IBM - Lotus Connections V2.0.1

Abstract

Lotus Connections is an enterprise social software offering from IBM that is designed to help organisations “work smarter” and more effectively by empowering individuals and teams. The features offered by Lotus Connections can enable those within a business or institution to keep track of people, ideas, and know-how. Corporate employees spend a great deal of time collaborating via e-mails, documents, spreadsheets and presentations; however, the social network that ties all of this ‘stuff’ together is missing from many collaboration platforms. Lotus Connections presents a suite of social software capabilities that have been pre-integrated to work together in a corporate setting. The look and feel of Lotus Connections is clearly being influenced by consumer-oriented social software sites, and given that all corporate employees are consumers, Butler Group thinks that this is no bad thing. IBM clearly recognises the fact that integration with popular information worker tools and platforms is essential for broad success and widespread adoption and has made this apparent by providing connectors not only for Lotus products, like Notes and Sametime, but also for Microsoft products, like SharePoint, Outlook, and Office. Organisations exploring the business value of enterprise social networking software should evaluate this very capable product.

Key Findings

Strength

• A well-integrated set of enterprise social networking services.
• Good integration with Microsoft Office and the Lotus range of collaboration solutions.
• Can be deployed on a range of operating systems and databases.
• The Blackberry client extends the solution to mobile employees.

Information

• LotusLive Connections will provide an alternative route to market.

Weakness

• Lacks a wiki feature (will be added in the next version of Lotus Connections).
• Deeper integration with Microsoft SharePoint would increase the value of this offering.
• 64-bit versions not yet available for Linux or Windows server environments, but will be provided in the next version.

Look Ahead

Lotus Connections version 2.5 is expected in the second half of 2009. It will introduce a new wiki service, a personal file sharing service, new profile enhancements, and many new community features. It will also offer increased SharePoint integration; mobile support for iPhone/Nokia/Symbian/Web browser devices; and new profiles features, such as microblogging and news streams.

Read the full Technology Audit on the Butler Group Web site.