sponsors

12/052014

Sponsor Highlight: Ephox

News ephox, prague, soccnx, socialconnections, sponsors by Wannes Rams

During the lead up to the Social Connections VI event in Prague in June, the team will be highlighting each of our valued sponsors in turn. We are delighted to have their support – without it we really couldn’t deliver this event and offer the completely no-fee attendance that we do.

We are excited to announce yet another return sponsor for Social Connections, this event a gold sponsor: Ephox

Ephox is the global leader in content authoring and analytics, whose products and services are used by millions of developers from around the globe.

For years Ephox and IBM have collaborated to help enhance the content authoring experience. The Ephox editor, EditLive!, provides clients additional functionality and improves the functionality of the editor within IBM solutions such as Web Content Manager and Connections, making it simple for end users to create interesting, timely, accurate and compelling content consistently.

Earlier this year IBM expanded their license with Ephox to give IBM Connections and WCM users access to the enterprise-edition functionality of EditLive!, including clean copy and paste, image editing, track changes and more.

Recently, EditLive! has been made available for the XPages environment. A simple to deploy implementation of EditLive! not only brings significant benefits to those trying to modernize their Domino environment, but also offers a consistent user editing environment across IBM solutions.

To learn more about EditLive! for XPages, visit the Ephox website: www.ephox.com

30/042014

Sponsor Highlight: OnTime® (by IntraVision)

News ontime, prague, soccnx, socialconnections, sponsors by Wannes Rams

We are excited to announce another return sponsor for Social Connections, this event a silver sponsor: OnTime® (by IntraVision)

OnTime® Group Calendar for IBM Connections

At OnTime® we have always been focused on delivering the number 1 group calendaring solution to our clients, no matter where or in which context they work. Therefore it was obvious for us to introduce “Real Calendaring” into IBM’s social platform – IBM Connections.

OnTime® Group Calendar for IBM Connections joins the circle of full social coordination

Coordinate and schedule your meetings directly from IBM Connections.
Full group calendar functionality supporting dynamic project groups in IBM Connections Communities.
Search and find available help right now directly from your IBM Connections Communities.
Easy access to availability of colleagues from IBM Connections profiles.
Real Time information… everywhere.

And OnTime Group Calendar does so much more…

Supporting full coordination on Notes and Web.
Supporting full coordination while you are on the road.
Integrate all calendar data with your External Calendar solutions, for example your CRM system.
Bring different mail platforms together. Now both users in the cloud and on premise, from both IBM and Microsoft, can get the full overview and benefits.

Does this sound interesting?

We are social people, so come talk with us at the OnTime booth during the conference.

Can’t wait?

Try it online

Web interface – demo.ontimesuite.com/web
Mobile solution – demo.ontimesuite.com/mobile
Connections integration – showtime.ontimesuite.com

29/042014

Sponsor Highlight: oXy Online

News oxyonline, prague, soccnx, socialconnections, sponsors by Wannes Rams

We are proud to announce yet another new sponsor for Social Connections with a Bronze level sponsorship: oXy Online

oXy Online s.r.o. – Company Profile

oXy Online is a Czech company, which provides complex services in the area of e-commerce and company’s information technology systems. It entered the market in 2001.
It concentrates primarily on medium enterprises and corporations, which within the Czech Republic and most European countries cover basically all companies.
Outside of the commercial sphere oXy Online uses the Social Business concept and team cooperation also in the military environment and public administration.

From the Technology to Practical Usage of the Tools and the Concept

What is the oXy Online’s approach towards Social Business concept? The company is interested in the way the organization works from the point of view of their formal and most importantly informal processes. Not the technology, but the business needs are put into the centre of attention. The product itself and its installation aren’t by far as important as the methodology of its utilization and long-lasting concept of company development. oXy Online share their experiences and remarks on website www.socialweb.cz.

Social Business in Different than Multinational Companies

A lot of attention has been paid to the ways of implementing the Social Business concept in multinational companies. Many presentations, materials and case studies have been made on this topic. On the other hand possibilities, opportunities, contributions and ways of the implementation are often omitted by medium enterprises and national corporations, even though they account for 80% of all companies in the European market.
This gap is going to be filled by Michal Holoubek and Jan Valdman on July 17, 2014 at 11.55am – 12.25pm with a presentation on “IBM Connections in Small or Medium Enterprise? Sure!”

Visit oXy Online’s website: http://www.socialweb.cz/

28/042014

Sponsor Highlight: TIMETOACT Group

News prague, soccnx, socialconnections, sponsors, timetoact by Wannes Rams

We are excited to announce a returning gold-level sponsor for Social Connections who has sponsored several of our events: TIMETOACT GROUP

TIMETOACT GROUP & IBM Connections

We love IBM Connections and its potential for social business. As a full service partner TIMETOACT GROUP walks the social walk with our customers. During the whole time we help and assist our customers to find the best seeds, the most promising acres, efficient farmers and high quality fertilizer within their enterprise.

