IBM Connect: Opening Session





Building an Exceptional Work Experience for a Social Business



Social Business Application Development



Building Content and Communities


The Social Business Maturity Curve

Lotusphere 2012 concluded this week to a mix of emotions and thoughts. In conversations with customers, fellow Business Partners and those employed by IBM, Lotusphere 2012 ran the gamut; everything from an exciting, fun, successful conference to one of disappointment and bewilderment (and everything in-between). So in answering the question "How was Lotusphere?", it really depends on whom you ask. What was clear was IBM's continued focus on Social Business, a concept first introduced at last year's Lotusphere. Here is how we saw Lotusphere:

Overall Thoughts

The general consensus is that the sessions were excellent. In fact, 90% of the sessions attended by the DOCOVA team at Lotusphere and IBM Connect received top marks for quality of content and presentation. Thank you presenters! You can watch several of these sessions online in our video blog here.

The Hot Topics during Lotusphere were Mobile and Web Enablement (of Lotus Apps). No real surprise here. As the IT and Business world look to provide 'anywhere, anytime' access to corporate content and applications, the 'anywhere' part of the discussion has to include devices other than laptops and notebooks. Cloud, from an IBM and DOCOVA perspective, is gaining considerable more thought and discussion -- to which we unveiled DOCOVA.net, a cloud-based ECM SaaS, at Lotusphere. Reaction to DOCOVA.net was extremely positive - request your account here.

Our strategy for tackling the emerging "Web Enabling Lotus Applications" trend was well received. The majority of customers we spoke to are not looking to turn this into a massive services engagement, but rather something they can do themselves. They recognize that there is no silver bullet solution available for this. That's where the DOCOVA Notes2Net migrator fits into the vision. Combined with DOCOVA, the Notes2Net migrator supports the right web enablement vision for customers also thinking about Mobile and Cloud, regardless if those requirements are immediate or shortly down the road. While Notes2Net won't convert and modernize 100% of your application, it will get you pretty close (saving you time and money). Customers agreed that our total solution was different than our competitors, and one that should be part of their internal discussions.

Thoughts on the Showcase

Overall, good customer meetings and discussions throughout the show. From a sales perspective, we developed a strong pipeline from the show for all of our DOCOVA product and solution offerings. It was also the first time where we didn't have a large prize giveaway, but did give away sought-after USB chargers. If you contact us for a demo, we'll send you one as well,

We were also invited to the Exhibitor Advisory meeting on the last day. While I can't get into specifics, I can say that the meeting was lively and very interesting regarding the dynamics of partners and their expectations. Many of the sponsors have been on the floor for 10+ years, some were relatively new. Some are contemplating not returning, others are looking to increase their sponsorship in 2013. Some well known partners were absent in 2011, but a few very exciting net new ones look like they're coming back. It definitely feels like this is a conference in transition.

We even ran a DOCOVA Business Partner roadmap preview event at the DOCOVA villa prior to Lotusphere. Good attendance, good questions, lots of interest. For those Business Partners that couldn't or didn't make the event, there will be a webcast on the DOCOVA roadmap in the February / March timeframe. Pre-registration to be posted soon.

Lastly, customers are still wresting with what to do with their Domino Document Manager deployments. Customers understand they have to find a solution soon since support ends in September of this year. Despite the fact that on-maintenance customers can 'exchange' their DDM licenses for a entry-level FileNet license for free, the customization, infrastructure, and additional FileNet modules are making a DDM migration very expensive. Several believe DOCOVA is the right ECM suite to satisfy their immediate need and has the right vision and roadmap for their future needs. Plus, DOCOVA is much more affordable than FileNet for smaller enterprise deployments or full-scale deployments.

Lotusphere, Definitely Social

One of the best things about Lotusphere is seeing the familiar faces year after year. It just feels like one big family. I always seem to bump into people that I know without planning in advance, catching up on all things personal and social. One of the best interactions I overheard was between two CIOs in which that basically realized that both of them hadn't been to Lotusphere in about 10 years, but looked forward to returning next year. That was exciting to hear.

2012 is going to be another exciting year for DOCOVA. For our Lotus friends, we look forward to seeing you again at the various Lotus User Groups and at Lotusphere 2013 (January 27 - 31st, 2013).

This year the DOCOVA team made the trek to Lotusphere.  Goal was to say thank you for a great 2011, soak up as much knowledge of possible and have some fun.   Mission accomplish. So pumped for 2012!!!




 

Tuesday of Lotusphere featured my new buzzword: Gamification. Basically Gamification is using the concept of social games and rewards to help shape employee behaviour and actions. Many of the concepts I understand from my internal branding, incentives and loyalty background, but some were new insights. Well worth a watch.

The Mini-Keynote overall was good. The keynote featured the co-founder of Fast Company, Bill Taylor. One of the best quotes from Bill Taylor was "It's not what keeps you up at night, it's what gets you jumping out of bed in the morning that is important." Find your passion, and live it everyday. Enjoy!

