Workplace Meta Shutting Down

Workplace from Meta closes doors to new customers

by with No Comment Facebook at WorkServices & SoftwareSocial Business

If your organisation is using Meta’s enterprise social network platform, now is the time to consider your options

It was announced earlier today that Workplace from Meta, launched all the way back in 2016, is going to be shut down for good in 2026.

At this point there is is no official announcement from Meta , but from an internal memo and company spokespeople offering comment to journalists, it was shared that the only preferred migration partner is Zoom-owned Workvivo, an employee engagement app, headquartered in the Republic of Ireland. Despite no official announcement at this stage from Meta, Workvivo has already stated that Workplace from Meta is discontinuing and that they are the only official migration partner.

Workvivo have stated that customers transitioning off Workplace will also be offered other Workvivo functionalities at no extra cost.

As you may be aware, I’ve spent a fair bit of my time the past 2 years deploying a new employee communications platform based on Workvivo at a global financial services organisation, and I have to say that I’m delighted at this early suggestion that Meta have been working with Workvivo to build an automated migration tool.

John Goulding, CEO and founder of Workvivo has stated:

We know that the news today may be disruptive for Workplace from Meta customers, but we’re so excited about the opportunity to support and help them. Meta has made a huge impact in this market, and we believe that Workvivo is the natural choice for Workplace from Meta customers to transition their employee experience platform.

It’s our top priority to support customers through this transition, and our team is working to make this process as frictionless as possible. We put our customers first, and this will be no different for the Workplace from Meta customers. We are excited to welcome Workplace from Meta customers into our incredible customer community and see the amazing things they can do with Workvivo.

Workplace from Meta will remain as is until August 31, 2025, then turning into read-only and free, and being completely decommissioned by June 2026.

Reuters have reported that Meta’s primary reason for shutting down Workplace is to allow a doubling down on the metaverse and artificial intelligence technologies. A spokesperson for Meta told Reuters:

We are discontinuing Workplace (to) focus on building AI and metaverse technologies that we believe will fundamentally reshape the way we work. Over the next two years, we will provide our Workplace customers the option to transition to Zoom’s Workvivo product, Meta’s only preferred migration partner.

Any large-scale migration from one platform to another is never frictionless. Automated content migration tools ease the technical conversion, but platforms have different information architectures, capabilities and user experiences, and so even when the content is across, there’s usually a significant volume of tidying and finessing to be done. Then, as ever, the people journey is more critical than the technological one. Communications, training, and change management will all be key.

Migrating to Workvivo from Workplace from Meta is likely to be the most popular option – there are obvious similarities in functionality, and Workvivo’s product can be community driven. However, Workvivo is a broader employee communications platform (with features such as newsletters and digital signage), whereas Workplace is better described as an enterprise social network (as you’d expect, given it was based on the consumer Facebook platform). In speaking to many of Workvivo’s customers during the procurement process and at events, there are many customers for whom publishing is primarily a managed internal communications task, with more limited and contained social communities. Whereas on Workplace by Meta, the social channels tend to overwhelmingly dominate the platform.

For any customers facing the closure of their Workplace platforms, I’d firmly suggest that extensive due diligence is carried out around the best solution for migrating from Workplace, adding a new platform, or considering other options and other solutions. Whilst I can confirm that Workvivo is a great solution, it does have its limitations in specific areas (compared to Workplace and other competitive employee communications platforms). It wouldn’t make any sense to jump straight into the automated migration option without considering those pros and cons in significant detail.

On the other hand If you are a Workplace from Meta user, think of the announcement as an opportunity to stop and assess the channel’s effectiveness, and future alternatives and options available, before jumping into decisions. It could be that your organisation already has more appropriate options for your use case.

jiveworld17

IBM-focused, but interested in Jive Software?

by with No Comment EventsJive

If you’re primarily focused on IBM-based solutions, you may not be aware that I have a Jive-focused blog over at Jive.news.

This is particularly relevant this week as it is JiveWorld, Jive’s annual worldwide conference in Las Vegas. I’m blogging as much of the news as I can from the conference, including today’s posts on yesterday’s key announcements and Jive’s roadmap for 2017 and 2018. Do subscribe to the blog there if you want to receive my Jive posts in the future.

