IBM Enhances IBM Connections with Acquisition of TIMETOACT

Alan Lepofsky

Vice President & Principal Analyst
Constellation Research

Alan Lepofsky - VP and Principal Analyst, Constellation Research. With almost two decades of experience in the collaboration software industry, Lepofsky helps organizations improve the way their employees work together to get their jobs done. Lepofsky’s primary research area The Future of Work, focuses on: integrating collaboration and business processes (Purposeful Collaboration), structuring work via Social Task Management, leveraging analytics and digital assistants to work more productively, the strategic impact of mobile computing on business transformation, and measuring workforce culture based on Digital Proficiency instead of age. Twitter: @alanlepoLinkedIn: https://ca.linkedin.com/in/alanlepo     , Title: Big IdeasIntelligent Collaboration: The Intersection of…...

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On May 31st, IBM announced the acquisition of TIMETOACT XCC (the product, not the company and staff), an intranet platform that is built on top of IBM Connections. IBM plans to bundle XCC with IBM Connections in Q32017 as a new offering named IBM Connections Engagement Center. The additional cost for Engagement Center has not yet been announced.

While IBM Connections is a very good community platform offering, it was lacking some features needed to make it a true corporate intranet. XCC adds things like custom page layouts, page based branding, personalization based on job role, location or areas of interest, and workflows for content publishing. In the past IBM would promote the use of IBM WebSphere Portal along with IBM Connections for corporate intranets, but that was often seen as costly and complex. With XCC, IBM Connections customers will be able to install, configure and manage a single platform, since Engagement Center is built on Connections. Alternatively, customers can choose IBM’s cloud based deployment option and leave the administration to IBM.

I want to highlight that I get pitched on hundreds of products a year, but I have to say TIMETOACT’s founder Felix Binsack is one of the most persistent marketers out there! Congratulations to him on the hard work and dedication that lead to this deal.

Growing the Base?

I’ve often criticized IBM for a lack of investment in their collaboration portfolio, so I am happy to see this transaction take place. Corporate communications, news, knowledge bases, and employee engagement are all an important part of company intranets. With competition such as Microsoft SharePoint, Google Sites, Jive Interactive Intranet, Salesforce Communities, Igloo, ThoughtFarmer and Jostle, it is good to see IBM bolster the features of IBM Connections. However, I don’t see this acquisition increasing IBM’s customer base, as XCC customers are all already IBM Connections customers.  Perhaps IBM will announce migration tools from some of these competitors to Engagement Center? If not, this is a good opportunity for business partners.

If IBM wants to get the attention of the industry and gain new customers, my guidance would be to take a more aggressive approach. For example, what if IBM were to acquire Evernote and seamlessly integrate it across IBM Connections, Verse (email) and Watson Workplace (group messaging)? How about acquiring a CRM vendor to enhance the way Sales and Marketing professionals work? How about a task management vendor to augment (or replace) the IBM Connections Activities feature? (similar to XCC, they could acquire Kudos Boards since it’s already based on IBM Connections)

So while the acquisition of TIMETOACT is good news for IBM Connections customers, I hope this is just the beginning of IBM’s strategy to enhance and expand their collaboration portfolio and customer base.

If You Can Only Try

Gavin Heaton

Founder
Disruptors Co

Gavin is the Founder of Disruptors Co, one of Australia’s leading independent strategy and innovation companies. Gavin advises firms on strategy, marketing, product development and innovation. He is also a member of the Orbits program, the influencer network of award winning analyst and advisory firm, Constellation Research. Gavin advises boards and leadership on innovation strategy, marketing, data-driven product development and corporate venturing. Gavin is on the board of Vibewire, a youth-led social enterprise based in Sydney, Australia and on the Technology Advisory Group for Good2Give – the workplace giving platform. ...

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Living, as we do, in a time of rapid change. Of transformation and uncertainty. It can be difficult to see what our long term future holds.

You can see it in the words we use to describe our lives. These words are flat. Uninspired. Transactional. We have entire governments swept to power on the back of the laziest of phrases and political slogans masquerading as thought-through policy agendas.

But we have not arrived in this desolate landscape randomly. It is the end-result of a thousand micro choices that consolidate our misery.

