What do you want to do with Connections?

Added by ~Yentl Dwotumisterakol | Edited by IBM contributor

~Yentl Dwotumisterakol on August 6, 2013 | Version 13

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Abstract

Abstract

Depending on what tasks you are trying to accomplish, Connections has an application to suit your needs. Review scenarios that describe how to match a task with the appropriate application.

Tags: getting_started, user_adoption

What do you want to do with Connections?

Connect and collaborate with IBM Connections. Whether you want to broadcast news, find an expert, collaborate on documents, or gather feedback, Connections has the tools to achieve your goals.

IBM Connections provides a suite of social business tools that you can use to address many business needs. The following scenarios present some common tasks and suggestions for how to complete the task by using one of more of the Connections applications.

Tip: Many applications are most useful when they are applied to a community. In the community, all users can share the resources and capabilities of those applications.

Table 1. Connections helps you accomplish your tasks. This table gives examples of possible tasks that a Connections user wants to solve, and describes the applications to use for each task.
What do I want to do?	What applications should I use?	Where do I go to find out how?
I want to organize a team and keep my team members updated between our scheduled meeting times.	Create a Community that is specific to your project. As a Community owner, you control who has access to the Community. Community members can post and read status updates, access shared resources such as bookmarks and files, and keep up with all of the latest news. Use Activities to maintain constant communication between team members. Post meeting minutes and solicit feedback through an activity. You can also assign tasks and track progress between your regularly scheduled meetings. Files provide an area to centrally store and share uploaded work with your entire team. Team members can view, comment on, and update posted files. You can also track each version of the file as it undergoes updates.	Creating Communities Starting an Activity Uploading Files
I want to share files with my team without sending them out as email attachments. It would be great if my team members can edit the files and comment on them.	Use Files to upload and share your files with a selected audience. Depending on the access that you assign, your team members can view and comment on files, or edit them and upload new versions. If you upload files to a community, the files are automatically available to all members of the community.	Uploading Files Sharing Files with your Community
I want to build a network with my colleagues to find people with skills that I can learn, as well as to offer my expertise to others. I also want to find people with interest that are similar to mine.	Create your own Profile to display your contact information, any useful background information, and your area of expertise. Add descriptive tags to personally index the information in your profile. You can then find other users with similar interests. Follow a network contact for the status updates to be displayed on your Home page. Looking for an expert to help you with a problem? Search Profiles to find someone with the experience you seek. Send them a message to connect and collaborate. Search through Blogs to see if someone is talking about your area of interest. If you find a blog that interests you, follow it to get notifications about updates displayed in your home page. Not a blog on your area of interest? Consider starting one yourself!	Updating Your Profile Searching Profiles Finding a Blog or Blog Entry Creating a Blog
I want to make sure that my team members are completing tasks to meet the goals that we established.	To keep your project on track, you can set up a To Do List in your Activities. Assign tasks to each team member and track task completion. You can control which tasks get completed first by setting custom priority levels for each. If you create the activity in a Community, encourage members to post status messages so that the whole team can stay informed about progress and setbacks.	Starting an Activity Creating To-Dos Status Updates
I want to get a discussion started about an idea I have and receive feedback from a wide audience.	Through your personal Profile, connect to people to create a network of a diverse range of people. Start a Forum to write about your ideas. Share your forum with your network to receive feedback. People can respond and present their opinions about your original topic. Contributors can also ask and answer questions and pin topics they want to refer to later. Forums are an excellent way to receive feedback about a specific topic.	Adding People to Your Network Following People Creating Forums Posting Questions to a Forum
I want to post a collection of policies and guidelines that people new to our organization can refer to. I must keep the documents up-to-date. I also want to provide related links that can help new employees.	Add a wiki to your community to create a central repository for documents. Assign Editor access to members if you want them to be able to edit pages. Add links to the Bookmarks section to create a set of shared resources that members can access.	Adding a Wiki to a Community Adding Bookmarks to a Community