I tried to upgrade my IBM Notes client to 901FP10IF1 from FP8.
And as luck would have it, you just.can't.do.it.
It breaks Sametime Embedded, it breaks the Connections plugins, it causes Milli Vanilli to win a Grammy. Okay, not everything can be blamed on the QA teams.
If you will be going down this path you will need the following, and Mac People there are updates for you as well.
These are on IBM.com Support/FixCentral which you now need your subscriptions up to date to download. Links will connect to IBM but you will need to login to download the files.
Version 18.2 (February 2018) update: The latest release of theIBM Connections for Mac introduces the following:
Miscellaneous defect and PMR fixes
PS - I am unable to reconnect my plugins to the IBM Cloud, stay tuned for further updates or let me know if you know how to fix it. To be fair it did not login before I upgraded either.
Who knew so many people still had Lotus Quickr? See IBM I told you people love it still.
There are many things to think about during a migration of data, most of which you as the client will not think about, or even know about, until you have moved and find it out. Do you know why? Because not very many companies, people, or Business Partners have done these migrations like I have over 20+ years.
These "Mission" posts are meant to help you in this process.
Last post I gave some basic information, now we can dig into some details.
The client uses a plain and out of the box Lotus Quickr so we did not have to worry about meta data or odd forms or whatever else dreamed up by some developers or over eager Admins. I know because I am their Admin.
We did worry about some things and here are some of those items:
My name for the most part is tagged to all the files and folders NOW which is how IBM Connections and IBM Connections Cloud works since I am the one uploading the files.That is the down side, however, once you get into the folders and find the files, you can see all the document details and it shows all the past information. Not a bad thing, but not perfect. Client accepted this as a good monetary trade off.
MACs lack of a Notes sidebar plugin. No comment. I am not a MAC user so I am not justified in arguing this point but the Windows Notes plugin is helpful....BUT not for the migration itself. Afterwards it acts like the Quickr Places sidebar app and drag and drop and such is fine plus you get Files, Activities and Status Updates in your sidebar to better leverage the rest of Connections.
Training users. Actual training is minimal, updating the Notes clients on machines and then the plugin installs and configurations takes about an hour a person on average. If you leverage SmartUpgrade or my friends at Panagenda's Marvel Client you may just need the plugins updated and that is quick.
Where is the ROI? Mobility! iPad access in front of a client meeting or potential client meeting is crucial and even better, IBM handles the backup of our data.
Which brings me to backups. IBM doesn't really backup the data, this is an issue to be addressed by me going forward, but IBM does synch data between their data centers and in IBM we trust, so again a trade off. Not to worry the Quickr server running on VM will just be sitting here if we need data prior to January 1, 2017. Just like the Domino.Doc VM server sits waiting for something we lost from the previous migration. For those keeping score, I have NEVER run that VM to find any files that went "missing".
Multiple Folder levels. It is this one item which has prevented the client from moving until now. Promised by IBM over a year ago, and it was delivered, just not the way the client wanted it to work(it also only now lets you edit and create folders from the plugins and mobile which also did not come out last year). We had patience in IBM and since I am an IBM Champion and part of various beta teams for IBM and advisory councils, I pushed for it all to get done, as did quite a few fellow Champions. So if this is what you have been waiting for, you have no reason not to move forward now. January is free for me, let me know when you need your migration done by and I am here for you.
Timing. Start testing as early as possible as you need a lot of testing scenarios. Keep in mind that uploading speeds are usually MUCH slower than downloading speeds. So that Terabyte of data will not get uploaded overnight, I don't care who you use or what they promise you.
What if they hate using the Cloud? Said, no. one. ever...who knows what they are doing.
Are there more issues? Sure, every environment is different and I am happy to discuss them if you comment or tweet, call, skype or email me.
I forgot to mention this was a Windows server customer, and I could complete the migration no matter what operating system platform you are running Lotus Quickr.
This is a natural presumption, but you know some of you out there just can't wait for your IT team to set you up sometimes. I am not advocating you should go around them and if your environment is that locked down, sorry, but for everyone else...
So I am going to remind everyone about the FREE and (mostly) client side benefits you have that can be installed to help you get the most out of your IBM Connections services. All of these are at the Greenhouse Catalog. But some have been updated, you do know you should update the widgets if you haven't recently? Right? Hopefully we will see some new ones during or after Connect 2013.
Save chat transcripts into a Connections activity or a community forum.
Business Card federates data from various sources such as the
Connections Profiles, Sametime buddy list, and the Lotus Notes
Directory. Links to the Connections applications are available as well
as profile contact information.
The IBM Connections 3.0.1.1 Plug-in for IBM Sametime supports:
IBM Connections 3.0.1.1
IBM Lotus Sametime 8.5.1 standalone clients (Standard, Advanced, and Sametime Unified Telephony)
IBM Sametime 8.5.2 IFR1 standalone clients (Standard, Advanced, and Sametime Unified Telephony)
4) Quickr Widget covers both Quickr for Domino and J2EE (I have not tested it, possibly needs server side help):
With the IBM® Connections Connector for Lotus® Quickr™, you can create
associated Lotus Quickr team places for IBM Connections communities. A
Lotus Quickr team place provides a central location from which a team
can organize, share files, and collaborate on documents. Every IBM
Connections community owner can optionally choose to create an
associated Lotus Quickr team place. Updates made in the Lotus Quickr
team place are aggregated in the community overview page, making it
easier to stay current with projects and work collaboratively. Access
control and membership of the Lotus Quickr place is determined by the
often fluctuating IBM Connections community membership; it does not need
to be managed separately. This version of the connector supports
integration of Communities in IBM Connections 4.0 with Lotus Quickr
8.5.1 for WebSphere® Portal, or Lotus Quickr 8.5.1 for Lotus® Domino®
8.5.
5) Firefox Connections Toolbar which I really like, when using Firefox and covers: The IBM Connections toolbar for Firefox facilitates
searching and using IBM Connections directly from the toolbar without
the need to navigate or search the IBM Connections UI. The toolbar
supports IBM Connections 3.0 to 4.0
