We started working with IIUI to provide IBM Lotus and DOCOVA customers with a complete solution for records, document and content management.

IIUI's Records Manager Express module has been integrated with DOCOVA.

The integration with Records Manager Express provides DoD 5015.2 certified records management capabilities for DOCOVA, while further enabling organizations to meet compliance requirements with Sarbanes-Oxley, HIPAA, and FDA 21 CFR Part 11 regulations.

“DOCOVA provides Lotus Domino customers with a rich and deep Domino-based document management platform.  Current Lotus Domino customers who do not have a document management solution should be considering DOCOVA as an option," expresses Dan Lieber, President IIUI, “Integrating DOCOVA with our Records Manager Express provides a powerful combination ideal for any Domino customer.”

Read the Official Press Release here

The Domino.doc to Docova migration path is definitely picking up momentum. There's  a significant increase in the initial customer discussions focused on the migration topic, often with customers approaching us first.

New customers to Docova are on the rise as well, as we've signed two more Domino.doc-to-Docova migration deals just in the last two weeks.

The two migrations will leverage the no-charge Docova Migrator Toolkit and the IBM Domino Document Manager Migrator tool. The migrations are scheduled for completion in July 2010 with the aid of the Docova Business Partner Community.

Have Domino Document Manager and not sure the migration path right for you? Consider reading 'Can Quickr Replace Domino.doc?' - the whitepaper that discusses all your migration options.

Wow!  Just sat through a demo by one of our senior developers.  I would not call this cloud computing. To me it looks more like virtual hosting.  We have recently put our Docova Document Mgt system up on Amazon EC2 and I have to admit I am blown away.  We still have a lot to learn, especially on the billing and disaster recovery fronts, but the ability to create a  server in a virtual environment makes you wonder if in the future having the physical box is really that important.  Drop in to our Docova User Group June 22 if you want of glimpse of what this new offering is all about.

Organizations investigating their migration options for Domino Document Manager (Domino.doc) are quickly realizing that Lotus Quickr does not contain the same deep, robust document management capabilities as Domino.doc – it’s not a true 1:1 replacement.

Realizing that Quickr alone is not the answer, many are considering moving their document management platform from Lotus Notes & Domino to J2EE, open source or something else. Organizations looking to validated Notes & Domino-based Document Management solutions are learning that they could save Thousands on their migration effort - without compromising functionality or performance.

During the next Docova webinar (June 24, 2010), we explain How.
Reserve your seat to the next event here

A good, 7 page primer for Lotus Professionals on the broad 'Document Management' market has been produced by Lotus Domino Document Manager Redbook co-author Femke Goedhart (Silverside) for TheView.

The article summary by Femke:
My aim is to provide you with an overview of document management concepts and products — from the very simple to the very complex — and a categorization system for understanding the types of products available and how you can use them to meet your specific requirements. Whether you are new to the document management market or a seasoned administrator, understanding what document management is all about should prove to be a real asset in your search for a solution.

Access the Guide at TheView (eView account required)

Our next Docova User Group will take place on June 22, 2010 at 10:00am EDT

Topics will include the BlackBerry Connector, thoughts on Docova 3 and examples, examples, & examples.
Reserve your seat here

Document and Content Management
Decision Matrix

Over 60% of organizations are dealing with "Content Chaos": Documents and Content that are out of control and now causing broader issues within the organization.

Unfortunately, over 50% of these organizations will rush their approach and ultimately fail in solving their challenge.

In these tight times, decisions that SHOULD reduce costs need to ACTUALLY reduce costs.

Leading organizations are achieving 'Content Harmony' with the Document and Content Decision Matrix research guide from Silverside. Complete with examples, the Decision Matrix combines actual customer discussions with custom research - serving as your guide to make the right decision for your unique organization.

Get the Decision Matrix today as a complimentary download.

Access Research

Its been quite a week.  Something like 9 Docova demos in 5 days.  Sitting at Heathrow waiting for my gate to be announced so I will compose a blog entry.   Here is a bit of a synopsys of the week past:

April  24

Volcanic ash clouds have cleared up...so I am at the airport about to depart for Heathrow...the hub from hell.  Flight leaves at 11:30 PM out of Toronto.  This was my best flight to the UK to date as I slept pretty much the whole way.

April 25

Andy met me at the airport. He is the business partner who saw Docova and immediately booked a weeks worth of appointments with propective customers. He picked me up outside Terminal 3 and in about 40 minutes I was in Godalming, a nice historic village outside of London.  The challenge now is to stay awake.  Sleeping this early in the day just makes the jet lag worse.  Went to a pub up the street called the Anchor, recently under new mgt.  Inn keeper is a 64 old former chef.  Turns out he is a regular on a TV cooking series and at one time was known as Great Britain's greatest chef.  Yes...the food was good.

April 26

Docova training starting at 10 am for the partner. Basically doing an intro for the sales team in the morning and the technical team in the afternoon.  That pretty much consumed the entire day. Had lunch eating a sandwhich with Andy in an old cemetary that dates back something like 800 years.  Sent the evening at the Pub playing bar billiards.  Cool game.  People are very friendly, and thanks to a mispent youth playing pool I was able to hold my own.

April 27

Off to Gatwick the next morning...catching a plane to Edinburgh for our first appointment on Wednesday.  Flights in the UK are cheap... 30 ish pounds. Double that for the taxes but in Canada that would not get you past security for any Canadian destination.  Andy is running a Mac Powerbook.  Got to admit, this thing is impressive. He runs several virtual machines for the Windows environment.  Works well...and fast.

