboards to help people understand how their lives can be so much better.

I've embedded the first two chapters below.  If you like them, you should do the same and embed these two presentations in your IBM Connections deployment to share with the rest of the organization. Here's chapter 1:

Making Connections With Jim - Chapter 1: Why Social Business from IBM

And chapter 2:

Making Connections with Jim - Chapter 2: Structuring a Brainstorm, the Social Business Way from IBM

I'll be interested to know what you think about this approach.  Let me know!

To be notified of other chapters once they are published, follow IBM Social Business on Slideshare.

Give Us Your Toughest Social Business Questions for Pardon the Interruption

Tweet

This quarter is proving to be a busy one. First, we are about to unveil IBM Connections Next in a little over a week.  If you haven't yet, take 2 minutes to go ahead and register for the May 21st event so that you can get all the details around IBM Connections Next.

Then on May 22nd, join us on the Live Q&A to answer your product questions around IBM Connections Next.

And if that's not enough, in June I'm going to be going to Prague for the IBM Connections User Group meeting.  As part of that event, I'll be participating in a session that follows the popular Pardon the Interruption format.

In this session, I will join the guy who fired himself from IBM and is now and independent and trusted social business consultant Luis Suarez.  Additionally, I'll join Brian O’Neill, an IBM Customer and IBM Champion to discuss your most difficult questions around social business (see below on how you can submit questions).

The concept is that we will have a lively, fast paced discussion on 12 to 14 IBM Connections and Social Business topics. We’ll have 3 minutes for each topic with 60 seconds for each one of us to answer. Stuart McIntyre will be the moderator for the discussion and yell at us if we go beyond our 60 seconds!
And the very best part of this session? To submit topics/ideas for us to discuss, tweet them using the #soccnxPTI hashtag. We’ll be monitoring this tag up to the week before the conference!

Have Questions About IBM Connections Next? Join the Live Q&A on May 22nd

Tweet

We are just 9 days away from the big unveil of IBM Connections Next. On May 21st, we are going to be host a virtual event to showcase the latest evolution of IBM Connections, the enterprise social network. Maybe, you've already watched the teaser by now?  Anyway, if you haven't registered yet, register now!  And if you are a customer already using Connections in our cloud, you will get to see it this weekend.

At the May 21st event, you'll hear from various speakers such as Steve Mullen, the Director of IT for DAI, Elizabeth O'Brien, Global Sponsorship Manager for IBM and Jeff Schick, Vice President for Social Software at IBM.  Of course, you'll also get to see demos!! And of course, you'll be able to ask questions.

Following the May 21st event, you'll have a chance to participate in a Live Q&A with Suzanne Livingston, one of my peers in the product management team, and myself, on May 22nd. So how is it going to work? It's going to be like office hours where we'll go through all the posted questions and answer to the best of our abilities.

Here are the details:

Date: May 22, 2014
Time: 11 am - 12 pm ET
Registration: Click here to register

The Live Q&A is going to be hosted by the Social Biz User Group. Check out their blog posting to learn more about it.

Can't make it ? Don't worry! You can submit your question ahead of time as per the instructions here. Otherwise, see you there!

Tell Me: How Do You Use Online Files Today ?

Tweet

One of the best parts of my job is to work directly with end users to understand how they use our products (or in some cases, those of our competitors).  Sometimes, however, this just doesn't scale and in order to understand usage patterns we conduct surveys to reach a wider audience. And since I know a lot of you love to give us feedback, this is your opportunity!  

As you may know, I'm currently the Product Manager for Files within IBM Connections, IBM's social collaboration platform. With the help of the the IBM Docs design team, we are working on improving the Connections file editing experience and would like to extend a special feedback opportunity to those interested. 

The team is seeking to gain a thorough understanding of features involved in editing files on Connections (or other products). For example, do you find the ability to insert an image to be a basic, intermediate or advanced feature? How often do you use that specific feature and is it useful on your phone and/or tablet? 

Just like the upcoming May 21st event to introduce IBM Connections Next, please share this with everyone you know:  your customers, your partners, your own end users, family, friends, etc.  

Available surveys (please go through as much as you can)

General File Editing (A): Estimated time: 10 mins.  https://www-950.ibm.com/survey/oid/wsb.dll/s/ag57d 

General File Editing (B):  Estimated time: 15 mins.  https://www-950.ibm.com/survey/oid/wsb.dll/s/ag57e 

Document Editing:  Estimated time: 5 mins. https://www-950.ibm.com/survey/oid/wsb.dll/s/ag57f 

Spreadsheet Editing:  Estimated time: 15 mins.  https://www-950.ibm.com/survey/oid/wsb.dll/s/ag580 

Presentation Editing:  Estimated time: 15 mins.  https://www-950.ibm.com/survey/oid/wsb.dll/s/ag581

Thanks!

New Release of IBM Connections in the Cloud Coming Next Week

Tweet

Next week we are going to be upgrading our cloud deployment of IBM Connections.  Many of these updates will be rolled into our on-premises IBM Connections Next release later this quarter.

Speaking of which.... on May 21st, we are hosting a virtual event to do the official unveiling of IBM Connections Next.  Therefore, you should go and register today and invite your family, friends, neighbors and all!

So what's new in this quarter's release of IBM Connections in the cloud? I've created a presentation to walk you through it.

What's New in IBM SmartCloud Connections - May 2014 from Luis Benitez

As you can see in slide 14, we are adding a new thumbnail view of files.  This will help you quickly identify the file that you are looking for.  This feature will be progressively rolled out so it may take 1-3 weeks before you see it enabled.

With all these great updates, don't forget to wake up early on May 19th and enjoy the latest experience. And don't forget to join us on May 21st so go and register now!

To see the full list of new updates across our cloud infrastructure, click here.