IBM Lotus Quickr 8.5 for Domino Administration: Ensure effective and efficient team collaboration by building a solid social infrastructure with IBM Lotus Quickr 8.5

IBM Lotus Quickr was first released in 2007 as services for both Lotus Domino and WebSphere Portal platforms. Lotus Quickr offered similar functionality for Domino-centric as well as enterprise Java users. This marked the evolution of Lotus QuickPlace and Lotus Workplace Collaboration services into Web 2.0 team collaboration software for the enterprise.

The Lotus Quickr software adds additional value by integrating team collaboration with the other aspects of a business' Social Software portfolio. This integrated value is achieved by surfacing the collaborative services in Lotus' Social Software suite of products. End users can experience and interact with Lotus Quickr from such offerings as IBM's Lotus Connections and Lotus Sametime, while using their favorite desktop applications. An alternative office productivity application which Lotus Quickr delivers this integration story in, is IBM Lotus Symphony.

In researching the term Enterprise 2.0, you find that the Association for Information and Image Management defines it as:

IBM Lotus' Social Software portfolio delivers this capability to the enterprise.

Its ability to seamlessly integrate social networking tools like blogs, wikis, social bookmarking, talent profiles, and so on, with team collaboration's staple functionality, document management, delivers social collaboration through Lotus Quickr.

Let's take a look at where Lotus Quickr fits in a high performance organization that has embraced the Enterprise 2.0 paradigm. First let's list the components:

The Wikipedia article on Social Software refers to team collaboration software with a social integrant, as social collaboration software. Lotus Quickr advances the notion of a social element further by leveraging social networks within an organization. Lotus Quickr's integration with Lotus Connections delivers a strong value proposition by melding social networking tools such as Profiles with the Team Collaboration platform, Lotus Quickr Team places.

The flow of a project's execution now becomes one that starts with talent discovery, using the Connections Profiles. The Lotus Connections' Profiles component serves as the talent and skills discovery mechanism when building a team. It is possible to quickly check the individual with identified skills' availability by instantly conversing with them or their management team. This can be achieved using the Lotus Sametime people awareness capabilities from within the Connections Profile application. Once skilled resources are assembled, a place to congregate and share information is then needed. This is where seamless integration with Lotus Quickr delivers the promise of Enterprise 2.0 with Lotus Quickr Team places.

We will take a closer look at the components available to end users in a Lotus Quickr place in subsequent chapters.

Document management is a key component of team collaboration. However, for effective social collaboration, mere document sharing is not sufficient. Teaming in today's world requires more flexibility in communication and expression.

Lotus Quickr was designed with today's mobile and digitally interconnected world in mind. Understanding that team collaboration needs to occur at the speed of information, and that the ability for a platform to provide notification through multiple channels becomes key. An example of when notification is crucial, can be when a document has been approved by a key stakeholder. Other instances include, key date or milestone update notifications, a task completed or updated requesting clarification, or even as simple as a new member being added to the team while another member switches roles.

Lotus Quickr is designed to meet you where you want to collaborate from. Lotus Quickr delivers its functionality through a Web-based interface as well as through your favorite desktop applications. The use of desktop applications is enabled through the Lotus Quickr Connectors. The Lotus Quickr Connectors are designed to provide seamless user interaction from within applications such as: Lotus Sametime, enables collaboration on a document in real time with cohorts across the world, Lotus Symphony, enables real time editing and publishing of artifacts from within the document editors, Lotus Notes, enables storing of e-mails as documents into a team place as well as solving the multiple e-mail attachment problem, known to plague e-mail system administrators. Lotus Quickr also provides similar Connector support for the Microsoft Office suite of products.

For additional access points, Lotus Quickr provides REST and Web services APIs that enable an Integrated Systems Vendor to provide added value. These APIs are designed and implemented to ensure that an integrated systems vendor is able to leverage the Lotus Quickr REST and Web services, regardless of the back office platform the Quickr services are provided from Lotus Domino or WebSphere Portal.

Now its time to get our executives who control the purse strings, to buy in to the need for Social Software in the context of team collaboration. An Information Week article from 2007, entitled Facebook Costs Employers More Than $5 Billion A Year, written by Sharon Gaudin, is enough to discourage IT strategists.

Dispelling some of these long held misunderstandings about Social Software in the enterprise is crucial to its adoption. Pragmatists must focus on the goal of maximizing the people and technology investments that a business has already made.

What about Business Conduct and Content Guidelines?

Ensuring that a business' social networking site is compliant can be daunting, however, social networks have also proven to be self policing due to self interest in ones reputation. It is crucial that leadership within a business participate, as this drives awareness and maintains a high level of professionalism by participants at all levels.

Lotus Connections social networking software makes your business world smaller by breaking down barriers imposed by geography, language, and demographics. The missing link in harnessing this new found advantage of a highly interconnected world is bridged by seamless team collaboration, through Lotus Quickr. Lotus Quickr team collaboration software delivers this capability by integrating with Lotus Connections to deliver a social collaboration platform that is ready for business.

Another concern raised by technology officers considering investing in Social Software is the "Good Enough" phenomenon. An officer could simply look at features and functions with social networking tools and surmise that a tool like Lotus Connections and Quickr are interchangeable. First, lets look at what part of a business' value chain each of these products is designed to address. Lotus Connections is designed to encourage intimacy and build high efficiency cultures within an organization. This brings value to the forming stages discussed before. Team collaboration with Lotus Quickr is designed to promote collaboration to solve very specific problems. The distinction becomes apparent as you consider the value the two tools bring to a business. When the IT strategy calls for maximizing the value of Social Software for building effective teams, neither social networking nor team collaboration is sufficient on their own. We find that social collaboration delivers the promise of Social Software.

Lotus Quickr team collaboration software leverages Social Software principles; integration with a rich set of out of the box capabilities, and the Web 2.0 paradigm in enabling diverse teams in an interconnected world. Lotus Quickr should not be viewed by IT managers as just another entrant to the document management space, but as a well executed social collaboration platform, that delivers the productivity edge needed to succeed in the digitally interconnected business world of today. Lotus Quickr enables IT managers seeking to break the virtual boundaries of geography and demographics, to connect the new college graduate on one side of the world with the 30 year business veteran on the other. Lotus Quickr unleashes a business' global investment.