The glut of content within the modern enterprise justifies the call for appropriate collaboration platforms from document management to social networking. Despite the need however, there are numerous solutions on the market and their fragmented nature leaves more than enough leaders scratching their heads wishing for an all-in-one platform.
Unfortunately, the all-in-one platform may never arise, so customers must choose from incumbent solutions and their up-and-coming competitors including recent darlings Slack and Facebook at Work, which have received a lion’s share of media coverage. Nonetheless, as these platforms gain steam and CIO’s tastes evolve, salient themes will develop around common needs, which we will explore in today’s blog.
The first consideration in enterprise collaboration platforms is the availability of integration. According to Craig Le Clair of Forrester Research, the act of selling collaboration tools as standalone solutions is a bygone tactic. As organizations use their collaboration tools as a facet of a greater ecosystem, gone are the outdated, static intranet platforms, now replaced by Web 2.0 features that drive cohesive conversations and consumable media. Not only do these features create more camaraderie within an organization, but they also engage younger employees who have normalized a steady diet of communications in their personal lives that can also extend to their professional work. The platform itself does not need to act like Twitter, but its resemblance can be enough.
The second consideration covered by Le Clair are the inclusion of analytics. While metrics have always dominated stakeholder conversations in large corporations, the addition of analytics in measuring conversation and productivity is newer. One example is the identification of a “Subject Matter Expert” program where users can leverage analytics to identify the most influential members of an organization to solve business challenges. While past searches included a companywide directory and a phone, modern methodologies incorporate artificial intelligence, a trusty search engine, and a drive to do what’s right.
Finally, Le Clair looks to messaging as a leader for collaboration considerations. With millennial employees preferring texting in their daily lives with the likes of Whatsapp, Viber, WeChat, and others, technology leaders face choosing among solutions that provide similar features. Furthermore, the availability of a mobile equivalent and security is helpful as well to prevent an onslaught of shadow IT.
Where IBM Fits in the Conversation
IBM is an incumbent in the enterprise collaboration space with nearly two decades of experience creating and perfecting its platform. Named as a leader in the Forrester Wave for enterprise collaboration solutions, the platform is trusted by customers in a variety of verticals.
AI platform Watson also presents new opportunities in the enterprise collaboration space, granting technology professionals further opportunities to extend collaboration capabilities through a variety of numerous use cases. Already, users of Watson Content Hub can use AI to search for key content pieces and there is also added benefit for similar solutions on WebSphere Portal and Connections. As these capabilities roll out in the coming months, we will leverage our capabilities to empower organizations to adopt digital transformation initiatives.
Learn More
Are you looking to get more out of your enterprise collaboration implementation? Learn more about how IBM Digital Experience can help you upgrade your collaboration, content, and social needs by reaching out to us at sales@perficient.com and download our guide on portals below.
Learn more about our IBM practice here
