We've released a new whitepaper, co-written with one of our Business Partners, Prominic.NET entitled “Beyond the Easy Button: Understanding the Role of Cloud Inside Your Organization”.

The whitepaper is the first in a series of free educational whitepapers developed for IT leaders and professionals that we're producing with Prominic.



“Beyond the Easy Button” provides an advisory perspective on how best to take advantage of the cloud, given the unique aspects and structure of one’s organization. The whitepaper outlines the different cloud models deployed today and a vision for the future, giving IT leaders practical advice on how best to proceed with the cloud.

Beyond the Easy Button is available for download at www.docova.com/EasyCloud.
Additional whitepapers in the series will be available later in 2012 Q2.

There is a brilliant, tongue-in-cheek article called "If Web CMS Implementations Fail, Blame the Users #CMSX" over on CMSwire.com. While the article focuses on Website Content Management, much of the same can be said for the traditional Enterprise Content Management marketplace as a whole.

Since releasing DOCOVA in 2006 at one of the largest technology tradeshows and conferences in our industry, we've put the User Experience at the top of the list, prioritizing it ahead of some our backend features.

Why?

Namely because we know what it’s like to sit on the IT Manager’s side of the table, and know what IT Managers really want: The ability to deploy quickly, expanded out the technology when needed in a low cost, low risk manner, not have to hold the organization 'hostage' during the deployment, and not to have to put their employees (those pesky users) through days and days of training. They just want it to work, work quickly, and don't want users complaining at them (or their support team). A great user experience for their workers results in a great experience for IT Managers. Win-Win is what a great User Experience delivers for IT Managers.

That's what DOCOVA continues to deliver to organizations for over 6 years now: Adoption. Elegant, intuitive enterprise content management software that users just get - hence our success in delivering on our organizational productivity and other promises.

So, if your latest ECM project is total disaster, definitely blame those pesky users.
Of course, if you picked DOCOVA  in the first place, your project would still be a success - just ask these DOCOVA fans.

Three DOCOVA webinars are now open for registration:

May 10: Moving Lotus Notes Applications to the Web.
Full details here

May 15: DOCOVA Cloud ECM Preview Event. Now ECM is accessible to everyone!
Full details here

May 16: Addressing the Decline of Your Lotus Notes Practise.
Full details here

DLI.tools Inc, a leading Enterprise Content Management Technology Vendor supporting Microsoft, Lotus Domino, and Open Source Web Technologies, has announced Guelph Hydro has selected DOCOVA ECM to manage their documents, business content and records.

The driving force behind the selection of DOCOVA for the large Electrical Utility was to become less reliant on paper for their processes, while improving the handling and management of business records. The Utility’s end goal is for a material improvement to overall process productivity and a reduction in direct costs like paper and physical storage.

DOCOVA ECM was selected as the Enterprise Content Management platform to address:

·        Paper-based processes causing issues with paper being misplaced and early versions of documents floating around the office
·        Only paper documents followed strict retention rules; electronic files do not
·        No standards or capability for collaboration, search, and destruction
·        Multiple versions of documents stored in paper form, emails and in shared drives (too many places)
·        With redundant documents stored in multiple locations, true document destruction is difficult. Record Managers have to search and investigate whether documents are truly destroyed

“We’re really excited about the potential DOCOVA will deliver inside our organization,” states Dan Amyot Director of IS for Guelph Hydro, “A key consideration for us is value. We believe DOCOVA provides more value for the IT budget - a key factor in today's uncertain economic climate."

DOCOVA ECM enables project teams, departments and organizations to start simple to get a handle on their own version of Content Chaos. Beyond just simple file sharing, DOCOVA ECM offers access to business documents, content  and records from anywhere, on any device:  PC, tablet (iPad,  etc), or smart phone (, iPhone, Blackberry, etc). DOCOVA ECM can be deployed in Private and Hybrid Cloud environments or be consumed on a pending public cloud version at docova.net.

