One Special Session at Lotusphere 2011

No, this isn't about the students, but god knows they should have been at the session I am about to discuss. In fact, part of this session should be the opening act at the OGS for LS12.

Late on Wednesday there was a session done by someone who will probably live in Lotusphere lore.

The Title of the session was BP106 Titled "Where is the Love? How to get Your Users to fall in Love with IBM Lotus Notes".

By Mat Newman, which is Australian for Master Presenter.

A very packed room filled with everyone from IBMers to customers to bloggers and no doubt Microsoft people, if they were still there.

Mat proceeded to remind us all that we could do our jobs better to help people but aside from his guidelines which were simple enough to follow, he put on a 10-15 minute overview of what a Lotus Notes client can do....without discussing email at all.

Most people have a hard time expressing what can be done with Notes which is why, I and others usually like to explain and show the different ways to work and enhance your daily routines.


Yes his energy was everywhere, fueled by his yellow suit and the energy in the room he hit on:
sidebar apps
enabling widgets
live text connecting with Google maps
basic keyboard strokes like ctrl-home and ctrl-end
copy selected as table
what a journal/notebook is for
search ideas, UI nuances not everyone plays with

And so much more. While I know some one that videotaped it, hopefully the demo part will be posted someplace, I will update this post with it, if someone points me to it.

If you were not there all I can say is hopefully Mat will do it again next year.

Thanks Mat, safe travels.

Is IBM rebranding the wrong thing?

As many have said, Lotus, in name, seems to be missing this year at Lotusphere 2011.
Fair enough, it is just a name or brand after all, and not a product, as Ed has said numerous times.
Happens to be a very well known name, albeit one which, to some, does not have a good name when referencing certain software.

But what if IBM is rebranding/renaming the wrong things?

Changing Lotus to IBM Social Business Solutions,or something similar, is not really what you want to do with a name that is synonymous with collaboration, sharing and 1-2-3. True, probably few of the 500 students that Group brought to LS11 have a clue or even seen what 1-2-3 is, but the point is, the Lotus name does have a life of it's own, and for the most part is not only respected, but seen in a good light.

I propose that renaming Notes and Domino is really what is important. This is not a new concept or idea, many people have pondered why this has not happened, a la Quickplace into Quickr which provided a huge boost to a dormant program.

My discussions over the last few days show that the idea of renaming Notes and Domino is unthinkable...inside IBM. Certainly there are those outside who would balk as well. But the bottom line is the workplace times are what tarnished Notes and Domino. So why not rename them?

Will renaming Notes improve the IBM email numbers of Notes mail users? Possibly. I can't see it truly changing much from the estimated 25-40% of the market, depending on your source, it has of Notes mail.

Will renaming Domino change how Domino is viewed? I say Yes.
Potentially that has it's own price to pay as well.

Why is this?
Simply because Domino has always been, and quite possibly always will be, a niche application server for an enterprise or business.

And by renaming Domino to something that is more indicative of its role as a special server could make it a big winner against Microsoft. The efforts of Microsoft to cobble together a bunch of pieces and make that act almost like 1 Domino server does not work as a good model moving forward and because so many are tarnished by Notes & Domino this could change the tide. And of course there is all that licensing and CALs.

Should IBM drop the pillars, and the colors and the names for a monolithic, single, umbrella brand? No idea, but as has been my mantra the last few days, if IBM has data, and interprets it incorrectly, we all lose. But IBM has the most to lose, which is why, what you see, and what you hear, may not seem compatible to you. IBM may be struggling with this issue, and no doubt others as well, who can blame them?

Domino applications exist nearly everywhere within the Fortune 500 companies. Few argue this point to the contrary. So my guess is IBM feels that changing the umbrella preserves this perspective and does not kill any customer accounts or provide FUD for its competition.

Compare the above line to renaming the Domino name. This idea may lead to all types of mayhem on the customer front, something IBM and Business partners do not need right now.

There is no obvious answer.

If my previous post held a vision for IBM and how they see the future, should they not also be engaging what they are asking us to do for clients? Transformation can be painful, but the outcome can be beautiful, just like a caterpillar that comes out a butterfly.

No matter which path is ultimately chosen, one thing is clear.

Domino and Notes mail are not going away for a very long time. Yes, Notes may become a browser based client only someday, that is where the world is going obviously, but Domino will most likely out live many of us.

And there is nothing Microsoft can do about it...short of buying Lotus from IBM.

