IBM to beef up content management, analytics in Connections enterprise social product

IBM will launch before midyear several new and improved collaboration and communication products, including a new suite for human resources tasks and a major upgrade of its Connections enterprise social networking product.

The company, which will unveil the products at its Connect 2013 conference in Orlando on Monday, will also announce improvements to its enterprise social suite for marketers.

The upgrade to its IBM Connections enterprise social networking platform will feature new analytics features so that administrators can monitor usage, such as collaboration trends among employees and engagement with customers in social media services like Twitter and Facebook.

IBM Connections 4.5, which will be available in March, will also feature new document and content management capabilities, as well as an "ideation" tool to manage brainstorming processes. This new version will also feature deeper integration with Microsoft Outlook, so that users can access IBM Connections features within their Outlook interface.

"This 4.5 version is a momentum announcement," said Rob Koplowitz, a Forrester Research analyst. "IBM continues to grow, add functionality to and improve Connections."

The content management functionality makes Connections a stronger competitor to Microsoft's SharePoint, which in turn is encroaching further into the Connections territory with its upcoming integration with the Yammer enterprise social networking software.

The suites for human resources and marketing departments are designed to give employees collaboration tools like microblogging, IM, video conferencing, activity streams, employee profiles, document sharing, content rating, wikis and discussion forums.

The new IBM Employee Experience Suite will include existing IBM enterprise social and communication software along with human resources management applications from Kenexa, a company IBM acquired in December for $1.3 billion. This new suite will be available in this year's first half.

Meanwhile, the existing IBM Customer Experience Suite, designed for marketing departments, will gain a new capability to let marketers push content, like ads and promotions, to social networks "with one simple click" and without requiring IT involvement.

IBM also plans to ship in March an upgrade of its Notes-Domino email and collaboration software, called IBM Notes and Domino Social Edition 9.

"We have an enterprise social business platform that is for social networking, content management, analytics, and can be leveraged across all business departments," said Jeff Schick, vice president of social software at IBM.

During the opening session of the conference, Jeff Bowman, global e-business manager at Caterpillar, the maker of heavy machinery equipment and industrial engines, said that his company is using IBM enterprise social products to extend its traditional face-to-face interactions with customers into the online realm.

"We're funding e-business at an unprecedented rate at Caterpillar," he said, adding that the efforts are at an early stage, but driven by a sense of urgency prompted by competitive pressure.

The online effort attempts to fine-tune the entire "customer experience lifecycle," including being where current and prospective clients are, such as in search results and social media channels, and delivering a "virtual" sales representative experience that manages "to make tractors sexy online," he said.

Caterpillar is also sharpening its online support capabilities and launching a new e-commerce platform that makes it faster and easier to purchase parts online, Bowman said.

Meanwhile, Ross Grossman, vice president of human resources at Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, said the company has been using Kenexa software and services since 2007 to improve recruitment, training and hiring, and increase employee engagement and retention, all of which have played a big part in the company's ability to grow fast and compete against bigger rivals.

"In HR, we want to have a meaningful impact on the business," he said, adding that his department now plays a critically important role in the company's operations and performance.

At a press conference after the session, Mike Rhodin, senior vice president of IBM's Software Solutions Group, said that the impact of enterprise social technologies in collaboration and front-office business processes like HR and marketing amounts to a "generational shift" that is transforming how companies function, and will do so for the next two decades.

Juan Carlos Perez covers enterprise communication/collaboration suites, operating systems, browsers and general technology breaking news for The IDG News Service. Follow Juan on Twitter at@JuanCPerezIDG.

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Manufacturer sues IBM over SAP project 'disaster'

IBM has been slapped with a multimillion dollar lawsuit by chemical products manufacturer Avantor Performance Materials, which alleges that IBM lied about the suitability of a SAP-based software package it sells in order to win Avantor's business.

In 2010, Avantor decided to upgrade its ERP (enterprise resource planning) platform to SAP software, according to the lawsuit, which was filed Thursday in U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey.

