When IBM (or rather, I*) announced the entitlements for Notes/Domino 8.5.3 licenses to use Connections Profiles and Files earlier this month, it was clearly stated that there would be an option available for those customers to uplift their entitlements to the full release of IBM Connections.
This is now available:
The new Connections Extension Authorized User part numbers enable customers to upgrade their existing Connections restricted use rights, obtained through an IBM Lotus Notes or IBM Lotus Domino product, to the full capabilities of Connections.
The entitlement to IBM Connections’ Files and Profiles capabilities, which is included with IBM Lotus Notes 8.5.3, provides an example of when customers might choose to use these new part numbers.
IBM Lotus Notes 8.5.3 provides entitlement to the Files and Profiles applications of IBM Connections 3.0.1 to customers, who have the following licenses:
- IBM Lotus Domino Enterprise Client Access License
- IBM Lotus Domino Messaging Client Access License
- IBM Lotus Domino Collaboration Express License
- IBM Lotus Domino Messaging Express License
The entitlement, provided with the above licenses, enables customers, as an example, to:
- Share content with other people.
- Find the people they need by searching across the organization’s content to identify expertise, current projects, and responsibilities.
- Stay informed of the latest updates from across their social network.
The new Connections Extension Authorized User part numbers permit customers with the above licenses to expand their existing Connections restricted use rights to the full capabilities of IBM Connections.
Some of the benefits from expanding usage to the full capabilities of Connections include the ability to:
- Collaborate with a community of professionals using activities, blogs, wikis, forums, and shared files, including rich media files.
- Expand one’s professional network through social analytics-based recommendations for people to connect with, and communities to join.
- Access one’s social data while on the go using mobile device support.
The new part numbers are as follows:
| IBM Connections Extension From Connections Limited Entitlement | |
| Cnnctns Ext from Cnnctns Ltd Entitlmnt AU Lic + SW S&S 12 Mo | D0N7VLL |
| Cnnctns Ext from Cnnctns Ltd Entitlmnt AU Annual SW S&S Rnwl | E0DA9LL |
| Cnnctns Ext from Cnnctns Ltd Entitlmnt AU SW S&S Reinstate 12 Mo | D0N7WLL |
The licence plus maintenance list price is less than 60GBP so that makes this a fantastic way for existing Notes/Domino customers to deploy the full Connections suite, and makes the competitive situation against offerings from Socialtext, Jive and Microsoft more straightforward.
I can’t emphasise how excited I am about both the entitlement and the uplift option. If you are a Notes/Domino customer (or a partner/IBMer that works with organisations that have Notes/Domino) you really do owe it to your users to investigate deploying Connections features into your collaboration environment…
* On the announcement… Whilst I still believe that my reasons for blogging (and therefore pre-announcing) this entitlement were good ones and based on the best intentions, it is fair to say that in hindsight I regret doing so. I have never broken an embargo or NDA in my time working with IBM (and other vendors) and do not intend to so in the future. In this case the information had only been shared publicly (and never privately) by IBM prior to my post so it was a grey area. However, my decision to post before the main 8.5.3 announcement was at its best misguided, and at its worst very damaging to IBM and other partners. At Collaboration Matters we take our partnership with IBM very seriously and very much regret this mistake. It won’t happen again…
