The document provides an overview of next steps after successfully deploying IBM Connections 4.x. It recommends beginning with scenario analysis to understand user pain points and develop example workflows demonstrating how Connections can address these issues. It also stresses the importance of building out user profiles with data from across systems and learning to use Connections tools for the project rather than relying on email. The presentation emphasizes engaging with early adopters, embracing the community aspects of Connections, and providing opportunities for administrators and developers to enhance their skills.

1. Congratulations, you've
successfully deployed IBM
Connections 4.x!
Now what?
Stuart McIntyre, BLUG 2013

2. Your Speaker
Stuart McIntyre
CTO of Collaboration Matters, a Social Business Consultancy
IBM Champion 2011/2012
Blogger (stuart-mcintyre.com), Tweeter (@stuartmcintyre) and all around Social
Media advocate
Podcaster
Feel free to contact me, socially of course!
2

3. The Agenda
So Stuart, why this session?
♬ Let’s start at the very beginning, a very good place to start... ♬
The Ten Steps to Social Business
‘Social Business’ - there’s a clue in there somewhere!
But we didn’t start from there...
Let me tell you a story...
Ah, but I’m an (delete as appropriate) admin/developer/technologist/BOFH...
Q&A
3

4. The Agenda
So Stuart, why this session?
♬ Let’s start at the very beginning, a very good place to start... ♬
The Ten Steps to Social Business
‘Social Business’ - there’s a clue in there somewhere!
But we didn’t start from there...
Let me tell you a story...
Ah, but I’m an (delete as appropriate) admin/developer/technologist/BOFH...
Q&A
4

5. So, Stuart, why this session?
Thankfully, seeing loads more
sessions on Connections & Social
Business at LUGs and IBM Connect
But... Focus still on technical
deployment, not pre- or post-install
or delivering business value
And... This is where I spend 80%+ of
my time on projects
5

6. The Agenda
So Stuart, why this session?
♬ Let’s start at the very beginning, a very good place to start... ♬
The Ten Steps to Social Business
‘Social Business’ - there’s a clue in there somewhere!
But we didn’t start from there...
Let me tell you a story...
Ah, but I’m an (delete as appropriate) admin/developer/technologist/BOFH...
Q&A
6

7. Let’s start at the very beginning, it’s a very
good place to start...
We get pulled into too many Social Social Business projects don’t end
Business projects at implementation when technology is deployed, either...
stage
Social Business is a platform that
Technology deployment should be delivers most value when fully
dealt with about half way through customised, integrated and adopted
project, never the first consideration to suit an organisation or community
You wouldn’t start building a house by You wouldn’t move into a house
fitting the stairs or front door, now without equipping it with power or
would you? water, or decorating it?
7

8. ‘Start at the beginning’
The Right Way...
8

9. The Collaboration Matters Approach (abridged):
1. Establish the Vision
2. Requirements Analysis
3. Get the Business Buy-in
4. Build the ‘Immersion Tank’
5. Immersion & Identification of ‘first-wavers’
6. Solution Design & Development
7. Deployment
8. Customise, Test, Review (repeat)
9. Adoption Planning & Analysis
10.Launch (and re-launch)
(Rinse & Repeat)
9

10. Also, 10 Steps to Social Business (Alan Hamilton):
1. Integrate Social into your business processes
2. Customize the experience
3. Set Governance and Social Policy Rules
4. Hire Community Managers and Social Job Roles
5. Leaders Must Show the Way
6. Evangelize and Enable
7. Communicate the What, Why and How of your
Social Business Plan
8. Motivate and Engage
9. Reverse Mentor your Leaders
10.Show the Metrics of Value
10

11. The Collaboration Matters Approach (abridged):
1. Establish the Vision
2. Requirements Analysis
3. Get the Business Buy-in
4. Build the ‘Immersion Tank’
5. Immersion & Identification of ‘first-wavers’
6. Solution Design & Development
7. Deployment
8. Customise, Test, Review (repeat)
9. Adoption Planning & Analysis
10.Launch (and re-launch)
(Rinse & Repeat)
11

12. ‘Start at the beginning’
The Wrong Way...
12

13. ‘I wouldn’t start from here’:
‘Hey we’re entitled to Files and
Profiles... Who wants to download
Connections from Passport
Advantage?’
‘I think Connections would be great
for our team, lets install it onto our
department server...’
‘I think what we need is a pilot...’
etc.
13

