11 posts tagged “lotus”
... and I can do anything ...
Back in the day when IBM/Lotus spent big bucks on TV advertising. Still not sure what made it "superhuman software", but a memorable ad campaign for sure...
... for Lotus Notes 8! (year I know this is techie, but these are quite funny. Bear with me!)
You should be considering Lotus Symphony - the free Office Suite from IBM.
Love the video, very charming. Obviously filmed in IBM's Lotus offices in Boston - I know several of the people in the video, not least Mary Beth Raven who is the lead designer for the Lotus Notes product. Well worth a look at her blog if you are in any way interested in the software development process - Mary has led a real move toward involving customers and partners in making key design decisions on software they use.
I'm not sure I would go quite that far, but a very interesting article at Red Herring:
One day, we may look back on Sept. 17 as the official beginning of the end for Microsoft's dominance. Two separate events signaled the shift; one was the European Union court's harsh ruling against Microsoft itself, charging that the world's No. 1 software maker had abused its monopoly power to harm competitors. The verdict was expected -- and showed that European bureaucrats had more courage than the U.S. Justice Department.
The other important announcement was IBM's offering of Lotus Symphony, a suite of office applications, for free. This is just the latest bullet to the head of Microsoft's cash cow. ...
It is clear now that Microsoft has become the legacy company of the 21st century, playing the kind of defensive role that IBM played when the upstart from Redmond outwitted the incumbent in Armonk and walked away with the best parts of OS/2.
Oh, and guess who registered http://lotussymphonyblog.com ;-)
Quick announcement: The Quickr Blog is now online and available for all things Quickr-related!
Hurrah, I've just checked in for my BA flight to Orlando, which leaves Gatwick at 11:40 tomorrow morning. The Passport has been found, the paperwork pulled together, and the Out of Office agent set... We are definitely getting there!
Having looked again at the agenda for the week, I have to say that I am thrilled and amazed at the volume and variety of sessions this year - a real step up from previous Lotuspheres I have attended.
For me the only blot on the landscape is a clash for the 7am (yes folks, that's 7 AM) slot on Thursday, with two sessions that I would love to be at:
BOF508 The Lotus Software Blogging Community (Not Just Bloggers!)
and
BOOM101 Running IBM Lotus Notes on Macintosh
Given that BOOM101 is just about the only Mac-focused session on the agenda, I feel it is really important, but I don't want to miss the Blogging Birds of a Feather session either... I think it's too late to rescheule either session (I have asked IBM anyway), so I'll have to miss one... What shall it be?
IBM Lotus Notes access for SAP solutions can provide even greater business value for companies using both Lotus Notes software and SAP enterprise systems. This feature lets you access SAP information and business processes in your familiar Lotus Notes messaging and collaborative environment, starting with Lotus Notes 7.0.1. The Lotus Notes access for SAP solutions feature builds on proven IBM and SAP integration technology that has been in market for eight years. The new capabilities extend this integration into calendars and scheduling, contact management, workflow processing and other common business tasks. This feature leverages Lotus Notes strengths in personal information and workflow management to complement SAP application
processes.The audience for this Redpaper will be IT Architects, application developers and business leaders in an organization looking to integrate SAP business applications and workflow into their familiar, security-rich Lotus Notes collaboration client at no additional charge.
Details on the IBM Redbooks site...
The Four Hundred (and others) are reporting on IBM's storming Q3 numbers...
Mark Loughridge, IBM's chief financial officer, ... said that the company's Software Group contributed the most to the bottom line in the quarter. Software Group posted sales of $4.4 billion, up 9 percent ... WebSphere middleware sales increased 30 percent in the quarter, and Tivoli systems management tools showed a big recovery, with sales up 44 percent. (It wasn't that long ago when Tivoli sales were very poor, and IBM started to focus on provisioning and security to turn this line around.) Sales of its information management products--DB2 and IMS databases and related tools--increased by 12 percent in the quarter. Lotus groupware and collaboration product sales were up 8 percent in the quarter, even with intense competition from Microsoft Exchange and myriad open source alternatives. Rational development tool sales were more muted, up only 2 percent. But these key branded software products grew in aggregate at 20 percent and accounted for 52 percent of IBM's software sales in the third quarter. (accents mine)
It really is a great time to be involved in IBM Software, especially in the resurgent Lotus brand. This will continue through Q4 and 1H07 I am sure...
Yup, thats right, I'm back on the certification trail...
Finally, I have had a chance to bring my IBM Lotus Principal Certified Lotus Professional, Systems Administration (PCLP for you and me) certification up to the latest version (R7):
and while I was at the testing centre, it seemed sensible to get my IBM Tivoli Storage Manager cert up to date too, that is now up to v5.3:
That makes the set as follows:
I've been charged with putting together some end user training this week, taking an organisation's users forward from Notes 5.0.11 to 7.0.1, and it has been a fascinating reintroduction to the Notes world.
To be honest I had forgotten just how much has changed between those releases, and so much of it giving true business value back to the users. Of course, there have been some "nice to haves" including such interface changes as colour-coded messages and so on, but additions such as integrated instant messaging, Domino Web Access, support for Linux/Mac have made a real difference to both organisations and their users.
Sometimes looking back is as important as looking forward, and often we forget how far we've come...