It is as if we have abdicated our personal responsibility for imagination in favour of a strange wariness of close fears. Today, in Australia, it was announced that we now hold the record for economic growth without a recession. We have experienced 26 years without interruption to our prosperity. Twenty six years without a downturn.

We have a generation of people who have known only growth. There have been few labour strikes. Precious few public protests. This perceived prosperity has dulled our senses to our own personal agency. The storytellers who ignite our hearts and passions no longer tread the public boards of our most important debates – they pop up in our Facebook news feeds, talking at TED or singing on “Insert Your Country Here’s” Got Talent.

But this can change. The story is the trick. And if we do want to reclaim our sense of the future, then there’s much to learn from the careful crafting that goes into the stories of digital media’s emerging heroes. Just watch this clip from America’s Got Talent. Think about the one clear message. See how you are drawn in to this story. Understand how and why you respond to what you see and what you hear. And see how the foreground, backstory and framing create the conditions for you to take the story into your heart.

Then think about what you can do to change your sense of what is possible. You only need try.

Introducing Digital Adoption Platforms

Alan Lepofsky

Vice President & Principal Analyst
Constellation Research

Alan Lepofsky - VP and Principal Analyst, Constellation Research. With almost two decades of experience in the collaboration software industry, Lepofsky helps organizations improve the way their employees work together to get their jobs done. Lepofsky’s primary research area The Future of Work, focuses on: integrating collaboration and business processes (Purposeful Collaboration), structuring work via Social Task Management, leveraging analytics and digital assistants to work more productively, the strategic impact of mobile computing on business transformation, and measuring workforce culture based on Digital Proficiency instead of age. Twitter: @alanlepoLinkedIn: https://ca.linkedin.com/in/alanlepo     , Title: Big IdeasIntelligent Collaboration: The Intersection of…...

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Introducing Digital Adoption Platforms

> Click here to purchase and download the report <

The portfolio of business software, websites and mobile applications employees use to get their jobs done is growing rapidly. With each tool having a different look and feel, different features and different processes, learning how to effectively use all these tools quickly becomes a big challenge. If these hurdles are not overcome, adoption of the tools suffers, support costs go up, and the value of the tools goes down. On the external side, prospects and customers face similar challenges when navigating the wide variety of websites and social media applications required to engage with their favourite brands. This type of friction reduces customer loyalty, hurts sales and creates a bad reputation for the brand.

To solve these challenges, a new category of software is emerging that can be integrated into applications and websites to help guide people from right within the context of the task they are trying to perform. Constellation Research refers to this category as Digital Adoption Platforms (DAPs) and organizations of all sizes are using this new type of software to coach people toward more successful adoption of applications and websites.

This report, which is part of Constellation Research’s Future of Work research theme, defines the business need for Digital Adoption Platforms, discusses their benefits and provides example use cases.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
- Executive Summary 
- Four User Experience Issues That Impede Software Adoption 
- Trends Contributing To The Emergence Of Digital Adoption Platforms 
- Digital Adoption Platforms: Modernizing Legacy Help Systems 
- Categorizing The Maturity Of Digital Adoption Platforms 
- Getting Started: Focus On Core Use Cases 
- Conclusion

> Click here to purchase and download the report <

Digital Market; Defining Your Enterprise Value Proposition

Andy Mulholland

Vice President and Principal Analyst, Constellation Research
Constellation Research

Andy Mulholland is Vice President and Principal Analyst focusing on cloud business models. Formerly the Global Chief Technology Officer for the Capgemini Group from 2001 to 2011, Mulholland successfully led the organization through a period of mass disruption. Mulholland brings this experience to Constellation’s clients seeking to understand how Digital Business models will be built and deployed in conjunction with existing IT systems. Coverage Areas Consumerization of IT &amp; The New C-Suite: BYOD, Internet of Things, IoT, technology and business use Previous experience: Mulholland co authored four major books that chronicled the change and its impact on Enterprises starting in 2006 with the well-recognised book ‘Mashup Corporations’ with Chris Thomas of Intel. This was followed in…...

