IBM Verse vs IBMVerse.com

by Volker Weber

ZZ36273C23

One of the best reader comments I received last week was that IBM Verse solves an IBM problem and is sold as a product. I think this is very true. If you look a lot like IBM, then Verse solves a problem for you. That means, your company is pretty large, is multinational, has a deep reporting structure and you receive plenty of emails, that you need to work with between meetings. IBM uses Connections and has everybody in those Connections Profiles that Verse uses to display business cards and discover reporting structure for the people in your mail header. Most of the emails are internal, so Verse knows everything about everybody.

IBMVerse.com, the public free offering, is completely different. You should not be able to see the profiles of all the other people on IBMVerse.com, which you currently can. That can be fixed, but then you are alone and cannot reap the benefits of Verse. You cannot import your existing mails, your contacts, your calendars, at least not in any meaningful way. There are tons of features missing that you can find in competing offerings. And last but not least, you have to switch to an IBMVerse.com email address with questionable future. IBM also stated that IBMVerse.com should not be used for production.

IBM Verse is a very good upgrade path for current iNotes users. Its search capability is well above what most corporate mail provides today. Verse has great features to track mail that still needs to be answered and the interface is a joy to use. IBMVerse.com is none of that.

My current thinking is that IBM should close down IBMVerse.com for good. It's only giving IBM Verse a bad name. Verse was designed to be used in a way that cannot be simulated on IBMVerse.com. There were good intentions building it, but the execution is unacceptable.

Comments

I am very leery of anything IBM does these days, it's not about the technology. It's about the naming of their products. Today, IBM calls it Verse. Tomorrow, it will most likely be named something else. IBM's proclivity to rename products does, IMHO, more harm than good. And then there's their focus on the new, shiny thing at the expense of most of their other products in their portfolio. How long will it take them to switch their focus to the next thing, and deprecate IBMVerse.com or Verse? It's sad, but I can't seem to shake the experience I had with Foundations. But remembering that experience has served me well when dealing with new offerings from IBM.

Gregg Eldred, 2015-04-07

I agree with Gregg, I too learned much from the bad Lotus Foundations experience I suffered. When I see pages like this, still live today, I am not reassured. http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/foundationsstart

Bart Severein, 2015-04-09

Old vowe.net archive pages

I explain difficult concepts in simple ways. For free, and for money. Clue procurement and bullshit detection.

vowe

Paypal vowe