The day opened with Mat's AdminBlast session which was so full of tips and ideas he could barely get to all of them and he laid out how he manages his team and uses all the resources he can from Notes, Domino, Connections, Watson, etc. Great effort and valuable training for new managers to get a great view of how they could be working.
Usually the sessions are a secondary benefit, for people like myself that are involved in the product line for so long. We have various meetings, briefings, side chats, commitments to other partners and so our time is used quite well. I admit to barely getting to 2 sessions a day, but this is average for me over the years.
Not being a developer, a number of sessions didn't work for me. Road map and hands on sessions are what I look for to expand my knowledge, especially around what is available now or soon to be available. The future products that are a year or more away are nice to know about, but I have time. Plus, as an IBM Champion we get private briefings during the year as products progress.
I tweeted about the IBM Notes and Domino Road map session(links below are to the slides I caught on camera), which by the way was one of the best in years. Okay, we didn't get hard dates, but we did get end of Q1 for feature pack 8 and end of Q3 for FP9 see this slide. I know IBM said they want to issue updates quarterly, and I think they will, but my expectation is two updates a year for now. Once they iron out the process to handle quarterly updates they should hit the four.
What made this session so great was Barry Rosen Offering Manager for Notes and Domino took the time to see it from our view. And he did pretty well with it.
We, the customers, partners and community at large need to know definitively what is coming down and that there are plans. He laid out the change in future support for some servers and client operating systems. Various slides outlined what was coming even the development updates and ideas was discussed. There was even a mention of Quickr! Well it really was about CCM (if you don't know what this is, don't worry) and should interest people who need it. The committing support through 2021 is nice to hear.
Suffice it to say, for now we see into 2018 and that should work for many people who will, and should, at some point start looking at Verse on Premises for mail users. Why? Because I got the impression Watson and cognitive abilities will be baked into Verse instead of over the Notes client as will more pieces of the overall puzzle that IBM is putting together around the future of how we work. Like I said a few months back, we are in the 3rd or 4th level of change in the messaging/communication/collaboration/social and we need to evolve and look towards the future, while maintaining the current architecture.
I did not get into the session on Pink so one of the other Champions or bloggers I am sure will cover that and better than I ever could. I will reiterate what Jason Gary said, Pink is not meant to rewrite IBM Connections but augment it with more, newer features in a simpler more modular method.
One session I really wanted to go to, we had to commit to attending before the event, was the Docker 101 hands on class. Unfortunately, due to network configuration issues at the site we did not get that far but with the guidelines in hand I look forward to playing with this technology, especially as Pink is being designed to run on it. Curiously I found out Websphere today can be run on Docker. This could be very useful for some of you.
You can learn new things, you can also meet new people. Lots of IBMers have changed positions and moved out of ICS or back to it. Always be open to talk to anyone and everyone. One of my client issues with a Connections plugin was raised to the owner of the plugin. It can be hard to do this not in person sometimes, here is why.
I started with an Offering Manager (OM)I knew and asked who in the room, we were at a reception, would own the plugin which led us to two more people that led us to the right person who happened to be talking to my friend Mac. Since I never met this OM before I now had a known and a newly met OM introduce to me to the right person. If I had not done this in person, I would have still called/emailed/Sametime one of the OMs I know and find the right person. And then start a conversation. Maybe it is easier this way but if I didn't know any OMs I would search online to find some presentations on the subject then go to IBM Whois and look up the presenter and email or call to get on track.
As Eric Whitacre, the closing speaker, said, make issues your features. If you don't know someone, keep asking till you do.
IBM Connect, or Lotusphere, as us old people call it kicked off last night with the welcome reception and today with the Opening General Session.
This year we break from tradition to visit San Francisco instead of Orlando. Many traditions may not return, but thank God for Ephox and Aussie Night, and Mat. Disclaimer, IBM Champions are invited in advance and are loved by Ephox.
The usual cast of characters exist, like a Thanksgiving dinner, your business cousins, uncles and aunts and everyone in between are here to make the event entertaining, bewildering, shocking and er, imbibe a little too much at times.
Sponsors, exhibitors and attendees have a decent size space to work with and the estimated 2,000 people make everything seem full without crowding. Hopefully for the exhibitors it is a good show.
We saw and heard quite a few things today, many I will not get correct but here goes:
Badges? Yes, no more certification requirements from IBM, but now you need badges of the virtual kind. No news how many badges it takes to be able to sell licenses, but I am sure IBM had thought of these things. Hope my New Way to Learn badge does something.
