Using IBM Connections to collaborate outside of a workspace

You can also use the additional enterprise social software capabilities provided by IBM® Connections to collaborate with colleagues independently of the workspace environment.

For example, having used the collaboration capabilities on the workspace to investigate low sales figures for a product, your team may conclude that a new marketing campaign is required to promote the product. You decide to use Connections to continue your collaborative discussions with a wider network of colleagues.

Using Connections allows you to do the following:

  • Develop, nurture, and remain in contact with your network of colleagues.
  • Discuss and refine new creative ideas with communities of colleagues, partners, and customers.
  • Respond quickly to business opportunities by calling upon the expertise in your network.

By allowing employees to easily connect with their networks, Connections can help organizations achieve the following benefits:

  • Tasks can be completed faster through quick access to relevant information from an expanded network of professionals.
  • Business decisions can be made with added confidence having consulted subject matter experts from across an organization.
  • Innovation in products and services can be fostered as a result of the experiences and knowledge of communities of employees, partners and customers.

Connections provides the following services to help you draw upon the collective knowledge of your professional network of colleagues, partners, and customers.

  • The Home page service provides a consolidated view of your social data from other Connections services.
  • The Communities service allows you to stay in touch, share information, exchange ideas, and collaborate on projects with other individuals who share a common interest, responsibility or area of expertise.
  • The Profiles service allows you to quickly find people by searching across your organization for people with the expertise and project experience that match your search keywords.
  • The Activities service allows you to create online work areas where individuals in your network can gather emails, chats, documents, messages, and other information needed to accomplish a business objective.
  • The Wikis service allows you to collaboratively enter, edit, and publish web page content.
  • The Blogs service allows you to present your ideas, obtain feedback, and learn from the expertise and experience of others who blog.
  • The Files service provides a convenient way to share documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and other types of files without using email.
  • The Bookmarks social bookmarking service allows you to save, organize, and share bookmarks. It can also discover bookmarks that have been qualified by other users.

For more information, see the IBM Connections documentation (http://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SSYGQH/welcome).