Lotus Connections 3.0 gets social recommendations
November 09, 2010 | Author: Adam Levine
Enterprise social software developers continue to copy Facebook features. The new version of IBM's enterprise social networking software Lotus Connections 3.0 features widgets with social recommendations. First is a list of "recommended friends," that user sees when logging into Lotus Connections. The fact is that Lotus Connections also includes "friends" feature - social connections. You become a "friend" when subscribe to collegue updates (microblog). So now, basing on your existing friends, your interests and expertise and your previous actions - the system provides a list of users that you are interested in "making friends" with. Besides, when visiting other user profiles, you now can see the social path that links you to this person and things that you have in common (such as a list of the communities that both belong to). And on the communities page you can see the widget with a list communities that you might be interested in.
While all this sounds quite simple and funny, in fact, building social connections and communities - is one of the main goals of enterprise social software. These connections allow to unite all employees into the team and keep valuable employees from leaving the company. That's why IBM is investing its vast experience in creating Business Intelligence (BI) solutions into Lotus Connections.
In addition to building social connections, IBM offers another application of Business Intelligence in the enterprise social software - noise filtering. After all, along with valuable signals, the social tools also distract users with unimportant messages. Now, on the Lotus Connections home page you can see a widget with recommended content - the most important messages and alerts from microblogs chosen by the analytical engine.
We also note two others interesting features in Lotus Connections 3.0. First, the new mobile apps for Android and iPad (to add to the existing support for BlackBerry, Nokia and iPhone). Second - the integration with the main competitor - Microsoft Sharepoint, which complements Sharepoint with microblogging, pop-up user cards, social bookmarking and communities.
See also: Top 10 Enterprise Social Software