IBM Sametime banner

IBM extends Sametime support to 2021. What next for IBM in the UC space?

by with 2 Comments IBMIBM Sametime

IBM Sametime is a robust communications offering designed to accelerate your social business by driving faster decisions, with more complete information powered by the business experts in your organization. The suite of tools in Sametime helps unlock the value in your underutilized communications systems by integrating them into a more intuitive system. Sametime tools and services can be accessed from within the applications and business processes that you use every day.

Support for Sametime V9.0.1 is extended to September 2021.

Support for the following associated entitlements is also extended to September 2021:

  • IBM Sametime Complete
  • IBM Sametime Conference
  • IBM Sametime Communicate

More >

It has been obvious for a while that the future for the IBM Sametime brand and product set is not overwhelmingly positive.

As I see it, there are several key drivers for this situation:

  • The marketplace has shifted away from heavyweight on-prem unified communications platforms towards more nimble, lighter-weight cloud-based social communications tools such as Slack, Vidyo, Hangouts and Zoom. I’m hearing from increasing numbers of customers that they’ve either migrated away from Sametime or Lync/Skype for Business, or else are no longer considering such solutions in their budgeted plans.
  • IBM’s partnership with Cisco suggests that it will rely on Cisco’s well-regarded tools and services in this area in the future.
  • Sametime’s long-time need for on huge (1GB+) client installs and clunky Java-based browser plugins means that continued restructuring would need to be undertaken to keep it relevant in the modern world of mobile devices, apps and constant software delivery of new features.
  • The future of some of the underlying components, most notably Domino, but also the WebSphere stack is no longer guaranteed. We’ve seen a previous announcement of extended support for Domino (to the same September 2021 date), but there’s little doubt that further investment in unified communications solutions built on Domino is extremely unlikely.

All that said, I think IBM is making a good decision to very clearly commit to supporting both Domino and Sametime for the next 4.5 years. This gives its customers a decent runway to plan for the future and to consider their options. Many customers have been using both platforms for a decade or more, and shifting away will not be straightforward.

The challenge for IBM is to develop alternative solutions, whether home-brewed (such as Watson Workspace) or in partnership with Cisco or other similar vendors, that are both forward-looking and also of a quality and scale that can support both medium-sized and enterprise customers.

I’ve been impressed with the Connections Pink announcement in terms of plans to build a dynamic new infrastructure based on modern open-source components and services, with a clear migration path from the old developed-at-IBM heavy duty frameworks. If IBM wants to stay active in the UC space and keep those customers, I fear it would need an effort of similar size and cost to replace Sametime (or at least the components and features that are still relevant today).

Worryingly, IBM is now 2-3 years behind the curve in the area of social and video communications platforms and so those new solutions are needed now, not in a year or two’s time…

I was expecting to hear more of their plans announced (or at least intimated) at the recent IBM Connect conference, but as far as I have seen communicated, nothing has been forthcoming beyond a cementing of the relationship with Cisco and maintaining a holding pattern in terms of detailing plans for the future of Sametime’s feature set.  (This extended support announcement is at least helpful in giving reassurance that support will not be withdrawn sooner than 2021.)

If you’re an IBM Sametime customer (or partner), I’d love to hear from you… What are your plans for the future? Do you remain loyal to Sametime for the time being? Are you already in the process of migrating to other solutions? Do let me know via a comment or email!

IBM_connections-460x250

What not to miss at IBM Connect 2017: Connections Pink

by with 2 Comments EventsIBM ConnectIBM Connections

IBM Connect 2017 takes place later this month in San Francisco, and the last-minute push to increase attendance is already underway. I’m a big fan of the new venue, and the shift from Florida to California, and so really hope that the event is a huge success.

One of the interesting aspects of the registration push has been the unveiling of some information that previously being kept relatively quiet – if not under NDA, certainly out of the limelight

Dropbox+Paper

Dropbox Paper: Grow bigger, brighter ideas

by with No Comment Dropbox

Dropbox announced that they are rolling their Paper collaborative content creation platform out on a global basis today:

Dropbox Paper logoMore than a doc, Dropbox Paper is a flexible workspace that brings people and ideas together.

