Versions Out Of Control

Impressions from todays Social Business project meeting:

Next week we will upgrade our existing social business infrastructure from IBM Connections Version 4.0 to Version 4.5.

Which does NOT include the new file management capabilities like nested folders. Nobody told us before. Not IBM. Not the system integrator. Nested folders are one of the main requests from the customers key users.

So we need to license and install the required IBM Connections Content Manager add on (the artist formely known as Filenet), Version 4.5 of course. Which is available, but needs to run on a separate machine.

Which does NOT include IBM Docs for collaborative content creation and editing. Which everybody expected to ship with IBM Connections 4.5. Because everybody who tested this on Greenhouse and saw the colorful slides believed in it. But this feature requires licensing and installating IBM Docs Version 4.5. Or Version 1.0.3. Which is currently not available. Maybe in three months. Current version would require some components running on Linux Red Hat, other components on Windows – and the document converter is still far from usable.

Today IBM released IBM Connections App Version 4.1 to support the features from IBM Connections Version 4.5. Which does not contain the promised “dropbox style” sync capabilities. Maybe this will come in App Version 4.5?

So what will we have after upgrading to IBM Connections Version 4.5? A new Websphere Version. Ahh. And @mentions. Ohh.

You need to understand. This is not Web 2.0 tools simply transfered to Enterprise 2.0. This is enterprise software. This is IBM.

Still think IBM Connections is one of the best E2.0 suites out there in the market. Hopefully IBM will not IBMify this solution.