14. Successful Connections projects tend to be:
Championed by the Business
Matched to 80/20 Rule (Business vs
Firmly Project Managed Technical attention)
Driven by User & Organisation Managed and Delivered using Social
Requirements Tools
Iterative Staffed by Enthusiastic Community
Managers
Focused on the End User (always)
14

15. The Agenda
So Stuart, why this session?
♬ Let’s start at the very beginning, a very good place to start... ♬
The Ten Steps to Social Business
‘Social Business’ - there’s a clue in there somewhere!
But we didn’t start from there...
Let me tell you a story...
Ah, but I’m an (delete as appropriate) admin/developer/technologist/BOFH...
Q&A
15

16. ‘Social Business’ - a clue!
If you haven’t got it already, it is really, truly, completely, about the...
Social Business!
Even as a career-long technologist, the technology is a tiny part of any Social
Business or Social Collaboration project
More Social Business projects fail for lack of Business leadership and focus than for
any other reason
Got that? ;-)
16

17. The Agenda
So Stuart, why this session?
♬ Let’s start at the very beginning, a very good place to start... ♬
The Ten Steps to Social Business
‘Social Business’ - there’s a clue in there somewhere!
But we didn’t start from there...
Let me tell you a story...
Ah, but I’m an (delete as appropriate) admin/developer/technologist/BOFH...
Q&A
17

18. But we didn’t start from there...
This session is called ‘Congratulations, you've successfully deployed IBM
Connections 4.x! Now what?’
18

19. So, let’s assume...
You’re an existing IBM customer
You’ve deployed IBM Connections using the docs, some training, or the excellent
Connections101.net resources
You’ve completed some elements of the overall project organisation as detailed
here
What’s next?
19

20. 1. Scenarios
20

21. 1a. Analyse
An empty Connections system is just
that... A void. Avoid.
Survey your key champions and
departments/teams (ideally non-IT)
What are their key pain points today?
Where do their workflows fail?
Where does collaboration break
down?
21

22. 1b. Develop
Take results of analysis and build 3-5
scenarios demonstrating pains
Use mix of real and pseudo users
Develop these into Connections-
based workflows that demonstrate:
1) the pain
2) the resolution using Social
Business tools
22

23. 1c. Demonstrate
Organise workshops with key
stakeholders and known
‘collaborators’ to work through
scenarios
If possible, get users to access
system using pseudo IDs themselves
Gauge accuracy and response then
iterate scenarios
Work to identify ‘first-wavers’
23

24. 1d. Build
Successful scenarios (and solutions)
become first Connections communities
Those that are identified as being
passionate or insightful during
workshops can be identified as
potential Community Managers
Rinse and repeat
Remove pseudo users and content
before go-live
24

25. 2. Identities
25

26. 2a. Research
There is no social collaboration turn-
off worse than an empty profile
Audit the best resources for Profiles
data around the organisation or
community
HR systems, spreadsheets, image
libraries, security/pass systems,
telephone directories etc.
26

27. Why are Profiles important?
Networking
Social
Seekers Contributors
Critical Success Factors
Collaborative
I need someone I am someone
Tools
Awareness How do I know who is out there? How can I become more known?
Competence (Trust) Is this person competent? How can I advertise my expertise?
Benevolence (Trust) Will this person help me? How can I develop my reputation as a trusted partner?
Mechanism Do we have a method to collaborate?
27

28. 2b. Analyse
Which resources can be trusted for
which attributes?
Which system holds the source or
originating data?
Do users have successful
established online methods of
editing data?
Are there tried and tested layouts or
workflows?
28

29. 2c. Aggregate
Working on paper...
Build workflows for construction of
Profiles, editing of Profiles data and
sharing with other systems
(Not all attributes should be
considered editable in Connections)
29

30. 2d. Build
Use combination of:
Included TDI assembly lines
(population/sync of data into
Connections)
Custom TDI assembly lines
Event Handlers (can capture writes of
Connections data and push to other
systems)
Additional intermediary databases
30

31. 2e. Finally
Connections has significant advantages
in this area over competing systems
Come to my other session this
afternoon for much more on this topic
31

