What's New and Coming in IBM Connections and IBM Docs for Q2 2016

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Hours ago, IBM just made another update to IBM Connections Cloud.

To start off, community managers and administrators have access to even more metrics.  If you are an organization administrator, you can easily see how your user base is getting business value out of IBM Connections. For example, you can track Connections Cloud events such as every time that a user reads a blog entry, creates a To do item in an Activity, updates a wiki page, or follows a Community. You can drill down on one application or a particular time period. You can set filters to track how many people viewed a blog in the Customer Support Community in the last seven days, last four weeks, last quarter, or last 12 months.

Community owners can also get metrics only on the communities that they own. Track who visits the community, information shared such as comments, and participation in such activities as downloading files.

In an upcoming release this quarter IBM is also going to be releasing some significant enhancements to search.  Want to learn more and see what else is coming in the rest of Q2 for IBM Connections & IBM Docs? Then check out this deck:

What's New in IBM Connections Social Cloud - Q2 2016 from Luis Benitez

And there's more that was released if you are using IBM Verse. Check out the full list of what's new in IBM Connections Cloud. IBM Connections is ready to transform your organization, anywhere in the world. And since today is Monday, I figured I would leave you with this.



If you still haven't seen IBM Connections, start your free trial here.

Get Ready For An Extreme Mail Makeover and see IBM Mail Next

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Earlier this year, I had the opportunity to be part of the unveiling of IBM Mail Next at IBM Connect 2014. Now it's time to get your hands on it!  Below is a copy of the webcast invite so you can check out the latest details on how to be an early adopter and all the latest integration into IBM Connections, IBM's market-leading enterprise social collaboration platform. See you there!

Every day, emails flood our inbox: tasks are left undone, messages go unanswered, and meetings overwhelm us. Why does work have to be such hard work? The truth is, it doesn’t have to be. Join our live video panel discussion on Thursday, November 20, 2014 at 11:00 AM ET and hear how IBM’s latest solution offers an easy way to take back control of your day.

Using advanced design thinking, the latest in social analytics and delivered from the cloud to your mobile device or desktop, this new solution:

• Understands your needs, working style and priorities—and anticipates what you need and when you need it. VP and Principal Analyst Alan Lepofsky of Constellation Research, will discuss the critical importance of re-assessing the way we are currently working and what the future of work holds. 
• Provides less clutter and more clarity with an interface that shows only what you need, so you can make quicker, smarter decisions. Hear Phil Gilbert, General Manager, IBM Software Group Design, explain how the IBM Design Studio developed an entirely new experience from the ground up. 
• Enables a shift from “me” to “we” through intelligent, secure and engaging social apps that foster real-time understanding, cooperation and communication. Jeff Schick, General Manager, IBM Enterprise Social Solutions, will talk about why information from our social networks is crucial for collaboration and innovation, and why email must evolve to accommodate it. 

As an added bonus, watch for details on becoming part of the beta! Register now and get ready for an extreme mail makeover: re-imagined for the future of work. Register now!

5 Can't Miss Features of IBM Connections

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About two weeks ago, I was asked to present to a group of internal IBMers tips and tricks to get the most out of IBM Connections, our social collaboration platform.

I actually reached out to my internal network and asked for suggestions on a good topic. Quickly, I realized that everyone had their own favorite feature or aspect of the product.

That got me thinking that maybe it's worth me putting together a quick presentation that shows people how I get the most out of the product to improve my productivity.

Then it got hard. How could I pick just a handful of things where IBM Connections makes my life easier ?

I had to iterate a couple of times.  In the end I decided that a good way to format it would be to focus on 5 integration aspects that maximize the value I get out of the product.

Check out the slides that I took them through:

5 Can't Miss Features To Get The Most Out of IBM Connections from Luis Benitez

Do these match what you would've presented?

New IBM Connections Plug-Ins for IBM Notes 9 Now Available

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In conjunction with the new IBM Notes 9.0 release today, we have also just released the latest IBM Connections plug-ins for the best email client available delivering the world's first social email experience to the market.

