Item: SAP Jam
Rating: 9
Author: Chris Salles

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Jam is our organization's main collaboration platform. JAM groups are either created by Learning admins or individual users. Some groups are thematic based on business needs, purposes, or goals. Others are created for events. Lastly, some are created as mini CMSs, allowing group owners to moderate a micro-site that doesn't use collaboration features as much as information-sharing features.

Pros and Cons

Easy to setup.
Template-based group creation.
Permissions are either inherited or set at the group-level by group owners.

The main collaboration function is in the form of discussion forums. Asset-editing a la Office365 or Google Docs would be welcome.
JAM has a mobile app, but not all user-generated content is automatically adapted for mobile-view.
Users have some control over their notifications by group, but there is a missing level of control that would benefit from.

Most Important Features

In-suite capabilities with other SAP products.
Do-it-yourself group creation supports the empowerment of others.
Template-based widget layouts are helpful for contextualizing.

Return on Investment

Connecting employees together across a disparate org is crucial and has a positive impact on productivity.
Allowing users to create their own groups shifts the power to the people who know what they need and can create instantly. In today's ever-narrowing sales cycle, this is crucial.
Mobile-friendly plus a native app is necessary as our direct & dealer channel sales teams are often on-the-go.

Alternatives Considered

Microsoft Yammer, Chatter, Atlassian Confluence, Microsoft 365 and Slack

We utilize many products in the SAP universe of solutions. Not only was JAM feature-rich and matched our company needs, but the tight integration with our other SAP product lines makes admin as well as usability seamless. While other competitors to JAM offer more features that rely on real-time, most of our use cases were asynchronous.

Key Insights

Do you think SAP Jam delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with SAP Jam's feature set?

Yes

Did SAP Jam live up to sales and marketing promises?

I wasn't involved with the selection/purchase process

Did implementation of SAP Jam go as expected?

I wasn't involved with the implementation phase

Would you buy SAP Jam again?

Yes

Other Software Used

SAP SuccessFactors, Bonusly, Centrical

Likelihood to Recommend

JAM is only going to work well if your organization is prepared and rewarded for using a collaboration tool. Culture and organizational processes should be addressed prior to implementation. This technology does a great job bringing people together to have expert conversations, but you need to consistently encourage early adopters to push the conversations early.

User Collaboration on Their Time.

Overall Satisfaction with SAP Jam