There is no question in our mind about the worth of the fruits of Social Business. But depending on the foundation and the maintenance there are significant differences in growth and quality of the harvest. Let us help you with our expertise and our simple to use extensions for IBM Connections to get the best out of your installment.

Web Content Management Extension (XCC) for IBM Connections
IBM Connections works perfectly for cases of personal and casual exchange of information and ideas. For the realization of a classic intranet homepage it is missing formal web content management functions as e.g. a conventional navigation and controllable news. With our easy to use custom homepage you can combine formal and casual information in one application and thereby take one big step into the direction of one social platform for your employees. Watch the following video and learn how to manage internal communications. (More information about XCC)

Connections Administration Toolkit (CAT)
Simplify the administration of IBM Connections with this easy to install and easy to use web interface tool. Complex multilevel administration commands can be done with just a single click, even by administrators without WebSphere background. Easily accelerate and automate administrative tasks and enhance the maintenance tasks for IBM Connections. Benefit from extremely lowered effort for training and maintenance. (More information about CAT)

About TIMETOACT GROUP

TIMETOACT GROUP provides professional services for IBM software and open standards. The group includes the companies edcom, BLUETRADE, CLOUDPILOTS, novaCapta, NOWSHARE, TIMETOACT and X-INTEGRATE. With more than 170 employees, TIMETOACT GROUP is one of the largest IBM Software Services providers in DACH. TIMETOACT GROUP is located in several locations in Germany and Switzerland.

Or visit our website: http://www.timetoact.de

16/042014

Sponsor Highlight: DNS a.s.

News prague, soccnx, sponsors by Wannes Rams

We are excited to announce a new gold-level sponsor for Social Connections: DNS a.s.

DNS is a value-added distributor (VAD) of IT technologies based in Prague, Czech Republic. DNS works with more than 30 global vendors however the distribution of IBM software and hardware products makes a significant portion of company turnover. DNS helps local resellers to be more successful in their business operations by various business development activities by providing sales, marketing and technical support, consultancy and advisory.

DNS is a big fan of IBM Collaboration Solutions and social business. It is a long-time sponsor of Czech Lotus user group called SUTOL (www.sutol.cz) and organizes various events, such as the annual “Get Social” conference (www.getsocial.cz @getsocial_cz). Last year DNS launched – perhaps as the first VAD – its social extranet (betterway.dns.cz) which is built with IBM Connections.

Besides, the only IBM champion for collaboration solutions in the country, Jan Valdman (@jan_valdman), works at DNS. Leveraging his skills and expertise DNS is successful enough to enable new resellers for IBM connections, help them with their first projects. Jan also partially works with end customer where he is engaged in several adoption projects.

If you consider to learn more about IBM Connections or even become a reseller, solution provider or managed services provider of the IBM social business platform, then DNS is the best place to start.

04/042014

Sponsor Highlight: Infoware

News infoware, prague, soccnx, socialconnections, sponsors by Wannes Rams

We are happy to announce our next sponsor. Back again for another year of sponsoring Social Connections and this year as a Gold sponsor: Infoware Solutions

Infoware – your Social Business Knowledge Partner

Infoware is one of the largest IBM Premier Business Partner in Scandinavia with full focus on IBM Social Business. With good understanding of their customers’ challenges and expertise Social Business, they develop successful products that make IBM platforms more efficient. Their experiences include content and user management, as well as social platforms for collaboration and knowledge sharing. Today, they have gathered all of their company experience in implementing and managing IBM Connections, and developed a revolutionary tool for easy and powerful management of content and user access.

Infoware works long term with large organizations, where social strategies vary widely. Together with their clients, they are navigating through organizational and cultural challenges. Thanks to the reduced distances in the organizations, clients can then cost-effectively increase both knowledge sharing, productivity and innovation.

We bring business value in Social Business!

DomainPatrol Social – stay social

Do not glue your business content to the bookshelves
Let your organization evolve with your shared knowledge
Reorganize your IBM Connections content in a snap.

As you may know, DomainPatrol Social is the powerful tool to move and merge content or users in an IBM Connections environment.

What does it do?

DomainPatrol Social can move individual entries or whole Blogs, Communities, Wikis, Forums, Activities to and from Communities.

You can also merge content from Wikis, Blogs or Forums and even move or merge whole Communities. Additionally you can administer User Access and Roles in a convenient way. Solve highly complex administration tasks in a simple UI.

