HCL Connections Reviews

I use HCL Connections for marketing purposes. The IBM product in our company already provides us with direct links to the marketing and HR sides.

The support is an area where the product can improve. My company faces some support-related issues because whenever we create or generate a ticket, it takes two days for the product's support team to get back to us, and then they just analyze the issue. It takes more than a week just to forward the request, and then the customer support gets back to us, which I found to be really annoying. If you are having an issue on a Monday, the support personnel will contact you next Monday.

Our primary use for this solution is B2B and in-house collaboration.

This is a great set of tools that is easy to adapt to different teams.

IBM Connections is our primary collaboration platform used for all our internal communications and knowledge sharing. We also use it to work together with our customers.

Using IBM Connections, we have embraced the concept of Working Out Loud to more openly discuss and share content.

The entire suite of features is very important to me. The three features I use the most are communities, activities, and files.

IBM Connections Pink is a journey and not a destination!

IBM Connections Pink means leaving the IBM WebSphere backend and moving to the Docker.

IBM Connections Pink means you can choose where your application and data resists, i.e., either on the local, private, public cloud or a mix of all those.

IBM Connections Pink means leaving Java and moving to Node.js.

IBM Connections Pink means leaving DB2/Oracle/MS SQL and moving to a single, more powerful database platform - MongoDB.

IBM Connections Pink means introducing IBM Watson as your personal assistance.

IBM Connections Pink means a new way of collaboration, like you have never seen before.

There is no more a discussion of WHERE to store documents and where to find your corporate information. It is centrally stored and has the perfect search functionality. It’s easy to find.

Search functionality and notifications: The search functionality is very well developed and can be easily filtered. All search results take data security into consideration and users will only find data they actually have access to. This functionality also extends fully to the mobile app which is available for both Android and iOS.

File sharing and synchronization over the web to Windows and mobile devices: File sync is a very useful feature that allows users to synchronize files via the Connections system to Windows desktops and mobile devices (iOS and Android) automatically. Similar to how Dropbox or Google Drive would work. This feature is very useful to ensure you always have the latest versions of files available on local devices for off-line/local access.

It has improved collaboration between users. The ability to have a definitive location for data to collaborate around. The search and incidental discovery of content (not a function, but a main feature in my mind) are really key, as is the ability to share and - when necessary - un-share. Also, the ability for the system to interact with external users, as well, if the environment allows this type of interaction.

One of the most used features lately is the ability to invite external (non-company) users and collaborate with them. yhe integration of IBM Docs into the system has made it possible to use the product more widely and allow the interaction no matter what type of device a client is connecting with.

The ability to sync my files offline and to share them with colleagues or external people is one of the more important functions. Communities are a popular way of combining blogs, wikis, files, and activities centered on a common objective or subject which proves popular and increases collaboration across people/teams. Recently, the ability to collaborate with external people such as vendors, customers, and third-parties was introduced, which allows us to collaborate outside of network in a secure way.

We are an IBM business partner with circa 80 employees in the UK, India, and home workers. I've found that it increases communication between these dispersed people. Also, I find that I can assist others when help has not been asked for or expected by means of seeing other people's interactions. For example, on a number of occasions, sales people have been pitching to customers whom I have dealt with or had conversations with years before. I have been able to add valuable input, because I have been following the sales people, the tags, or the community where the content was discussed.

IBM Connections is a great product, with new functionality each year. It can be integrated with other products easily and you can personalize this product to match with your organization.

For joint ventures, for example, it's easy to merge employees into the same entity group assignment, hierarchy and organization, with mixed rules and the right community and distinct special areas.

• Access to platform resources from all over the world
• Blogs
• Fast search of employees/groups/ communities/employees’ profiles
• Each file entered into the system has a label with the time and the name of the person who uploaded the file
• Document download is registered and visible to the system users who downloaded the file, time when it was downloaded. After updating the document, a new version is created, but previous versions are not deleted.
• List of activities to do
• Private communities with access management
• Integration with IBM Notes, Sametime.

All the features above improve collaboration among employees.

The most noticeable improvement was in the communication between the R&D department and the service department, who until now had no communication tools, despite having an email.

Employees from these departments work on different shifts, so the communication between them was difficult. The improvement in the area of cooperation has also been noticed by trade office workers who have easier access to needed and up-to-date documentation such as KRS, NIP, and REGON marketing materials.

The implemented system was very well used by the HR department. They provided training for staff from various companies among the group, set up communities with access only for training participants, where materials from the workshop and additional information was provided.

The system also helped during the setting up of a company in China. Employees engaged from different locations in Poland and China opened a community where they exchanged documentation and had discussions. This tool has certainly improved the opening of the company in China. The documentation was in one place and was available from anywhere in the world.