Product-> Solution Selling-> Transformation

Many people at Lotusphere seem to be scratching their head saying, hey where is the product? Why doesn't anyone say we use LotusLive/Connections/Domino to do x, y or z?  It could be Microsoft up there.

In truth, you are all correct. But IBM at Lotusphere is not selling a product per se. (You Smart Planet love/hate people, I have another post coming on that)

Look at it this way:
Years ago we sold products
Then came Solution Selling
Now its Transformation Selling

Yes a bad acronym unless your last name is Eliot.

Imagine talking to CEOs, not CIOs, not Line of Business execs but people who have a job that is to steer their company.
Bring them a direction, an angle, an idea for them to think about and other ways to expand their business. Think big, as Donald Trump says. It doesn't have to be expensive either. Let me use one example.

Think about when Mars, the owners of M&M's, set out to find a new color? The voting created huge loyalty and a major increase in sales and it cost them next to nothing. Read about this in this book.

So you say, how does this help IBM make money? There's no technology play there? (I have no idea if they used an IBM product, but this is not about ANY IBM product, this is about business discussions)

Not true at all, how did M&Ms stay in contact with the world? How do they today? How do they know when a great idea has been submitted? How do they find out?

This is Transformation in an industry that has a hard enough time bringing a new product to market.

You can do this for anyone...but I am not sure your average Business Partner has the right connections to make this happen.

But a number of issues come up:
1) Executives today are near retirement age and have no reason to start massive change
2) Idealism is great, but you need the Executive people to champion it....and believe it and do it as well, especially if you want others to have social businesses
3) Transformation is not an easy sale or a short sale, it requires the right person, providing a vision(not necessarily the right one) and having someone on the other side who can see it and help it and fulfill it.

Messaging and Collaboration Strategy Session

Majority running 8.5x with 70+ percent using it.
Lotus Live Notes is doing well.
Ed was probably speaking way too fast for non-English speakers.
Most likely due to the huge amount of info he wanted to get across.

Ah the Future:
So 7.0.x is at End of Life April 2011 start upgrading already, what are you waiting for?
Mostly fixes/updates but likely to only be one point release, 8.5.3.

Lotus Knows Productivity will get rolled out in the US as a new marketing campaign.

LotusLive Notes in 2011:
Domino utility server to be used for apps so you can get apps and mail in LL sometimes this year.

GSX is now monitoring your LotusLive Notes. Why would they do this if no one has control from a client side? Because to ensure SLA's and quality of service issues.

Mobile:
NO Windows mobile


Notes Next:
Concept is done, planning is done, now to get it done.
Ease Cloud integration and Hybrid.
SAML authentication
Automated provisioning

New teamroom template has been posted to openntf.org.
What changes?
inbox no longer the focus
Web/mobile are priorities

The OGS was Interesting

The opening act as you probably heard by now was excellent, I didn't catch their name but very impressive stage show and instruments. Talking Heads man in the big suit type theatrics from Stop Making Sense.

Guest was Kevin Spacey who gave a truly inspiring talk and was well keyed into the 500 students visiting us today.

Group Business Systems and IBM made it possible for 500 local college students to come to Lotusphere today and I am really happy someone did it. The expense and the effort by Group should not be lost on everyone in the Yellow Bubble or at Lotusphere, thank you to them. So stop the students and talk to them, answer questions, do whatever you can because they need to see the past and the future and why it is all important in the context of a social business and world.

Alistair was much better today than yesterday, but still something seemed missing. Maybe it was the oddly worded teleprompter speeches but it did not seem he was comfortable up there, IMHO.

There were not one but 2 customer panels. Why? And the bad scripted Q/A had people reading the teleprompters which was odd to me. Not a very exciting thing to do and why wasn't that part of the CIO events or the Customer Evangelist sessions?

On top of this no mention of numbers, we know the financial ones came out, but were there NO gains? Could the data inside IBM not be correct? Surely we had some good growth somewhere?

Demo's were okay. Northstar is now available in beta as LotusLive Symphony and it is cool, great, fast and from when I played with it, better than Google apps. Your mileage may vary.

The most impressive demo to me was not Vulcan, which was run as an embedded browser in Notes. But the  IBM Software Experience. Go check it out in the showcase floor. The ability to drag and drop followers from Facebook into this suite and just move page items around and all via GUI no IT involved, no special code is truly what every marketer wants. Amazing!

