IBM has partnered with HCL Technologies to invest in a long-term roadmap for the IBM Domino product line and family. This means updates for Domino, Notes, Sametime, Verse, and more
.To show IBM’s level of commitment to stakeholders, the company is entering into a strategic partnership with HCL Technologies to begin delivering on the roadmap with the intent to release version 10 of the Domino portfolio next year. The goal of the partnership is to drive future development of the Domino product family, energize the offering, and protect clients’ investments.
This means to customers that the original fixpack featurepack and support only announcements are totally gone. IBM had previously promised small enhancements and bug fixes through more consistent featurepacks. They were staying away from delivering an entirely new version number for many reasons. One was speed of delivery, legal naming and all that stuff we geeks just say give us a 10. With this move and the below #domino2025 jam announcement, IBM has fully committed to enhancing the entire product family. Continue Reading here" Announcements on IBM Domino and Notes 10 and Beyond for numerous products" »
IBM has released what's new for IBM Connections Cloud for July 2017. Here is some of the updates
Verse for iOS 9.4 performance, scalability, and security enhancements Verse mobile for iOS just got better with enhancements to performance, scalability, security, and ease of use. This release contains general performance improvements for Inbox, Calendar, and Contacts views.
Connections: Get started fast with guided tours New guided tours provide first time users and experiences users alike with a quick view of main features and actions on the Home Page, Communities, and Files. If you cancel out of a tour, you need to clear your browser cache of cookies to have them run again. The new tours replace the "Welcome Boxes".
IBM has released what's new for IBM Connections Cloud for June 2017. Here is some of the updates
Verse
Verse: Preview attachments while composing a message
When you compose an email message, you need to be able to preview an attachment while in Draft mode so that you're confident you're sending the correct information. Now you can! Click the attachment to preview it in the Verse window. Click X to close it and return to composing your message.
IBM has released what's new for IBM Connections Cloud for May 2017. Here is some of the updates
Verse
Verse: Calendar delegation
Need to view or manage the calendars of others? You can now use IBM Verse to add people who have given you access to their calendar using IBM Notes. Add them to the Delegation panel, and open any managed calendar in a separate browser tab. When a new calendar notice arrives, you'll be alerted by a red badge in the calendar's browser tab.
Alain Amadou gave Kelly Hardart delegated access to manage Alain's calendar using IBM Notes*. See how easy it is for Kelly to set up and monitor Alain's calendar in IBM Verse. 1. Get the button to open the Delegation panel
The first thing Kelly needs to do is get a button added to the navigation bar. The button will open the Delegation panel where she can manage calendars.
IBM and Cisco partnered together to integrate Cisco Jabber, Cisco Webex or Cisco Spark with IBM Connections. Here are some things we found in testing the integrations. Of course, we presume you have licenses for Cisco and IBM Connections. Your organization needs to choose a standard chat client and direction. You have numerous options with IBM Connections Chat including Sametime, Connections Chat and more. However, only one can be configured for all of the icons and links in the IBM Connections interface. This means the business needs to pick a product. Once ou swap the configs, the entire organization is affected for chat. If they do not have Jabber installed they could be missing communication and awareness will not be working. Continue Reading here" Replacing IBM Connections Chat with Cisco options" »
You can register to attend virtually for the Cross Canada Collaboration User Group event. You can attend in person or virtually for this day of 8 sessions. Sessions will cover Watson, Alexa, Domino applications, case studies, the IBM Connect Hackathon and more.
Register for the Cross Canada Collaboration User Group event right here
IBM has released what's new for IBM Connections Cloud for April 2017. Here is some of the updates.
Verse
Verse: Automatically show remote images
Messages that contain remote images can pose a security risk. Up until now, if you wanted to see an external image, you had to click Show Images in each message containing external images. However, if you are willing to trust external images, you can have Verse automatically show remote images for all messages.
There's a new setting in Mail and Calendar Settings > Security where you can set a new default to Always show remote images.
IBM has released what's new for IBM Connections Cloud for March 2017. Here is some of the updates.
Verse Mobile: Android users now can view mail as threaded conversations
Verse Mobile is introducing visual grouping of messages and their replies into threaded conversations or threading. You have the option of viewing messages individually or as a grouped thread.
