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For as long as I can remember I’ve had some great, short business tips in the back of my mind at all times. Little snippets of information that I assumed I’ve learned over time. This weekend I was cleaning out some old books when I picked up one I’ve had for years called “Never Confuse a Memo with Reality” and suddenly realized: most of those tidbits are in that one single book!

The book is great and relevant even today (despite being printed circa 1993). I really like the format which is straight to the point and easy to plow through quickly or have on hand during down-time (aka “conference calls” – j/k). Here are some examples of what’s inside:

• Be nice to receptionists – if they like you, they can help you. If they don’t, they can hurt you.
• Brag about someone to another person – that person is bound to find out.
• Never take a problem to your boss without some solutions.
• Don’t write memos of more than one page – use graphics wherever possible.

All good stuff. I’d recommend picking up a copy.

Tags: books

A few weeks ago, I posted an entry about a conference call of IBM customers (some Notes customers, some not) where one customer on the call said that they felt “Lotus Notes was a tarnished brand.” Many of you ran to the ‘comments’ button to leave your thoughts on that comment – thank you!

Hearing that comment couldn’t have come at a better time. I was struggling to come up with a topic for an article I was writing for theinfoboom.com and this prompted me to have a clear topic to talk about. In the required “300 words or less” I focused on some of the best real-world examples for how & why our company continues to use Lotus Notes in an attempt to help demonstrate that it is FAR from a tarnished brand; rather a thriving product!

Please take a moment to check out this article and leave a comment. In addition, I’ll be hosting a hour on-line chat session Thursday December 10th at 8am central – please join in on that as well if you can!

Your participation will not only help foster some good discussion, but also help me make a point about the power of getting these types of messages out in the IT community at large, specifically to companies who have dismissed Notes based on some very old misconceptions.

Tags: awesomeness, notes

WELCOME to those of you following the link from infoBOOM!

Lotus technologies are the “secret sauce” to the IT dishes our company serves up. And NO, Lotus Notes isn’t just email, there’s so much more! Here are some real-world examples of how and why it is such a powerful component of how we deliver outstanding IT systems…

Mobility & Flexibility
The entire Lotus Notes client can run off a USB memory stick! Simply plug in the USB stick into any computer and an icon appears on the desktop allowing the user to access the full Lotus Notes client experience without installing any software to that computer! Our users can now access Lotus Notes at home or from another computer if they ever have a hardware failure on their primary machine. For users who simply need email access, each email file includes an “iNotes” version which can be accessed via the web. The web interface is nearly identical to their Notes client, so there’s no learning curve!

Operating system agnostic
We have a mix of Windows XP, Vista, 7, Linux and even Mac users in our organization. ALL of these users are able to have the exact same email and application experience by using the Lotus Notes client. The only differences between these operating systems are found in core components (title bars, scroll bars, etc.).

iPhone
Apple’s wonder-phone is closing in quickly on RIM’s BlackBerry devices. With Lotus’ Traveler utility running on your Lotus Domino server your users can use a variety of mobile devices (Windows Mobile, Symbian and many more) including the iPhone! Traveler integrates directly into the iPhone’s mail, calendar and contacts applications and the result is a fast, easy and secure way to access your information … when you’re not playing games, of course.

Getting business done!
Have an ERP or legacy system you need to connect Notes to? No problem. The Lotus Enterprise Integrator (LEI)  is a low-cost solution that is easy to use. Simply point it to your data, establish the type of data link and BOOM your systems are integrated giving Notes a powerful connection to your other key business systems.

Application Development – Easy and Free
Development in Lotus Notes is easy and free with the recent announcement of no additional cost for the Lotus Designer client. Just about anyone can easily design a Notes application in a short period of time – its that easy. However, don’t think that means its “limited” – its not. With support for JavaScript, Java, Lotuscript, XML and much more, Lotus Notes is as powerful as you need it to be!

Cost Cutting
There are many different types of Lotus licensing available making it a cost-effective product for just about anyone. Small/Medium organizations might want to look into Lotus Foundations an all-in-one server solution that is an integrated email, VPN, firewall and file/print solution that’s self-healing, easy to setup and even backed-up all within the one device. Think of it as an “IT department in a box!”

Powerful Web Tools
Notes has progressively become a better web-friendly system. The addition of Xpages allows developers to build powerful, web 2.0 applications within the Notes Designer. There’s even built-in Ajax functionality alongside tools that support CSS, XML, etc. (etc. is not a web standard – didn’t want you to think you had something new to learn).

What’s more, the developer community for Notes is building their own cool applications – many of which you can download for free. The ext.nd project is based on ExtJS and gives you an easy jump-start to web enabling databases with a very contemporary, intuitive user interface that instantly gives users lots of dynamic functionality on the web. There’s also plenty of applications to download from OpenNTF.org, a community of web developers who produce fantastic Notes apps (many web-enabled) for free download.

Project Management & Collaboration
Lotus Quickr offers a web based project management & collaboration system. The result is an easy-to-use, highly configurable utility for managing project teams. Quickr “places” (project sites in Quickr) allow users to control access/security, store files in a library, create/manage gantt charts, calendars and even write their own custom forms.

