• The Four Hundred
  • Subscribe
  • Media Kit
  • Contributors
  • About Us
  • Contact
Menu
  • The Four Hundred
  • Subscribe
  • Media Kit
  • Contributors
  • About Us
  • Contact
  • IBM Sets Out to Save Email with ‘Verse’

    December 2, 2014 Alex Woodie

    Email, you will remember, was the Internet’s first killer app. Before there was Twitter or texting or blogs, email transformed how we communicated. That was 30 years ago, but today email has lost its luster, thanks to spam and a plethora of other ways to send a note or share a file. Now IBM is seeking to elevate electronic mail to relevant new heights with a new hosted offering called Verse.

    It may sound odd, but one of the problems with email is its continued popularity and relevance in the workplace. More than 108 billion work emails are sent daily, according to IBM, which makes email the number one form of electronic communication. Employees check their inboxes an average of 36 times an hour, but only 14 percent of emails are critically important to work, IBM says. That adds up to a lot of lost time ploughing through inboxes searching for relevant information.

    IBM obviously can’t force us to send more relevant emails. But it can alert us to the arrival of emails that are important to us, unclutter the inbox, and personalize the presentation. That, in a nutshell, is what IBM built Verse to do.

    Verse aims to be a one-stop shop for virtual workplace interactions. It’s not just for email, IBM says, but for meetings, calendars, file sharing, instant messaging, social networking, and video chats. The software, which is hosted on the SoftLayer cloud, lets users search and find information across these sources, and present it in a unified way.

    IBM seeks to reimagine email with Verse.

    The hosted offering combines analytics and social networking to weed out irrelevant content from less-connected senders and bubble up the most pertinent information through a Web browser interface. Algorithms will predict users’ behavior and preferences and prioritize content that’s presented in the users screen. Eventually, IBM plans to add a plug-in for Watson Analytics that will allow users to ask any question within the Verse product.

    Instead of a list of emails that can be sorted by time, subject, or sender, Verse organizes information in a different way. When you log into Verse, you’ll see a strip of photos across the top representing individuals, teams, and topics. If there’s something that demands your attention, it will have a series of red dots across it. The left side of the screen contains a list of to-do items and scheduling conflicts, while on the right side are the items that Verse’s analytics engine has bubbled up. You can also view email the old-fashioned way.

    Gilberto Garcia, the CTO at Mexican building materials giant Cemex, applauded Verse for its visual design. “I quickly realized just how much was happening beneath the surface,” he says. “It gives you a seamless blend of email, social, and collaboration capabilities that didn’t force me to jump between my inbox, calendar, and other apps to share and connect with people. It’s hard to even call this email anymore.”

    IBM plans to offer several versions of Verse, including a paid version and a “freemium” version delivered over the IBM Cloud Marketplace. There will be Android and iOS clients to go along with Web clients for full PCs.

    While it will offer a free version of Verse, IBM cast dispersions on other free email services that “mine a user’s inbox to increase advertising and monetize that data in other ways”–a clear reference to Google‘s Gmail. Google’s approach doesn’t work in regulated industries such as healthcare and finance, IBM points out.

    IBM says Verse is a product of its $100 million investment in cloud, analytics, social, and security technologies. The product was developed at its lab in Austin, Texas, and can be considered a follow-on to IBM Connections, which IBM first launched in 2007 as Lotus Connections.

    While IBM Connections runs on IBM i, don’t expect Verse to come down off the cloud anytime soon. Just the same, you can expect IBM to push Verse heavily into its IBM i installed base.

    A beta of Verse is available now to select customers and partners, while the freemium version will become available next quarter. For more info, see www.ibm.com/verse.

    RELATED STORIES

    IBM Connections Gets Business Social Makeover

    Next Up on IBM i: Worklight and Forms Experience Builder?

    IBM Adds IBM i Support To Traveler And Kills Lotus Name

    IBM Unveils New Social Media Solutions at Lotusphere



                         Post this story to del.icio.us
                   Post this story to Digg
        Post this story to Slashdot

    Share this:

    • Reddit
    • Facebook
    • LinkedIn
    • Twitter
    • Email

    Tags:

    Sponsored by
    PERFSCAN

    Revolutionary Performance Management Software

    At Greymine, we recognize there is a void in the IT world for a dedicated performance management company and also for a performance management tool that’s modern, easy to use, and doesn’t cost an arm and a leg. That’s why we created PERFSCAN.

    PERFSCAN is designed to make your job easier. With revolutionary technology, an easy-to-read report and graphics engine, and real time monitoring, tasks that used to take days can now take minutes. This means you will know your system better and will be able to provide better service to your customers.

