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Which of these three does not like the other?

I heart Quickr. I “heart” it even more now that I’ve seen a preview of Quickr 8.5 at Lotusphere. It appears that Lotus has done some great work to streamline the user experience quite a bit. For me, this was one of the biggest take-aways from Lotusphere as our own deployment of Quickr has stalled out largely due to some clunkyness in using the product.

I (as the guy in charge of all things IT world-wide at the company) haven’t done much to help people get passed that. The main reason is that I have a big commitment to Windows 7 being our O/S of choice and Win7 doesn’t play nice with Quickr connectors.

Sidebar: I’m not quite clear on when that support will come. Anyone? Anyone? Buhler? Buhler?

The dudes at Snapps have come up with a GREAT iPhone app for Quickr. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve used this thing since it came out. Its very simple, easy to set up (even an end-user can do it) and quite helpful. Plus it looks great, works great and I’m not sure there’s many other features I’d like to see in this thing.

If you haven’t seen it for yourself, its worth taking a look at because it is GREAT!

Tags: iphone, quickr, snapps

I posted something about having problems with Quickr Personal Places not showing up after the 8.2 upgrade. The team at my office was able to dig up a fix, which I’ve left as a comment on the original post.

Tags: lotus, notes, quickr

We just updated to the latest version of Quickr and WOW is it an improvement. It is noticably faster and its clear that a lot of it has been cleaned up. There’s also a bit more Ajax goodness floating throughout it. Longstoryshort: a strong upgrade for the product.

I’d still LOVE to have the ability to have folders in my personal Quickr place and Mac support. Oh, Mac support… that would be GRAND!

Which brings me to this question: anyone else having problems adding their personal place via Quickr connectors? It looks like you can only add team places, not personal places (which were previously an option to add).

Anyone else found this? Just me? Work arounds?

Meanwhile… this is promising: Pandabear @ Snapps. Its beta so there’s still plenty that I’m sure they’re working on. I’d like to see something different for uploading files (dragging files onto a Panda is fun, but not as business-like as I need it to be) and more functionality added throughout. But its a great concept… especially for those of us who work in a world of multiple OS’s.

Tags: adobe air, lotus, panda, quickr

The presentation below is a great overview of the Quickr product. It covers the need, concept, key features and much more. I especially like how it speaks to the need for a utility like this in organizations that have employees spread across a wide range of experience, age range, etc.

It’s so good that I found myself wishing I would have started to talk about the concept at my company now (since this presentation is available) vs. over a year ago when I actually did begin talking about it.

Tags: lotus, presentations, quickr

I’ve been unusually quiet around here lately. Its not for a lack of things to discuss; rather its because I wasn’t sure how to even go about explaining them with any value. Then I realized this is a blog – valuable comments are purely optional on blogs.

First off, we’ve begun the formal launch of Lotus Notes 8.5 in the organization. Its going quite well. We’re using the automatic upgrade, some policies and a home-grown training course (which I’ll post once we’re done with it) in mandatory sessions that last about an hour and a half. User response has been positive. Favorite features include the ability to show other calendars ontop of your own (yet no one is using it with calendars other than internal users) and Sametime IM. I think the later is more of a result of bringing it to the front sidebar than anything else. However, the “preview” of some of the planned Cisco-Sametime integration helped too… people really seem to be excited about that.

Next, Quickr. We came “this close” (put your finger and thumb together spaced about 1cm apart) to jumping ship to SharePoint based largely on user interface. That’s a huge factor. For whatever reason, SharePoint seems instantly more intuitive to our users than Quickr does, despite the fact that we use so little Microsoft-anything its almost unbelievable.

I think some key users toughed it out long enough to make it seem (at the moment) like Quickr will stick around. However it made me seriously think about developing (and then selling, or at least posting for download) a Quickr template that looks like a mirror image of SharePoint. (hint hint – to any enterprising Quickr fan out there looking to make a buck on the side)

Lastly, Sametime. This one is still a product that is suddenly on the fence for us. Don’t get me wrong, its a great tool, looks fantastic and is easy to use. However it has two big “flaws.” It requires some Java stuff to download before the first use (which I’m told changes in 8.5) which is hit-or-miss with how well it works (or how likely the end user is to screw it up by not waiting or paying attention to warning messages).