DOCOVA ECM quickly gets a handle on processes with easily configurable features like multi-level, multi-function workflow, version control, social features, and desktop application integration with Microsoft Office, Outlook/Exchange and IBM Lotus Notes.  Learn more at www.docova.com.

About Guelph Hydro

Guelph Hydro Electric Systems Inc. delivers a safe and reliable supply of electricity to approximately 50,000 residential, commercial and industrial customers in Guelph and Rockwood. The company is owned by Guelph Hydro Inc., and was named Large Company of the Year for 2011 by the Ontario Energy Association. Guelph Hydro is actively developing sustainable energy projects as a key implementer of the City of Guelph’s Community Energy Initiative. For more information, visit: www.guelphhydro.com.

About DLI.tools Inc
Over 300,000 users from Market leaders like General Electric, HSBC, Bank of America, Nokia, Proctor & Gamble and Boeing count on DLI.tools' web technologies to make daily activities more efficient.

"The Cloud" conjures up the feeling of a magical place where everything just works and doesn’t break. The reality is that moving to the cloud needs to be thoroughly planned out.

For your cloud decision, security needs to be properly considered. Accessing your corporate information anywhere, any time, on any device sounds fantastic on the surface, but if your "Cloud" gets compromised, your organization may not survive.

At our next free webinar event, we'll explore how to keep your information safe in the cloud. Together with Business Partner Prominic, you'll learn:

• How different cloud services impact the security of your information,
• The different levels of security that can keep your information safe,
• How taking the right steps can secure your content properly and unlock your potential in the process.

Back in Canada after my swing through Europe. It all started with the annual BLUG event in Antwerp.  The BLUG was followed by partner sessions near Rotterdam, and ended off with a customer round led by Silverside in Apeldoorn, NL.   The round table participants were Dutch, and I found it very cool to sit through a slide presentation where the only word I understood happened to be our product name.



Throughout the entire trip the word "social" was a common theme. Social tools are great, but getting out of the office and meeting people face to face is in my opinion the best social tool at our disposal. Europe is different from North America and the UK.  The cultural differences are often not respected when the dialog is reduced to text.  A conversation over a Duvel bears more fruit than one that has a 140 character limit.

Reflecting on the past week I realized just how polarized the IT sector is becoming.  Apple vs PC, Android vs iOS, Portal vs Sharepoint....the list goes on and on.  Effy Shkuri and I were driving back to Amsterdam and he made the comment that people used to complete a business case first, then select the technology.   More and more it seems that the process has reversed.

I have adjusted my DOCOVA demonstration style to take this into account. I run Windows on a Mac Powerbook, show integration with an iPad, and often demo the DOCOVA features and functions within the context of  Sharepoint.

The Lotus partner community is following a similar path.  For years IBM partners focusing on Notes/Domino flourished.  The product was affordable, ran on every platform imaginable and could be used to solve a wide variety of business issues.  It found its way into businesses large and small.  Now, with the Lotus product name carrying so much weight in the buying process IBM partners who used to focus on Lotus are realigning themselves to offer IBM Connections, Sharepoint, and other solutions.  That means a lot of investment at a time when revenues are dropping. Not something for the faint of heart.

DOCOVA is addressing this issue for Lotus customers and Business Partners. Don't get us wrong, we support Lotus technology - but we've been able to completely removed the word "Lotus" from the discussion. Our partners are able to focus on the business issues and hopefully not get caught up on a discussion of what technology the product runs on.


 

I have attended several of the Lotus User Group events in the past: ILUG, UKLUG, BLUG, and the MWLUG to name a few.This #BLUG this year in Antwerp was simply outstanding.  At 5:30 on a Friday afternoon the closing general session was packed!  The standing ovation for #BLUG architect @TheoHeselmans was well deserved.   Afterwards, We continued to stay around and network with partners and customers for another hour. Everyone was watching the projected image of the tweet fountain, which gave a social recap of this outstanding two day event.