A thread is shown as one item in the Inbox or folders
Forwarding rather than Replying starts a new thread
IBM has released what's new for IBM Connections Cloud for January 2017. Here is some of the updates.
Verse
Sign and encrypt mail by default
Protect the messages that you send. Now you can digitally sign and encrypt all outgoing mail and calendar messages by default. Go to Mail and Calendar Settings in Verse and select Security.
Calendar Inbox
Make better decisions when responding to calendar notices by viewing your calendar at the same time. The new Calendar Inbox organizes all your calendar notices in one place. This feature is being rolled out gradually to all users. Available on or after January 23, 2017.
Connections
IBM Connections and Box
Box is now integrated with IBM Connections Cloud - Community owners can add Box to their communities so members can view files and folders stored in Box. After the Administrator activates the Box integration the Box app will be shown as an available Community app under the “Edit Community” - “Add App” dialog. To grant access to the files and folders in Box, the Community owner must add the Community members to the selected Box folder.
IBM has released what's new for IBM Connections Cloud for November 2016. Here is some of the updates.
SmartCloud Notes
SmartCloud Notes Administration: Refresh of the pubnames.ntf template
We will be refreshing the pubnames.ntf which will include bug fixes for Traveler and IMSMO as well as renew holiday documents that are due to expire in 2016/2017 (technote 1989194).
IBM mail support for Microsoft Outlook (IMSMO) - search your entire mailbox
IBM Mail Support for Microsoft Outlook (IMSMO) users are able to leverage IBM Verse search to locate messages on the server which are not cached on their workstation.
IBM has released what's new for IBM Connections Cloud for October 2016. Here is some of the updates.
SmartCloud Notes web and IBM Verse
Unsupported browser warning message
We plan to enable a new warning message, October 2016. When someone is using an unsupported browser to access IBM SmartCloud Notes web or IBM Verse, a warning message will be displayed at the top of the browser as soon as the unsupported version is detected. The message will say, "It looks like your browser might not give you the best experience.Click here for a list of supported browsers." Users will be able to close the warning message to get it out of the way. The unsupported browser warning message could be displayed before the user interface fully loads. It will display each time the user loads or reloads the page, and it will display in tear-off windows.
On or after November 19, 2016, there will be an additional impact to someone using an unsupported version of Microsoft Internet Explorer (earlier than IE11) in particular with SmartCloud Notes web. Users with browsers earlier than Internet Explorer 11 will see the new unsupported browser warning message and SmartCloud Notes web will not work. Users will notice they can no longer access SmartCloud Notes web from the navbar. We strongly encourage you to upgrade end users with unsupported versions of Internet Explorer to avoid any interruption of mail for those users, and to upgrade all end users to the supported browsers for Connections Cloud, for the best experience.
I randomly was looking for some IBM Verse information and ran across the IBM Verse Support Forum hosted and monitored by IBM. It was nice to see IBM Verse Team and IBM Moderator as some of the authors. Head over to the IBM Verse support forum to ask your questions and find a bunch of answers
IBM has released what's new for IBM Connections Cloud for September 2016. Here is some of the updates.
SmartCloud Notes
IBM mail now supports Microsoft Outlook
IBM mail support for Microsoft Outlook is now available for IBM Verse and SmartCloud Notes (excluding SmartCloud Notes Entry) users. The following versions of Microsoft Outlook are supported: MS Outlook 2010, MS Outlook 2013 and MS Outlook 2016.
IBM has released what's new for IBM Connections Cloud for August 2016. Here is some of the updates.
Connections
Drag and drop multiple files and folders
Quickly organize files and folders. Now you can drag multiple files to a folder, or drag multiple folders to a folder. Personal files can be dragged into folders you own only. Community-owned files can be dragged into community-owned folders only.
Nest folders using the Connections Plug-in for Notes
The IBM Connections Plug-in for IBM Notes now supports nesting folders. Organize your content in folders the way you want to with nested folders. Work with both personal and community owned files organized in multi-level nested folders.
