Dear CXO, Can We Talk about IBM Domino 10?

Executive Summary (TL:DR Synopsis): You may, or may not, have heard about a 30 year old platform still managing applications and workflows inside the Fortune 100. Would you believe it comes from IBM, not that other blue company that still maintains a legacy 27+ year old office platform? If you have yet to bridge the Internet with your Enterprise, which is where the business benefits can be found, then you owe it to yourself to go listen to your IBM representatives.

Good Morning Sir or Madam CXO,

Once upon a time almost every company used a piece of software that was all encompassing so people who never knew what coding meant, were coding applications that revolutionized their business lines because they had all the pieces they needed right in front of them. 

Yet there is a need within every organization, including your own, where someone says, why can't we do X or how could we do X better?  And the person saying it is not a developer but one of your direct reports, or one of their reports far down on the chart. In some cases that idea reaches an internal business analyst and they may, or may not, know how to solve this or which platform to use for it. There may not be any thought given to how it will integrate to your existing applications, CRM or finance package. Suddenly the simple application becomes a massive project and gets shelved before even starting. It also may have become the project from hell that your predecessor was promised.

But it doesn't have to be this way.

IBM has embraced and extended their core collaboration software package, the venerable IBM Domino application which helped your parents be successful, and is still here to help you as well.

Other vendors will tell you they have a new solution, maybe they do, maybe they don't. 

Another blue logo company may tell you they have solved all the issues in their now legacy 17 year old application, but we know you are smarter than their little charade. 

The alphabet soup kids will promise a lot but so far their collaboration efforts are 0 for 2(G+, Wave) and their Enterprise experience is not up to your level of intricacy.

However, IBM understands your world, in many cases, they built your company for you, and is now putting all of that knowledge into their flagship product. If what's old is new again, then now is the time to revisit a product that provides:

• Applications that seamlessly interact with the Internet, but maintain your privacy and security while enhancing your productivity. 
• Sales people on the road that can visualize and pull their data overlaying a map to know who they can go see in their area.
• Workflows that interact between your CRM, your payroll and finance departments and your HR.
•  There is nothing worse than on boarding staff and telling them to go to 5 departments instead of one workflow app which provides most of what they need automatically.
• Write once code that runs offline, online, via a desktop client or a browser, tablet or phone.
• Reduces development time to days or weeks instead of months and gets apps in staff hands faster.
• More sales leads. Just kidding, it can't do everything for you. 
• However, it can automate your sales funnels, marketing efforts and help on the road sales teams engage in more clients than you do today. (Some assembly required, email me for details)
• Better meaning for your data.
• IBM Watson integration awaits with all your AI needs now easily accessible to anyone, anywhere you need it. Ask the right questions, or the wrong ones, your data will provide you insights.
• A solution that grows with you.
• If size matters, don't worry, you have a long way before you max out the systems, IBM leverages it inside for 300,000+ people worldwide 24x7x365. 

What holds you back from sneaking a peek at the imminently available IBM Domino 10? It is in beta now, over here and if you are lucky, you will be allowed access.

You can be a part of the new revolution, if you are ready, and willing, to work on your future, not repaint your past.

A Beautiful Domino Environment

It is an incredible treasure trove of applications, planning, architecture and user attention that we all wish our companies would provide.

A true work of art, this is the environment I want to show everyone and be proud of that I was the admin, if I had built it. These days we rarely get to extend environments like the early days. Change management, mergers, fiefdoms, lack of training/knowledge and just fear of the unknown prevent us from helping customers sometimes.

Dozens of servers, dozens of application directories on each server, you name it they used it or tried it, sandbox apps, nifty 50, OpenNTF templates, apps even I have never seen used in the wild, and I have seen a lot, and have discs of misc. templates from books long gone to history.

Except, it is The Titanic of Domino environments.

The framework is all there, the structure too, sure it lost all the servers along the way as consolidation brought it to this point of life. It has been unearthed, by me, because it needs to get moved to a new physical server. The effort is not lost on me and I am in awe as I open apps that ran the IT department, handled changes and ID files and looks like a well maintained and curated environment with IT people that documented everything.

