Henning Schmidt and Andreas Ponte discuss what's necessary in order to successfully implement a social software in your company. This presentation covers the business parts as well as the technical parts in terms of integration. We focus on IBM Connections here.

1. How to use existing data to
increase adoption success with
IBM Connections
Andreas Ponte - Belsoft Collaboration AG
Henning Schmidt - hedersoft GmbH

2. • Andreas Ponte about.me
• ~20 years of experience in the IBM/IT world
• Worked for a Reinsurance company until 2007, amongst other things responsible
for the global communication infrastructure
• Joined Belsoft AG in 2007 with focus on consulting in the IBM Domino and mobile
solutions area
• Since 2014 CEO of Belsoft Collaboration AG
• IBM Champion for 2015 and 2016

3. twitter: schmhen – linkedin: de.linkedin.com/in/schmhen - blog: schmhen.de
Henning Schmidt
• Founder and CEO of hedersoft
• Fields of interest:
• System architect
• WebDev
• MobileDev
• System integration / APIs

4. Agenda
• Integration! Why?
• Connections REST-API
• How to leverage the API

5. Integration! Why?
Definition of Social Business
“Social Business is the ability for an organization
to use its communities to improve its
performance”
Source: http://blog.socious.com/bid/54542/What-is-Social-Business-A-Clear-Definition

6. Integration! Why?
• Organization
• From enterprise to small companies
• Communities
• Customers or members, Prospects, Employees, Channel partners, Suppliers,
Volunteers, Product partners and consultants, Analysts, Donors, Conference
attendees, User groups, Chapters, Grassroots supporters

7. Integration! Why?
• Performance
• Improving brand perception
• Finding new customers
• Closing more sales faster
• Improving customer satisfaction while reducing
support costs
• Increasing customer retention and repeat business
• Increasing revenue and profit

8. Integration! Why?
• This implies
• #NewWayToWork / Work 4.0
• Many organizational changes
• Many cultural changes
• Heavy shift in people’s mindset
• BUT
• Only 10-15% are thoroughly loyal to employer (Gallup)
• People rather keep than share
• 90-9-1

9. Integration! Why?
Consumers
Market Share
Source: Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diffusion_of_innovations)

10. Integration! Why?
How to overcome that?
• Strategic planning
• Organizational changes
• Technology

11. Integration! Why?
• Social = People
• Don’t push, generate acceptance
• People need ability to change (Enablement)
• Involve / inform employees
• Qualify employees
• People need willingness to change (Decision)
• Create and share Social Business Framework
• Active motivation to participate

12. Integration! Why?
• Information
• Onboarding Package
• Communication Strategy and Concept (Events, Campaign, Roadshow)
• Ongoing Communication Management
• Orientation Guide for Leaders
• Reasoning Map
• à Transparency

13. Integration! Why?
• Qualification
• Seminars
• Webinars (E-Learning)
• Social Learning (Wikis, Blogs)
• Self Learning
• Certificate (Community Managers)
• Reverse Mentoring
• Leadership
• Video

14. Integration! Why?
• Organizational and functional
Framework
• Strategy Map
• Guidelines
• Roles / Responsibilities
• Social Business Principles / Processes
• Working Models
• Reporting Setup (KPI)
• Use Case Development
• Maturity Assessment

15. Integration! Why?
• Motivation
• Motivational campaign
• Barcamps / World Cafes
• FedEx Day
• Contest / Award
• Workshop
• Gamification
• Feedback Channels
• Leaderboards

16. Integration! Why?
• Social Business != Social Software
• Decide on a system early
• Let people play with the system
• Get constant feedback
• Apply changes
• INTEGRATE OTHER SYSTEMS!
• Establish single point of information

17. Integration! Why?
• Extend System to your needs
• Widgets
• Buttons, Fields
• Small Windows
• Applications
• APIs
• Push / Pull data
• SPI
• React on changes