So a mixed morning, but one thing which I and others noticed was a distinct lack of Lotus branding and execs being IBM Collaboration or IBM Social executives. Not saying it means anything, it was just interesting to note.

Voicerite and UC at the OGS

This morning at the OGS, a demo showed Voicerite solution for voice mail.

Who is Voicerite? They are a South Florida based partner, which is how I know them and they are one of the first to have a Vulcan product, so to speak.

VoiceRite is one of the first companies to publish to the Activity stream of the new Business Social Toolkit providing access to IBM Unified Messaging  for access to voice mail allowing for those messages to be transcribed to text and is a compliment to VoiceRite Lotus Plugin and its Mobile voice mail clients.www.voicerite.com.

For more information go to their website and/or go to their Pedestal which is 706 (may be wrong on the number will check next time I am down there).

Day 0 of Lotusphere

 

This could be the shirt needed at Lotusphere sometimes.

Sunday, the infamous start of Lotusphere week for us Business partners.
We had an OGS which others posted about so I am not going to review it. Just to say I wish Alistair had more to say.
Bruce Elgort's session which he co presented was a unique mix of video interviews and live discussion/banter with few slides, a breath of fresh air.

I decided to go to the competitive sessions, as I suspect you expect me to do so.
Problem was that someone at IBM scheduled both at...the...same...time.

Lunch was a nice salmon with pepper sauce for those that wonder and a very nice dessert.

After lunch the fun began for me, session on Lotus Live offerings and futures was very interesting and those interested in it will find that IBM has some nice options and benefits coming soon.

I then attempted to get into what was a VERY packed room of the Mobile Roundtable. I was denied due to fire laws but took comfort in the conversation I had with 4 IBMers who were not allowed in there as well, 2 of which I am quite sure were expected in there.

I then had a great conversation with a leader of a Tiger team on UC/Sametime. While that info will come out shortly, it sounds like IBM has heard us when we say it can be hard to install Sametime.

It was the next meeting which was REALLY what I looked forward to and I will try to post about it under separate postings. The discussion centered around Developerworks and how to engage those of us on the outside to contribute more.

Turtle's session was rather funny and discussed Lotusphere in 1951. You had to be there.

At the party on the beach, and great weather I might add, I found many bloggers, Linkedin friends, blog readers and some old Lotus friends. But spent most of my time with the Redmonk team and various IBMers discussing movie themes, business, portals and the Chevrolet Volt that is displayed outside the Swan hotel.

All in all a long day, not everything I wanted out of it but the meetings I had with various IBMers was well worth it. Isn't that why we come to Lotusphere after all? So we can engage the executives and learn all we need to know for the upcoming year?

That Lotusphere Feeling and how to find me

Seeing people, some for the first time since last Lotusphere, reminds me of the 1st day back to school after summer break.
You see people and say, I know them, what's their name? or Hey it's or whatever.
The sense of being home, once walking into the Dolphin lobby, ESPN (once you got past the outside group), Kimonos or just walking past the Dolphin bar and Boardwalk is the same for everyone I ran into so far.
It's weird but comforting as well because the energy we all share is what starts Lotusphere off so well for all of us.
If you are looking for me, try Twitter or 4Square.
Look for a guy with a black hat that says LCTY Florida on it or at night is wearing a Lotus Sumtech black jacket.

Cookie orders Going well

Seems Lotusphere attendees really like to eat Thin Mints cookies. Really like them! Some even want a case of them! Still time to request them here.

Some have questioned if we can sell the cookies online. She is not selling them online, just advertising them.
Potential orders are from my friends, just as if I worked in an office except my office is virtual to all of you, who will be at Lotusphere, since I was going to be bringing some up anyway and this helps estimate better.
Their troop will be selling at various stores and malls and those notices went out as well to those locations and patrons both on paper and via email.

The guidelines provided the troop that they signed does not say one can't sell them online. In fact it stipulates that they agree to follow all safety procedures...including both conducting sales and participating in any online marketing activities.

The GSA does not sell any cookies online, presumably, so that each individual troop can sell them. Not unlike many software and hardware companies that do not sell direct to the public, except via distributors.

My daughter will be using skype, with me, to talk to those that ordered so she learns, and experiences, why people like, buy and eat Girl Scout Cookies and report back on it to the troop.

Encouraging the next generation to think differently and seek out new information that may help in the future is the plan.