The second big flaw is in how it renders the screen. Its essentially square blocks which get refreshed based on changes. We see more and more lag with this as we have Sametime meetings around 3D CAD designs, engineering simulations or even screens that require some modest “scrolling” during the meeting. Sametime has a tough time keeping up despite some big internet connections between all parties involved and a dedicated server that’s plenty big.

We’ve looked into Fuze as of late which is a promising tool (and has an iPhone app – bonus!). There is a fair amount of pressure to make a change in our committment to Sametime based largely on these performance issues – however I’m keeping the faith and waiting out the storm for some first hand experience with the 8.5 release. Hopefully that’ll just fix all of my problems.

Oh yeah, and then there’s the iPhone stuff. Still waiting. Patiently. Its coming – I know. And when it does, I anticipate some floodgates opening in the form of people wanting it and then wanting our applications to work closely with it.

Tags: iphone, notes, quickr, sametime, sharepoint

Update: I attended a session this afternoon which provided the components of the OGS which I thought were missing. The two together have prompted me to change my opinion here. I now have a better understanding of why the OGS was structured the way it was (although they probably could have lifted 5 minutes of content about the direction of Notes/Domino from the INV102 session). I suggest reading that entry first, and then coming back to this one with the understanding that I’ve eased up a bit on my original thoughts.  -KH 1.19.2008 @ 2:45PM EST

The Lotusphere 2009 Opening General Session just finished and, as much as I honestly hate to say this, I can sum it up with one word: disappointing.

Normally, I have 8-12 pages of notes after this session; I want to redo my schedule selection because I’m so excited about new announcements; and I’m just so completely excited and enthusiastic that I start to “get” why people wear those “I bleed yellow” t-shirts. This year? Not so much.

I think Lotus was really trying to shift the OGS from being a demo session “lite” (which we all actually like) and be something that tells the story about their product portfolio. They also talked very little about the direction of Notes/Domino. Infact, hardly anything was mentioned about the Domino server at all.

Some of the highlights:

• 12,236 new Notes customers since the launch of version 8 (impressive!)
• 2% more attendance at Lotusphere this year vs. last (take THAT recession!)
• “Bluehouse” is now “LotusLive Engage” – gone is the cool logo. Instead, it now has both a very Microsoft name and font logo.
• “Alloy” is the new name for Project Atlantic – a sort of joint venture between Notes and SAP
• LinkedIn appeared throughout various slides
• Sametime looks like its getting some BIG improvements! Zero footprint. Great telephony integration. Slick interface. Looks great – can’t wait to use it! My team and I actually decided we need further evaluate this and potentially revamp some of our Cisco strategy.
• “Stuff’ (connections, LotusLive, etc.) works on the iPhone (’cause it has a browser)
• BlackBerry, BlackBerry, BlackBerry, BlackBerry, BlackBerry. (Lotus wants you to say that four times every time you THINK about the iPhone. It was really quite frustrating – the amount of focus they put on the BB and lack of mention of anything helpful for the iPhone.)
• Quickr for Domino will get ECM integration in the next release
• WebSphere – this section compelled people to leave, yet again. I’m really surprised at how many people get up and leave when this starts.
• Integration – its clear that Lotus/IBM have spent A LOT of time getting all of their apps to work together well. Connections, Quickr, LotusLive Engage, Sametime – all of it works together well and will continue to do so in the future.

One other item that’s worth noting is the use of Twitter. The “#LS09″ flag allowed people to tweet realtime throughout the event. I can’t imagine being a presenter and getting instant feedback like that. When its good feedback, I’m sure it helps the energy build – when its not, its got to make things that much worse.

Overall, the feedback I’ve been hearing from people has been surprisingly split. IBM/Lotus employees and business partners seem to be saying that it was the best OGS in a long time. Nearly all of the other people I’ve talked to who are customers completely disagree. I’m hearing people complain about the lack of new announcements for the Notes Client, Domino and Administrator. I’m hearing positive things about Sametime, but a mixed interest in Connections and disappointment in improvements for Quickr. Even the Mac crowd seems to be subdued … most likely largely due to the fact that they now have a great Notes client (and can shut up about wanting one – myself included, btw) and the disappointment about NOT hearing an announcement about an iPhone PIM application (and the repetition of “BlackBerry” throughout the morning didn’t help.)

