Tag: lotusphere

Free ICS Certification Tests at Connect14

One of the biggest draws at this event has always been the certification testing and prep labs. IBM is pleased to announce, for the very first time, that unlimited complimentary IBM Collaboration Solutions exams will be available for all registered attendees for the duration of the conference. All other Software Group exams will be available for 50% off the regular price.

As in previous years, testing will take place in the Lark room of the Swan Hotel.

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While that is pretty great news, the kicker is that there will be none of the pre-registration stuff as in year’s past. You show up, sign up, take your exam (although you do need to have created a profile in advance and also remember your user ID and password).

So, while at Connect 2014, in addition to the education, you can also get certified. For free.

Connect14: Creating Buzz by Announcing Updated Agenda Monday

In order to garner more interest, more reservations, and more “buzz,” IBM is publishing accepted speakers/sessions on Mondays. Yesterday, they released these sessions/speakers of particular interest (full list is at the link, below):

Application Development

The Mobile Disruption – Why XPages Development is Targeting Mobile First – John Head, PSC Group; John Beck, IBM

IBM Domino Application Development – Today and Tomorrow – Pete Janzen, IBM; Martin Donnelly, IBM

Extending IBM SmartCloud Applications in 30 Minutes – Michael Blackstock, IBM

Turbo-charge Your Enterprise Social Network with Analytics – Vincent Burckhardt, IBM; David Robinson, IBM

IBM Worklight for IBM Domino Developers – Mat Newman, IBM

Infrastructure and Deployment

What’s New in IBM Notes – Scott Souder, IBM

Sametime 9.0 Voice and Video Deployment – Uri Segev, IBM

Devil in the (Data) Details – Mobile, Cloud and Your Enterprise Network Wes Morgan, IBM

Best Practices

Simplifying The S’s – Single Sign-On, SPNEGO and SAML – Gabriella Davis, The Turtle Partnership, Chris Miller, Connectria

Uno! Deux! Three! Making Localization of XPages Apps as Easy as 1-2-3 – Kathy Brown, PSC Group; Brad Balassaitis, PSC Group

Show Me the Money! The Value in Social Business – Sasha Beerendonk

Next Generation Project Management: Collaborating Inside and Outside the Box – Mikkel Heisterberg, OnTime by Intravision; Mat Newman, IBM

Show ‘n Tells

Proper Connections Development for Proper Domino Developers – Matt White, Fynn Consulting; Mark Myers, London Developer Coop

How to Create a Perfect Profile: A Hitchhiker’s Guide to A Smarter Workforce – Mitch Cohen, Colgate-Palmolive; Chris Whisonant, Best Methods

IBM Traveler Highly Availability – Deployment and Best Practices – Daniel Nashed, nash.com

More >

These are all excellent additions to the Connect agenda. Whether a first time attendee, or a multi-year delegate, the speakers listed are fantastic. And, if you find them wandering the halls/parties/Product Showcase and you strike up a conversation, you will discover that they are very friendly and willing to share more of their knowledge.

Be sure to check back with the Social Insights blog every Monday for a new round of accepted sessions and speakers.

Early Look at Connect 2014: Drumming Up Interest

If you wanted to generate interest in something, anything, one good, proven method is to show the product.  And so it is with Connect 2014.

The abstracts are pouring in, but here’s an early glimpse of a few that may land on the agenda. The deadline is just around the corner, so put on your thinking caps and sharpen your pencils — so to speak.

Messaging and Collaboration

Messaging and Collaboration Roadmap — A Vision for the Future

What’s New in Notes and INotes 9.0.1 Social Edition

IBM Sametime 9: From On-Premises to Mobile, Cloud and Beyond

IBM SmartCloud

IBM SmartCloud: The Road Ahead for Social, Mobile, Meetings and Mail

Getting Beyond Theory and into Practice: Deploying Mail and Social Business in the Cloud

Growing Your Business with SaaS: Cloud Options for ICS Business Partners

Social Software

What’s New with IBM Connections and Connections Mobile

IBM Connections 4.5 Administration Jumpstart

Customizing and Extending IBM Connections

More >

Okay, we have some session topics. However, if you are a long time delegate at Connect/Lotusphere, you know that those sessions are all presented by IBM. Who, from IBM presents them, is irrelevant.  These are standard, first or second day sessions.

Not what I was expecting, especially in a post that may help decide if you will approach the budget level manager for approval to attend.  Realizing that abstracts haven’t been approved, so that a better agenda could be published, IBM must have an idea of the key sessions/speakers that will be presenting. That seems to me to be the proper items to promote, not the same old sessions (updated with current information).

Finally, it doesn’t look like they have any problems, right now, with hotel space.

How To Make Me Cry

. . . in frustration: Ask me to find IBM software on this site:

PPA

For a site that is used quite a bit, you would think that someone would be an expert at navigating it. Not so. I have said, in meetings with IBM, that it is “soul crushing.” Oh, I know what I want, it’s just finding it that kills me.

Which brings me to an idea I had for a session at a User Group Conference or even at Connect. It will be a panel of individuals from the audience and whomever from IBM that is responsible for this site. Someone will emcee the panel. All guests sit in front of a computer, at the Passport Advantage home screen. The emcee will ask the panel members to find and download an IBM software package. The first person to successfully do so will be deemed the “winner.”