    OUR FEATURES

    PERFSCAN is full of robust features that don’t require you to take a three-day class in order to use the product effectively.

    Customizable Performance Reporting

    Whether you are troubleshooting a major system problem or simply creating a monthly report, PERFSCAN lets you select any combination of desired performance metrics (CPU, Disk, and Memory).

    User Defined Performance Guidelines

    No matter if you are a managed service provider managing complex systems in the cloud or a customer analyzing your on-premises solution, PERFSCAN gives you the flexibility to define all mission critical guidelines how they need to be.

    Understanding The Impact Of Change

    Tired of all the finger pointing when performance is suffering? PERFSCAN’s innovative What’s Changed and Period vs. Period analysis creates a culture of proof by correlating known environmental changes with system performance metrics.

    Comprehensive Executive Summary

    Creating performance graphs is easy. Understanding what they mean is another thing. With one mouse click, PERFSCAN includes an easy-to-understand executive summary for each core metric analyzed.

    Combined Real-Time Monitor And Performance Analysis Tool

    With PERFSCAN’s combined built in enterprise real-time monitor and historical performance analysis capability, you will always know how your mission-critical systems are performing.

    Cloud Performance Reporting Is Easy

    Managing performance for production systems in the cloud can be a black hole to many system administrators. The good news is PERFSCAN analyzes all core metrics regardless of the location. That’s why MSPs and customers love PERFSCAN.

    Detailed Job Analysis

    PERFSCAN shows detailed top job analysis for any desired period. All metrics are displayed in two ways: Traditional Report and Percentage Breakdown Pie Chart. This toggle capability instantly shows the jobs using the most system resources.

    Save Report Capability

    Your boss lost the report you gave to him on Friday. Now what do you do? With PERFSCAN’s save report capability, any report can be retrieved in a matter of seconds.

    Professional PDF Reporting With Branding

    Creating professional looking reports for your customers has never been easier with PERFSCAN. Branding for our partners and service provider customers is easy with PERFSCAN.

    Check it out at perfscan.com

    Share this:

    • Reddit
    • Facebook
    • LinkedIn
    • Twitter
    • Email

    Sponsored Links

    NGS:  Attend our FREE COMMON Virtual Session on integrated reporting & BI from your desk! Dec 16.
    Profound Logic Software:  Now On-Demand Webinar: "See What i Can Do with Mobile Applications"
    BCD:  Beat Your Q4 Numbers with Real-Time Analytics on IBM i. Watch video!

    More IT Jungle Resources:

    System i PTF Guide: Weekly PTF Updates
    IBM i Events Calendar: National Conferences, Local Events, and Webinars
    Breaking News: News Hot Off The Press
    TPM @ EnterpriseTech: High Performance Computing Industry News From ITJ EIC Timothy Prickett Morgan

    IBM Adds Enterprise Power8 Systems To Trade-In Deal Fuzzy Matching In RPG

    Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Volume 14, Number 23 -- December 2, 2014
THIS ISSUE SPONSORED BY:

New Generation Software
Profound Logic Software
Fresche Legacy
Shield Advanced Solutions
Focal Point Solutions Group

Table of Contents

  • IBM Sets Out to Save Email with ‘Verse’
  • SAP on IBM i Kernel Upgrade Taxes CPU
  • Demand Building for Node.js on IBM i
  • Infor to Drop Support for IBM i 6.1 with ERP Apps
  • A ‘FastPass’ to IBM i Password Satisfaction
  • Ditch the Check Writing, Says VAI
  • A Power Tool for IBM i User Administration
  • IBM i Shops Climb Into the VAULT
  • ProData Freshens Up Database Access with RDB Connect 4
  • Web Dev Tool from mrc Goes ‘Responsive’

Content archive

  • The Four Hundred
  • Four Hundred Stuff
  • Four Hundred Guru

Recent Posts

  • Power10 Boosts NVM-Express Flash Performance
  • Fortra Completes Postmortem Of GoAnywhere Vulnerability
  • Guru: Binding Directory Entries
  • How Does Your Infrastructure Spending Stack Up To The World?
  • IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 25, Number 22
  • Fortra Issues 20th State of IBM i Security Report
  • FNTS Launches Managed Services for Power Servers in IBM Cloud
  • Total LTO Shipped Capacity Up Slightly in 2022
  • Four Hundred Monitor, May 24
  • Update On Critical Security Vulnerability In PowerVM

Subscribe

To get news from IT Jungle sent to your inbox every week, subscribe to our newsletter.

Pages

  • About Us
  • Contact
  • Contributors
  • Four Hundred Monitor
  • IBM i PTF Guide
  • Media Kit
  • Subscribe

Search

Copyright © 2023 IT Jungle