So there you have it — I’m anxious to hear what others thought as the week goes on. So far (yesterday and the one I’m in now), the sessions have been outstanding. I’d also offer that I had my hopes up for the OGS since the decision was made to announce 8.5 at MacWorld … I assumed Lotus had more surprises up their sleve for their own conference.

Tags: Apple / Mac, iphone, lotusphere, ls09, mac, notes, ogs, quickr, sametime

Last week someone suggested something really simple while we were at an off-site meeting (at a WiFi challenged location): “go open that file on Quickr from your iPhone.”

I have to admit, I hadn’t thought to do that before.

Oddly enough… it works pretty well! The iPhone’s ability to size your browser screen allows you to easily navigate around Quickr’s web interface. The iPhone’s ability to open just about any file type your office uses means that you can drill down to a file, open it, get the info you need and move on (here’s a YouTube video of someone doing exactly that). – How handy!

Of course, as I type this, I’m thinking it would be awesome to have an ultralite mode, but that’s sitting down a ways on my Top 10 list of things I wish Lotus had for the iPhone.

Which reminds me… an email showed up this morning from a person within Lotus (who asked to not be named beyond that) who said I should have looked more closely at the Lotus.com page regarding iPhone/iNotes functionality. My last post mentioned the inability to create calendar entries, and as this emailer mentioned, Lotus was careful to use the words “create” and “view” in a precise manner. As you can see, calendar items are mentioned only as “view” not “create.” As he jokingly wrapped up: “you need to read carefully so as not to get your hopes up.”

Tags: dwa, inotes, iphone, lotus, quickr

I. Can’t. Wait.

I’m not exactly certain, but I’m more excited about Lotusphere (2009) this year than any other year I’ve attended. I think its largely due to the amount of stuff from ‘08 that we’ve NOT yet implemented.

Yeah, you read that right.

My team and I came back from LS08 eager to deploy Notes 8.x; excited about the concept of an “all-in-one” box; anxiously awaiting the promised iPhone compatibility; excited about what looked like a strong update to Quickr; and super excited about the 8.5 beta for the Mac (yes, two of us helped cause the big slow down of that download the evening that was announced).

Nine months later: we’ve just begun testing 8.0.2 in hopes that the performance is finally good enough to launch across the company; DWA ultralite for the iPhone is nice, but not something that we can roll out; Quickr is a good update, but still has some odd quirks (personal folders – please!); and I stopped using the 8.5 beta for the Mac within a month.

Kinda sounds like a swing and a miss to me – and yet, I’m REALLY excited about LS09.

Lotus often does a good job of addressing the comments of their community; and everything I listed above has been talked about, blogged about, twitted (that’s a verb, right?) about, etc. quite a bit in the last year. I really would be shocked if Lotus hasn’t heard (loudly) the comments from all of us and I’m hopeful that LS09 will bring some new announcements on a number of these fronts.

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Here’s the other reason I’m excited: the Lotus community. By far, the most valuable thing to come out of Lotusphere last year was hearing from others in the community about what they are doing with Lotus products. In some cases (being totally honest here) you attend a session, hear a solution that someone put in place and realize: wow, we’re really doing well – that isn’t a problem we have at all! Phew!

In many more cases, you hear (or better yet see and get code examples) about really cool ways that people have used (or stretched) Lotus technology for their applications. This past year, the guys from Snapps put on a solid show (as always) and the amount of information we got (and were instantly able to use) about ext.nd was amazing.

So… while the product announcements may not have brought the value we had hoped (yet), connecting with the Lotus community has given us more tools than we dreamed of. That information has allowed us to deploy three new websites (one for customers, one for supply chain management and one for internal use), two new dashboard/graphing tools and build a toolbox of code that allows us to make application development advancements in 1/3 the time it did before!

And that’s why I’m excited!

Tags: ext.nd, iphone, lotus, lotusphere, quickr