Tim Bauer’s Running Thoughts

Ask yourself this question …

• Is there an ROI to collaboration?

because when you start looking at collaboration products like Jive Software your aren’t talking chump change. They face the same hurdles as any efficiency based initiative. The executives want to see hard dollars have have either the word INCREASED REVENUE in them or REDUCED COST.  If you can’t show it they will give you a $1 to buy a six pack of Top Raman.  If you can, they money is there.

So with images of Raman dancing in my head I clicked on play and got to running.

All and all, I see two things:

1. The ROI of collaboration is STILL not clear
2. Jive is a great choice when you have a large, complex, internally business focused group. There are better options for IT and External uses.
   

Personally? In my business we eat Raman Noodles. Free is appealing for a startup … at least till the adoption warrants re-assessing the maintenance headache of disparate systems. I was close though .. the shiny package of Jive was tempting. I would do it over Sharepoint that is for sure.

Would be curious on your thoughts … as always.

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• https://admin.acrobat.com/_a773188684/p96493791/
• Enterprise Collaboration & Community Software
• 4/28/2008, 6:05 AM - 2:02 in still doing housekeeping
• 7 years … 15% of Fortune 500 … 2000 customers
• Internal and External communities (hit both)
• Products
……………○ Clearspace
……………○ Clearspace community (external)
• Unique of Jive - Adhoc Conversation
……………○ Not document centric
……………○ Bauer comment - So they avoid the wiki, sharepoint angle of penetration
• 4/28/2008, 6:09 AM
• Some graph proving collaboration was largest impact to business
……………○ Bauer comment - a word smithing point? I mean doesn’t that mean people talking hits all pieces?
• 4/28/2008, 6:10 AM
• External community keys
……………○ Talk about products
……………○ More than support
……………○ Feedback, sentiment, learning, story telling, associations
• Web help is more effective than call center
……………○ Supporting stats
……………○ Bauer comment - not very targetted examples … rather high level
• 4/28/2008, 6:12 AM
• Poll - What communities are you looking to create to drive value in your business
……………○ Primary response was collaboration in the enterprise (71%)
……………○ Service & Support (45%)
……………○ Developer & Partner community (36%)
• 4/28/2008, 6:14 AM
• Examples of customer implementations
……………○ PC World, Sprint, VMWare, Net App, Bank of America, John Deer
……………○ Enterprise Collab, BrandAffinity, etc are solutions
• 4/28/2008, 6:15 AM
• Focus on Enterprise Collaboration
……………○ Slide on communication flows (Bubbles, typical questions)
…………………………§ Bauer comment - still not crystallizing a core message for me. Might be they are moving across a lot of topics very lightly.
……………○ Service Tech
…………………………§ Ideas shared by networking / meeting
…………………………§ R&D getting feedback
…………………………§ Without clearspace doesn’t get widely leveraged
……………○ Make captured conversation easily visible
…………………………§ Discussion
…………………………§ Document
…………………………§ Content management (Sharepoint integration)
…………………………§ Finding the right SME in an org around a question search
……………○ Bauer comment - its interesting they don’t talk to how different roles want different tools to interact w/ the collab stack. Wiki is typically not a biz user preference (not powerful enough in formatting and other functions)
• 4/28/2008, 6:19 AM
• Example of capture of info
……………○ Bauer comment .. Like a blog post or a forum post
……………○ Anyone watching space or tags on post get auto email notification
…………………………§ Bauer comment this is somewhat notable (how to make people aware efficiently) but then the debate of how to effectively tag in an org becomes the riddle (ala ECM meta tagging from years back)
• 4/28/2008, 6:21 AM
• External collaboration example
……………○ Brand and peer to peer support community (excellent example per them)
…………………………§ Bauer comment - I would say the example is weak. Powered does a much better job (given their marketing focus/background) on how to use tools like Jive CS 2.0 to drive brand
……………○ Shows a ton of discussions (forum)
…………………………§ Company mines and watches these threads
……………○ Bauer comment - interesting how they are focusing on the ‘build it they will come’ when really your partner and recurring customers would prefer a decentralized model that aggregates to their preferred reader (don’t assume your external user only does the role that works w/ you)
• 4/28/2008, 6:24 AM
• Poll - Biggest Driver of Success
……………○ Ease of Use - 58%
……………○ All in one system - Wiki, Blog, Forum, etc - 10%
…………………………§ Bauer comment - This isn’t a concern until users get in an realize integration (or lack of) breaks the workflows across the various collab environments
• 4/28/2008, 6:28 AM New features
……………○ Personalization on homepage
…………………………§ Widgets ala how wordpress feels
