Earlier this week I attended IBM THINK Collaboration London – an opportunity to hear more about the latest updates to their collaboration suite and more importantly for me, a chance to really understand how Watson will help make organisations more efficient.
During my 13 years in-house I used a mix of social intranets (wordpress with buddypress), SharePoint and IBM Connections. At most conferences or events I attend about internal social channels we hear about Facebook Workplace, Microsoft, Jive etc but never IBM Connections – which is a shame because having used this for four years (both as an internal customer and as the global lead for the platform) it is the best solution I have found.
Cognitive intelligence with people at the heart
The founding principles of IBM Connections are people and choice and the basic elements of the platform are brilliant. When you start that internal change conversation with the basics – files and spaces to collaborate (Communities) the conversations in each part of the organisation are easy. Files are all in one place. You choose whether to share with an individual, a group of people, a community or make it completely public. I might even choose to just have it restricted so only I can see it. It even comes with a plug in to Windows so as a user I can see the familiar file and folder structure of a shared drive.
One of my main challenges with other platforms is this lack of one version of the truth. I want one file (with version control) that I can surface in different places and I want it to be easy for people to know where to put that file – this comes as standard.
With the introduction of Orient Me, IBM Connections can now offer a home page that is tailored to the individual. Surfacing content that is relevant allowing the user to pin communities, files, people in their network – this allows them to reduce the noise and see the relevant information to them.
I can tailor the design of the communities. I don’t need IT to help or an expert partner – I can do this and any of the employees in my organisation can do it as well. This ability to be able to have control over how the platform can work is brilliant. With every other platform I have experienced, I have needed IT or an external partner to create spaces and templates for me – not with IBM.
Deliver business outcomes faster
Watson is impressive. Watson Workspace is equally exciting. The use of AI in the platform means it not only helps the user based on keywords but it also understands intent – and you can help it learn too.
It can support the organisation in a variety of ways:
- Watson Workspace will surface data regardless of source – if it is connected to CRM platforms, HR systems – pretty much anything – it can surface any of that content to help you – saving you the time to search
- It works both ways. Using the workflow application you can sign off a sales deal that can then trigger an action in one of the platforms it integrates with – making you and your team more efficient
- Watson technology can be used to search through social media channels for keywords and automatically create a space in Workspace, adding the relevant people into it, to solve an issue raised by a customer or employee
- The platform understands the context of the conversation so you can summarise the discussion based on that context and build custom actions that can be fulfilled, all using the cognitive power of Watson
- The cognitive capabilities can be extended into other existing applications, enabling you to summarise, gain focus and insight on data in 3rd party business apps
- And the future is looking impressive with plans to integrate the technology with video chat/video meetings to make them more efficient
All about choice
Choice can be tricky. Sometimes too much can make it difficult to make decisions, but having a business model that has acquired businesses with expertise, created partnerships with some of the leading technology providers and created a stack that people are learning at college means they are flexible. I still have conversations about why I would use Box when I have files in IBM Connections but it has a place for some. The choice is there to ensure that you can create the right solution for your business. IBM work with Microsoft, Google, Jive and others to make sure they stay true to keeping people at the heart of the offer.
For me, the blend of the technology has to support the business strategy and in the communications function, this should include providing platforms and content that supports it all. I had my frustrations with IBM Connections when it first arrived and when I had to do upgrades and some things would break – but it is technology and we learnt that a close partnership with IT was needed to make it a true success. I have used other platforms since and it was painful. None of them have come close to the empowerment IBM Connections gives, the ability to collaborate with external parties, nor do they provide the seamless file sharing element I used heavily.
As they said at the event this week; you can integrate anything but what is meaningful? It is this question that should bring the IT, HR and Communications function together to create the right solution for your business – I just hope you add IBM to the list of providers who can help.
