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Each year on the day after my birthday I run out to a series of stores and buy myself a (or several) birthday gift(s). This year, I had one store to hit to get them all: Best Buy.

(I’ll spare you the part of the story where it pains me to shop there in the first place because of how poorly they handled an extended warranty issue I had several years ago – but hey, at least I’m supporting a “local” economy; living in the state where the BB HQ is located. — Also, I chose to buy my music in physical format to get the whole experience complete with packaging, etc.)

On the list this year: 2 Def Leppard CDs, 1 Def Leppard / Taylor Swift DVD and 1 Jennifer Paige CD. Pretty simple. I also was anxious to look for a handful of other CDs that would end up being impulse buys, assuming they’d have them in stock.

However after having to hunt someone down to find ANYTHING on my list I soon realized that most of what I was looking for (all released today) weren’t in stock. With half of what I wanted to purchase in hand, I started up my iPhone, opened the Amazon application and was able to add the remainder of my order to a cart in FAR less time than it took to find it on the shelf.

Then I got to thinking… what does Amazon charge for these CDs? I looked. $21. Best Buy wanted $27.99. So by purchasing my entire order from Amazon, I’d get free shipping AND spend less overall … AND I could place the order from my phone before I even exited the doors of the place I was standing in trying to buy stuff. Free shipping made it a no-brainer and suddenly I found myself saying “hey, I can wait 3 days to GET these CDs because I’m saving a lot of money by doing it.”

So I pressed “purchase” in the Amazon app and my order is now in process.

The lesson? Amazon, who can’t compete with the instant gratification that Best Buy offers via a store, got a $120 order from me because they competed on price, offered free shipping and provided a free iPhone application that worked perfectly and easily. They took away every barrier they possibly could between me and taking an order AND they did it with a user experience that made it easy and exciting (hey, I’m blogging about it after all).

Nice work, Amazon … I really feel like I got a best buy with you.

Kevin Stuff I Recommend amazon, best buy, iphone, user experience

My favorite part of my job description reads like this:

“Stay abreast of current and emerging technologies and actively seek ways to integrate them into the IT and overall business strategy where appropriate.”

I find that I’m often testing out new websites, applications, tools, etc. both because I’m interested in doing so, but also because “its my job.” I also find that some really good ideas don’t go very far just because the application isn’t all there, or is a bit complicated or because I can’t see people easily adopting it.

However, I’ve noticed lately that some applications pop up on the radar screen again and get a second chance because they have an iPhone. Some of those include:

reQall
Rundown: Call a number, visit a website or use the iPhone app to describe something you have to do and when it needs to be done. reQall will translate your voice into text, determine what time/date it is needed and send you reminders via email, the website or iPhone app.
Review: Handy app. I can how people would really integrate this into their workflow. For me, its just a great way to not forget something that I remember when I’m driving, on a weekend, etc. I simply call the reQall number, say what I want to remember and when I need to remember it by, and the app emails me and places it in my iPhone application. Simple enough.

Basecamp/Basetent
Rundown: Basecamp is a simple to-do and project management utility on the web. I like it because the free version allows me to send tasks via email to people and isn’t bloated with all sorts of useless tools which can quickly complicate projects that simply aren’t big enough to warrant them (not to say the product can’t be used for big projects – just that I don’t use it for that). I have a standing meeting with my team each Monday morning and I keep track of all of our high priority items on the site. With lots of ajax-y-ness, I can add tasks, assign to people and send them an email. Easy. Simple.
Review: Basetent (lite version available) is an iPhone application that lets me access my Basecamp project on the go. The interface is very good and it makes it that much easier for me to keep important projects and to-do’s infront of me at all times. Its actually extended the way I use Basecamp quite a bit since it made it that much easier to carry information with me.

TripIt
Rundown: Email your confirmation information from airlines, hotels, rental cars, etc. to TripIt from an email account you register. The service figures out what information is important and creates an itinerary with the information as well as handy links including things like maps between the airport you are landing at and the hotel you are traveling to.
Review: There are lots of features available and I’ve just scratched the surface, however this is one of my favorite applications. I used it a while ago and thought it was good, but the addition of an iPhone app lets me carry my itenerary with me at all times complete with handy links and a nice interface. Brilliant!

Kevin Mobile Phones, Stuff I Recommend applications, basecamp, basetent, iphone, reqall, travel, tripit

I think its safe to say that the biggest obstacle to our upgrade plans for Lotus Notes 8.x has been: training. How much? Of what? Where do we start? Comprehensive or just what’s new? What features are most important to train on? How do we explain ALL of the great new features in a time frame that will keep people’s attentions.

Enter: Multimedia Library for Lotus Notes

This clever little utility is a comprehensive rundown of just about anything your end users might want to know about the new version of Notes. Its broken into Courses (90 minutes – more topics), Lessons (a grouping of related topics) and Topics (individual, short sessions on discrete topics).

