WIN KUDOS BADGES AT Lotusphere 2012 #LS12

Ok so we are at Lotusphere so we figured we had better give something away.Why? Well it is Lotusphere after all and we are having a great time!

So just for the next week anyone that retweets this and follows our @kudosbadges twitter account will automatically be entered into a draw to win 1000 User Enterprise License to Kudos Badges. So if you use Connections, or are even considering rolling out Connections hurry up and enter now!

If anyone wants a demo of Kudos Badges please ping us on twitter or email us at kudos@kudosbadges.com

Why Gamification for IBM Connections?

Since we launched Kudos Badges ago we have been swamped with clients wanting demos and presentations around the solution. The overwhelming response from clients is that instantly they get it. They understand how gamification can help them drive the adoption and ultimately the business value they get from IBM Connections. However we have also had a few people comment that they don't really understand gamification or don't believe that it works so I thought it was worth putting down why gamification works with IBM Connections.

Gamification or Game Mechanics leverages the fact that all of us have a basic drive to receive status and rewards. It really is simple. Most people like recognition, they like to receive rewards and earn status. People like to progress to the next level and move up ranks. These needs and desires can be leveraged to encourage users to engage in specific behaviour, drive user adoption, and drive performance.

But it isn't just about the rewards either. Kudos Badges for IBM Connections leverages game mechanics to help drive user adoption and participation across the full capabilities of IBM Connections. Through the use of game mechanics Kudos Badges creates a reward and recognition mechanism that not only awards achievements but also helps guide the user on how they can improve their usage of IBM Connections for better business outcomes.

When we designed Kudos Badges for IBM Connections we had 3 primary design goals:

Design Goal 1) Leverage Gamification or Game Mechanics to drive user participation and adoption of IBM Connections. We wanted to reward users that contribute valuable content. We wanted to highlight experts or experienced users so others could learn from them. We wanted to provide users with status and recognition as a direct result of not only their actions in Connections but also the actions of others around the content that they create. For example in you create a blog post in Connections that is great! You earn a Kudos Point. However if a heap of people comment on that blog post, or recommend the blog post, then that content you created has higher value, and hence you might received 5 or 10 Kudos Points.

Design Goal 2) We wanted to not only have people win badges but use the fact that they receive a reward or badge as a mechanism to educated and guide them to use and leverage the more advanced features of IBM Connections. We often find with our Connections clients that users focus on one or two particular areas. Thru Kudos Badges we wanted to expand their understanding of both the business value of using Connections but also guide them to use more advanced features of Connections.

When users "win" rewards such as badges, these badges are designed to not only recognise the good work a person has done, but also to show them the business value of what they have done and to encourage them to expand their usage of Connections with more advanced features. For example when you complete an activity you might receive a "Activity Done!" badge. This is neat off course, however the message that accompanies the badge might then encourage you to consider creating an Activity Template. Or another example might be that if you create a heap of status updates, you might win a Badge that not only recognising that you are contributing, but also suggests that maybe you should create a Blog for the longer status updates. When you upload files you might earn Kudos Points, but the rewards will encourage you to also tag those files, or to group them into folders.

Design Goal 3) We wanted to ensure that Kudos Badges was both customisable as well as extensible. We know that every organisation is different and that the Kudos Point value of some Connections actions would be different for different organisations and different business objectives. We wanted organisations to be able to easily tweak Kudos Badges. We also wanted to allow clients to build their own badges and rewards that drive users to deliver on their business objectives or goals.

We wanted to make Kudos Badges extensible so that organisations can leverage game mechanics drive behavior in other applications. As a part of this we also wanted Kudos Badges to not only be about the behaviour and actions of users within Connections but also outside of Connections. Kudos Badges allows organisations to integrate external applications such as their Sales Force Automation, CRM's, HR Systems, etc so that they can also leverage gamification to drive behaviour within those systems.

ISW has performed many implementations of IBM Connections and we have found that a significant factor in organisations driving real business value is ensuring strong user adoption. In addition, providing guidance to users to leverage all of the capabilities of Connections rather than just individual capabilities is a key success factor. The key is to help users understand "Why?" they should leverage social software to work better. An important strategy for encouraging user adoption is providing reward mechanism's, both tangible and intangible. Kudos Badges for IBM Connections provides this strategy in a very powerful and flexible way.

We are at Lotusphere this week in Orlando so if you would like to catch up for a one on one demo of Kudos Badges get in touch at kudos@kudosbadges.com or ping us on twitter at @kudosbadges

Announcing Kudos Badges for IBM Connections!

