HCL Connections Reviews

The Homepage/Activity Stream keeps you to up-to-date as to what is happening throughout your organization.

I like the ability to create, edit, and share files from your desktop, or mobile app, anywhere, anyplace, with everyone.

Finding expertise becomes so much easier, especially for international companies who reside all over the world.

Certain solutions aren't solely applicable for one country, but often these solutions can be re-applied to other offices as well.

Sharing knowledge on IBM Connections will give you access to tap into all the knowledge that is accessible in your organization across the world. If they find a solution for an issue in the office in Italy, the office in Sweden can reuse that solution by finding that expertise on Connections.

Activities:

• The Connections Mobile app doesn't work in the same manner as the web version. Sorting is different and not all options are available in the mobile version.
• There are limitations on how big an activity can become, but there is no functional check to let the end user know. When your activity becomes really big, it can become unreliable and very slow.
• There are no summary options for an activity. A print-to-PDF overview would be handy.
• Again, when the activity become very big, it is not easy to keep track of what happens within the activity. (Kudos Boards from ISW is a good alternative for this.)

Files:

• File sync for folders (coming in Connections 6.0)
• File sync for community files and folders
• Option to make individual files available to external users
• Option to make individual files publicly available by using a password
• Invite external users based on an email address

I have used this since the first beta came out in 2008.

In some scenarios, slow performance can be a tough point to tackle. Regarding stability, there were no issues there. Everything runs on WebSphere, which is a pretty reliable platform.

There were no scalability issues, but the effort to add extra nodes in a running configuration can be cumbersome.

Level 1 support sometimes can be a tough hurdle to tackle. Once you have reached Level 2 and Level 3 support, technical support is pretty good.

We were using Lotus Quickr. It was old, slow, and had a very small user base. There was not much potential.

The initial setup is a tough journey. Once you get the hang of it, it is pretty doable. However, it takes some perseverance.

We did not look at alternatives. We are IBM Business partners. We help customers implement IBM Connections.

Keep your eyes open for IBM Connections 6.0 and the future version of Connections, Connections Pink. This version will move away from the IBM technology stack and take the route of micro-services. Connections will enter the world of Docker, MonogDB, Node.js, CFC, Redis, Muse, etc.

The complete software will be rewritten for this new technology. Also, the on-premises implementation will depend on the cloud offering. Updates will be seamlessly pushed towards your on-premises deployment. This technology will make big, clunky upgrade projects become a thing of the past.

Connections is a full-featured enterprise social network solution. Below are some of the features most used by our employees:

• Files and document management, including file sharing and libraries
• Employee profiles
• Communities
• External communities
• Blogs
• Status posts
• Activities

Connections, with its file sharing and lightweight document management capabilities, has helped us reduce the volume of email and network file usage.

Ideally, the product will increment advances from consumer social networks and file sharing tools sooner, as users expectations are formed by the software they use at home and on their devices.

We have used IBM Connections since early 2013, beginning with version 4.0. In 2015, we upgraded to version 5.0. Throughout, we have used the on-premises solution.

In 2016, we extended the platform to external users via external communities.

We have not had any stability problems.

We have not had any scalability problems.

We used a variety of business partner support models and have been pleased with the support.

Prior to Connections, we did not have an enterprise social network solution.

Like any major software implementation, the initial project required planning, resource allocation, vendor management, and communications.

Learn and understand the different product offerings and pricing models and note the difference between cloud, hybrid, and on-premises solutions.

We evaluated Jive and SharePoint.

Do your research and look for the solution that best fits your organization. Ultimately, enterprise social network adoption will be about culture and fit, and not the technology.

• Business contacts network: You can define a business network like LinkedIn, but limited to your installation. You can also view the organizational chart inside the tool.
• Communities: One of the best functionality of the product. Complete functionalities.
• Automatic notifications: Users receive notification of all activities done on Connections. When files created, modified, ..., the platform advise users of some of the contents within the function of the role and the past activities. Users can also decide the way in which notifications are sent (they can filter the type of event and also the timing).

Marketing has created a community open to all internal employees where it has centralized all marketing content (brochures, presentations, communications).

Compared to the past, now we have a single point of interest where all content is available, and all employees receive a notification when new content is published. In addition, all employees can provide feedback and a personal impression about all shared content.

File management: File management is a little poor. For example, you don’t have the ability to create a folder or organize the contents of a folder. Some functionalities are available only if the customer also buys the IBM FileNet platform.

User management: Users are mainly on LDAP. There is no way to create a user “on the fly” and to add it to a community or business network. You must track all users on LDAP before interacting with them and this is very boring, especially if you have to interact with external users.

I have used it for two years.

I had some problems on earlier releases; in 4.5, I’ve only noticed some browser incompatibilities.

I have not encountered any scalability issues.

Technical support is 8/10.

I did not previously use a different solution.

Initial setup has been simple.

Pricing is not so “easy to access”; licencing is for a single user.

Before choosing this product, I did not evaluate other options.

It’s very important to understand what you want to do with “social” before implementing something on the platform.

IBM Connections is a great product, with new functionality each year. It can be integrated with other products easily and you can personalize this product to match with your organization.

For joint ventures, for example, it's easy to merge employees into the same entity group assignment, hierarchy and organization, with mixed rules and the right community and distinct special areas.

I actually work with profiles and identity, and also all the information around entities (not only geographic, but all properties assign to a employee).