It is pure and regal just like it was when it ran this Enterprise's world. How would it have known that a merger or two would cause leaks in the infrastructure and the leadership to lose faith in the abilities to keep them running..

It could still get up and run today, bring everyone back, there is life here! I shouted in my head. But all I could do is be a voyeur and help it move to what may be the final resting place.

After all how long do they need this data?

Why would they no longer leverage these applications?

Sadly, it is not coming back to see the light of day, having been put down a few years ago and now sits as a read only backup documentation server.

Like the underwater footage of the Titanic where chandeliers, art, gold, dishes and windows live on and we can relive their beauty, so I sat in my remote desktop just amazed at the art in front of me that will never see the light of live data usage again.

So much awesomeness, so much sadness.

יבם דומינו נוסע ליעד שאף תוכנה עוד לא הגיעה אליו

האם ישנה תוכנה שאינה מערכת הפעלה, ועדיין פועלת בכל פלטפורמה, יותר מ-30 שנה לאחר שהיא יצאה?

אם ידועה לך, אנא הודיע לי.

יבמ (חיים קודמים לוטוס Lotus) נוטס ודומינו(Notes and Domino) מתמשכים הרבה יותר מאשר ריי אוזי אי פעם חזה. ריי, אל תהסס למסור לי אם אני טועה. 

יבמ הודיע היום כי הפיתוח של הערות דומינו ימשיך ללא הגבלת זמן.

מובן שמי שקורא מאמר זה, אף פעם לא דמיין שזהיפסיק לפעול,  אם כי יש בהחלט מנהלים שונים ומתחרים שירצו שכך יקרה.  ובכל זאת, התוכנה חיה וקיימת , ובכיוון החדש היא תמשיך להפיץ שיתוף פעולה וזרימת עבודה בדרכים שאף מוצר אחר בשוק לא יכול לעשות היום.

בואו ילדים, צאו וכתבו מערכת טובה יותר לכל מטרה, יבמ מעיז אותכם, ולמרות זאת, עד עכשיו, אף אחד לא הצליח.

ועתה, כנראה שאף אחד לעולם לא יצטרך כי זה יכול פשוט לשרוד את כולנו.

"HCL also expanded its relationship with IBM to collaboration solutions, including Notes, Domino, Smart Cloud Notes, Verse and Sametime." - http://www.livemint.com/Companies/BpxtRX3Lvs7hJs1eKRdGlL/HCL-Technologies-Q2-net-profit-rises-86-to-Rs2188-crore.html

אפילו (Sametime) סאמטים מקבל חיים חדשים. אני תוהה אם הם יכולים עכשיו להחיות מחדש את Quickr. מותר לגבר לחלום, נכון?

אה ו- IBM מוציא את נוטס ודומינו גרסה עשר (10) במחצית השנייה של 2018.

במקרה ואתה באמת רוצה שהיישומים האלו לפעול בצורה שלא כדרכם, או לאלה ששונאים לתקן משהו שלא נמצא חן אצלך, יבמ מתכוון לארח אירוע אידיא ג'אם  בשם #Domino2525 שבו אתה תוכלו למסור רעיונות  משלך עבור המוצר, ומפת העתיד שלו. אפשר להירשם לאירוע כאן.

עסקת HCL אינו פתרון בלתי צפוי לחידה שהעליתי לפני יותר מ -9 שנים בפוסט הזה, גם אם זה בא מזווית אחרת.

אנחנו צועדים באומץ לאן שאף אחד עוד לא הגיע, למעט באז שנות-אור ( Buzz Lightyear) כי הוא הלך אל האינסוף... ומעבר לו.

To Tableau, or Not to Tableau

This was the question I had as I reserved a space at the event held today here in Tel Aviv. I was supposed to go last year but was out of the country at the time.Nice view we had.

Tableau is about data visualization. yes the same stuff we did 30 years ago with 1-2-3 or Excel but smooth, "simple" and flexible to work with many, many forms of data. They went public in 2013 and since have steadily grown in awareness and revenue. Tableau may not have been on everyone's radar but it is showing up more and more.