32. 3. PWYP
Possibly the most important point made in this session...
32

33. 3a. Learn
The project team for your Social
Business / Connections project must
know how to use (not admin/
develop/implement) the tools
That means knowing how to use the
platform in the real world, not just
conceptually...
33

34. 3b. Plan
So how should you run your Social
Business project?
In Connections, of course...
So plan to use all elements of
Connections to deliver the project -
particularly Communities, Activities,
Files and Status Updates
34

35. “Email is where
knowledge goes to die”
Bill French
35
Source: http://bfrench.info/public/item/5994 (April, 2003)

36. 3c. Don’t...
Don’t use Email!
Make a commitment to avoid email
wherever possible through the
project
We have a great case study where an
international organisation new to
Social are delivering entire project
without email communication
36

37. 4. Engage, engage!
37

38. 4a. There’s no substitute!
At the risk of repeating myself...
Social Business is not an IT project, it’s an Business Change project
Whilst appropriate IT processes and project management are vital - don’t spend
your time looking inward... Look outwards, always...
Embrace the first-wavers. Build a user council. Push all ideas and planned changes
through the council early on.
Community managers are key to the success of the project
38

39. 5. Embrace the Community!
39

40. 5a. The ISVs are coming...
After a few false starts, the ISV community is gathering
around IBM Connections
Great solutions in areas such as project management,
gamification reward & recognition, editing experience and
admin tools
Make sure you are aware what is out there and embrace it
Lots of free stuff on OpenNTF too!
40

41. The Agenda
So Stuart, why this session?
♬ Let’s start at the very beginning, a very good place to start... ♬
‘Social Business’ - there’s a clue in there somewhere!
But we didn’t start from there...
Let me tell you a story...
Ah, but I’m an (delete as appropriate) admin/developer/technologist/BOFH...
We’re just starting out, how should we do it?
41

42. Let me tell you a story...
42

43. The Agenda
So Stuart, why this session?
♬ Let’s start at the very beginning, a very good place to start... ♬
‘Social Business’ - there’s a clue in there somewhere!
But we didn’t start from there...
Let me tell you a story...
Ah, but I’m an (delete as appropriate) admin/developer/technologist/BOFH...
Q&A
43

44. But I’m a...
All this business/adoption/change stuff... What’s in it for me as a technologist?
44

45. The Collaboration Matters Approach (abridged):
1. Establish the Vision
2. Requirements Analysis
3. Get the Business Buy-in
4. Build the ‘Immersion Tank’
5. Immersion & Identification of ‘first-wavers’
6. Solution Design & Development
7. Deployment
8. Customise, Test, Review (repeat)
9. Adoption Planning & Analysis
10.Launch (and re-launch)
(Rinse & Repeat)
45

46. An Admin?
Connections is complex. That spells risk, but also real opportunity...
Connections ships with some well judged defaults, but also a lot of areas where
things can be improved
46

47. An Admin Hit List
1. Design & Scalability - your biggest responsibility
2. Security - tweak those feature security settings and bullet-
proof your SSO
3. Search - enable multi-lingual and advanced searcg
4. Enable @mentions in 4.0
5. Add free version of Kudos Badges
6. Fine tune TDI sync process
7. Deploy plugins. Everywhere.
8. Patch and Upgrade. Regularly.
47

48. A Dev?
Connections is a development platform, just like Domino
Few are truly embracing it today - very limited skills available - in great demand!
OpenNTF are running regular contests to stimulate Connections development
48

49. A Dev Hit List
1. Community and Homepage widgets
2. Activity Streams and Open Social
3. User management and Profiles
4. Login pages and password management
5. Usage of Social Graph data and business cards in
external applications
6. Themes and templates *
49

50. But in truth, social software
users do and the business
problems the tools address.
Jakob Nielsen, Usability Guru
50

51. The Agenda
So Stuart, why this session?
♬ Let’s start at the very beginning, a very good place to start... ♬
The Ten Steps to Social Business
‘Social Business’ - there’s a clue in there somewhere!
But we didn’t start from there...
Let me tell you a story...
Ah, but I’m an (delete as appropriate) admin/developer/technologist/BOFH...
Q&A
51

52. Thank You!