The Armonk, New York-based vendor has been adding Web 2.0 features to Notes since the beginning of this year, and is among the first enterprise software vendors to recognize the potential of social networking, or social computing as it is now being called, in a business context.
The Atlas tool is designed to work with the Lotus Connections and has four components, all of them based on Web 2.0 technologies, according to IBM. There is My Net, Find, Reach, and Net, all of which help users see key connections and relationships between the various groups in a social networking environment and navigate between them.
The Net component provides a visual indication of the important hubs among topic experts and informal groups that have developed while working on similar projects, said IBM. Users can then identify communication gaps or bottle-necks between groups and manage skill across the organization. It said My Net offers similar capabilities for a user’s personal network.
IBM describes Reach as a social software dashboard feature that helps users navigate up to six degrees of separation between them and a colleague. Users can then identify communication gaps or bottle-necks between groups and manage skill across the organization. My Net offers similar capabilities for a user’s personal network. For example, a salesperson can better manage and understand their social networks making sure they have connections across the right topic areas to help close deals quickly.
The Find capability uses core Connections functionality, taking searches beyond the corporate directory to include results based on social data such as reporting structures, blogs, and communities. Users can customize their search criteria to refine a search based on location, corporate structure, or degree of separation, with results sorted by collaborative ranking assigned to a given topic expert.
When you apply social software to business processes the ability to see and understand the relationships between groups, people, and information is critical, said Jeff Schick, VP of social software for IBM Lotus. Atlas helps workers navigate their social networks and use these relationships to rally around ideas and projects instead or organization charts helping speed decision making and improve efficiency. The Atlas tool is available via services engagements through IBM Software Services for Lotus.
IBM has just announced the latest release of Lotus Connections (v1.02), with features that include expanded support for OSes such as SUSE Linux, browsers like Mozilla Firefox 2.0, and directories such as Microsoft Active Directory; plug-ins for Lotus Notes, Lotus Sametime, Microsoft Office, Microsoft Explorer, and WebSphere Portal; and an API based on the REST and Atom standards, enabling other apps to utilize the profiles, community, bookmarking, blogging, and activity services of Connections.