Lotus IBM Notes and Domino we were told are road mapped through 2021.
Evidently Sametime is getting a life extension as well but details were less definitive.
IBM Connections 6.0 will be out in a quarter or 2.
Pink, is the code name for Connections NEXT and it looks to augment and extends on where the platform is today, but without the Websphere and other things, Keep watching this space.
The UX lab is all about Connections and Verse, go give them your input in exchange for some tickets to win prizes of your choosing.
Julian Robicheaux was named the third Lifetime IBM Champion and him and Theo and Gab were part of the musical mix of live dj/musician and Watson song make up.
Some cool Oblong video meetings which showcased the drag and drop functions in Watson Workspace.
Box Relay was on screen in a demo. Described as a "workflow solution", gee I wonder where I might have heard hat term previously.
Unlimited mail sync is now or will be an option for search purposes on phones.
Watson Workspace is growing, expanding, look for a new app store from IBM (I think) as Business Partners write apps for it. In my discussion with some IBMers it appears the technical part is not the problem, the ideas or workflow plans or just applications that are business necessary are the key. SO get thinking people.
Saw many friends, a few customers, met new IBMers and other people that I only knew online and good thing we all wear badges so everyone knows each other.
I agree with Wes Morgan, The Lost art of Troubleshooting is troubling issue in modern times.
The demo crew, led by Chris Crummey did all their own stunts live. Brave souls and a much better way to demo over past years with fake names, apps and such.
The Moscone center is nice, the staff are great and the wifi has been excellent.
Lots of partner solutions were shown in the OGS rather than just mentioned.
I registered as a client this year, I was surprised there were no invitations to talk or see anything from partners or vendors.
Only draw back is a dearth of charging stations and electrical outlets. Even the sun came out a bit today.
The other thing is, it is not Orlando. There is no one place everyone is hanging out. There is no running into people once you leave the Moscone center.
Yes you can follow people on various social media but that is not the same. Again on the plus side, the community is the community, even if we end up in 3-4 different locations in the evening.
Wednesday is my session at 1pm Room 2011 on Our Journey to a Cloud, see you all there.
I did these two sessions today as part of the technical track "SpeedGeeking" sessions.
The Backup one was more of an interactive session with a link to numerous free and not so free backup software options. For last year's more detailed version see "My Dog Ate My Homework".
The Fix Your Own Computer session is to help non technical people understand some options when they run into a problem with their equipment. Obviously, in 15 minutes, one can not really explain everything so the idea was to provide some guidance so they do not get ripped off by a repair shop.
This was my slide deck for today's Israel Translation Association (ITA) Conference in Tel Aviv.
It is more specific than last year's "Worst Translation Practices" session but also more minimal.
You will see no text, just logos and graphics.
It is good for everyone to remember some of these no matter what business you are in or where you work in the world.
The other night we went out with 30 of our friends to a new restaurant and bar in our neighborhood for my birthday.
My wife and I ate there a few days earlier and agreed it would work well for our crowd.
Who knew one can make so many friends in two and half years of moving here but we did!
While we don't always get together regularly, we do get together for drinks or late night food between 2 and 4 times a month in smaller groups and maybe once a month in a bigger way for a party or birthday.
Why do I tell you this?
Because this blog post is a lesson that any business can live or die by its management and staff. Along the way see how sales, social media, personalities, business expectations, training, psychology, and in my case, ignorance all come into play.
As we all arrived at the restaurant, we had made a reservation for 18, then changed it to 25 and the restaurant had made space in their back room for us which we proceeded to fill.
The locals and friends from neighboring cities proceeded to order drinks and food or desserts.
The people at our table ordered first and most of us got our food and drinks in a reasonable time. But, a specific dish with 4 of us had ordered, seemed to not be coming. While I did not mind, some of the more hungry guests were not amused and asked when we would get our food.
We learned that there was only one appliance to use to make this particular meal and it would take some time as now there were 8 total orders of the same item. It did not help that the other waitresses grabbed whatever was ready and delivered it to their tables without realizing or noticing the early ones should have gone to us.
Again, not the biggest deal to me.
It seems at some point some people had words with the hostess who explained that the restaurant was not prepared for such a large group. For a place that has existed for a few years and has an ample seating space outside and inside to accommodate at least 100-125 people, this was an unexpected answer. I did not find this out until later that night or the next day.
All our food arrived but not before two people left to go get burgers down the road after letting the waitress know they were not waiting any longer. I also didn't know this at the time but found out later.
