Overview
What is HCL Connections?
Connections from HCL Technologies (formerly from IBM, acquired by HCL in 2018) is a collaboration tool and employee digital workspace with key features like social analytics, blogs, document management, and a social network.
A multifunctional tool
Connections is a proven tool for managing complicated projects and keeping your data secure
IBM Connections in the Cloud - One Stop for Communication and Collaboration
A complete package but expensive and complicated to maintain
IBM Connections - Not Connecting Ideas!
IBM Connections is useful
Not flashy, but it gets the job done
Connect with IBM Connections!
The business problems that it …
Great all-around tool for the large but also small environments
IBM Connections on-premises: Excellent, but SMBs may want to look at the cloud version instead.
Connecting with your colleagues made easy!
IBM Connections Connects people in a different way to work
IBM Connections review
Non-techy review of IBM Connections
IBM Connections is everything you need to unite professionals around the globe.
Pricing
What is HCL Connections?
Connections from HCL Technologies (formerly from IBM, acquired by HCL in 2018) is a collaboration tool and employee digital workspace with key features like social analytics, blogs, document management, and a social network.
Entry-level set up fee?
- No setup fee
Offerings
- Free Trial
- Free/Freemium Version
- Premium Consulting/Integration Services
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What is HCL Connections?
HCL Connections Technical Details
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Mobile Application | No |
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Reviews and Ratings
(54)Community Insights
- Business Problems Solved
- Recommendations
IBM Connections is a versatile platform used organization-wide to connect users, find and organize information, and collaborate on projects. Users across departments benefit from the collaboration tools offered by IBM Connections for internal projects and team collaboration. Additionally, frontline production workers to board members rely on this software for project management, knowledge sharing, collaboration, and idea sharing.
IBM Connections addresses various business problems such as document editing, sharing, version control, as well as enabling increased transparency. It serves as a centralized repository for constantly changing information with multiple levels of permissions, tagging, and spaces. This makes it an ideal replacement for wikis, providing structure in organizing and updating information effectively.
Organizations in the insurance industry utilize IBM Connections to write wiki places and blogs in different languages. Mizuno utilizes IBM Connections organization-wide to keep everyone informed and connected, share data, and stay updated on company-wide events. The software is also being evaluated for cloud options to provide document control, integration of social tools, and compatibility with various devices.
Users find value in IBM Connections' communication features to connect with staff and disseminate information within communities created for individual departments. The software's usage statistics and reporting capabilities are crucial for users to track the effectiveness of their content. Additionally, the HR department benefits from the MS Office plugin for sharing and editing documents.
Overall, IBM Connections has proven to be an invaluable tool in improving communication among teams, facilitating collaboration between departments spread across large geographical areas, and providing a centralized platform for everyday operations.
Users commonly recommend IBM Connections for the following reasons:
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IBM Connections is praised for its ability to enhance collaboration and social networking within a business. Users find it helpful for improving teamwork and communication among employees.
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Many users recommend IBM Connections for its features such as email, calendars, meeting rooms, and document sharing. It is considered suitable for companies with multiple departments that require transparency in operations.
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Users suggest having IT staff who can handle the layout and functionality of IBM Connections to maximize its potential. They also recommend it for environments that support self-service and where end users want a well-structured content storage interaction.
Overall, IBM Connections is deemed valuable in strengthening internal social networks, improving collaboration, and providing efficient communication within organizations. It is particularly recommended for larger companies looking to save time with social and collaboration-based solutions, but can also benefit businesses of all sizes that aim to enhance their productivity and foster connectivity among employees.
Attribute Ratings
Reviews
(1-20 of 20)A multifunctional tool
- Positive Impact - Better collaboration & sharing across the comapny
- There are no negative impacts
Connections is a proven tool for managing complicated projects and keeping your data secure
- The ROI with Connections is realized once you have completed your first project. Time saved and improved customer satisfaction.
- I would like to see better integration with Microsoft email and Google docs.
- Positive - Using IBM Connections has reduced the number of directories and file share repositories previously used for collaboration.
- Positive - The direction is to stop relying on email for the only method of communicating and sharing knowledge. IBM Connections is in the right step.
- Tangible ROI is hard to measure. It helps to connect people in your organization. Better relationships and better information mean that your organization can be more efficient and more connected to each other. It may help improve morale which can have an impact on the bottom line.