I ran across this slide online for the IBM stance on their Open Client Strategy and it has great importance. IBM is opening it's server doors to allow you, the customer, to better choose your client of choice. Following the chart you find that the customer can choose not only the best client for the situation, but also the best that fits their worker needs and previous skillsets. Continue Reading here" The IBM Open Client Strategy" »
Now find content faster. Activities has added two buttons that let you open all sections or collapse all sections.
SmartCloud Notes Web
Draft email messages automatically saved
SmartCloud Notes web mail messages are automatically saved to the Drafts folder while they are being created. The messages are saved at regular intervals, so that the draft and changes made to them are maintained. This feature also prevents data loss in the event of a power outage or workstation failure.
Administrators
Mobile SSO Support for ADFS
Updated versions of Connections Chat, Connections Meetings, Connections Social and Verse Mobile apps are targeted for end of July with support for authentication against on-premises instances of Microsoft Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS).
Today, Sametime Connect client users enjoy SAML-based authentication with Connections Cloud using Tivoli Federated Identity Manager (TFIM). IBM is pleased to extend SAML-based authentication to work with Microsoft Active Directory Federation Services for SSO scenarios. This applies to organizations that use Connections Cloud Chat but authentication and directory services remain on-premises.
See the previous IBM Connections Cloud enhancement posts right here (and previous SmartCloud naming ones) on IdoNotes
IBM sent an email to business partners with the IBM Roadmap for Messaging and Social Platform. I was hoping to summarize it for you and give a link but I was hit with this:
So all I can do is give you the link and if you are a business partner then you will be able to see it. Or track down your IBM rep to help out?
UPDATE: After reading this I think there are enough public presentations from user groups and other events to piece it together. Some can be found in the IBM Connect sessions database I aggregate each year. The above video from MWLUG 2015 by Kramer Reeves may happen to contain a lot of the same information
IBM has released what's new for IBM Connections Cloud for June 2015. Here is some of the updates: Multi party audio video in meetings
New multi-party video capabilities in meetings is available from either the browser or the Connections meetings mobile application, and supports continuous video presence for a more interactive and social experience. Video conferencing is available at no additional charge for customers with subscriptions from IBM Connections Cloud S1, S2, and Meetings.
Today was the ICS Techtalk with an update on IBM Verse and the IBM Messaging Roadmap. I anticipated some defined timelines for IBM Verse enhancements and what we can expect in Domino Next.
One thing to note about the roadmap slide is the date for IBM Verse on Premises which looks like mid 2016 to 2017 now. Here is screenshots of some of the other key points. Other IBM Verse updates will be given out one to two quarters ahead of time (per Scott Souder) Continue Reading here" Update on IBM Verse and the IBM Messaging Roadmap" »
I found an IBM Verse technote on encryption interesting when I was investigating another issue:
IBM Verse does not currently support sending encrypted messages, though messages that were received encrypted can be read within Verse. While all transactions between the web browser and IBM SmartCloud are transmitted over a secure network connection, the actual content of messages cannot be additionally encrypted by IBM Verse using S/MIME or Notes encryption. This applies to both new messages composed within Verse and replies to messages that were encrypted when they were sent to the Verse user.
Messages that must be encrypted can be sent using either SmartCloud Notes or SmartCloud Notes web.
I am guessing this will come later but I never did consider this or see it part of any documentation as a limitation earlier.
IBM Verse Basic is the starter kit of welcoming users to try IBM Verse. We previously referred to it as freemium. The final statement of restrictions seem to be announced.
We want you to see how Verse helps declutter your inbox. You can:
Send up to 100 emails in a 24 hour period.
Send mail containing up to 10 recipients per email.
Send mail messages up to 100MB in size.
Have a mailbox quota of 500 MB.
Experience spam filtering for emails sent from outside domains.
I formerly mentioned the restrictions that seemed to have slightly changed just for the number of messages you can send per 24 hour period. and error you get when reaching the send limit. I am still concerned that one of the restriction they chose for the number of outbound messages. How can you successfully test the follow-up, threading and other features fully with a limit no other mail system enforces.
IBM has launched free one day IBM Verse Technical Boot Camp at select cities as shown below.