 I can't tell you how excited I am to finally announce Kudos Badges for IBM Connections! I have been holding my tongue over the last few weeks before we were finally ready to launch what I believe is an awesome capability for Connections. I have been doing a few sneak peak demos for a few clients, friends, and colleages and have received fantastic feedback so I am pumped to finally put it out there for all to see.

 We have put together www.kudosbadges.com with plenty of information and screenshots of the product so that is the best place to get the details.

So in short what is it?

Kudos Badges for IBM Connections is a flexible gamification engine for IBM Connections. By providing achievements and rewards (Kudos Badges), rank and leaderboards (Kudos Rank), and missions (Kudos Missions), organisations can dramatically improve their user engagement and adoption of IBM Connections.

In addition Kudos Badges is an extensible platform that can leverage game theory to provide performance management mechanics and reward systems for applications outside of IBM Connections such as HR, Sales Force Management, Help Desks, and many more.

So why have we built it?

Well ISW done plenty of roll outs of IBM Connections and we firmly believe that the key to success with Connections is driving user adoption. We have a number of strategies to this effect that we execute with our clients and this is now a new one to add. Gamification really does work. I have seen the results in our own organistion and look forward to seeing the results with a few clients. In designing Kudos Badges for IBM Connections we have put a lot of effort into trying to ensure it isn't just about earning Kudos Badges or moving up the Kudos Leaderboard, but rather encouraging users to explore features they may have not tried yet. Education of the capabilities and the "Why I should use it?" is a key driver for user adoption so we have tried to ensure Kudos Badges helps deliver on this.

In addition we wanted to be able to add value to Connections and enable our clients to reward users for not only their work in Connections but also their work outside of Connections. I will blog more above it in coming days however in short the Kudos Badges engine is AWESOME! The system is driven by creating metrics that track activity, both inside of and outside of Connections. These metrics are then used to create rewards, Kudos Badges, and allocate Kudos Points for leaderboard advancement. For example one client after a early demo of Kudos Badges asked if we could use it to recognise people that have been thanked by their peers. After about 3 minutes thinking the answer was absolutely yes! We now have badges awarded for people that are thanked within Connections by their peers a number of times. The great thing about all of this is that the Kudos Metrics and Kudos Badges are all configured via a special interface within Connections that administrators can have access to.

So how does it work?

Kudos Badges works by tracking metrics around what users do within IBM Connections. For example when a user posts a Status Update, they get a Kudos Point. When they create a blog, they might get 5 Kudos Points. When someone recommends a file that someone else created, they get 1 Kudos Point and the receiver of the recommendation gets 3 Kudos Points. There are hundreds of potential actions within IBM Connections and Kudos Metrics enables us to track them and reward users for their behaviour.

Kudos Metrics are used to award both Kudos Leaderboard points as well as award Kudos Badges. All of the metrics can be customised and you can even create your own metrics and badges. Kudos Badges comes with a heap of predefined metrics and badges to make it easy to get started. They have been designed to not only reward behaviour but also to encourage users to take further action and educate them on the broader capabilities of IBM Connections.

In addition to metrics within IBM Connections, Kudos Badges enables you to create metrics for actions and behaviour in external systems. These external metrics can then be used to award custom badges as well as contribute to a users leaderboard score and rank. For example you may have a sales force system that you want to encourage specific behaviour. Or maybe HR Performance Objectives that you want to reward users for achieving. The options are endless!

One of the keys to Kudos Badges is the fact that while you get rewarded with Kudos Points for your actions, such as uploading a file to share, you gain even more points for the actions of others, such as recomending your file as valuable content. As in real life the most valuable Kudos is awarded to you by others!

Another great capability is the fact that all the Kudos Metrics and Kudos Badges are completely configurable all via a Connections interface for Administrators. If you think a particular action is worth more, you can change it. If you want to create your custom own Badges then go ahead! The system is incredibly flexible and while we have provided heaps of rewards by default you can tweak them or add to them as you please.

I would like to recognise the efforts of the Kudos Team. You have each done a great job in taking the vision of Kudos Badges, and not only making it a reality, but taking it well beyond the initial ideas.

We are already planning the next release of Kudos Badges for the next quarter and have some great ideas that will take the product to another level. We are also working on our next Top Secret solution for IBM Connections, this one being a whole new capability for Connections! We would love to hear your ideas of what else we could do and off course if you would like to try Kudos Badges out please do get in touch!