Item: SAP Jam
Rating: 5
Author: Verified User

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

SAP Jam is used to create a virtual community environment for our members and constituents. In some cases, these are communities of practices or in other times they are used as working groups for individuals to collaborate on a project or work product. It solves the problem of creating a safe, secure space for people to convene.

Pros and Cons

Managing members with the communities is easy (including inviting them to join).
Publishing and editing content is easy with the platform.
The interface is easy to use and navigate.

Sometimes users get too many notifications from the system which can be overwhelming if they haven't set up their notifications to their standards.
Analytics on engagement aren't great.

Return on Investment

Our constituents value community and this has enabled us to be able to bring people together in a secure, virtual space.
We are a national association and many of the people that need to collaborate on work projects aren't physically in the same place, so this virtual space has improved work output.

Alternatives Considered

Higher Logic

We actually probably moving to Higher Logic for our virtual community needs -- their interface is better and can more easily integrate with our website to provide a seamless experience for our users. We also want them to be able to toggle between our website and the community platform and it's not currently set up to do that well.

Other Software Used

Higher Logic, MS SharePoint

Likelihood to Recommend

When you need to create a private, secure space for individuals to collaborate or work on a project together, SAP Jam does a great job at bringing people together and giving them a space to work together in. There are also great ways to provide learning opportunities (including sharing webinars or other educational content).

Users and Roles

20 - Most of the individuals at our organization who use SAP Jam work in our learning & engagement unit, or work within the mission areas and run projects and programs/courses for our constituents. They are mostly all involved with external engagement and learning and work with groups as small as 20 constituents, up to groups as large as 200.

Support Headcount Required

1 - There's really only one staff member in the learning department that supports SAP Jam from a technical standpoint. For more requests, we have to go through SAP Jam support directly to get things done and that can often be a challenge. The technical skills required include being able to develop learning modules or code in additional functionality to the group pages.

Business Processes Supported

Connecting constituents with learning opportunities and courses
Bringing together working groups or course cohorts to share files and discuss projects
Creating a community of practice where individuals can share best practices and problem solve together

Innovative Uses

Not that it's innovative, but we use the platform with our external constituents, and my understanding is that SAP Jam was originally developed with the intention of being used internally with employees - specifically for learning purposes (not just virtual community, as we've been using it).

Future Planned Uses

The platform could be used internally to assist with employee engagement and learning.

Likelihood to Renew

4

We are moving toward other platforms that are meant more for virtual community, like Higher Logic. The customer support at SAP Jam is also lacking.

Products Replaced

Yes - SAP Jam replaced iCohere as a tool for learning management. I believe iCohere was going away or perhaps wasn't being supported in the same way. This was before my time at the organization.

Key Differentiators

Price
Product Features
Product Usability

When SAP Jam was brought on, the organization did not have an enterprise solution for virtual communities or learning management. Over the years, we had invested in many different platforms without having a strategy to underpin their use. That being said, price was a huge consideration as well as product features. We needed to be able to meet our customer's needs quickly and come in on budget.

Evaluation Lessons Learned

I wouldn't solve for individual use cases or instances. We really need to look at this need from an enterprise level point of view and select a platform (or platforms) that meet the majority of our constituents needs. We also would need to better understand upfront what level of support we're getting and what we're expected to do on our own.

Support Rating

2

We have to submit requests multiple times to get a response and it often feels like they go into a black hole. Because we don't have anyone in house really supporting the back-end of the platform, we rely on SAP Jam's support and development teams to help solve problems and improve the platform for us.

SAP Jam Customer Support Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
None	Slow Resolution Poor followup Problems left unsolved Escalation required Difficult to get immediate help Support doesn't seem to care Slow Initial Response

Exceptional Examples of SAP Jam Support

No

Usability

5

It's an integrated platform that brings together a lot of different people from across the association to work on shared projects, etc. Given the various roles people play and the varying skill sets they bring to the table, the platform is fairly intuitive to use and easy to navigate around.

Usability Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
Like to use Easy to use Well integrated Quick to learn Convenient Feel confident using Familiar	None

Easy Tasks

Document and content sharing are easy
Task management tool is easy to use and performs well
The polling function performs well

Difficult Tasks

I don't find video or screen recordings easy to use
Notifications are often overwhelming

Mobile Interface Availability and Impressions

Yes, but I don't use it

Good for Collaboration

Overall Satisfaction with SAP Jam