Date Location 4/22 Costa Mesa, CA 4/23 San Francisco, CA 4/24 Montreal, Canada 4/24 Dallas, TX 4/28 Chicago, IL 4/29 New York, NY 5/5 Westford, MA 5/5 Toronto, Canada 5/7 Atlanta, GA 5/12 Raleigh, NC
You need an IBM Greenhouse account to log in to register and select and register for the city. The agenda looks simple
Verse intro, Overview, Adoption How to make money with Verse Migration and MOM, Hybrid Environment, Administration Other stars in the uniVerse: Hawthorn, Bluemix, Notes Browser Plug In Extensibility and Future
IBM SmartCloud users are eligible for IBM Verse entitlements per the following:
Organizations with S1 and SmartCloud Notes subscriptions (active before March 31) have entitlements to IBM Verse. These entitlements will be deployed gradually. As Verse entitlements are activated for your organization, administrators will control assigning Verse to their organization’s subscribers. To help customers effectively manage the roll-out and adoption of IBM Verse, IBM invites you to contact us at support@collabserv.com to let us know your organization’s preferences for timing for activating IBM Verse
Make sure to read all the articles I have written on IBM Verse
Well I went ahead and tested the 25 pre day send limit in IBM Verse to get a feeling what user will see. Here is the errors and a bad thing. So the above error itself is not an issue but what happened to the entire message I created and did not know I was near some approaching limit? I can go back to editing it fine. Luckily it was auto saved in drafts too. I think that will be coming just beware you may hit the limit and not know you are there yet and then have drafted something long. This is not a problem on the computer but I can see it being a problem on a mobile interface.
IBM has opened the IBM Verse floodgates to attendees of IBM ConnectED and it seems we are getting the freemium model. Based on these specs here is what you can expect from freemium
We hope you'll find this to be a delightful experience. In addition to mail you also get:
Calendar, contacts, in-line attachment preview, one-click tracking of actions that need attention, and analytics-based identification of important people and content.
Upload, store, and share files with individuals, with up to 500MB personal file storage.
Send and receive instant messages.
Collaborate and interact with others by viewing profiles, status updates, and files.
Encourage others to collaborate with you by spreading the word about IBM Verse Preview so they can get their own account.
We want you to see how Verse helps declutter your inbox. You can:
Send up to 25 emails in a 24 hour period.
Send mail containing up to 10 recipients per email.
Send mail messages up to 100MB in size.
Have a mailbox quota of 500 MB.
Experience spam filtering for emails sent to outside domains.
If you pay special attention you will notice that there is a very extreme limit on how much you can use IBM Verse. I am sure to get the full benefit you would need to send way more than 25 messages per day. But it does not show a limit to the number of inbound.
IBM has announced the General Availability of IBM Verse on March 31, 2015 to new subscription purchases. IBM Verse will sit on top of the IBM Cloud hosted mail system and integrations with the full IBM Connections suite:
IBM Verse offers: Web-based mail, calendar and contact information in the cloud, including tracking of actions that need attention, analytics based identification of important people and content, in depth search, in line preview of attachments and Connections Files, team analytics services, support for mail threads, and entitlement to IBM Notes client (includes software download). 50 gigabytes of mail box storage allocated for each IBM SaaS user Spam and anti-virus protection Integrated instant messaging Ability to upload, store, and share personal files 30 gigabytes Personal File storage Post and view status updates Create profile and work with profiles in your organization and network Mobile access for email
You can read more and get links to get signed up when it becomes generally available from the What's New page.
IBM has announced an exclusive Business Partner enablement session for IBM ConnectED 2015 that is not on the agenda. Hopefully we will see and get plenty of deep tech info outside of some marketing buzz. You must be a business partner to attend it seems.
IBM officially announced via a live event and webcast IBM Verse, formerly IBM Mail Next,as a new way to interact with your email using advanced analytics and a new user interface. There was a lot of anticipation and marketing put into the launch. Here are some of my thoughts and what the press thought.
IBM launched the website and YouTube video for IBM Verse, formerly IBM Mail Next.. Sign up for the general public also seems to be open. The actual webcast of the launch is hours away.
Look for another blog posting later today about IBM Verse with details from the launch event. You can read all my my IBM Mail Next blog postings right here.