"Seizing upon Avantors decision and fully aware that, given the competitive pressures of Avantors industry, and the specialized demands of its customers, Avantor could not tolerate any disruptions in customer service IBM represented that IBMs 'Express Life Sciences Solution' ... was uniquely suited to Avantors business," the lawsuit states. "The Express Solution is a proprietary IBM pre-packaged software solution that runs on an SAP platform."

But Avantor discovered a different truth after signing on with IBM, finding that Express Life was "woefully unsuited" to its business and the implementation brought its operations "to a near standstill," according to the suit.

IBM also violated its contract with Avantor by staffing the project with "incompetent and reckless consultants" who made "numerous design, configuration and programming errors," it states.

In addition, IBM "intentionally or recklessly failed" to tell Avantor about risks to the project and charged toward a go-live date, the suit alleges.

"To conceal the Systems defects and functional gaps, IBM ignored the results of its own pre-go-live tests, conducted inadequate and truncated testing and instead recommended that Avantor proceed with the go-live as scheduled even though Avantor had repeatedly emphasized to IBM that meeting a projected go-live date was far less important than having a fully functional System that would not disrupt Avantors ability to service its customers," the suit states.

The resulting go-live, which occurred in May, "was a disaster," with the system failing to process orders properly, losing some orders altogether, failing to generate need paperwork for U.S. Customs officials and directing "that dangerous chemicals be stored in inappropriate locations," the suit states.

Avantor has suffered tens of millions of dollars in monetary damages, as well as taken a hit to its reputation among partners and customers, the suit states.

For example, before the go-live, IBM and Avantor had met with one of Avantor's biggest customers, which voiced worry that its EDI (electronic data interchange) with Avantor for product ordering wouldn't work after the changeover, and IBM assured the customer that it would, according to the suit. "In fact, the EDI interface immediately failed upon go-live."

"IBM, meanwhile, has already pocketed over $13 million in fees from Avantor for a systems implementation project it mismanaged and was unable to perform properly," it adds. "Incredibly, IBM is now seeking to profit from its misconduct by demanding millions of dollars in additional fees to redesign and rebuild the defective System it implemented."

IBM spokespeople didn't respond to calls and emails for comment on Friday.

Avantor's suit does state that IBM made efforts to right the project's course, albeit ultimately ineffective ones, following a June meeting with Avantor's then-CEO, Rajiv Gupta.

IBM "began to acknowledge the severity of the situation" and replaced many of the original consultants, according to the suit. These workers did extensive redesign and programming.

In July, "IBM told Avantor to cancel every pending order and reset the entire System in light of pervasive warehouse problems," it states. "IBM said this was necessary to discover the root cause of the problem. Ultimately, IBM acknowledged that it had to engage in extensive remedial efforts to redesign and rebuild the System that Avantor hired it to deliver."

"Numerous" IBM workers have told Avantor personnel that IBM failed to manage the project correctly and use SAP "best practices," according to the complaint.

IBM workers even called the project the worst SAP implementation they'd ever seen, it adds.

Avantor is seeking assorted damages in an amount to be determined at trial.

In many respects, the lawsuit reflects other high-profile litigation over SAP projects.

But Avantor broke from tradition by calling attention to its lawsuit via a press release, as companies suing systems integrators and ERP vendors rarely actively seek publicity.

One famous exception came several years ago when Waste Management sued SAP over an allegedly failed project. Waste Management won a sizable settlement from SAP after a public bout of ugly back-and-forth allegations.

It wasn't immediately clear Friday whether Avantor also plans to initiate legal action against SAP, or even has grounds to do so.

An SAP spokesman said Friday he hadn't been aware of Avantor's suit against IBM and declined comment.

Chris Kanaracus covers enterprise software and general technology breaking news for The IDG News Service. Chris' email address is Chris_Kanaracus@idg.com

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Manufacturer sues IBM over SAP project 'disaster'

IBM has been slapped with a multimillion-dollar lawsuit by chemical products manufacturer Avantor Performance Materials, which alleges that IBM lied about the suitability of an SAP-based software package it sells in order to win Avantor's business.

In 2010, Avantor decided to upgrade its ERP (enterprise resource planning) platform to SAP software, according to the lawsuit, filed Thursday in U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey.

