IBM is rolling out new features to allow deeper collaboration and communication at all levels of a business. IBM Connections 5 provides a secure cloud network that connects everyone from entry-level employees to CEOs.
IBM Connections 5 is available on mobile devices as well as desktops, allowing employees to make suggestions and changes on the fly. If a file is changed, that changed will be distributed to all connected devices within seconds, keeping all members of the company informed and up to date. Document sharing tools can also be used to deliver files to specific people within the organization and allow for collaboration on a smaller scale.
"There are few things as potentially detrimental to a company as disconnected employees," says Jeff Schick, IBM's vice president of social software, in a statement. "When a workforce is out of sync or out of touch, the whole organization suffers from lost productivity, efficiency and innovation."
Innovation is a large part of the mission of IBM Connections 5. In many companies some of the greatest ideas for improvement can come from the lowest-level employees, those who are actually out doing the work. IBM's new tools better allow those employees to express ideas and needs to management.
The ability to share information almost instantly can also make basic tasks more efficient. For example, an employee in the field could take photos of a damaged part and share them with the maintenance department. A warehouse worker could pull up the schematics for the machine on a smartphone, identify the part, and deliver it to a mechanic. Then the mechanic could make the repair and even suggest a change in maintenance routines to prevent similar problems from occurring in the future.
"Great ideas can come from every corner of the extended organization, so we needed a secure way to open up our organization and make it easier for our workforce to engage with one another and our key internal and external stakeholders," Superior Group CIO Tom DeClerck, who already uses the service, says in the statement. "IBM Connections gives us an open, agile and customizable platform with fully integrated collaboration, analytics and content management capabilities."
IBM Connections has open architecture and application programming interfaces, allowing third-party companies to built new apps for the platform. HootSuite has already developed a number of new social apps for the program. IBM Connections 5 is available now, and more services will be rolled out soon, including streaming HD video in the later part of 2014.