Although social tools are great, I think the fact they can bring people together from all over the world for this kind of  face to face event is the real benefit.  

Off to Rotterdam tomorrow, then Gouda on Monday for a partner session with #Silverside, our BELUX #DOCOVA partner. Looking forward to DOCOVA customer round table event in NE Holland before I fly back Thursday from Amsterdam.

Looks like about 250 -280 people at the event this year.  Up a bit from last year.




BLUG organizer Theo Heselmans opened the user group.  Interesting that 16 of the 60 IBM Champions worldwide were are the event. Steve of DominoYesNoMaybe fame led the group in a minute of silence for the children and teachers killed last week in a tragic bus accident in Belgium.  

Chris Crummey from IBM, a social evangelist, was the keynote speaker for the opening general session.  He showed everyone how he uses social tools as part of his job.  He had some interesting statistics to pass along.

- 50 % of IBMers work from home
- YouTube is the second ranked search engine behind Google
- Microsoft has something like 750,000 Sharepoint sites running internally to house information (wow..I must have heard him wrong)
- IBM sees Social as a $ 200 billion business and is betting the farm on it with products like Connections

Roland and Kasia from Silverside were good enough to man the booth so I could attend some sessions.



The booth giveaway is a combination of our car USB chargers and stroopwafels.

Although the general theme was social business, there were lots of good technical sessions.  Really enjoyed the Admin Blast done by Paul Mooney. In the past I was an IBM certified Domino Developer, Admin and instructor and it was fascinating to see his depth of knowledge when it came to Domino admin.  Also attended a session by Team Studio that demonstrated their Unplugged product.  Not sure if it was the topic, the iPad 3 draw or the refreshments that packed the room. Perhaps all three.



We did the Speed Sponsoring again.  20 attendees coming at the sponsors every 4 min. You get to do your pitch.  Was a lot of fun as always.  Paul Mooney stated he hates salespeople in his session and this is proof positive.

Met several potential customers,  some existing customers and had a chance to meet partners and learn more about their products. For example, Opus Neo has a dashboard product that is used with Quickr that could also work with DOCOVA to create custom dashboards.  Turns out we may have a customer in common.  Learned about them via the tweet fountain, and was checking out a contact on LinkedIn.  I was looking at his picture and realized he was actually standing 5 meters from me.  

All in all an excellent day.

Despite all the efforts of Air Canada, the flight over to Belgium was one of the best ever.  I was expecting the two hour stop in Montreal would make it seem long but I actually  slept most of the way and arrived in Brussels to sunny skys and warm temperatures.  I made my way by train to Antwerp, arriving at the historic central train station around the noon hour.  An older gentleman was patiently doing a water color of the spectacular architecture.



Caught some sleep when I arrived at the hotel then made my final preparations for the event.  We are co-sponsoring the event with our BELUX DOCOVA partner Silverside.  We will be showcasing a preview of DOCOVA V3.5,  talking about our Notes2Net offering, DDM migrations and our cloud initiative, DOCOVA Cloud ECM.  

At 7 pm I made my way to the bar and sampled some of Belgium's best with the Silverside crew of Roland Driesen, Kasia Razniak and Femke Goedhart.  I was at the BLUG event last year but the energy this year seems to be at a much higher level.  Awareness of DOCOVA is dramatically rising - I was often introduced as the "DOCOVA" guy.  Kudos to Theo and Laurent and all the BLUG organizers for putting on a top notch event.

Festivities were interrupted briefly as the BLUG Synchro Swim team took to the pool. Seems the qualifications required were that you be male, a terrible swimmer and moderately over weight.  They did an improv routine using "I get around" from the Beach Boys.  Nasty stuff.



The week is shaping up to be very exciting and positive. Following the event I will be heading to Holland for a customer round table meeting. More to follow.