Ignition for IBM Connections - Perth, Adelaide, Brisbane here we come!

Following on from successful events in Hobart, Sydney, and Melbourne, ISW is now running our IBM Connections Ignition Breakfast series in Adelaide (22nd Nov), Perth (24th Nov), and Brisbane (1st Dec).

This round table breakfast event has been a great series to date with some fantastic discussions on the REAL business value of Social Business and IBM Connections. I always find it interesting to hear from different organisations about the use cases they have for Connections and how they see the technology improving how they collaborate and work with their colleagues and communities. The session covers what Social Business is all about and outlines a series of use cases that demonstrate real business value. Full of live demo's we find it is a great way to progress people from "So why would I bother?" to "Now I get it!!". We spend some time on how to drive user adoption of Connections within organisations and show an easy path forward.

So if you want to hear about the business value of social software, learn some strategies on driving user adoption, or are in the process of implementing IBM Connections and want to hear about other organisations experiences then please register and join us! We have limited seats so get in quick!

Simply Inspiring - Outside the Inbox

Simply inspiring!

I have often been found talking to clients about "Get Out Of Mail Jail!". Email was definitely the killer App of the 90's. It empowered us to communicate quickly, efficiently, with many many people. However over time it has become a burdon for many of us. Receiving hundreds of emails per day, many useless, some useful, but many not effective, we have created these silos of information where knowledge is trapped in individuals emails. We have all become slaves to our email, reactionary in our work rather than being in control of how and what we work on.

Here is a person that has taken on the challenge of getting out of mail jail. A person that has realised that email is no longer the killer app or the best way to communicate and collaborate. I am incredibly impressed by Luis's realisation that he can work in a better way and educate the rest of us on how to go about it. He has truly leveraged Social Business as a new way to work and the evidence is there to see that it is a better way to work.

I feel lucky to have corresponded with Luis via social networks on a number of occasions and I congratulate him on what he has achieved. The new site Outside The Inbox is well worth spending some time viewing. I am inspired to continue to make my work more social and continue to transform our business into a social business. While email still has its place in day to day work, it is certainly not the destination!

It's Mo Time!

So for a number of years my colleagues at ISW have participated in Movember. I have always resisted the call to become a MoBro and grow a Mo for a good cause and have simply contributed by sponsorship. Well this year I have been convinced (harassed) by my colleagues at ISW to have a crack and grow a Mo (attempt to anyway). So I started yesterday clean shaven and will see how the month progresses. So rather than just having the (irritable) pleasure of growing a mo (some fluff on my lip) I thought I should have a go at actually raising some money as well. Hence my post!

So this is the bit where I ask some of you to give me a bit of encouragement with a little bit of sponsorship. I am expecting days 5-10 to be the hardest and most irritable so am hoping some of you will sponsor me early so I have motivation not to reach for the razor.

You can follow my growth and sponsor me at http://mobro.co/adambrownaus. I will attempt to upload a photo every few days for your amusement. You can also find out about this great cause at and where the money goes at http://au.movember.com/about/ .

Oh and the Yellow Man is participating as well. Last year he shaved the Lotus Logo into his face! If only he could die his Mo Yellow I am sure he would.

ISW managed to raise just over a grand last year but I think we can do a fair bit better this year. Anything you felt inclined to donate would be greatly appreciated.

ISW Social Ignition for Lotus Notes 8.5.3

For those that have not noticed yet IBM has just announced the release of IBM Lotus Notes & Domino 8.5.3. This is a great release and one that I know many clients have been looking forward to. You can find out all the information on the formal IBM Annoucement here.

Of particular note however is the following:

Entitlement to IBM Connections Files and Profiles, for no additional charge, allows you to tap into the knowledge of networks of professionals with a single click. This helps users to quickly find skills within their organization and to easily share content with other people and remove the need to send large files through email.

THIS IS AWESOME! ISW has been working with many clients implementing IBM Connections and now to have a entitlement to Profiles and Files as part of your Notes/Domino 8.5.3 licensing adds significant value at no extra cost. So as IBM are adding so much value ISW has decided we had better join in.

ISW are excited to announce a special limited time only Ignition offer on the back of IBM's release of Lotus Notes 8.5.3. The latest release of Lotus Notes includes, at no extra charge, license entitlement to two IBM Connections 3.0.1 features; Profiles and Files. What an opportunity for Notes customers to begin their journey as a Social Business! We all know Notes has been a social platform for many years but now this takes it to a whole new level.