…………………………§ No other competitor does this
…………………………§ Bauer comment - Wouldn’t WordPress local do similar? Make homepage style a blog model (posts and pages)
…………………………§ One homepage example - Calendar (bauer - pick your favorite), recent content (bauer - live mesh), Status update (bauer - twitter), tasks ( bauer - remember the milk)
………………………………………□ Bauer comment - They spent 1-2m on status sharing being important in the enterprise … hello twitter (in private mode)
…………………………§ Another homepage example - 2-3 people you are tracking (bauer - hello friendfeed), product tracking (bauer - document change via mesh), external rss feeds (techcrunch)
……………○ Visibility of org relationships / profiles
…………………………§ 4/28/2008, 6:34 AM
…………………………§ LDAP and AD integration … pull into clearspace … populate the system
……………○ Projects
…………………………§ 4/28/2008, 6:35 AM
…………………………§ Self organize
…………………………§ Configure like homepage … tasks, discussions, blogs tied to project
……………○ Sharepoint integration
…………………………§ 4/28/2008, 6:36 AM
…………………………§ 1st Goal making it part of the enterprise footprint of documentation
…………………………§ Enhance link functionality to tie to what exists in SP sites
………………………………………□ So if you hit link button there is a SP tab that allows you to pull content from sites in SP
…………………………§ Bauer comment - interesting how we are not talking to the collaboration style that the dev team wants / needs versus what functional roles want/need … and how the two work together.
…………………………§ Bauer comment - Its ‘free’ footprint continues to keep it in the game (at least the starting version is free)
…………………………§ Sharepoint is also tied to search results
……………○ Document sharing
…………………………§ Users can share content outside of clearspace (collaboration)
…………………………§ Partners, contractors … secure and managable
………………………………………□ Give access to partners @ discussion and/or document level
……………○ Admin console Auditing
…………………………§ 4/28/2008, 6:40 AM
…………………………§ Visibility and control of any change in admin (bauer comment phpBB3 does this default)
……………○ Additional items
…………………………§ Rich text editor
…………………………§ Widget framework
…………………………§ Core arch - better API, REST, Spring/Struts based upgrade
• 4/28/2008, 6:41 AM
• Demo
……………○ Login as VP OPS
……………○ Homepage Widgets
…………………………§ Watching tags
…………………………§ Watching people activity
………………………………………□ Bauer comment that is a nice widget
…………………………§ Discussions
…………………………§ His Tasks
………………………………………□ Not clear if this is a one-off project tool or tied to a Proj Mgmt Sys
…………………………§ Blog posts
…………………………§ Your Projects
…………………………§ You Colleagues
…………………………§ 4/28/2008, 6:44 AM (still going on homepage)
………………………………………□ Bauer comment - would agree the innovation area is how to bubble up the activity from the raw areas
……………○ Search
…………………………§ Search for online marketing
…………………………§ Ability to expand to detail search results in search result pane
…………………………§ Profile
…………………………§ Actions - Email, Private Message, etc
…………………………§ See reporting relationships
…………………………§ Mini profile (on mouseover of names - shows what they are working on)
………………………………………□ Bauer comment - Amusing the ongoing ’status’ play
……………○ Project Calendar customization
…………………………§ 4/28/2008, 6:48 AM
…………………………§ Mention of how this isn’t the core system the PM is using … goal is one calendar, doc repos, discussion area
• End
……………○ Bauer comment - Collaboration (JIVE): Pick Your Flavor or Flounder (like JIVE)
• 4/28/2008, 6:51 AM
• Q&A
……………○ 4/28/2008, 6:51 AM
……………○ Differences in CS 2.0 Ent vs CS 2.0 Community
…………………………§ Personalization, projects are bundled in enterprise. Can turn on (for a fee?)
…………………………§ Nuances for external versus internal communities
…………………………§ Next release has a bunch more of features focused on social networking
……………○ Status update like twitter?
…………………………§ Yes. Can see in ’status widget’ or ‘my colleague widget’
……………○ Plugin for video
…………………………§ Yes. I.e. Youtube.
…………………………§ Jive Space (Deverloper space) can help build custom widgets
……………○ Internal Calendar (Jotlet) can synch to Outlook
…………………………§ Yes
……………○ Printable
…………………………§ Yes
……………○ Profile integrate w/ 3rd party HR systems
…………………………§ LDAP focused
…………………………§ Can choose some fields that come out of CS
…………………………§ Bauer comment - So no
……………○ Admin, shut off ability to customize?
…………………………§ Yes
……………○ Guest access
…………………………§ Yes, by feature
……………○ Sharing and watching … what is that
…………………………§ You watch their activity (stream)
…………………………§ Bauer comment - Why wouldn’t small companies just do Friendfeed private?
……………○ Questions around integration
……………○ Abuse flagging?
…………………………§ Yes certain types … go to moderation
……………○ Project available in CS Community?
…………………………§ Yes off by default.
…………………………§ Can turn on (made it sound free)
……………○ Blog
…………………………§ President — www.jivesoftware.com/community/blogs/jivetalks
…………………………§ Dave hirsh

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