IBM Connect 2016 kicked off today (February 1st) with a two-part opening general session. The second part focused on new product capabilities, demos and product direction.
The first demo was IBM Verse, mobility and Connections as an integrated and seamless experience. The interface has been streamlined to include some great productivity capabilities. Some of the items demonstrated are.
- Sort emails by Connections communities
- Integrated activity streams in a dashboard view
- Analytics driven content
- Simplified sharing tools which integrate security
- Single source of truth for documents (Emails in a thread all point to the same document, not multiple versions emailed around)
- Box integration (image attachments)
- Watson integration into email (Scan an email prior to sending to look for negativity)
- Calendar inbox capabilities
The next part demonstration was around mobility including the the Mobile Action Center. This was a single app that brings together Connections and Verse.
- Personal assistant that automatically prioritizes email and makes it actionable, e.g., it scans an email text and looks for actionable text such as “send me the file” and provides recommended actions.
- Meeting initiations.
- “Long press” on devices to open multiple options, e.g. share with box, Connections, etc.
- Quick reply to automatically send messages much like texting.
The demo was pretty interesting overall, particularly how analytics are used to help predict and streamline work functions and activities. If you are a Connections / Verse customer or prospect, these new capabilities are certainly worth looking at.
