Q&A on Connections

Suzanne O Minassian  March 10 2008 03:43:48 PM

I’ve been on the road a lot lately presenting Connections to customers and conferences. I have been getting a string of questions that fall along the lines of “I heard Connections doesn’t do X….”.  Here are some of those questions and answers to them.  Gia Lyons, thanks for your contributions to these. Any other rumors out there?

Q: I hear Connections is not a fully-integrated platform. It runs on top of Websphere application server you will need Websphere Application Server, Connections AND Quickr (and more) for it to run.

A: Connections is a fully integrated application that runs on an application server (WAS, which we include in Connections), and on multiple operating systems, including Linux, AIX, and Windows.  Connections includes a suite of social software services (blogs, activities, social bookmarks, communities and profiles) as well as cross application functionality (feeds, search, administration, API).  We opened up Connections so you can integrate with a other applications if you want.  You have a choice to install only the capabilities you need.

Q: Does Connections have its own search?

A: Yes, you can search across all the Connections services or within a certain service, it’s up to you. This search functionality is in the box with Connections.   If you want to integrate Connections search with other systems (i.e. your intranet), Connections also works with IBM Omnifind so that Connections data can be easily integrated into an overall search solution.  For example, customers can integrate Lotus Connections Dogear user-tagged content and matching profiles into their federated search environment to increase overall search satisfaction, which is what we've experienced at IBM.

Q: Does Connections requires a rich client (Lotus Notes) for any of its capabilies?

A: No, all of the services are browser based.  We have a set of plugins which allow you to work inside other environments (like Notes, Sametime, Microsoft products, and more).  The plugins are highly functional, so they often can be used instead of the web interface, but they are not required to use Connections.

Q: How limited is the information in profiles?

A: Lotus Connections Profiles, with its extensible and customizable UI and database schema, enables you to aggregate disparate people data from multiple sources, including LDAP, HR databases, skills databases, Excel spreadsheets, critical business data stored in Lotus Notes applications, even Access databases, etc., into a single data store, and keep it synchronized if required.  Further, with the fully extensible and customizable profiles Person Card, customers can weave that aggregated people data - as well as the rest of their social contributions throughout the Connections suite - into any other application. We've already done this integration with Lotus Notes, Microsoft Outlook (released in a few weeks), Microsoft Office, WebSphere Portal, Lotus Quickr. Others have integrated the Person Card with SharePoint, Confluence wiki, Mediawiki, custom applications, etc.

Q: Does Connections require a license of Tivoli Directory Integrator?

A: Directory Integrator is provided free with Connections. It is a powerful tool that provides the ability to map to all of the backend systems described above AND keep them synchronized.  

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