Archive for January 18th, 2010
Live @ Lotusphere 2010: Gina Poole on Social Software
As mentioned in a prior post, Scott Laningham and I sat down earlier today with Gina Poole, VP, Marketing 2.0, IBM Software.
We talked about (MP3, 18:52) a number of topics relevant to the Lotus collaboration agenda, including the growing value of social software in the workplace, IBM’s own experience with social software and collaboration, and marketing via the social media.
IBM VP Gina Poole on Social Software: Podcast Coming Soon
It’s just a little after half past noon on Monday.
developerWorks podcast guru Scott Laningham and I had the opportunity to sit down and speak with Gina Poole, VP, Marketing 2.0 with IBM Software Group, after the exciting opening session this AM.
Gina, whose team I support at IBM, went deep on several topics relevant to Lotusphere, expounding on marketing via the social media, the adoption of social software in the enterprise, and much more.
Keep an eye tuned for that podcast…I’ll link to it just as soon as Scott’s finished producing it!
There’s LOADS of activity on the Lotusphere Twitter stream, so if you’re not keeping an eye on hashtags #lotusknows and #ls10, it’s time to start.
In just a short while, we’ll be off to hear the infamous Ed Brill catch us up on what Lotus Knows about the state of Lotus Notes.
Lotusphere 2010: Day 1 Announcements
At the press conference this morning here in Orlando, IBM made a number of key announcements relative to the collaboration space.
A couple were mentioned in my prior post, but let me quickly break down all of them now that they’ve been made public:
- Acceleration of Cloud Computing with LotusLive
- Collaboration Agenda Announcement
- Project Vulcan (Blueprint for the future of collaboration)
- IBM and RIM Enterprise Collaboration and Social Networking
- Availability of IBM Client for Smart Work in India (via Business Partners)
I already addressed a couple of these via Mr. Picciano’s keynote, so now it’s time for a little depth on the others.
The LotusLive announcement involves both the technology and business expansion of the LotusLive cloud collaboration pipeline through a new R&D pipeline from IBM Research.
IBM also plans to open the LotusLive suite to new partners, and the services will provide integrated email, Web conferencing, social networking, and collaboration with IBM’s focus on security, reliability and enterprise integration.
A number of the fruits from this new R&D effort will be unveiled this week, including the following:
- Slide Library, a collaborative way to build and share presentations (I can hear a collective ‘Amen’ across IBM marketing on this one)
- Collaborative Recorded Meetings, a service that records and instantly transcribes meeting presentations and audio/video for searching and tagging
- Event Maps, an interactive way to visualize and interact with conference schedules
- Composer, the ability to create LotusLive Mashups through the combination of LotusLive services.
Also expected in 2Q10, Project Concord, a new Web-based document editor for creating and sharing documents, presentations and spreadsheets.
On the LotusLive Notes version upgrade, IBM will provide email, calendar, contact management, and IM capabilities to customers in a multi-tenant environment.
New services and options here will result in a reduction in the minimum number of users for a LotusLive Notes subscription from 1,000 to 25, IBM Lotus Sametime IM support, and a 5G standard mailbox quota.
IBM is now accepting requests to participate in the LotusLive Notes managed beta program here.
Lotusphere 2010: Opening Session Debrief
Lotus knows why. Lotus knows how.
That’s the Lotusphere 2010 conference mantra, according to outgoing Lotus general manager Bob Picciano, who kick started today’s opening session before handing the reins over immediately to Captain Kirk.
Yes, Ladies and Gentleman, William Shatner was finally in the Lotus house, and despite a short talk, it was spot on in terms of its message to the Lotus faithful.
Moviemaking, like business everywhere, is ultimately about collaboration, Shatner explained, and the only thing that makes completing the work possible is the collaboration of everybody.
Shatner also reminded us that remakes are great if only they remind you how great the originals are, seeming to suggest Lotus was the original collaboration software partner. Hear hear.
Shatner also joked with the Loti that he could help them save on a hotel room or rental car while in Orlando.
After the Enterprise beamed Shatner away to much applause, Bob Picciano returned with some key messages he’ll leave us with as he makes his way to broader IBM shores as head of all software sales.
First, the Lotus Knows campaign, which lifted Lotus out of the IT trenches and into the faces of enterprise line of business leaders around the globe. Rock on Lotus marketing.
Bob explained that this campaign demonstrates the benefit of investing in the Lotus portfolio to help your organization become more productive, period.
He also highlighted the fact that 18,378 customers, to be exact, have signed on to use Lotus Notes since release 8.
And in a straight on jab, he highlighted the fact that Lotus is “freeing you from paying outrageous licensing fees for software which should be a commodity.”
He would be talking about office productivity software. Expect more on the Lotus Symphony front soon.
Finally, Bob introduced what he called the “Collaboration Agenda,” that is, a strategic view of how companies want their employees and stakeholders to work better together.
The Collaboration Agenda is an industry-specific, structured approach to help Lotus clients realize measurable business value from improving the way people interact. (A recent survey by IDC shows that 66% of businesses believe that a thorough understanding of their business is important or very important for a vendor.”)
The Collaboration Agenda provides a way for organizations to view how they’re working today, and to identify gaps where people can be better equipped to improve and speed their roles and processes.
This morning, Picciano also announced industry-specific ROI metrics around collaboration capabilities for four key industries, including banking, insurance, government, and healthcare providers/payers.
He also announced a reselling agreement with BlackBerry maker Research in Motion, including an agreement between RIM and Lotus for Lotus to sell BlackBerry Client for Lotus Connections and BlackBerry Client for Lotus Quickr.
A new version of both products will be released on January 18th.
RIM Chief Technology Officer David Yach also spoke onstage about RIM’s having recently purchased new versions of IBM Lotus Connections, Quickr, and Sametime for his own organization to be more collaborative on the go.
There are more announcements to come.
Keep an eye on Ed Brill’s blog for some of the latest, including Lotus Notes Traveler Android support and encrypted Notes mail for the iPhone via the Lotus Notes Traveler Companion.
Also, keep your eyes peeled here on the IBM Press Room for more details on all the announcements shortly.
On the Ground @ Lotusphere 2010
Well, I made it to Orlando from Austin today no worse from the wear, which is more than I can say for my Dallas Cowboys. Romo and the gang, better luck next year, and congrats to the ever-awesome Brett Favre for his Vikings’ win over my ‘Boys.
He makes fortysomething males everywhere smile with his continued acumen on the football field.
(Also, congrats go out to the J-E-T-S for their win over San Diego).
I was able to make it here in time to check out the Lotusphere 2010 opening reception featuring the Nerd Rangers, an ‘80s band who made me pine for the days of Devo and the Talking Heads.
Loved the hats, gents…as for Lotusphere 2010, let’s just plan to whip it good.
Tomorrow will inevitably prove to be a big day for Lotus announcements, but if I tell you anything about them tonight, I’ll have to kill ya…and look for a new job.
Suffice it to say that my preliminary scanning of said announcements should help set the agenda for collaboration in the 2010s (has anybody come up with some snappy shorthand for referring to this decade yet?).
Keep an eye on this space for more details…and to find out who the celebrated mystery guess emcee for the opening session are…manana.
turbotodd
Turbotodd 