At the Opening General Session, IBM slid in a very quick new feature coming to Lotus Notes, the ability to render a Lotus Notes database in a browser using a plug-in. Outside of the keynote and other speakers, this announcement got the biggest applause during the OGS.

Visiting the IBM labs at Lotusphere, here’s what we know:

- A 50mb ish plugin, one time download. Acts like a light Notes client.
- Will be available for Firefox and IE initially. Chrome to follow..maybe
- Requires Windows OS. Will not work on Linux or Mac.
- You will have full functionality for your Notes app within the browser. That includes the menu bars, workspace...etc
- Projected shipping date: Q4 2012. (with the IBM Notes social edition release)
- Licensing is similar to that of a Notes client license

Upon diving into the Plug-in at the lab, I’m not sure this is what most customers really need. While the plug-in will allow you to access an existing Lotus Notes application in the browser, it still doesn’t expose you to the latest Web 2.0 technologies that a true web enablement strategy provides. It also does not give your users a consistent interface when they move between apps.

The issue with many Lotus Notes applications is that they have been developed over time, often not benefiting from best practises and proven design methodologies.  If your Notes app is a bit of a hairball, using the plugin you end up with is a web enabled hairball.  If there is a political issue around Lotus Notes, which is sometimes the driver to web enable the app,  the interface is still branded as it was with the Notes client.

So, what is the solution?

From our perspective, a true web enablement strategy is the correct strategy to undertake. Unlike the plug-in, a web enablement strategy is going to provide the path to your mobile initiatives. A web enablement strategy is going to allow you to take advantage of the latest web 2.0 technologies, unleashing your apps to new emerging technologies – something this plugin can’t provide for you.

Additionally, a web enablement strategy should include modernizing and re-structuring the actual application code, the addition of new features, and an improved user experience.

So, if the Plug-in got you excited, consider taking a look beyond the plug-in at DOCOVA Notes2Net.  This represents a web enablement strategy.  A combination of products, services and process that gets you to where you want to be.

Learn more about DOCOVA Notes2Net at www.docova.com.  

Once the OGS finished, time to dive deeper into the Social Business strategy with the Strategy in Action session.

Led by IBM product and solution executives, the Strategy in Action sessions will help understand IBM's near future vision over the next few years:


IBM Cloud Strategy:

Lotusphere 2012 is off and running!

Overall, the opening general session flowed quite well, with demos immediately preceding the keynote speaker, thee Michael J. Fox. The demos on what's coming 'next' were informative and visionary. No real big news items though. Very well put together. Numbers seem to be down from last year, but still strong. No attendance numbers announced.

Aside from the flow, the quality of the presenters were great. Dr. Burns from the Boston Children's Hospital was fantastic - a great, great speaker (I almost teared up during the presentation). He put social into a whole new context and perspective for us. Lots of idea generation going on since that presentation. Really enjoyed Michael J Fox, liked the Bobby Orr story.

The IBM content portion opened directly with a demo - a preview of IBM Connections Next. The demo was interesting because if you read into the IBM vision, this demo may be very telling on the direction of traditional Notes and Domino. My initial reaction is that IBM is going to make email into 'a feature' with Connections Next. Yes, you can email from Connections, the basic TO: CC:, subject, body text and attachment because that is what most people use email for (that is the core function of email that most people only use). But, if "wrappered" around social discussions, actions within business processes, news updates, etc, it changes the game in several ways. One of these ways just might impact those awkward 'leaving Notes' discussion internally. Connections Next potentially presents an alternative to what the issue is ... just rid us of the Notes client. Connections Next has the potential to take the value prop discussion well beyond Microsoft and Google, meaning Connections might do what evolutionary improvements to the Notes client couldn't -- keep people on Lotus Domino.

Other Interesting Observations:

• For the first time that I can remember, no customer numbers, nor financials either.
• Mobile. Mobile. Mobile. In fact Social + Mobile     (2/3 of the SoLoMo message you might have heard of in 2011)
• No Quickr Next demo. No significant mention of Quickr. Does this mean that Quickr is going away, shifting into Connections ?
• Is Connections the New ‘Reader / lite editor’  application access layer? Does this allow organizations with Notes apps to ditch the Notes client and put IBM back in the game with respect to those pesky 'Leaving Notes' discussions?. It does pose a great value prop (if the price is right). The embedded app in the activity stream looks really interesting. Has Lotus Quickr become Connections?
• Lotus Notes application viewer plug-in. The ability to view a Lotus Notes application/database from iNotes using a Lotus Notes Viewer plug-in. See more details in the video below. Looks like an interesting feature, but is it too limiting for what most organizations want to do? That will be a topic for tomorrow's post as we investigate further in the labs.

All the power of DOCOVA ... now in the cloud.

Today, we launched into private beta, the availability of DOCOVA.net, our cloud-based offering for DOCOVA ECM.

Now, DOCOVA can be used “on-premise” or via a private cloud under a traditional license model, and via public cloud under a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) subscription model.

Claim your trial at www.docova.net



Read more in the press release