Why do I need it?

Ease the administration for your IBM Connections environment forever; perform complicated tasks in a snap.

DomainPatrol Social shapes your social business platform into an attractive arena that grows with your organization. DomainPatrol Social makes the users trust IBM Connections with their time and documents. Clean up the IBM Connections for less support, issues and problems during upgrades.

Vist Infoware’s website: www.infoware.com

Try DomainPatrol Social for free: online.domainpatrolsocial.com

03/042014

Sponsor Highlight: FRITZ & MACZIOL

News fritz macziol, prague, soccnx, socialconnections, sponsors by Wannes Rams

We are very excited to announce our Budweiser-level sponsor for this event and the sponsor of our speakers and sponsors reception: FRITZ & MACZIOL

Since its first release in 2007, FRITZ & MACZIOL believed and has heavily invested in IBM Connections and is one of the biggest providers of services related to Connections in Germany.

Besides implementation of the product they offer consultancy services and add-on products to IBM Connections.

Their senior engineers have deep experiences in implementing and optimizing the product on various platforms. High availability infrastructures including fail-over solutions for all components including DB/2 database and file server back end are used by many of their customers. Some of their experts also contributed add-on scripting and authentication solutions to the community like Christoph Stoettner (IBM champion) and Andreas Artner (AdminCamp Germany). They also offer administration courses for IBM Connections administrators and development courses for web developers e.g. using the Social Business toolkit (SBT).

FRITZ & MACZIOL’s business consulting team is offering services and consulting around getting started into the new ways of working with IBM Connections. They are offering a complete model for introducing Connections including a technology and governance framework, change management methods, guidelines, training and education. They are specialized in the entire portfolio of IBM software and also provide integration of Connections with WebSphere Portal, WCM, BPM and we are also experienced in the application of business analytics techniques based on Watson to IBM Connections.

In addition during the last years, FRITZ & MACZIOL have also created a bunch of ready-to-use add-ons and products for IBM Connections:

C3 – Contacts, Connect, and Communities: “Knowledge Accelerator” is an add-on to IBM Connections that provides a self-service login module, a password change add-on, a “terms and conditions” application and additional features like an expert finder. It is installed upon IBM Connections to improve the experience and usability of the product.

Migration of IBM Quickr to IBM Connections: Since software withdrawal announcement of IBM Quickr in mid of 2013 customers are able to use IBM Connections Content Manager (CCM) as replacement for formerly used Quickr team places. FRITZ & MACZIOL are offering services around consulting and migrating data/information from IBM Quickr to IBM Connections Content Manager by their certified IBM software experts.

Big Data meets IBM Connections: The benefits of IBM Connections for a company are more than establishing a set of Social Business tools to improve communication and collaboration between people. If Connections is used as intended, i.e. as an open platform for sharing information and data, discussions, insights, ideas, opinions etc., it becomes a treasure of data containing a lot of knowledge about the company itself. FRITZ & MACZIOL are offering a ready-to-use solution by applying methods of business analytics and big data to IBM Connections data. They are using IBM Watson, Hadoop & Co. to bring additional value to your Connections investment.

Soccer World Cup app – Brazil 2014: FRITZ & MACZIOL has a ready-to-use World Cup app based on web standards that can be integrated into IBM Connections for motivation and gamification. A review of research on gamification shows that most studies on gamification find positive effects from gamification. This app is fully integrated into the Connections user experience and can be used e.g. inside a community.

The FRITZ & MACZIOL group is part of the Royal Imtech N.V., an internationally acting Dutch company group, being leading in the areas of mechanical and electrical engineering and ICT. The ICT Imtech division covers the entire ICT chain including software and hardware, business intelligence, control technology, platform automation, data and telecommunications, data modelling, data centres, ICT infrastructures, internet and intranet applications, managed IT services, and communication technology and other.

Visit FRITZ & MACZIOL’s website: http://www.fum.de

07/032014

Sponsor Highlight: Kudos Badges

News isw, prague, soccnx, socialconnections, sponsors by Wannes Rams

So first out of the blocks, we have the Gold-level sponsor that is travelling over 10,000 miles from Australia to be at the event…

Kudos Suite for IBM Connections by ISW

The Kudos Suite is designed to encourage IBM Connections users to leverage the full benefits of a social enterprise. Kudos rewards user adoption, measures performance and increases productivity.

Kudos can transform and accelerate organisations usage of IBM Connections by encouraging users to leverage the full capability of social enterprise as well as increasing their productivity thru clever design.