Quickr also includes “Connectors” – software integration that works with Windows Explorer, Microsoft Office, Lotus Notes and many more. Connectors allow you to check in/out documents from a Quickr place without having to leave the software you’ll use to view/edit the document.

Like much of the Lotus software there’s a strong community around Quickr – and that community is so passionate about the power of the software that they provide free stuff! Quickrtemplates.com offers a number of free Quickr place types (customized Quickr site types for specific uses, like wiki’s, contact management and corporate communications) that will let you quickly download, install and launch great Quickr functionality in your organization.

Lotus software offers so much more than I’m able to type out – or you’re willing to read. The bottom line is this: people who hear “Lotus” and think “Lotus Notes – that old email system” are missing out. Lotus software offers some amazing software and has a community around it that makes the software even more powerful. With systems like Notes, Quickr, etc. you’ll be able to easily, quickly, and cost-effectively make a dramatic change in your IT application landscape. Before you know it, you’ll suddenly realize why its the secret sauce behind powerful applications.

A few weeks ago, I missed out on an event in St. Paul that I was looking forward to attending. (We can blame that on a misunderstanding between me, and my car’s navigation – more on that at another time.) However I was happy to see that presentations from the event (all about social media in the enterprise) were made available on-line (and using SlideShare.net, which let’s face it: if they weren’t there – I’d be a bit concerned, given the topic).

One presentation stuck out as particularly interesting to me, thus the re-link below. Yes, its 112 slides, but it goes quickly. I highly recommend checking it out.

This is one of the funniest, most clever things I’ve seen IBM do! There are a few other examples of this concept out there (Disney had a great one last year, too) but the idea is that you enter someone’s name and it is inserted into what appears to be a news report personalized to be all about them.

You can check out the one I put together for my alter-ego by clicking the screen shot below. You can also create your own for your team’s IT superstars.

Tags: funny, ibm, team-building

The invite to Google Voice that laid waiting in my inbox this morning really felt like getting the golden ticket from Willy Wonka. The slow-releasing invites appear to be causing quite a bit of buzz (eBay has a number of them for sale ranging from about $50-$150).

I knew this product would be cool – but I didn’t realize how it would completely change how I manage phone calls at the office… within the first 30 minutes of using it.

Here’s the run-down of how it did that…

• Setup Google Voice phone number (even got a vanity number!)
• Forwarded it to my cell phone number
• Recorded three voicemail messages (friends, work and default)
• Setup a few contacts who are likely to call on the new Google number and assigned them a voicemail message
• Forwarded my office phone to my new Google #

That’s it (so far). Here’s what its done to improve things for me:

• ALL office calls (ones I want; many I don’t) appear on my cell (w/o having to give out my cell #)
• If I ignore the call – it goes to Google voicemail w/ the “work” message (since its forwarded from my office phone, the source phone # is always my extension)
• Google voice saves the message, transcribes it into my inbox as text (and is surprisingly accurate) AND sends me a text message with the first several words of the message that was left.
• I now know exactly who called, when, and can SEE what they were talking about without having to listen through the entire message.
• All “um’s” and “uh’s” are removed from the text transcription
• I can listen, forward, save or delete the messages via my Google website (including some of that functionality on my iPhone)

And I haven’t even getting to a whole list of other cool stuff it does. For example, I can click on a contact’s name/number and press “Call.” Google will call my cell phone and as I pick up a voice tells me to wait a moment while it places the call; it then dials the number of the person I’m calling and the call is routed — for free (in the U.S.).

An amazing tool. I’m already feeling like I don’t know what I’d do without it and anxious to see what else I can do with it. Stay tuned…

Tags: awesomeness, cell phones, google voice, phones

TripIt. The announcement of a TripIt sidebar widget for Notes was something I instantly got excited about. I’ve been a fan of it for some time and now completely rely on it for managing my travel schedule.

That’s a big deal for me. I have precious few things that I’m ultra-organized about (I’m generally organized just not ULTRA organized to the point of almost being obsessive-compulsive) but traveling is one where I cross well over into the ultra-organized category. Before any trip, I print out all confirmation messages, confirm reservations, print a series of mapquest directions to get me all around the town I’m traveling, look into restaurants, make sure the hotel is recommended… the list goes on and on. The result is a large folder, organized, highlighted, cross-referenced, etc. for each trip I go on.

Its … well, its handy but a lot of work.

Enter: TripIt. I simply email all confirmation messages to the TripIt service and let them store and organize the information. The service is even clever enough to create the maps I need for me in the order I need them. With the Pro version, I can also have it manage my frequent “whatever” programs and have it check for updates to the schedules of airlines and such. All that is delivered directly to an iPhone app which makes my print-outs a thing of the past (and helps me look much less O.C.D.ish when I travel).

Lotus also announced a LinkedIn sidebar widget – another great tool! LinkedIn is a great tool and something I always feel like I should be using more. With the addition of the tool to Lotus Notes 8.5 its now infront of me at all times, allowing me to do a deep-dive into the utility with much greater ease.

Great widgets! Keep them coming, Lotus! 

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.

Tags: 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!

Tags: 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!