With the help of the Lotus contact, I was able to get access to the utility to demo and it looks very nice. Multiple lanugages are available and the price is reasonable if you assumed you would out-source your training (or consider people’s internal time to be financially accounted for already).

Our pilot group has spent some time looking at this as well to determine if people will actually take the time to go out and run through these training sessions. I want to believe that they will, however the reality is that people are busy and forget. We did a similar training program with a Cisco launch and found that VERY few people actually used the on-line demos (which were fantastic! – just not used).

Feedback on the idea is still trickling in as people continue to use the recently deployed Notes 8.5 client, so time will tell just how beneficial this tool is “in the wild.”

One last note, if you’re interested you might want to bookmark the link above. I didn’t and returned to Lotus.com (not remembering what the product was called and knowing it had a name that didn’t exactly convey what it was: a training/education tool) and couldn’t easily find it. I did what I always do in that situation: google Ed’s blog. – Ah, there it is! Found it!

Kevin Stuff I Recommend

I’ve been excited about the upcoming Lotusphere event for some time now. I often tell people that its the best “one stop shop” to catch up on all product announcements, resources, business partners, new tricks/tips, best practices… you get the idea. The community aspect of the event shouldn’t be overloooked as well. I’ve made a lot of great contacts by attending this event each year and it amazes me how helpful that is as I go about doing my job. I also think that the choice to hold it at Walt Disney World is brilliant. The layout, facilites and even the WDW community itself (’cause let’s face it, the resort is a community) helps add to the x-factor that makes Lotusphere so great.

If you’ve attended this event before, you know exactly what I’m talking about. And, if you’ve attended and stayed at a Disney resort hotel, then you are probably familiar with their “Top 7 Must See’s” TV show (YouTube video of someone recording that video). Its a 30 minute long commercial featuring a good list of great places to eat, shop and attractions to see at the WDW resort.

Some of you might also know that I spend some of my free time working on a Disney fan site/podcast of sorts. The fact is, I’ve been to WDW more times than I can remember; so I’ve seen that video more times than I care to admit. Which prompted myself and my younger sister to put together the video below a long time ago:

Kevin Misc. Info, Stuff I Recommend disney, lotusphere, netcot, wdw

I’ve been a big fan of Parallels ever since I started using a Mac. The software allows you to run Windows inside your Mac operating system and each release of the software has a number of great improvements that help blend your Windows and Mac environments together quite nicely.

I’ve also used VMware to do this, but found that the team at Parallels are really focused on coming up with stuff I didn’t realize I needed until they wrapped it into their software – much more so than what VMware offered.

Their latest version (4) is no exception. The user interface has been much improved with all new controlls/icons that really look nice (albiet a bit VMware-esque).

In addition, they have a new control panel area that allows you to see a somewhat live thumbnail version of all of the virtual environments you’re running. This is a great example of something I would probably have passed on if I saw a feature request for it and were in charge of development – but now that I’ve seen it, I think its REALLY handy!

Finally, they have an all new set of “status” icons at the bottom of the screen with lights that appear below the icons showing you exactly what’s going on with your machine. Again, very handy!

Beyond the UI improvements are a number of new features, stability improvements, etc. If you use Parallels, I’d highly suggest doing this upgrade. One note: the first few times it loaded after the upgrade, it took quite some time for Windows to actually be usable. I threw more RAM at my VM instance and the problem went away completely. I’m not sure if that was conincidence or some background tasks – but I thought it was noteworthy.

Kevin Apple / Mac, Stuff I Recommend mac, parallels, user_interface, vmware

For a LONG time, I’ve been a huge fan of the RSS reader program (for the Mac) NewsFire. Its such a simple, elegant application. In a world of complicated software layouts, this one was only as complicated as it absolutely needed to be. It was also fast and well designed. Considering the number of RSS feeds I follow, I never felt overwhelmed when using this application – which is pretty impressive!

A couple of years ago, a friend tried to get me to switch to NetNewsWire. I tried it for a few days but felt that everything was the opposite of what I loved about NewsFire. This tool had a busier layout, too many panes and suddenly left me feeling like I was following way too many RSS feeds, despite the fact that I exported the list from NewsFire and deleted the default set that comes with NetNewsWire when you install it.

However, there’s been a tipping point: iPhone compatibility. This application not only gives you a great iPhone optimized version of the software, but also uses their synchronization services to keep your iPhone and Mac versions of the software in sync with each other. That one piece of functionality has been the tipping point that has caused me to now exclusively use this software over the other (NewsFire).

What’s more, if you read the reviews of it in the App Store in iTunes, you’ll see that people have complained about its performance and limited functionality (compared to the full-blown application). I understand those comments, but the sync utility it provides makes me simply not care.