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To exist at all, let alone prosper any Enterprise has to create something of tangible value in the form of a proposition that will match buyers’ requirements. Digital Markets, by definition, are based on new value propositions, mostly around services more than products, a point exploited by new entrants. Recent events have shown how these circumstances are forcing existing enterprises into competitive re-evaluation of their value proposition, and Go To Market strategy.

The maturity of many current Markets has lead to relative low levels of Product innovation, and a stronger focus on finding competitive advantage through automating key processes and cost reduction strategies using IT. Increasingly non-core activities, which are non-differentiating, are being outsourced, a trend often started by IT**(see footnote), but now including Business functions such as Invoicing. The goal is to focus management time, and investment, on the critical business activities to create and sell the Products with maximized competitive differentiation.

The impact of the Internet and the Web, have forced Enterprises to develop and extend their traditional sales and marketing activities to meet changes in the expectations of customers, culture, and market places. Though these may have seemed to be major changes, or even transformations, in almost all cases they are extension of the existing core value proposition and products.

The Digital Economy creates entirely new Market places with new value proposition that result in a transformation to creating value and re-occurring revenues from Services as opposed to the one time invoice of a product. Enterprises must redefine what is the value to be created and from this what are the core activities that must work in an optimized chain of activities.

It used to be popular for Business Schools to refer to the ‘Golden Thread’ to define the coherent chain of critical activities spanning the Enterprise to create unique Business propositions/values. As an example in the case of General Motors the common activity description ‘GM makes cars’ misses defining General Motors Golden Thread. The reality is that GM competes by using its expertise in locating market niches, then designing and marketing a specific car model to compete for the selected customers; see diagram. The manufacturing of cars is carried out by an ecosystem of suppliers, or partners, providing their own specialized expertise to particular elements.

Obviously GM’s Golden Thread has, as for most other established Enterprises, been tied to selling a Product as the outcome. The same technique can be applied to define the activities that are critical to creating a Digital Markets Services outcome. GM has recognizes this and is working to develop new Golden Threads for the entirely different market around Services of the Digital Economy.

GM vision has two publically declared interlocking strategic initiatives to create high business value Services for consumption through the Digital Economy. The investment in Lyft and Driverless cars is to create new ways of providing transportation, whilst AtYourService aims to build long term relationships with ‘drivers’ to provide all their personal, individual transportation needs. Both are ‘pay by use’ subscription Services, and nether looks to sell a car as a product. Every major ‘car’ company has similar initiatives as the Industry Sector faces up to the disruptive pattern of change driven by several factors.

At the heart of this transformation is a rethink and redesign of the Golden Threads that GM must build and connect to deliver these exciting visions. The technologies that enable and deliver these Golden Threads are themselves part of the Digital Market and Services economy; namely CAAST, Clouds, Apps, AI, Services and Things. The new management generation looks to a hybrid skill base of technology and business in order to create its competitive success.

The acquisition by Samsung, known for its entertainment products, of in car entertainment specialist Harmon is a further example of a repositioning from Products to Services. Samsung Digital Services strategy focuses on providing the consumer with the Service of continuous ubiquitous personal entertainment whether in the home of on the move. Whilst Samsung may not be a direct competitor to the automotive companies it is an example of realignment within traditional market sectors introducing new competitors for a slice of the transformed Digital Services market.

The graphic below Publically published by VentureScanner.com shows the extent to which new startups are aiming to take some part of the revenues from the new connected car, or transportation market. The sheer numbers of new innovative value propositions will drive the market transformation as consumers find, and take up, new value choices.

For an established enterprise/brand to continue to its dominance into the new Digital Services Economy it has to move to completely new value proposition that offers a different experience through Services than their current product based offering. Existing customers and experiences should provide the foundation, but it will be the use of innovative technology in a new Golden Thread that is the underlying success factor.

Competitive success lies, as in the past transformations, in Business Process Re-engineering the enterprise to deliver the value proposition. Unlike the internal Back Office process revolution of ERP based client-server technologies, this time it is an external Market place driven revolution built on new technologies that will redesign the Enterprise Business model

** Footnote; The recent example of British Airways Globally visible three day outage of all passenger systems due to an IT failure is a reminder that outsourcing does not remove the requirement for a Board to understand, and retain competencies in core business operational areas.