April 28

Off to the client site first thing in the morning.  Demo is to a customer that supplies interrior displays to hotels, retail, almost any organization that needs them.  They have a Notes application that is based on the mail template.  It has become a bit of a bear to maintain.  

We demonstrated Docova, and the drag and drop capability will turn a long process into one that only takes a few mintues....virtually eliminating the admin required.  Customer has 600 users and looks like they want to get going soon.  Docova supports Notes 6- 8.5...so they do not have to upgrade their older R6 environment.  Welcome news as they let the M&S slide.  Then again the DAOS in R 8.5 may push them that way.  That will consolidate any attachments, saving storage space and making the system more efficient.  We also support a distributed server model and since they have several Domino servers this bodes well.

In the car and off to our second meeting with a  window manufacturer in the afternoon.  Andy is doing a demo for Notes Pump, to help them with their 8.5 upgrade.  Docova came in on the tail end.  The demo went well. Nice when the customer has web development skills, as they can appreciate the speed of delivery Docova offers for Web applications.  

Bit of a run to the airport, and a short 30 minute flight over to Belfast in a twin turboprop.  Grab another rental call then off to the hotel in Carricfurgen, up the coast from Belfast. This is our second Ford Focus rental in a row.  Like driving in a tin can.  The car is a standard transmission, as all rentals are in this part of the UK, and it was freaky for me to have the stick in the right place  but no steering wheel or peddles.

April 29

Up early again.  Off to a meeting with a DomDoc customer in Northern Ireland.  Stopped at a place called Burnt Island and had Black Pudding at a small cafe.  Hard to believe this is an English dish and people order it for breakfast.  Gound pig intestines,  formed in a patty and served warm with a laryer of skin holding the shape.  Yikes!

Had a group of five for the demo, including the Document Control Manager.  They love DomDoc for its functionality and affordability. This is a power generating station, and process and control is the name of the game. We alsmost got an applause at the end. DomDoc is functional, but Docova is even more so and the UI is a breath of fresh air. The dream of the Doc Control person was easy to demonstrate, something they have been striving for with DomDoc but not quite able to pull off.  It requires integration with MS Word, and the pushing of info from Docova to bookmarks.  Easy task for thingFactory, one of the web toolkits used to create Docova.

Back in the car and a mad rush cross country to meet another partner in Antrim near Belfast. We have a demo an hour and a half drive to the east with two councils, the equivalent of municipal gov'ts back in Canada.   Andy is heading south to do  a demo of his own.  My demo went well, although the council's are at an early stage and do not have  solid grasp of their requirements yet.   Bit of a fight through construction afterwards but Geoff got me back to the airport in Belfast in time for the 7 PM flight to Gatwick.  Could not meet up with Paul Mooney, as there was simply no time. Paul lives in Belfast and I had indicated I may give him a ring on the way through.

April 30

Working out of the partner offices today.  Basically trying to get all of the quotes done.  Two more web demos, one to a Federal Reserve in the USA that learned about Docova following a meeting with the IBM team and a local business partner.   Meeting setup for Monday and Docova looks to be the missing link for their DomDoc migration.  Another demo in the afternoon for a food services company in Ireland. This time over a web meeting.  Project Mgt, Quality control...all things we have done before.   Partner is teeing up a followup meeting with senior mgt as we passed the audition with flying colors.

Andy showed me his Mac Time Machine. Wireless 1.5 TB device that backs up his machine every week. He can go back to any of the images at any time.  Graphics are stellar. Thats it, I am sold.   Goodbye stinkpad.

Out to dinner with Andy and the major sharholder.  Dined in an old church, that was converted to an auction house then to a restaurant.  Expected a bold of lightning to come through the roof at any time.  Talked about the state of the Notes world.  Agreed it is decaying, but that being the big fish in a small pond has some solid business logic.

May 1

Had the morning to kill before taking the train/bus to Hearthrow.  Wandered Goldalming.  Place is so quaint it is almost too much. Small cobbled streats, old buildings and lots of history.  This is where the telegraph operator from the Titantic grew up.  Went back to the old church and watched the lawn bowling while I strummed my guitar.   Sitting in a cemetary...wish I knew some Greatful Dead tunes.   Then wandered to the Red Lion in. Will miss the open mike session as I have to hit the road.  Very cool pub. Going to have to come back here.  

Train and a bus ride takes me to now...sitting in Heathrow waiting for the gate to be announced. Daughter and her boyfriend will be picking me up at the airport Toronto.  Another reminder how time marches on.

Cheers,

For our blog readers, we released from our Case Study Library the Docova Success Story featuring one customer's perspective on migrating from Lotus Document Manager.

The PDF success story focuses on the Selection Process to pick an alternative to Lotus Document Manager (Domino.doc), and why this customer deemed Docova "the Better Choice" over solutions that included IBM FileNet and Alfresco.

What makes the story intriguing is that the customer is a traditional non-Lotus shop and they picked a Domino-based solution for their Document Management needs.
Click here to download the PDF. (No Registration Required)

I’m pleased to say we’ve released the Docova BlackBerry Connector (DBC) v1.0 – our first foray onto leading B2B mobile platform, BlackBerry.

Developed in response to customer requests, the Docova BlackBerry Connector will initially allow in-field professionals like sales representatives, service personnel and business executives to view documents stored in Docova from their BlackBerry device.

Current customers can contact us for a demo trial version and pricing. We’re also investigating getting the Connector listed in the BlackBerry Apps World store.
Click here for the official press release

Click here to access the product brochure