Its a great tool. I suggest trying it for yourself!

Kevin Apple / Mac, Stuff I Recommend iphone, mac, rss, software

I attended an IBM event last week where I had a breakthrough epiphany: IBM struggles to communicate the breadth of their product and service offerings in the same way that IT departments struggle to communicate the tools and applications they’ve deployed to their user community.

This problem is compounded by the following facts:

• New employees are always coming on board – thus you need to find a way to continuously communicate your products/services/applications/etc.
• People are busy – so however/whenever you communicate to them, you need to make it relevant at that moment, or they’ll forget it or ignore it.
• Names change – IBM changes product names frequently. IT shops do the same with applications, or merge applications which essentially has the same effect.

So here’s the question: how do you communicate everything you have to offer in a way that’s memorable, continuous and relevant so no one gets missed.

At this event, a lot of discussion was had around this topic. Lots of suggestions were offered: website listings, application catalogs, company newsletters, printed materials, meetings, training sessions, etc. There’s no shortage of possible solutions – but which one is the right one?

The answer: communicate in as many ways as possible – and as often as possible. That may seem like a no-brainer, but let’s face it: we’re all busy.

As I thought about this topic I realized that one group that really does an exceptional job at addressing this problem is the Lotus group within IBM. Here’s a (short) list of the ways I get info about Lotus products/services/etc.:

• Lotusphere – an excellent event that’s entertaining, fun and broken into lots of sessions & tracks making it easy for me to get into the right type of session for whatever my needs are or whatever my function in an organization is.
• Lotus.com – while I think there’s room for improvement on the site’s navigation, its still a great resources.
• Lotus bloggers – an excellent community of people who share code, ideas, successes, failures and all sorts of candid comments about how they use Lotus software in their daily lives
• Wikis – a great source for best practices, documentation, etc.
• Redbooks
• Greenhouse
• OpenNTF.org – a great place to stop by for some application jump-start action
• Events near you – proof of technology events, Lotusphere comes to you, etc. — all great resources to attend to get more information

… the list goes on and on. However, its a great example of how people within the Lotus community share information in a variety of ways. Perhaps the fact that there are so many ways to get information on what’s going on with Lotus products only makes us all that more passionate and vocal about what we want (need) and fuels debates like “how the iPhone should work with Lotus Notes” but, at the end of the day, I think you can agree that the coverage Lotus provides on their offerings is really impressive.

And… perhaps its a model for distributing information about my own company’s IT systems. Now if I can just get them to spring for a company-wide trip to Disney World, we’ll be all set.

Kevin IT Management, Stuff I Recommend blogs, communcation, it systems, lotus, openntf, wiki

One of my favorite websites lately is BNET. The site is a great tool for anyone in business but is especially helpful for managers. Their articles are well done and extremely well laid out. You can easily work through lots of information in a short period of time thanks to their executive overview style layout.

This week, they’re featuring a short video that couldn’t be more up my alley! Its all about how to present like Steve Jobs. They also have an additional article recapping some of the details on the video, incase you prefer to read. Incase you’re really under a time crunch and want an even shorter run-down, let me help by providing the bullet points I wrote down while watching it:

• Headline – Start with a memorable headline to provide a theme that will carry through the presentation.
• Outline – Tell people what you’re going to talk about briefly. Then, open and close each theme to help transition from topic to topic.
• Enthusiasm – Be passionate and excited about what you’re talking about. Use words like “best,” “biggest,” “exciting” and “cool.”
• Sell an Experience – Numbers and stats are meaningless unless their in context and relative. Jobs talks about how many iPods are sold in a quarter and then quickly breaks it down into how many are sold per day, or hour. — Its easier to envision yourself in an Apple store, watching that number of iPods be sold before your eyes vs. the entire quarterly total.
• Visual & Simple – Use as little text as possible in your presentation. Use images. Don’t use more than 2 or 3 images on a slide.
• Dramatic Flair – Make it a show.
• Identify and build up to the most memorable moment
• Reherse
• One more thing… – Probably Jobs’ most well-known line, it gives people a bonus or an encore to the event.

I thought these were all great suggestions. I’ve implemented some of these into my presentations lately and its been met with lots of success. I have stopped short of wearing a black turtleneck and jeans … but that didn’t change the fact that I felt very Jobsian during the presentation. That’s a good thing for me because he’s one of my favorite presenters of all time!

Kevin IT Management, Misc. Info, Stuff I Recommend, Tips/Tricks

I’m starting this week off-topic, so why not keep going. If I had a fourth blog (one, two, three), it would be about cars. I love cars. I’ve even blogged here about cars in the past. And right now, I’m looking for a new car.

