Earlier this year we went live with a collaboration platform for a European insurance conglomerate. We moved from an antiquated chat server and different IBM Notes databases to a fully integrated platform with IBM Sametime, IBM Connections and IBM Notes/Domino and XPages applications. To top it all up, we customised the user experience with a design partner to create a unique collaboration platform. We’ll talk about the starting point, the pitfalls, the successful results, how the platform is used now and what the plans for the next phase are. We’ll also talk about low hanging fruits, user feedback and share the learnings.

1. The European Collaboration
continues – a progress report
Sandra Bühler - Belsoft Collaboration AG
Marta Alvarez de la Campa – Eurapco

2. About the speaker
• Sandra Bühler
• Co-founder and co-owner of Belsoft Collaboration AG
• About 18 years in the Lotus/ICS world as a Senior Sales Consultant
• Main topics besides a high contribution in strengthening the position of
ICS in the market are project management and user education
• Guest lecturer at the University of Zurich with Applied Sciences’ for Social
Business, well known speaker at several user groups and co-organizer of
‘IBM Connect comes to you’ and ‘ICON Switzerland’ events.
• IBM Champion for 2014 and 2015

3. PLATINUM & CHAMPAGNE SPONSORS
GOLD SPONSORS
SILVER SPONSORS
BRONZE SPONSORS

4. • System Integrators
• IBM Domino/Notes
• IBM Notes Traveler
• IBM Sametime
• IBM Connections
• Custom Development
• Domino
• XPages
• Interfaces and Systemintegration
• Education for Administrators, Developers and Users
• Member of the Penumbra Group

5. About the speaker

6. The Client
• Eurapco is a unique strategic alliance of leading European mutual
insurance companies. The Alliance consists of 7 Partners that
operate in 18 countries across Europe.
• Eurapco Partners aim to benefit from their involvement on the
international stage to strengthen their ability to compete in their
local markets and are unified in one goal: to create value together.
• European Alliance Partners Company AG is the service company
equally owned by the 7 Partners and is headquartered in Zurich,
Switzerland. This company facilitates the exchange and activities
between the Partners.

7. The Design Partner
nbrion – solucionescreativas
nbrion is a small advertising agency located in Torrelodones, near Madrid, in
Spain. They are specialized in branding, social media and branded content.

8. The Project Team
and some more
behind the scenes..
Belsoft Collaboration AGEURAPCO Team

9. The starting point
• Small infrastructure with 3 Servers
• Critical but somewhat old Notes Applications with complex
processes and workflows
• The desire to offer their customers more and better services
• It’s time to renew and modernize the offering

10. Goals
• To simplify and enhance the communication and collaboration
• To “modernize” the services/applications
and offer additional state of the art functionality
• To implement a hybrid solution of local and hosted
infrastructure

11. Let’s start the brainstorming

12. Brainstorming result

13. The “raw” steps
Infrastructure
Work
Technical and
conceptual
preparation for
hosting
Installation and
implementation of
IBM Connections, LDAP
integration, webpage
migration to Belsoft
infrastructure
Installation and
implementationof
IBM Sametime
SW-
Development
Concept and POC
(IBM Connections as
Eurapco Member
Zone)
Integration ofDomino
App results into
IBM Connections,
Eurapco UI changes
Tests withreal data
User Interaction
Installation of Plug-
Ins for Eurapco
employees
Education and
consulting/support
of IBM Connections
Community leaders
Tests withreal data

14. The Infrastructure and some figures
• The hosted servers all run on RHEL 6.5 except the server for IBM
Conversion Server / IBM Forms Experience Builder (Win2008 R2)
• We migrated over 40 GB of data (files) from a Notes Database to
IBM Connections Files and today have over 17’000 files stored
within IBM Connections
• Went live on 19 January 2015
• See session tomorrow 11:05/Breaktout1 – “Using IBM Domino Data
in IBM Connections – A Real Life Story” by Andreas Ponte and Urs
Meli

15. 1. BEFORE THE LAUNCH
• Move Eurapco activities into specific communities
• Brand and customisation
• Adoption strategy
From October 2014 to October 2015

16. A. Training: Project Managers to become “part
time” Community Managers – DIGITAL
LITERACY GUIDE
B. Vibrant team community – Working out loud
2. LAUNCH OF E-JOIN
• 416 users – automatically added as members of the Communities
• Simplification for first time use:
From October 2014 to October 2015
Focus on quality!
NOT on quantity

17. 3. MOVING FORWARD
Ø Make the life of our users easier and reach our goals:
• @ mentions: The importance of default settings
• Join a community and automatically follow
• Instruction package – Ongoing FAQ
• Translation plug-in
From October 2014 to October 2015

18. 4. SPECIAL USAGE TO INCREASE ACTIVITY
• Eurapco on-line magazine
• Communities for large events
From October 2014 to October 2015

20. 5. WHERE ARE WE NOW?
• 888 users – More than double since launch - no promotion
• Kudos Analytics
From October 2014 to October 2015
6. OUR CHALLENGES AND FUTURE FOCUS
• Move to the next phase and reach up to 1.500 users
• How to get people to contribute – active users
• What to do with inactive users? 20% in e-join