Thus about 2 hours later as the party was ending and people started to pay their bills, I went to go pay for ours as well.
And the fun began.
I let the waitress know what my wife and I ordered and paid the bill and thinking we were the last ones we should head home.
Not so fast.
There was an amount due.
Okay, I figured some people drank shots or maybe didn't realize their spouses did, so I figured, my party, I can cover it, right? It turns out we were short about 600 shekels or roughly $150!
Now I know my friends here and trust them to be both honest and full of integrity, even when drinking, so I asked to see the full bill receipt. I then sat down to go over everything listed and asked them to verify the payments received.
It was at this moment that I must claim ignorance. I was not involved in the other conversation that started between my wife, or the few friends still lingering and the hostess/waitress.
It seems that the choice of words, this is all in Hebrew, was accusatory and rather indignant that our friends skipped off without paying. No, it could not be the restaurant's error, everything is on the computer and what were we trying to pull.
Reminding any of you of client meetings over billing hours yet?
I eventually found out that the meal, I and 7 others ordered, had been entered into the computer as 18, not 8, orders!
Simple math 10 x 60 = 600. The actual numbers came out and showed that my drinks were paid for by my friends, which is usually how we all do it for birthdays so I, in essence, received a small amount of money in a refund. Thanks everyone!
The management, hostess, and waitress provided no explanation nor any apology.
Culturally I understand this and it didn't bother me at the time, again, because all I knew was I found the error, they fixed it and all was good.
My friends, a mixed group of Americans and Israelis were not very happy with the entire situation. They wanted to post bad Yelp reviews, wanted to tell our whole community about the way we were treated, and do what people do most with social media, gripe. Before you say, "but you are doing just that", my hope is that the owner will see this, but also to parallel it with our own business situations.
Our bill which was about 3,000 shekels or about $750 got me thinking about the business side of this situation and what everyone can learn from it.
Yes some of it is obvious, but as a case study in hospitality management, here we go.
My friends go out quite a bit as I said, many of us either run our own business or, at our age, are high-level sales people or managers. We have money to spend when we want to go out.
Some of us have small invitation events for artists or non profit benefits during the year that we need a nice, and new, place to invite people. And as a business lunch option, this could work too.
In short, there is quite a bit of revenue that the restaurant loses out because they:
did not train their staff properly
did not have any buy-in from the staff to benefit the business or themselves
did not recognize that the issue was on their side and although they backed their own people initially, should have admitted the mistake
will not see any more birthday parties and with 30 people, even if only half went there, that is over 40,000 shekels a year they are losing
and the waitresses miss out on a guaranteed $75 in tips or more which knowing what they get paid, they really need
have now also cut themselves off from a very social media and referral network of people that could have sent them dozens and dozens of people
lost out on our weekly get together which while only 2-6 of us might show up, still would be a recurring revenue stream they were lacking
Doing some back of a napkin math, with the number of restaurants extrapolated and annual sales defined from here and here says the average restaurant makes 700,000 shekels a year.
I don't think it is a stretch to say that if we all liked it and told other friends our combined spend reaches 75-100,000 shekels a year. 10% of their revenue to me sounds like a big deal based on what I read.
Similarly we have no idea who is at a table or in an audience, on the train or randomly walking by us when we are unhappy about a situation at work or with a client. It may cost us our jobs or our bonuses or future jobs at the time.
This is a tough thing to overcome because trust once lost is very hard to regain, especially in this case where we would have no other interaction with the establishment.
The restaurant could have filled a void for us that we need in our community, a kosher bar and restaurant, and had high hopes for it but it seems they do not share our hopes or have any interest in filling our needs.
By not engaging with the clients in a reasonable fashion and laying blame on them, you can see how service contracts go bad in businesses so easily when vendors take a one sided view.
This one sided view is "taught" to the staff because they will naturally be influenced and then follow their leader.
My friends, like you reading this out there, have various expectations about dining out.
Some want value for their money, others want high end cuisine, some expect the staff to be as professional as business people (hard to ask from teenagers or even college age people), others are okay with waiting if they have were warned about delays or like me not bothered about it all.
The Snickers commercials in the US hit the spot on this one from both sides of this discussion because maybe it was all just late at night and everyone was hungry.
When your focus is on the wrong information, attitude or goals, your business can not survive because you send your staff down rabbit holes that have no way out.
It may also help to deliver the goods or services on time and feed your staff and customers within reasonable times.