Microsoft Build: How Developers Can Redefine Productivity

Alan Lepofsky

Vice President & Principal Analyst
Constellation Research

Alan Lepofsky - VP and Principal Analyst, Constellation Research. With almost two decades of experience in the collaboration software industry, Lepofsky helps organizations improve the way their employees work together to get their jobs done. Lepofsky’s primary research area The Future of Work, focuses on: integrating collaboration and business processes (Purposeful Collaboration), structuring work via Social Task Management, leveraging analytics and digital assistants to work more productively, the strategic impact of mobile computing on business transformation, and measuring workforce culture based on Digital Proficiency instead of age. Twitter: @alanlepoLinkedIn:&nbsp;https://ca.linkedin.com/in/alanlepo &nbsp; &nbsp; , Title:&nbsp;Big IdeasIntelligent Collaboration: The Intersection of…...

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At Microsoft Build, their annual developer conference, they emphasized the opportunity that the Microsoft platform (Office 365, Azure, Windows 10, etc.) provides for developers to help redefine personal productivity and team collaboration for hundreds of millions of people.

Here is a quick summary of the key topic areas:

Here is a video where I provide my thoughts, feedback and analysis of the key items from Microsoft Build.
00:00 - 01:30: Introduction
01:30 - 09:14: Microsoft Teams
09:14 - 10:27: Microsoft Graph
10:27 - 13:48: Artificial Intelligence, Microsoft Cognitive Services
13:48 - 15:19: OneDrive Files on Demand
15:19 - 18:21: Mixed Reality, VR/AR, Hololens
18:21 - 19:42: Windows Story Remix
19:42 - 21:45: Intelligent Meetings
21:45 - 24:52: Recap/Conclusion (and Project Emma)

4 Clever Digital Safety and Privacy Quotes

Director of Customer Programs, Constellation Research
Constellation Research

Carole oversees&nbsp;the Constellation Executive Network, an executive community for innovative senior leaders who value strategic guidance from trusted advisors who understand the power of disruptive&nbsp;technologies.&nbsp;Carole brings over 15 years of&nbsp;marketing, strategic&nbsp;account management, and operations&nbsp;experience,&nbsp;specializing in high technology and professional services. She holds a BA from Santa Clara University and a MBA from Thunderbird, School of Global Management. &nbsp; &nbsp; ...

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Steve Wilson

Former Vice President and Principal Analyst
Constellation Research

Steve Wilson is former VP and Principal Analyst at Constellation Research, leading the business theme Digital Safety and Privacy. His coverage includes digital identity, data protection, data privacy, cryptography, and trust. His advisory services to CIOs, CISOs, CPOs and IT architects include identity product strategy, security practice benchmarking, Privacy by Design (PbD), privacy engineering and Privacy [or Data Protection] Impact Assessments (PIA, DPIA). Coverage Areas: - &nbsp;Identity management, frameworks &amp; governance- &nbsp;Digital identity technologies- &nbsp;Privacy by Design -&nbsp; Big Data; “Big Privacy”- &nbsp;Identity &amp; privacy innovation Previous experience: Wilson has worked in ICT innovation, research, development and analysis for over 25 years. With double…...

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Steve Wilson, Constellation Research VP & Principal Analyst, covers digital safety and privacy and is chockful of knowledge about blockchain, security, and more. He's also a quick wit as you'll be able to tell from him quotes. His guidance on blockchain is among our most popular content for our readers. 

We provide weekly thought leadership quotes for anyone interested in non-mainstream, disruptive thinking from our seasoned Constellation analysts. The full archive remains accessible for our Constellation Executive Network members.

DOWNLOAD THESE ANALYST QUOTES

DIGITAL SAFETY & PRIVACY - Steve Wilson |  VP & Principal Analyst | Constellation Research 

"Biometrics don't work like they seem to in the sci fi movies. No security system is 100%."

"Most people are not yet up to speed on blockchain. No one should be shy to ask what blockchain is really all about."

"Computers are like nitroglycerine. They're kind of safe if you're unnaturally careful in the way you handle them."

"The question of whether consumers will pay for privacy protection is vexed."