In order to take full advantage of these Connections features, ISW has created Social Ignition, available until December 31st 2011.

What is Social Ignition?
Sure, IBM have given you ‘free’ access to these features, but we want you to enjoy the complete benefits that come from a professional, experienced installation and integration. Get started quickly without the hassles of learning how to install and implement Connections.

This limited time offer will get your Connections Profiles and Files installed and seamlessly integrated into your Notes environment at a pace we challenge you to beat.

$4,500+GST will get you set up either on premise or in the cloud. You will be enjoying your brand new social features faster than Mark Webber does a lap of Albert Park (well almost)!

To make it even better, clients that make the move this year will receive a free entitlement to ISW’s Wildfire Social Aggregator Sidebar Plugin and for clients that we really like a free entitlement to iWildfire ISW's iPhone and iPad App for Connections.

Don’t have the Infrastructure? Need some hosting?
That’s OK, we can do that too with full integration into your Notes/Domino environment. Just ask us for a quote on monthly hosting in the cloud.

To find our more about the offer, visit ISW's website. Or contact us in Australia on 1800 456 001. Or you can tweet me at adambrownaus.

IBM announces Vantage for IBM Connections and IBM Sametime

I often receive questions around governance and compliance for IBM Connections. Also for many years clients have had requirements around compliance for IBM Sametime. Being able to track who said what and when; real time review and capture based on keywords, phrases etc; or to just be able to find information is a legal discovery process, are important requirements for many organisations.

So IBM seems to have addressed some of these areas by partnering with Actiance to release Version 1 of Vantage for IBM Connections and IBM Sametime.

Vantage for IBM Sametime and IBM Connections provides a compliance solution that is up-to-date on the dynamic and interactive communication channels a social business leverages. No matter how small or out-of-context a remark or comment might be, every post can be captured and put into the larger context of a holistic compliance solution for the social business.

Additional compliance capabilities of Vantage for IBM Connections:

• Automated logging of all IBM Connections end-user events (wikis, blogs, forum, activities, communities, profiles, bookmarks, and files)
• Real-time content inspection by keywords, lexicons, restricted phrases, regular expressions, user, type, and date range, that helps enable compliance personnel to easily locate relevant data, and helps to significantly reduce risk by allowing organizations to remove inappropriate content quickly
• Logs and archives original format and images of posts within IBM Connections; real-time review in the context of how they were posted in chronological order that helps to make the legal discovery, review, and reporting process simpler and less costly
• Simple creation and enforcement of granular policies on which content to capture that helps enable organizations to more effectively manage their compliance program
• Global and group role-based access control helps strengthen and simplify an organization's ability to comply with regulations

Additional compliance and security capabilities of Vantage for IBM Sametime:

• Real-time monitoring with alerts of instant messaging and content within file transfers
• Real-time reporting and archiving, granular content filtering rules and event auditing
• Real-time inspections that trigger alerts based on phrases, keywords, or regular expressions significantly reducing risk
• Virus and malware scanning of file transfers
• Creation and enforcement of ethical walls between users and groups
• Monitoring, logging, archiving, and feature controls for federated public Instant Messaging (IM) networks
• Global, group, and employee role-based access control that helps strengthen an organization's ability to comply with regulations
• Monitor, record, export instant messaging, group chat, IBM Sametime Advanced FAQ, announcements, and meeting activity to help ensure that all relevant communications can be retrieved when needed
• Security-rich, intuitive web-based administration and reporting of detailed usage by log in, message count, time interval, and IBM Sametime events
• Content inspection and drill down by keywords, user, type, and date range that helps enable compliance personnel to easily find a precise piece of content
• Create and enforce granular policies of which content to capture that helps allow organizations to effectively manage their compliance program
• Through content filtering, helps prevent data leakage over IBM Sametime and federated public IM platforms

Vantage for IBM Connections and Vantage for IBM Sametime are critical components designed to help all organizations, regardless of industry protect corporate brand and reputation, ensure ethical practices, and maintain compliance with regulations and legislation.

More information on the annoucement can be found here.

This need for better compliance and governance is not isolated to IBM's social platforms but it is good to see IBM reacting to provide a solution in this space.