The new plug-in adds support for:

• IBM Notes 9.0
• IBM Connections 4.5
• Mac OS X 10.8
• Windows 8

Additionally, the Connections business card has now been redesigned and the plug-in now provides a single installer to enable all the integration points to Connections: microblogging, file sharing, and tasks. As you probably know the plug-in allows you to:

• Attach a file to a status update
• Like / unlike a status update
• Activity stream integration allows to monitor updates for all Connections services
• Search by people and communities
• Post status letting your colleagues know what you are doing
• View status for people in your network
• Comment on status updates
• Delete your status or associated comments
• Forward an update by email
• View or post updates from the icon in the system tray when you are not working in the Notes client
• Keep up with updates for people you follow
• Lock/unlock files
• Upload files for your own use or to share with others
• Drag and drop an attached file or a file from your desktop to Files
• Drag and drop or copy and paste a file from Files to your desktop
• Send an HTML link to a file
• Search for people or communities
• Sort files for easier browsing
• Detach the Files window from the Notes sidebar

So if you are upgrading to IBM Notes 9.0 and/or IBM Connections 4.5 you must get this plug-in today! To learn more about IBM Notes 9, check out this 90 second video from Ed Brill:

And for a demo of these features check out:

To download the new plug-in, you can get it from our app catalog over here.

Replay of the IBM Connections 4.5 Launch Webcast Now Available

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Last week was a busy one with the launch of IBM Connections 4.5, and the enhanced IBM Connections plug-in for Microsoft Outlook. To kick off the launch, we had a webcast to showcase the business value of IBM Connections 4.5 and IBM Notes 9 called: From Liking to Leading - Transforming your Business with a Next Generation Platform for Social Business.

If you missed the webcast, or you want to watch it again, you can do so here (even if you hadn't registered for the original webcast). In the replay you also have the option to download the broadcast presentation from the “Resources” widget of the broadcast replay. I had fun getting ready for the launch and creating the demo of IBM Connections 4.5 where I focused on the importance of mobile and real-time collaboration.

Also a quick reminder that if you are looking for the two demos that were shown during the webcast, you can access those quickly here.

Here's a storify that summarizes the webcast:

Enjoy!

Demos of IBM Notes 9 and IBM Connections 4.5 Launch Now Available

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By now you know that this week we launched IBM Notes 9 and IBM Connections 4.5. On Wednesday, we had a webcast to launch these two products.

At the webcast we had Ray Wang, from Constellation Research, kick things off by talking about the 9 C's of collaboration.   

During the webcast, Scott Souder and myself did demos of our respective products. Those demos are now available online in case you missed it (or you want to see it over and over and over again! )

Here's the IBM Notes 9.0 demo:

Here's the IBM Connections 4.5 demo:

The full replay of the launch webcast is also available here.

Enjoy!!

IBM Connect 2013 and Product Demos Available

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Building on the launch of IBM Connections 4.5 and IBM Notes 9.0, the demos that were done during the IBM Connect 2013 keynote (aka OGS) (aka Opening General Session) are now available directly from the main IBM.com/social page.

From that page, there's a demo tab which then brings you to a page with individual product demos as well as the OGS demos from IBM Connect 2013.

And clicking on See Demo shows the following movie. Here you will see a little of IBM Connections 4.5. Additionally, I demo the new real-time collaboration capabilities provided by Sametime as well as some of the new features provided by IBM Notes 9.0. If you couldn't make it to yesterday's launch webcast a replay of that will be available soon, so for now, enjoy the following video:

As a reminder, IBM Connections 4.5 will be available on March 29th, 2013, so get ready!

Enjoy!

Demo: Increasing Productivity with IBM Notes Social Edition

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Today, Ed Brill and team announced IBM Notes 9 Social Edition and the upcoming public beta to be released in a few weeks. If you missed it, check out Ed's blog for a link to the replay.

I've been using the internal beta for a few weeks now and really like the integration with IBM Connections, IBM's social collaboration platform.  Based on personal experience, IBM Connections makes everything social and improves the productivity of its users.  And the IBM Notes 9 Social Edition is a prime example of that.

The video below gives you a preview of some of the new integration points of IBM Connections, real-time communications powered by Sametime, and Notes all in one seamlessly integrated user experience.  The video also shows video conferencing both from Notes and from a community in IBM Connections.



I've already gotten some very good feedback on this video and I'm interested to know: What do you think about this video ?