HCL Connections vs. Office 365 – The New Begining

Once the deal is closed, HCL will start a new chapter in Connections development. Let us hope for a bold move – as strong as we can witness in Notes/Domino today. We can already guess certain directions of future product development and more details are expected to come in Summer. But regardless of what HCL really does, the next version of Connections will be definitely compared to Office 365.

Obviously, I have also to start a new chapter of my series https://www.slideshare.net/soccnx/ibm-connections-vs-office-365-episode-iii
In this session, I will position HCL Connections V6.5 vs. Microsoft Office 365 and share my thoughts and hopes for Connections V7.

Transcript

1. HCL Connections vs. Office 365
   Episode IV: The New Begining
   Jan Valdman, Whitesoft
   

   View Slide

2. PLATINUM SPONSOR
   PLATINUM SPONSORS
   GOLD SPONSORS
   BRONZE SPONSORS
   SILVER SPONSORS
   SPEEDSPONSORING BEER SPONSOR
   

   View Slide

3. Social Connections 15 Munich, September 16-18 2019
   Introduction
   

   View Slide

4. Social Connections 15 Munich, September 16-18 2019
   IBM Connections vs. O365
   Jan Valdman
   Whitesoft
   Watch online https://youtu.be/M8CdfKCMvzE
   There is more than 365 reasons to use Connections
   Toronto, June 6-7 2016
   IBM Connections vs. O365
   Episode II
   Jan Valdman, Whitesoft
   @jan_valdman
   Social Connections 11 Chicago, June 1-2 2017
   IBM Connections vs. O365
   Episode III
   Jan Valdman, Whitesoft
   @jan_valdman
   11.000 views
   3.000 views
   2.500 views
   

   View Slide

5. Social Connections 15 Munich, September 16-18 2019
   The Comparison Problem
   

   View Slide

6. Social Connections 15 Munich, September 16-18 2019
   How Do They Compare?
   

   View Slide

7. Social Connections 15 Munich, September 16-18 2019
   

   View Slide

8. Social Connections 15 Munich, September 16-18 2019
   Competitors?
   IBM: yes HCL: no
   HCL Connections
   

   View Slide

9. Social Connections 15 Munich, September 16-18 2019
   Why Connections?
   

   View Slide

10. Social Connections 15 Munich, September 16-18 2019
    Why Customers Buy Connections?
    • We need more/better collaboration
    • We want to improve internal
    communication
    • We want to be social
    • We want/need to …
    

    View Slide

11. Social Connections 15 Munich, September 16-18 2019
    Why Customers Buy O365?
    • It is our corporate standard
    • Our mother company forced us
    to migrate
    • We had to buy Office licenses
    • Managing Exchange 20xx is
    too difficult
    

    View Slide

12. Social Connections 15 Munich, September 16-18 2019
    I have never heard…
    • We are more innovative because of O365
    • O365 connects people within our enterprise
    • Our users love O365
    • We are a better company because we can
    store more Word documents online
    (such a poor life I live)
    

    View Slide

13. Social Connections 15 Munich, September 16-18 2019
    How Customers use O365?
    • Word/Excel/PowerPoint -
    • Outlook/Exchange Notes/Verse
    • Teams Sametime
    • OneDrive Files?
    • OneNote Wikis?
    • SharePoint Files?
    No social fetures
    

    View Slide

14. Social Connections 15 Munich, September 16-18 2019
    Facts vs. Emotions
    Image credits: unknown author
    

    View Slide

15. Social Connections 15 Munich, September 16-18 2019
    My “WHY”
    

    View Slide

16. Social Connections 15 Munich, September 16-18 2019
    Why We Use Connections?
    • We “know” that Connections is better…
    but it is hard to articulate (limbic brain)
    • Loyal customers believe in the big ideas
    BEHIND the product
    • TCO
    “5 reasons” exercise
    

    View Slide

17. Social Connections 15 Munich, September 16-18 2019
    Why We Sell Connections?
    • … because they believe in it (we can sell
    more O365 if we wish)
    • … because we believe in social
    • … because we want to empower people
    and make their job easier
    

    View Slide

18. Social Connections 15 Munich, September 16-18 2019
    Why We Sell Connections?
    • We believe in engineering skills to deploy
    customized solutions rather than reselling
    SaaS service running at someone else’s
    computer
    • On-prem is always the first option
    • … because of the control over data and
    upgrades
    

    View Slide

19. Social Connections 15 Munich, September 16-18 2019
    Why There Is More O365 than Connections?
    These people buy Connections
    because they believe in the idea
    These people buy O365 because
    Microsoft has a bigger sales power
    These people still try to figure
    out how to use e-mail
    2.5% 13.5%
    

