Hear how Christian Brothers Services has evolved their collaboration capabilities from traditional Domino databases and Quickr, to on premises IBM Connections and now Connections Cloud. They will discuss the various technology and business decisions along this journey, many of their current use cases, and their near-term goals to further leverage Connections Cloud. Christian Brothers Services (CBS), located in Romeoville, IL, is a nonprofit organization that administers cooperative programs in the areas of health/retirement, property/casualty and consulting/technology to church organizations.

1. Social Connections 11 Chicago, June 1-2 2017
CHRISTIAN BROTHERS
SERVICES: JOURNEY
FROM ON PREMISES
LOTUS COLLABORATION
TO CONNECTIONS CLOUD
AND BEYOND
Tom Drez, Christian Brothers Services
tom.drez@cbservices.org
Charles Brown, Mercury Consulting
ccbrown@mercurycc.com

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3. Social Connections 11 Chicago, June 1-2 2017
Agenda
• Christian Brothers Services
• Collaboration History
• IBM Connections Cloud Decision, et al
• What Does the Future Hold?

4. Social Connections 11 Chicago, June 1-2 2017
Christian Brothers Services

5. Social Connections 11 Chicago, June 1-2 2017
Collaboration History
• Notes & Notes Databases on IBM Power I
(circa 2000)
• Quickr
• Sametime
• Life was good!

6. Social Connections 11 Chicago, June 1-2 2017
What Comes After Quickr?
• Quickr reached end of life.
• Needed secure on line team rooms.
• Enter Connections V2
• Upgrade V2 à V3 Small and Predictable
• Upgrade V3 à to V4.5 was several times the
effort with many PMRs and Issues

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Develop a New & Improved Quickr?

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Connections Cloud Decision
• Herculean effort to upgrade on-premise
Connections to V5 ($25k+)
• Upgrading regularly at about $25k per upgrade
not in our plans
• On-premise Connections Servers = 5 VM’s
• Not 100% functional
• Could never keep parity between on-prem and
cloud versions

9. Social Connections 11 Chicago, June 1-2 2017
Meanwhile…
• CBS considering its next-gen primary and backup
data centers
• Private Enterprise Cloud Market Rolling Along
• CBS Developed its Own Cloud Strategy
• Keep a Home Base; Push Apps to Manufacturer
Where it Makes Sense

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Connections Cloud Decision
• IBM Keeps Connections up to date
• IBM Provides primary and backup data centers
with BCP/DR plan
• Fair to Say IBM Has Better Security than us to
assist with threat management
• IBM Facilities and Applications Compliant with
Various Standards (ie HIPAA, SOC, etc.)

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IBM Connections Was First Cloud App
• IBM Connections Cloud was a test case of
sorts
• Complementary to past selective outsourcing

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Connections Cloud Migration
• Similar to Quickr à On-prem Connections
• Planned Content Migrated with Admins
• Train the Trainer; training made available to the
Admins but not really needed
• Admins Migrated Current Content; Left the Rest
• User Training and Roll Out
• Retirement of On Premises Connections

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Connections Cloud Migration
• Retirement of On Premises Connections before
new outsourced data center migration
• Implemented AD/SSO for Employees

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Connections Cloud Use Cases
• All Employees Security Awareness
• CIO
• Senior Managers
• Cross-Divisional Teams (SDAG, ASG…)
• Project Team Rooms especially with a mix of
internal and external team members

15. Social Connections 11 Chicago, June 1-2 2017
Connections Cloud Use Cases

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Connections Cloud Use Cases

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Connections Cloud Use Cases

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Connections Cloud Use Cases

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Connections Cloud Use Cases

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The Future…Possibly
• Connections Cloud Chat
• SmartCloud Notes and Verse
• Home Base May Shrink Like for Like Over
Time

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