IBM Connections - Not Connecting Ideas!
- Connections had a substanially negative ROI for our company because we eventually replaced it with far better tools.
- We're also unfortunately stuck with maintenance costs as we've not migrated all of the user generated content over to the new tools.
- Other parts of our company still use Connections, so I guess that's a good thing? They must find it usable enough to continue on with it.
IBM Connections is useful
- The calendar is great and easy to use for scheduling. I plan many events at work, so it is a great resource for sharing this information.
Not flashy, but it gets the job done
- I can't speak to monetary ROI, but it is an effective tool for communicating and has stimulated more open communication about special projects
- The cloud integration with email and profile boosts the appeal and usefulness of using the web-based browser (rather than Notes) -- however, I am not sold on Verse and dread the day everything gets moved over to that platform
- Though there's much to be desired, the wiki feature has allowed us to slowly phase out outdated resources
Connect with IBM Connections!
- Recently implemented with the whole company so no information available at this time.
Great all-around tool for the large but also small environments
- Client example: giving sales staff (who are mostly mobile users) access to the latest product information and being able to present it to clients without having to manually search or call customer service to send them is key. The ability to ask questions (comments to data) around information and get immediate answers (in form of a comment to your comment) is also important.
- The creation process of data sheets, presentations, charts etc., has been sped up. No more asking around for the latest version. Discussions around new functionality of products and the exchange of ideas has been greatly improved.
- Client example: during a re-branding process the ability to directly collaborate with outside vendors and then get internal feedback to new designs and even put out surveys asking input by staff regarding new uniforms and logos has made a difficult process much easier and faster and staff feel much more involved.
IBM Connections on-premises: Excellent, but SMBs may want to look at the cloud version instead.
- IBM Connections 5.0 on-premises provided our pilot groups with better overall communications. Communities sprang up around projects, teams, departments, and even topics like new technologies. As the groups expanded their usage, they found posting Status updates, new or updated Files, and so forth really helped everyone keep up.
- Throughout our pilot we kept noticing that despite the availability of tools like Blogs, Wikis, etc., our users tended to primarily use Microsoft Office documents instead. Even "millennials" coming in expected full, native support to view and edit Microsoft Office files from the web UI. IBM Docs appears to be a suitable replacement but adds cost to the solution overall.
- Most of the admins, developers and technical support staff at our organization are heavily Microsoft-centric and find IBM software difficult to integrate, support and find training for.
- The Connections on-premises server environment is a complex one, requiring either extensive in-house skill with IBM technologies or costly consulting. SMBs should look to the cloud version instead.
Connecting with your colleagues made easy!
- Faster access to up-to-date project information.
- Ability to see from bookmarks what external content may be helpful.
- Easy to assign Activity tasks to team members.
IBM Connections Connects people in a different way to work
- ROI not measured directly for social tools
IBM Connections review
- On the customer service part - one of the positive sides of IBM Connections is the openness. Thanks to that openness people started to help each other when they posted problems regarding company issues instead and they followed the officially designed business processes. In the end this made our company much more cost effective.
- Because of the mobility functionality of IBM Connections we really saw a big jump in the employee efficiency corner. They could access their documents faster and wherever they where around the globe.
Non-techy review of IBM Connections
- Ease of collaboration between members (100K+)
- Ease of setting of communities of practice very quickly
- IBM Connections definitely had a great impact on the business improving a degree of awareness of what is happening in the organization.
- IBM Connections also allowed the comapny to decrease expenses as some of the users were transferred from Sharepoint to IBM Connections.
Diversity of Connections
- Better exchange of ideas
- More cohesiveness among members of departments who are geographically separated.
- Greater ability for multiple departments to share information.
IBM Connections Review
- Better customer service
- Increased awareness with company activities and updates
- Our consumer support team has been able to communicate information faster which helps reduce the time it takes to get information to our consumers.
- We have used the Communities to start a Couch to 5K, bringing over 20 employees together, which has brought morale up, increased efficiency, and made the work place a better place overall!
- Our President uses IBM Connections to get out important information in a timely manner. Getting the overall plan and vision out this way helps increase employee efficiency and morale!
- Our primary concern was internal communications, for which Connections was a boon, by all accounts. There was no formal ROI.
- That said, Connections definitely opened up the business to the larger social world and its possibilities.
IBM Connections helps collaborate
- Improve communication
- Improve document repository
- Project alignment