I think that this session will take longer than the allotted time.

As an aside, my co-workers know when I am using that site, based on the sighing and the language that emanates from my cube. What do I hear in return? “Passport Advantage?” Then laughter ensues.

Just kill me.

Salesforce.com: Why Companies are replacing Lotus Notes

One of the beautiful, annoying aspects of the internet is that it never forgets. There are many, many examples of this trueism coming back to bite companies and individuals. So, let’s look at Salesforce.com.

Back in 2009, at Lotusphere, Salesforce was there, in force as I recall, to demonstrate how their offering integrated with LotusLive. Oh, it was a joyful time.

. . . At IBM’s Lotusphere event, salesforce.com will showcase how customers can bring together Salesforce CRM with LotusLive and Lotus Notes, to harness the power and innovation of cloud computing within their enterprises and across their customers.

Salesforce.com has also entered into an agreement with IBM to work together to further enable technology interoperability and joint customer success for businesses that use solutions from both companies.
“The cloud computing model offers customers a low-cost, low-risk way to manage their IT infrastructure,” said Polly Sumner, President, Platform, Alliances and Services, salesforce.com. “Bringing together Salesforce CRM and LotusLive can help customers further leverage cloud computing to streamline their communication and collaboration processes.”

Wow, kittens AND unicorns. It was beautiful.

Here we are, at the end of 2012. How’s that relationship between IBM and Salesforce working out?

Well, the reality is that Notes penetrated companies pretty darn well back in the 90’s (like a Nirvana song permeated the radio waves), and the departmental applications sprouted and filled all the holes that IT often couldn’t get to. Love it or hate it, Notes became a mainstay platform of the enterprise. In a recent survey we did of our Dreamforce 2012 attendees, we found that 73% did indeed still use Lotus Notes. And that 70.3% were considering replacing Lotus Notes, the majority within the year.

No hard numbers, as in “number of respondants,” but that doesn’t really matter. Of Salesforce’s customers at Dreamforce, 73% of their customers use Lotus IBM Notes and Domino. Of those respondants, as I read it, 70.3% of the 73% are looking to replace it.

[Blog intermission] I am rather shocked that there were that many IBM Notes and Domino customers attending. Consider that IBM probably has less than 50% of the total messaging market, and that of that number, 73% were at Dreamforce. I would venture to say that only other place on Earth, where more than 73% of the audience is IBM Notes and Domino customers is at Connect. Or one of the many User Group conferences held around the world.

What the heck happened from 2009 until now that soured the once exceptional relationship between IBM and Salesforce? Remember, it was all kittens, sunshine, and unicorns back in 2009.

If you read the comments to the Salesforce post, and I highly recommend that you do, Ed Brill chimes in. But then, so does Steve Wood, VP of Platform for Salesforce:

Let me start by making a bold statement: we like Lotus Notes! We also have a huge respect for Lotus Notes developers. It has been a transformational platform for many businesses. It illustrated how empowering the business to “do more” with software can result in amazing things. However, it’s old. And I think I could probably get you to agree that IBM has under-invested. It’s client/server (more on xpages later), users find the product to be pretty clunky from a UI perspective, workflow has to be coded, and it doesn’t REALLY have reporting (it has views). It’s just kind of… well… old and tired. All of this stuff means that Lotus Notes users and developers are looking for a new player – we hear that from surveying just those people. They like Lotus and what it does, but they feel trapped in an aging and underinvested platform – that’s where we see our opportunity (and we’re investing heavily).

I wonder if Salesforce will be at Connect?

Link: Salesforce.com Demonstrates Cloud Computing Solutions at IBM Lotusphere 2009

Link: Here’s Why Companies are Replacing Lotus Notes (And You Should Too)

“Last Chance” for Something I’ve Already Booked

I never seem to really understand the need for a “last chance” e-mail, one that should never have been sent. For example:

Connect13

The reservations system knows that I am registered for this event. It also knows that I have exercised an option to have a discount applied to the registration. The reservations system knows all of this and more about me. Yet, some other system feels it’s important to remind me of an action that I have already performed.

I really don’t understand.

Oh, I’m certain someone will point out to me that there are two/three/hundred’s of systems that handle a conference and it’s reservations systems. That, perhaps, none of those systems talk to one another. If that is the case, it strikes me as very odd, considering how “silos” are bad. It’s funny that not one of those systems could spit out a “confirmed reservations” list and another system compare that output to a “who has attended in the past but not yet registered” list. The result could be a better mailing. That same process could feed the next day’s telemarketing campaign, so that registered attendees are not bothered by some nut trying to sell something that has already been purchased.

Which brings me to my final issue:

Connect13-2

What the heck is this? Still a work-in-progress?

I understand that this is not a site that is run or maintained by the conference organizer, however it is a representation of your organization. Further, the running of the site and all of its content must have your approval, after all, it is using your name, your conference name, and your logo.

Regardless of the number of pestering e-mails and calls and the “still in progress” landing page, I will be attending Lotusphere Connect 2013. I hope to see you there.