IBM Connections vs. Office 365

IBM Connections vs. O365

Jan Valdman

Whitesoft

Watch online https://youtu.be/M8CdfKCMvzE

Remarks

The opinions in this deck are my own and do not necessarily reflect or equal to any opinions of Whitesoft or IBM.

All information about O365 and Sharepoint is based on my own end-user experience.

All conclusions are based on my personal experience using common, regular environments and accounts, both product

are considered to be in the “out-of-box” configuration.

I am not an expert on O365.

Cloud offerings change very quickly so the information might be outdated when you read it. Screenshots taken on April

16, 2015.

This deck does not compare the products completely but only from a social collaboration perspective.

The information is provided “as-is”. I can not guarantee that the information in this deck is precise, complete, correct

and otherwise valid. I believe that you find this comparison true and useful however I can not accept responsibility for

any of your future decisions. If you do not like this policy, do not read further.

Copyright information

About me

• Business development manager in Whitesoft

• Working with ICS since 2001 (WebSphere Portal), IBM Connections since 2.5 in 2010

• IBM Champion for ICS 2014+2015

• SOCCNX Team member for VI,VII,8 and 9

• Board member of SUTOL.cz (Czech LUG)

• Getsocial.CZ conferences 2012+2013

About Whitesoft

• Czech-Belgian IT company, 35+ people, founded 2000

• IBM BP for ICS in the Czech Republic and Belgium

• Also reseller of Microsoft, Google

• Generic IT services for GB customers = 50+ customers for ICS

• We are pretty good in IBM Connections :-)

• We know how to explain customers why IBM Connections is the best :-)

Why this topic?

• Organizations started to buy O365 plans instead of legacy MS Office licenses

• People consider O365, Google Apps and IBM Connections as direct competitors

• I did an evaluation for a client few months ago so I can share some findings

Agenda

About the productsAn overview of O365 from a perspective of a long term Connections user

O356 is NOT socialHow does it (not) support your social business journey

ConclusionWhy IBM, why NOT Microsoft

Office 365 is NOT social

Features & Functions Comparison?

We compare a basket of fruits…

What is IBM Connections?

• Enterprise Social Software/Network

• Brings content, conversation and people together

• Collaboration platform

• People-centric approachContent

Conversation Groups

people

IBM Connections – what it can do

What is Microsoft Office 365?

• Plans?

• Subscription based Office licensing?

• Web editors?

• Exchange in the cloud?

• SharePoint online?

• Collaboration platform?

• ESN platform? ?

O365 just after login (E3 plan)

O365 User Experience

The navigation…

• O365 is a puzzle

• Everything (mostly) regarding files is build from SharePoint libraries and web parts

• Navigation is a nightmare

Everything is SharePoint

Delve – analytics based of OfficeGraph

Oh yes!!!

My understanding of O365

Yammer

• Feeds (and not much more)

• Twitter-like conversations

• Groups

Yammer compared to IBM Connections

Yammer is not a standard part of O365

Yammer integration is weak

Yammer onboarding is pretty good

The first Yammer experience

Ops! Another profile?

And another Inbox?

You have to switch Yammer ON for ALL users

Before and after Yammer activation

The difference: Yammer feed for OneDrive files

File comments as seen from feeds…

Agenda




What does SOCIAL mean?

“Social” is…

… to be in touch with colleagues, to communicate, to collaborate, to share ideas

in order to get my work done faster and

better

#1 GET UPDATEDDoes O365 support this?

Newsfeed (without Yammer)

Newsfeed preferences

Updates with Yammer

Summary

• SharePoint newsfeed is not good

• Only explicit updates (+files)

• Yammer is not integrated

• IBM Connections do much better

#2 PEOPLE AND PROFILESDoes O365 support this?

Disconnected profiles

Like peekaboo? Upload a photo!

???

Tags? Network contacts?

My Profile – page 1 of 3

My Profile (the boring stuff)

Finally something social.

Tags are not used for search…

People - are they in Outlook?

My profile

My Yammer profile

Summary

• Complex, confusing

• Two detached profiles: O365 + Yammer

• You can enter some social information nowadays but it is hard to utilize it

#3 COLLABORATE ON FILESDoes o365 support this?

Social Files? No, just a filesystem!

File details

click

click

Even more file details

???

File sharing – web interface

???

External links (Dropbox style)

Sharing details

File properties?

No ‘All files’ view

???

Shared with me?

???

Descriptions? Comments??? No!

Comments are only inside documents

(Or you have to use Yammer)

Comments are hidden while editing

… and Y is not accessible from W/E/P

Summary

• Complex, comfusing

• No file descriptions !!!

• No comments! No tags!!!

• Very bad navigation

• Horrible user experience

#4 SHARE EXPERIENCEDoes O365 support this?

Wikis? Yes, but…

???

Editing a wiki

Communities? No, Sites instead…

Site content

Customization – not for business users

Summary

• Not really social sharing tools

• Everything is tweaked SharePoint

• Many issues regarding Sites

• Updates?

• Members?

• Activity streams? Tags? Likes?

• Complex

• Not easy to use

Agenda




Microsoft’s approach is completely different

O365 is not social

• O365 is still focused on DMS/ECM functions (OneDrive, Newsfeed, People, Sites)

• Weird tagging

• No liking

• Hard to stay updated (newsfeed issues), Yammer or not

O365 won’t improve sharing & collaboration

• O365 is very complex

• Not built for social, Yammer does not help much, adds more complexity instead

• O365 is difficult to use, weird UI, navigation issues

• There are some powerful features, but require setup by well-trained IT guys

Summary: different worlds

• The paradigm in O365 is different • IT administrators who setup it

• Content producers who know how to use Sites

• Content consumers who hopefully can find information

• In IBM Connections all users are equal• Only community owners are somehow more

powerull

• O365 is catching up on Connections

O365: Just a bigger graveyardfor documents?

Want to use SP for document management? Use stapler instead! (an expert advice)

Want to use O365 for social collaboration?Use IBM Connections instead! (my advice)

Thank you! Questions?

Jan [email protected]+420 603 590 152

Watch online https://youtu.be/M8CdfKCMvzE

http://twitter.com/jan_valdman

http://twitter.com/jan_valdman

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IBM Connections vs. Office 365

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