    View Slide

20. Social Connections 15 Munich, September 16-18 2019
    The Teams Problem
    

    View Slide

21. Social Connections 15 Munich, September 16-18 2019
    files
    wiki
    days weeks months years time
    People
    1000
    100
    10
    1
    forum
    activities
    chat
    blog *
    *) from a collaboration perspective
    Chat-based Collaboration Strategy Always Fails
    

    View Slide

22. Social Connections 15 Munich, September 16-18 2019
    New Beginning
    

    View Slide

23. Social Connections 15 Munich, September 16-18 2019
    What IBM Did And HCL Hopefully Can Do better
    • Not enough product focus
    • Unclear overal ICS strategy and roadmap
    • Not open for external collaboration
    • Not enough integration both within ICS
    products and 3rd party
    • Not enough 3rd party apps (ecosystem)
    • No improvement of some apps for many years
    Why – how – what
    

    View Slide

24. Social Connections 15 Munich, September 16-18 2019
    The Vision
    

    View Slide

25. Social Connections 15 Munich, September 16-18 2019
    SOCIAL is not dead
    • The hype is over…
    • “digital transformation”
    • People need to share and collaborate more
    than ever
    • People need more power to cope with daily
    challenges of todays complex world
    why
    

    View Slide

26. Social Connections 15 Munich, September 16-18 2019
    Long-term Strategy
    • Integration
    • Investments
    • Partnership
    • Openness
    • “empower people”
    how
    

    View Slide

27. Social Connections 15 Munich, September 16-18 2019
    Easy to use
    • Consistency across ALL the apps
    • Fill the small missing pieces
    • Intuitive UI
    • Consistency across platforms
    (desktop – web – mobile)
    how
    

    View Slide

28. Social Connections 15 Munich, September 16-18 2019
    OOB In-house Integrations
    • Sametime integrated into Connections
    website (web chat, community chat)
    • Connections properly integrated into Notes
    sidebar
    • Desktop connector (My Drive) works in all
    system file open/save dialogues
    • Configuration wizards for first-time users
    what
    Announced as
    future plan
    

    View Slide

29. Social Connections 15 Munich, September 16-18 2019
    Domino Apps Digital Apps
    • Domino low-code apps can run in
    Connections website (via Leap integration)
    • Node-JS and Node-RED as a standard
    part of Connections deployment
    what
    

    View Slide

30. Social Connections 15 Munich, September 16-18 2019
    New GTD Features
    • Simple content-oriented workflows
    for Files, Wikis and Blogs
    • Approvals
    • Automation (rules, bots)
    what
    

    View Slide

31. Social Connections 15 Munich, September 16-18 2019
    Adoption Tips for Novice Users
    • Tips and best practices
    • Vendor-lead adoption guidelines and
    resources library
    • Connections consortium
    Consortium
    announced
    how
    

    View Slide

32. Social Connections 15 Munich, September 16-18 2019
    Content Refactoring
    • For admins and community managers
    • Move content across communities
    • Change owners, merge duplicates, etc.
    Announced as
    future plan
    what
    

    View Slide

33. Social Connections 15 Munich, September 16-18 2019
    Easy customization
    • Replace color scheme and logos without
    the need of working with Java EE assets
    • Global CSS
    • Customizer examples
    Customizer light
    available in V6.5
    what
    

    View Slide

34. Social Connections 15 Munich, September 16-18 2019
    Summary
    

    View Slide

35. Social Connections 15 Munich, September 16-18 2019
    Complementary Solutions
    • Connections + Outlook / Exchange
    • Connections + Sharepoint Files
    • Connections + Teams
    • …
    

    View Slide

36. Social Connections 15 Munich, September 16-18 2019
    The Community
    • Community, friends, “family”
    • We feel “related”
    • Connections is a part of our lives
    • Not a “set of customers”
    

    View Slide

37. Social Connections 15 Munich, September 16-18 2019
    HCL Connections
    • Old trust (continuity)
    • More (and well deserved) focus
    • New vision
    

    View Slide

38. Social Connections 15 Munich, September 16-18 2019
    The Future
    • We want to be inspired by HCL
    • HCL Connections is a symbol of what the
    customers believe
    • HCL has to tell WHY a prove with WHAT
    

    View Slide

39. Social Connections 15 Munich, September 16-18 2019
    The Roger’s Curve
    2.5% 13.5%
    recommendations
    

    View Slide

40. Social Connections 15 Munich, September 16-18 2019
    Thank you!
    Jan Valdman
    jan.valdman@whitesoft.eu
    

    View Slide

41. View Slide

42. PLATINUM SPONSOR
    PLATINUM SPONSORS
    GOLD SPONSORS
    BRONZE SPONSORS
    SILVER SPONSORS
    SPEEDSPONSORING BEER SPONSOR
    

    View Slide