"Seizing upon Avantor's decision -- and fully aware that, given the competitive pressures of Avantor's industry, and the specialized demands of its customers, Avantor could not tolerate any disruptions in customer service -- IBM represented that IBM's 'Express Life Sciences Solution' ... was uniquely suited to Avantor's business," the lawsuit states. "The Express Solution is a proprietary IBM pre-packaged software solution that runs on an SAP platform."

But Avantor discovered a different truth after signing on with IBM, finding that Express Life was "woefully unsuited" to its business and the implementation brought its operations to "a near standstill," according to the suit.

IBM also violated its contract by staffing the project with "incompetent and reckless consultants" who made "numerous design, configuration and programming errors," it states.

In addition, IBM "intentionally or recklessly failed" to tell Avantor about risks to the project and hurried towards a go-live date, the suit alleges.

"To conceal the System's defects and functional gaps, IBM ignored the results of its own pre-go-live tests, conducted inadequate and truncated testing and instead recommended that Avantor proceed with the go-live as scheduled -- even though Avantor had repeatedly emphasized to IBM that meeting a projected go-live date was far less important than having a fully functional System that would not disrupt Avantor's ability to service its customers," the suit states.

The resulting go-live, which occurred in May, "was a disaster," with the system failing to process orders properly, losing some orders altogether, failing to generate need paperwork for U.S. Customs officials and directing "that dangerous chemicals be stored in inappropriate locations," the suit states.

Avantor has suffered tens of millions of dollars in monetary damages, as well as taken a hit to its reputation among partners and customers, the suit states.

For example, before the go-live, IBM and Avantor met with one of Avantor's biggest customers, which voiced worry that its EDI (electronic data interchange) with Avantor for product ordering wouldn't work after the changeover, and IBM assured the customer it would, according to the suit. "In fact, the EDI interface immediately failed upon go-live."

"IBM, meanwhile, has already pocketed over $13 million in fees from Avantor for a systems implementation project it mismanaged and was unable to perform properly," the lawsuit states. "Incredibly, IBM is now seeking to profit from its misconduct by demanding millions of dollars in additional fees to redesign and rebuild the defective System it implemented."

IBM said it disagreed with the claims and will defend itself against them vigorously. "We believe the allegations in the complaint are exaggerated and misguided and are surprised that Avantor chose to file suit," a spokesman said via email. "IBM met its contractual obligations and delivered a solution that Avantor continues to use in its operations."

Avantor's suit does state that IBM made efforts to right the project's course, albeit ultimately ineffective ones, following a June meeting with Avantor's then-CEO, Rajiv Gupta.

IBM "began to acknowledge the severity of the situation" and replaced many of the original consultants, according to the suit. These workers did extensive redesign and programming.

In July, "IBM told Avantor to cancel every pending order and reset the entire System in light of pervasive warehouse problems," it states. "IBM said this was necessary to discover the root cause of the problem. Ultimately, IBM acknowledged that it had to engage in extensive remedial efforts to redesign and rebuild the System that Avantor hired it to deliver."

"Numerous" IBM workers have told Avantor personnel that IBM failed to manage the project correctly and use SAP "best practices," according to the complaint.

IBM workers even called the project the worst SAP implementation they'd ever seen, it adds.

Avantor is seeking assorted damages in an amount to be determined at trial.

In many respects, the lawsuit reflects other high-profile litigation over SAP projects.

But Avantor broke from tradition by calling attention to its lawsuit via a press release, as companies suing systems integrators and ERP vendors rarely actively seek publicity.

One famous exception came several years ago when Waste Management sued SAP over an allegedly failed project. Waste Management won a sizable settlement from SAP after a public bout of ugly back-and-forth allegations.

It wasn't immediately clear Friday whether Avantor also plans to initiate legal action against SAP, or even has grounds to do so.

An SAP spokesman said Friday he hadn't been aware of Avantor's suit against IBM and declined comment.

Chris Kanaracus covers enterprise software and general technology breaking news for The IDG News Service. Chris' email address is Chris_Kanaracus@idg.com

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