My dream: Create a workflow to manage and simplify the lifecycle of a employee across the company...

My entity should be the same if I change companies; only some properties are different, but my links are the same (Twitter, Facebook, etc.).

I have used this solution for seven years, providing assistance and support, deploying social solutions or upgrading versions.

I am certified to deploy complex solutions.

I would rate customer service as follows:

• IBM 6
• JALIOS 6

I would rate technical support as follows:

• IBM 4
• JALIOS 6

We used to deploy Backbase Portal and IBM. I advised the selection of this solution.

It depends on the chosen architecture but initial setup can often be complex for a new user.

I implemented and deployed the solution. You need a good requirements evaluation for design and a good architecture.

Check IBM licensing.

• Search for a good partner who has installed a lot of solutions and multiple integrations with other products. This may not be easy and more skills may necessary.
• Most Connections functionality must be customized and personalized but it is more expensive to customize this product, and the product does necessarily provide the widespread coverage that a customer may seek.
• I developed a personal project to help integrate and interoperate where I can define like a ERP, and My ERP is based on a identity Management and access management much more.

The most valuable feature is definitely Files. We have totally transferred the way we work, or developed the way we work on information. The ability to upload files into the cloud, the sharing options, and, even better, the commenting options and the @ mentions on the file just eases the workflow dramatically compared to using email and sending attachments back and forth.

It saves a lot of time, includes more people that need to be included and it ensures better quality.

I’m happy with what I saw at a recent conference regarding Connections Pink and Orient Me.

We have had no downtime.

Scalability is okay-ish. We are more or less satisfied with the way it works. No major need for fixing it.

Technical support is great.

We knew we needed to invest in a new solution because we got advice from our business partner and from IBM that opened up our eyes to see the options out there.

Initial setup was complex. We suffered some setbacks on the migration from the on-prem solution to the cloud. We are currently in a hybrid solution and the migration didn't work exactly how it was supposed to; so we had some challenges on migrating.

We looked at Microsoft.

Quality and cost are the most important factors when selecting a vendor.

Just do it.

Our primary use for this solution is B2B and in-house collaboration.

This is a great set of tools that is easy to adapt to different teams.

The most valuable feature is the Activity flow that is used to catch new activities.

The file plugin for Mac need some improvement.

There are multiple applications available for the user.

• The blogs became the main source of information for the organisation and establishing dialogue.
• The forums are the best places to get and provide peer powered support.

Design and user experience.

Design: They present consistent shortcomings across their applications. For instance, when you are in a sub-community, it's difficult to figure out what other sub-communities are a part of the parent community. Whenever you land in a sub-community application, it's difficult to navigate to the parent one.

Another example is how the newsfeed tries to provide you with extra information with a blurb hovering to the right. However, it's actually the same information available on the newsfeed item.

User experience: The many ways in which you could use their different applications is, for most users, simply overwhelming.

IBM Connections can be a really good product for power users. However, for most of my users, the consistent feedback has been about how difficult it is to use and how the interface is poorly designed.

I used the solution for about two years, from 2013 to 2015.

The forums struggled to keep up when multiple users posted information.

I am not aware of any issues regarding scalability.

I would give technical support a rating of 9/10.

I am not aware of any previous solutions.

The setup was rather simple. IT handled most of the implementation. The functional owner designed a series of standard communities for everyone to join.

Using IBM Connections as a standalone product to replace the intranet is not enough. Further investment is required for a landing page, either from IBM solutions, or from any of their partners.

We evaluated Jive and Yammer.

You need a strong governance model and an effective adoption strategy. If possible, do not use the IBM Connections Files app as the main CMS of the organisation.

I use it mainly for my files. I've got pretty much all my personal files and shared files in there. I use it on a day-to-day basis - the Activities part - for managing my work and the work of our teams, the scrum teams and the agile teams. We are able to see where we are in the process for everything that we have to deploy. I also use it for finding people or connecting with people and communicating.

For me, the benefit is that I have it on my mobile device, because I work a lot on mobile. I've got a lot of different devices and I work in a lot of different locations and most of the times in meetings. For me, it's easy to always be able to reach my files. Everything is on hand all the time.

For once, I would like to see better support for files. I mean, file storage is very good. It's not a concept of traditional file storage, but I figure if you want to make a transition from a traditional way of working into a new way of working, the gap between the old way and the new way, should be a little bit smaller.

I think it's very stable.

Scalability is also very good.

Technical support is good.

We had a lot of solutions and what we wanted to do was not invent a new solution or bring a new one in. We wanted to combine the solutions we already had and integrate them into a real social enterprise collaboration platform. That's why we use Connections as kind of an umbrella over all the solutions.

Initial setup was complex. It is a large-scale WebSphere deployment, and we have a twin data center, so you have to do a lot to deploy it at a very big enterprise.

We looked at everybody in the enterprise social space. We looked at Microsoft, but Microsoft wasn't that big; Jive; we looked at pretty much everyone. We did a full analysis.

When selecting a vendor, the integration between current solutions and the new solutions is important, as is the integration between different vendors. Pricing is also important, of course. Also, the social features and the completeness.

Do a comparison of the different solutions, and really look into what your use cases are and how you want to use them. Especially, look a bit forward, for example, whether you want to be dependent on one vendor or to have multiple vendors and integrate them. I think Connections is a pretty good choice but it depends on where you're coming from and what your current installed base is.