As many of you know, we’re in the process of transitioning the CA Communities to a new social business platform powered by Jive Software. So because the official launch is coming up soon and technology migrations can create both excitement and anxiety, I thought it would be a good idea to discuss some of the new features and capabilities the new platform will provide.
Sound good? Great, then let’s do some Jive talkin’!
Whenever I’m answering questions about the switch, I say it’s like moving from a Windows machine to a Mac. In Windows, you have your My Documents folder, and you organize your files in a way that makes sense to you with sub-folders and file names and so on. On a Mac, it’s more about the front-end application experience than the file structure, so you’ll spend more time playing with pictures in iPhoto than organizing them in folders. So how does this analogy relate to the new CA Communities architecture? In a few ways:
Activity Streams – Instead of going into a community, finding a thread and clicking into relevant content, Jive enables you to create custom activity streams that deliver that information directly to you. For example, if you’re a member of the Clarity and Infrastructure Management communities, you used to have to go to separate pages to keep up on those products. With activity streams, that hierarchical structure will be gone, so once you set up your preferences, you’ll have all the information you want in one place.
Consistent Look and Feel – Ever see an interesting page in one community and realize a similar page doesn’t even exist in another? That won’t happen anymore. The new platform will be bringing a consistent experience across all communities, so you’ll always know what kind of information is in them and where to go to find it.
Seamless Integration with the Outside World – As a social business platform, Jive has been built to connect with a variety of applications and systems you use every day. For example:
- By using hash-tags, we can pull relevant conversations from Twitter and Facebook into the communities and push replies back out to those sites, which helps you focus more on what is being discussed, rather than where it’s happening.
- In addition to customizing your community profile with your CA experience and expertise, you can directly connect to your LinkedIn profile, expanding your online presence and network.
- Jive comes equipped with ready-made connections and integration's to popular third-party experiences, such as Salesforce.com, which means the communities will be able to scale and evolve with our needs over time.
OK, I admit that my analogy may have broken down here and there, but my overarching point stands: With Jive, community members are going to have a more modern, consistent and integrated user experience that removes the barriers between them and the content and conversations that are important to them.
Will it be an adjustment? Absolutely. But once you experience the communities in this way, I’m confident you’ll never want to go back. It’s like being at the water cooler and realizing that every conversation taking place is one you’re interested in – and the best part is, Jive brings the water cooler to you.
Sam Creek is a Sr. Principal on the Customer Intelligence team at CA Technologies. Sam has been involved with the development of communities and social media strategies for CA customers and employees for the past five years.