Paper supports all phases of the creative process – from start to finish:

  • A connected space to create and ideate together
    • Teams find flow together in Paper, where everyone can contribute to growing better ideas in a beautiful, flexible workspace.
  • Review and revise work in a single, shared space
    • Working in Paper feels more connected and human with real-time conversations around the work, so it feels more alive, and there’s less switching between tools.
  • Manage and organize work in Paper
    • Paper is accessible and always up to date to keep teams organized and informed around the work without additional task-management tools.

I’m excited to give Dropbox Paper another try (it’s been available in beta form for a year or so)… It’s a very simple way to collaboratively create content, and yet is hiding some very complex abilities. I’ll be testing it more over the next few days.

Paper_screenshot

One minor concern – Paper definitely reminds me of Google Wave in a lot of ways! I’m hoping that Dropbox have a better idea of the potential use cases and customer base than Google did with Wave…

IBM Speech Sandbox

IBM Speech Sandbox

by with One Comment IBMVideos

On the next WTF Tech podcast episode (to be published this week), Darren, Jesse and I spent a fair amount of time discussing Virtual Reality and our personal experiences with using the new technologies. One of the apps available for the Vive system via HTC’s VivePort solution marketplace is IBM’s Watson-based IBM Speech Sandbox.

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IBM posts 4th quarter and full year 2016 results

by with 2 Comments IBM

From the official press release:

Diluted earnings per share from continuing operations were $12.39, down 9 percent compared to the 2015 period. Net income from continuing operations for the twelve months ended December 31, 2016 was $11.9 billion compared with $13.4 billion in the year-ago period, a decrease of 11 percent.

Or, as the register put it, Big Blue’s blues diffuse: IBM’s sales drain now more like a sad trickle:

IBM is touting growth in its cloud and cognitive business units as the enterprise giant wraps up a year of double-digit revenue declines.

Big Blue said that for its fourth quarter of 2016, ended December 31, revenues were nearly flat over the same period last year and net income was up slightly.

There’s no doubt that IBM is still struggling to grow the newer Cognitive and Cloud businesses (up 1.4% and 33% respectively year-on-year in Q4) fast enough to replace the still declining hardware systems and Global Business Services (down 12.1% and 4.1% respectively). Given that there have now been 19 straight quarters of declining revenue, there’s huge and ever-growing pressure on Ginni Rommety and the rest of the leadership team to post a growth quarter early in 2017.

When UBS analyst Steve Milunovich asked Schroeter to put IBM’s turnaround in baseball terms—what inning is IBM in, he asked—Schroeter responded that he didn’t know. Schroeter reiterated the importance of IBM’s strategic imperatives and explained that the company would continue to invest in them.

“I don’t think the transformation of IBM ever ends, quite frankly,” Schroeter said.

On a personal note, I was hoping to compare and contrast IBM’s collaboration solutions revenue with Jive’s upcoming Q4 and 2016 results, but they are now part of the huge Cognitive (Watson) business unit which makes that all but impossible to do.

img_1583

Ruark Backpack II: Wishing Sonos offered something similar

by with No Comment Sonos

The new BackPack II transforms our R1 deluxe tabletop radio and MR1 wireless speakers into completely portable products. It frees these miniature marvels from the mains power socket and into the bathroom or onto the decking and the great outdoors. Placing batteries inside takes valuable speaker capacity which can result in unrefined sound, but BackPack II allows R1 and MR1 to retain their rich mains powered performance, but with complete portability.

A total evolution of the original, BackPack II attaches seamlessly to R1 and MR1 and once fitted can be left permanently in place as it charges automatically whenever the music systems are connected to a mains power supply. A full charge will deliver up to twelve hours of mains free listening depending on volume.

Whilst the material design of the Backpack II may not be terribly elegant, the use case it solves is a common one (wanting to use a wireless speaker or radio system a distance from a power supply, but still within range of a wifi signal – for example, in the garden or by a pool).  The device can be used with mains power day-to-day, and then disconnected and used on battery power when required.

I’d love to see Sonos or a third party offer a similar solution for the Play:1. 

(There have been several discussions on the topic on the Sonos community forums, with rumours that Sonos worked on a battery solution for a couple of years but shut it down. One can hope!)