Kudos Badges for IBM Connections is a flexible gamification engine for IBM Connections. By providing achievements and rewards (Kudos Badges), rank and leaderboards (Kudos Rank), simple next steps (Kudos Progress), and missions (Kudos Missions), organisations can dramatically improve their user engagement and adoption of IBM Connections.

Kudos Awards & Kudos Thanks have been designed to enable Social Recognition of great work amongst your employees and customers. Creating a positive culture is essential in todays workplace. When employees are recognised for their achievements it can have the effect of multiplying the positive benefits of the work they have performed across the organisation.

Kudos Analytics is a light weight analytics and reporting tool focused on enabling organisations to understand what your usage patterns are. Analytics provide insight into active Connections usage, utilisation, and which features are being leveraged well or not. Providing insights for Administrator, Community Managers, and Personal Analytics, Kudos enables organisations to optimise and target adoption strategies to the areas that need extra attention.

Kudos Boards transforms Activities within IBM Connections into a visually manageable format. Leveraging the tried and true method known as Kanban, Kudos Boards features the ability to filter by person, priority or colour, and drag and drop your Tasks as activities progress or circumstances change.

The Kudos Badges solution has won IBM awards, and is a really popular ‘reward and recognition’ solution for IBM Connections. As ISW broaden the Kudos portfolio to include analytics and task management solutions, the Social Connections team are delighted to again welcome Adam Brown and the ISW team to the event.

If you’d like to learn more about Kudos Badges, see a demo and chat to the team behind the product, then register for Social Connections VI today!

26/102012

Social Connections IV is just 6 weeks away

News amsterdam, attendee, connections, iv, netherlands, registration, soccnx, sponsors by Wannes Rams

I can not believe it has come round again so quickly, in 6 short weeks the Social Connections user group hits Amsterdam. On the 30th of November the IBM Forum will be invaded with IBM Connections users, developers, managers and administrators!

We are expecting people from across the globe with some even traveling as far as Russia, the US and Australia to hear our amazing speakers.
Joining our keynote speaker Mr Christopher Crummey (IBM) are an incredible list of 30 speakers from IBM, business partners and customers who together will be responsible for 27 highly informational sessions. With a great mix of Management, Case Studies, Technical and Development sessions there should be a something for everyone.
Full details on all the speakers and sessions can be found on this page, and the full agenda is available here.

Not only do we have an incredible day program, we are continuing it right into the night with an exclusive dinner for Social Connections participants. We do this to give participants who would like to continue their conversations in a more relaxed and informal way the chance to do so while enjoying a good glass of wine and a dinner in beautiful Amsterdam. This evening program is free of charge thanks to our fabulous sponsors but does require pre-registration and is only open to registered Social Connections participants. So don’t be late to sign up!

For people traveling who need information on transportation and or hotels check out the FAQ page. We have deals with two nearby hotels: Hotel Artemis and Hotel Mercure Amsterdam Airport that could be interesting but make sure you book in time as we cannot guarantee availability. Information on how to apply for the special event price is included on the FAQ page.

Lastly I have to mention our incredible sponsors – without whom we would not be able to run these events: IBM, Silverside, E-Office, Ilionx, Time to Act, Collaboration Matters, Portico, Ephox and BLUG are making it all possible.

So, not registered yet? Well don’t wait too long as we only have a limited number of seats left and register now.

Time for social business in Amsterdam!

17/072012

Social Connections IV registration is open

News abstracts, amsterdam, connections, iv, netherlands, registration, soccnx, social, sponsors by Wannes Rams

No sooner has Social Connections III in Dublin been and gone than thoughts turn to the next event!

As may know, so far the IBM Connections user group has visited England, Wales and Ireland. Therefore the next step is to head to mainland Europe and to one of the most ‘social’ European cities, Amsterdam!

On Friday 30th November, Social Connections IV will take over the IBM Forum in central Amsterdam for a day of tremendous IBM Connections content, Social Business education, customer case studies, ‘Birds-of-a-feather’ style discussions, networking and fun.

Registration has just opened, and thanks to the generosity of our sponsors is completely free once again.

An action-packed day of 30 or so sessions is planned, and we are inviting abstracts from potential speakers – we’d love to hear from you if you would like to present on a business-related or technical subject, or if you’d like to chair a panel or BoF-style session. We’d welcome sessions from Lotusphere veterans and never-spoken-before newcomers alike, and if you have a Connections customer story to tell then you’ll be pushed to the head of the queue!

We are also very keen to sign up additional sponsors, so if you have solutions or services to sell to the IBM Connections community, please do get in touch!

The entire day is completely free to attend, and there will also be a reception on the Friday evening – details will be shared ASAP.

As you can see from the wrap-up video from Social Connections III below, the day will be incredibly informative and also great fun, so there is really no time like the present – register today!