Which has me in dealerships. Which made me realize that I should finally write down my list of the top 10 reasons you should instantly leave a car dealership:

1. “What can I do to get you in this car today?”
2. “I want you to meet my sales manager…” (bonus points if they do this but DON’T let you go back to see him when you’re negotiating)
3. A dealer who insists that they go on the test drive with you.
4. Showing you an offer that only has a monthly payment (and conveniently omits your down payment, tax, title, license, trade value, etc.)
5. Dealers greet you before you can close the door on the car you arrived in.
6. “What are you currently paying per month?” – They may need to find out what you want to pay per month later, if you’re negotiations are centered around a monthly number as the primary element, but the only reason they care what you are paying now is so they can make an offer that’s not far off from that … to make it seem like less of a jump for you. It says nothing about the “deal” you’re getting on your car.
7. Offers made on any of the following:
   - Post it notes
   - Sheets of paper divided into 4 quadrants (the 4 square box is actually a sales technique – and not an effective one)
   - Paper that was ripped in half
   - Paper that originally had something else on it … like the menu of a local restaurant
8. Dealers who use any of the following statements:
   - “That’s priced right.”
   - “You won’t find a better deal than that!”
   - “If you want to go all the way up to [some town more than 15 minutes away], go ahead. But this car’s right here now and it won’t be when you come back.”
   - When asked why another dealer has a comparable car for less, they answer: “There’s something wrong with that car.”
   - Any comment that bashes another brand
   - “I suggest you get our protection package.”
   - Calls a sales manager to “ask if the car is still available”
9. A dealer who says: “What’s your phone number? I won’t call you.” — If you’re not going to call me, you don’t need my number.
10. Anyone wearing a green suit OR more jewelry than you and your spouse combined.

Kevin Misc. Info, Stuff I Recommend, Tips/Tricks

I have a tendancy to post blog entries that people read as negative. Its not that I’m trying to be negative, I’m trying to offer constructive critism. I also subscribe to an old CEO philosphy: “don’t bring me problems, bring me solutions.” With that in mind, any time I critique something, I try to offer solutions for how to fix it.

But … sometimes it all just sounds negative, I suppose. So, let’s balance it out.

Lotus had some big announcements at Lotusphere this year. The two I’m most excited about are Notes 8 and Quickr.

Why I’m excited about Notes 8:

Its not the Eclipse stuff, although I can appreciate why that’s important (and just hope they can speed it up a bit – or that the beta version is just really really slow), its mostly the new UI. Notes 8 finally looks as good as Outlook/Exchange, if not better. I really can’t say enough good things about the UI and I think it’ll make people WANT to use Notes. And that’s important because of the second reason I think Notes 8 has a lot of potential: built in editors. — The ability to edit your documents, spreadsheets and presentations (or Word, Excel and PowerPoint files) within the Notes client is HUGE! Its easier, its more convenient and it costs less! As an IT manager I am willing to explore any chance of getting rid of Microsoft Office license fees out there!

And I haven’t even commented on composite applications! That is going to be HUGE. I think any company that’s had Notes in house for 5+ years probably has a few applications that really ought to be tied together. The idea of redeveloping these applications to consolidate them is a nightmare. With composite applications, you don’t have to. You can simply add some development effort to tie together the pieces you need. Brilliant!

Why I’m excited about Quickr:

My company has needed a product like Quickr for a long time. It solves the problem of not having a check in/out document storage area. It solves the problem of how to search for documents. And it organizes documents in a way that doesn’t require us to spend tons of time thining about a taxonomy that can be applied to the whole organization (which has historically been the thing that kills this type of project in the past).

In addition, the fact that its a Lotus product sweetens the deal big time! Notes 8’s UI is nice and clean and it has productivity editors … but now I can add to that all the “stuff” that Quickr does and I suddenly have a powerful suite of Lotus apps. And they’re clever apps that, too. For example, this dialog box will solve one of the biggest issues we have on a daily basis: where to store documents using the least amount of space/bandwidth possible.

I think the Standard editon of Quickr will be a great tool for us. But I’m also looking forward to the “pay-for” version which adds the promise of team spaces that look nice and are easy to use. Project collaboration is a big deal in our company and we’ve built a lot of Notes databases to manage parts of our overall process. Adding composite applications in Notes 8 will give us the ability to begin to thread these together. But there will still be missing pieces. These pieces are “team” elements (calendars, blogs, file repositories, etc.) that we don’t have a home for today (or that exist in one or more email files … visibile only to the owner).

So … I can’t wait for Notes 8 and Quickr. And that’s at the heart of why I’ve been so vocal about wanting to ensure that someone is paying attention to the marketing end of these products. I honeslty believe that these products could be the solution to some of the most common problems other IT managers have and its important to get the message out infront of these people because they’ll need to be armed with lots of details (and a fair share of hype) if they’re going to stand infront of their teams, employees and CEOs and say “I think we should switch to Lotus.”

Kevin IT Management, News, Stuff I Recommend