Dashboards are the low hanging fruit, embedded systems data, advanced analysis and problem-solving once you get some real data views is when the fun starts.

My impression was the event would be a local Business Partner running the event and maybe 25-50 people would show up for an afternoon event between 2 and 5 pm. Which would be great as I wanted time to talk to them about the ecosystem, project work and length and recurring revenue streams.

Oh boy was my thinking wrong!

My estimate, confirmed by the Tableau people, was over 300 people came and it looks like as many as 400 had replied they were coming. And this is in Israel where I have been at full events that barely had 250 people. Interestingly many startups here use it for client reporting and proof that their marketing or advertising or whatever the solution, is working.

If you wonder if this is something you should be looking into, if you haven't already, the answer is definitely yes. London friends they are coming to you June 5-7, register here.

The time was meant to have networking, for the 5, yes that is correct, 5 Israel Business Partners to get time with everyone. Even if I wanted to be a  BP, I can't, this year. I don't really understand the thinking, but I was encouraged to apply anyway as they review their partners every year, similar to how SalesForce does it. More on this later in this post.

After networking, we had a quick demo from the UK Sales leader Josh and his Product PreSales specialist Rafi. I say quickly because when speaking in a foreign country, native English speakers should slow down their delivery so everyone can process what is said, and also explain as they go along what they are doing to create the demo. The exuberance Rafi and Josh displayed was great, but I would have preferred a little more explanation about the way she built the views for the demo.

There was a brief slide deck from Laurie as he tried to explain that once you build a dashboard the interested parties can start to really expand on their knowledge and play with it further.

I think there are a little way to go for this part as a non-IT person does not think the same way as tech or data people.

As an example, I, like most of you reading this, understand databases and views, SQL calls and other aspects of databases but because of a lack of education, most end users do not. They can learn, and some do, but many just don't want to learn or change. A problem we all face no matter which solution we choose to use for even basic functions in business.

Thus my impression, given the demo was already seen, is someone would become the guy in the corner that is the Tableau expert rather than many users editing it. That is how I first met a few people in the Lotus Notes world in the R2 days. And I can see people with Tableau interests ending up in the same way.

Great, I love it, let's get started! Well, hold on a second there. It is not so simple.

• They have a 14 day(30?) trial period. Not long enough IMHO for your average consultant or corporate person to get their head around it.
• Very pricey options, per user ($999) to get a license to work with it but to save it on a server and not just locally you need Professional ($1,999).
• No developer license or option. Ok, so how do we get it?
• (They have student/teacher Desktop editions)

BUT, there is a "free" public edition here for Windows and Mac and you can read the details.
Ok, so it is limited, but should be enough for us to get our head around how to work with it.

Ready to get going? Try these:

Quick Start in text form for those, like myself, that prefer textual information
Training Videos for those that like visual learning
Long(1 hr) videos on how to via youtube
An amusing example of Data Visualization to help you build your first
There are also various forums and user groups so the community is engaged and even shows how to get Domino to work via REST and ODBC and DB2.

Getting back to the Business Partner discussion, it seems that the expectations are for customers to seek out Tableau partners and work with them on their projects. I can see this as companies move away from training people on new items and prefer to outsource projects. However, I also see it as an internal benefit that should be given proper training to get the most out of it, especially at these prices.

There is a fee to become a partner but once you would be down that path it would be expected.

Coming from the Lotus and IBM Collaboration space my view is tableau is seriously limiting their growth potential by not having options available for consultants or small services teams or even individuals.

Maybe Tableau really does send leads to their BPs around the world from the people that request it from their website. As an end user, this page leaves me wondering what the difference is between the 4 types of partners and why 2 of the options search by country, region, industry, and certifications while the other 2 sort only by region.

Perhaps the same confusion is what leads to the many requests to the Tableauthians (I know, somewhat Star Trek like but not sure what they call themselves) looking for consultants.

I could definitely have used this for past reporting and am looking at using it for some current projects.

How about you?

What are you doing with it?