18. Connections REST-API
• Read and write Connections data
• ActivityStream utilizes OpenSocial (Google) Standard
• Data payloads in JSON format
• Other APIs non-standardized
• Data payloads in XML format
• There are APIs for all applications
• Profiles, Wikis, Blogs, ActivityStreams, Activities, Communities, Bookmarks,
Files, Forums, Ideation Blogs, Search

19. Connections REST-API
• REST-API (CRUD)
• POST: Create new content
• PUT: Update content
• DELETE: Delete content
• GET: Load content
• API-Endpoints
• No unique mimic
• API-Payloads
• Similar, but no unique mimic either

20. Connections REST-API
• Example: ActivityStreams
• https://<host>/connections/opensocial/<auth>/rest/activitystreams/<user
ID>/<group ID>/<application ID>/<activity ID>
Component Meaning
<auth> (optional) If using form based authentication leave this component out. Otherwise
options are anonymos, basic, oauth.
<user ID> The user whose stream you’re addressing – use @me for current users stream, @public
for public stream or a community ID for the stream in a community.
<group ID> The group of entries you’re addressing – use @all for all posts or options for special
meaning such as @saved, @actions, @mentions. Refer for InfoCenter and resources
slide for more.
<application ID> When retrieving entries this refers to the application (or ”generator”) that created the
entry. All the IBM Connections app names can be used (profiles, blogs, wikis etc.) plus
custom ones (e.g. ontimegc). @all used for all applications.
<activity ID> Used to reference a specific event e.g. for updating saved status.

21. Connections REST-API
1. /activitystreams/@me/@all
List my (current users) entries
2. /activitystreams/@public/@all
List public stream entries
3. /activitystreams/@me/@actions
List my actionable events
4. /activitystreams/@me/@saved/blogs
List my saved events from blogs
5. /@me/@all/@all/urn:lsid:lconn.ibm.com:activitystreams.story:bdb562f…
Work with entry from my stream based on ID
* All URLs above start with
https://<host>/connections/opensocial/<auth>/rest

22. Connections REST-API
{
"actor": {
"id": "@me"
},
"verb": "post",
"title": "[entry.title]",
"content":"[entry.content]",
"object": {
"summary": "[entry.object.summary]",
"objectType": "note",
"id": "00011",
"displayName": "[entry.object.displayName]",
"url": "http://myurl.com/myid"
}
}
[entry.title]
[entry.content]
[entry.oject.summary]
Henning Schmidt posted [entry.object.displayame]
[entry.content]
[entry.oject.summary]

23. Connections REST-API
• Embedded Experience
• Embedd and act on external applications
• Either use iWidget or point to external
application with URL
• Register (Whitelist) URL -> opensocial-config.xml

24. Connections REST-API
DEMO

25. Connections REST-API
• Goal: ADOPTION!
• Good approach: Connect to and integrate 3rd party systems by
utilizing the APIs
• Better approach: Use automation!
• Option 1: Data migration
• Option 2: Scan data sources for updates and post
• Use Embedded Experience

26. Connections REST-API

27. Connections REST-API
DEMO

28. Connections REST-API
• SAP Integration
• Detect new requests in SAP
• Create new entry in approver‘s Activity Stream
• Utilize Embedded Experience to make a decision
• Send data back to SAP

29. Connections REST-API
• Corporate HelpDesk
• Detect new issues
• Add ToDo Item to appropriate Activity and Section
• Work on ToDo in Connections
• Once solved send information back to issuer

30. Connections REST-API
• Organization Handbook
• Process Handbook entries in external system
• Option: Utilize Embedded Experience during workflow
• Detect approved changes
• Create new or update Wiki entries with approved Handbook data
• Upload attachments either as Wiki
attachment or as community file

31. Conclusion
• Social adoption starts in the organisation
• Qualify and motivate people to participate
• Select the appropriate software
• Qualify and motivate people to use it
• Integrate other systems
• Automate integration
• Single point of information

32. Questions / Discussion

33. THANK YOU!
GRAZIE!