Month: January 2006

Red Bull – Microsoft and IBM

Hi Jimmy, hi Grandad

Stu talks about the latest Microsoft release of Lotus Notes to Exchange (and others) migration toolkit. He thinks it’s a good thing, so do I.

The thing that I personally find interesting though is how this huge reaction from the Lotus Notes side of the debate will impact on customer perception. A negative to reaction to something doesn’t always get the reaction you were looking for.

For instance, the only people actively promoting knowledge of the toolkit are people who would rather it was never used. Just by acknowledging it existence they are acknowledging that there is an issue. This will mean that some customers will become uncomfortable and start an assessment process that they never would have previously.

My personal belief is that IBM Lotus have a strong technical story but that they aren’t telling the story. The current round of updates have all been focussed (in their presentation) on stuff that end-users couldn’t care less about. IBM seem to have missed the point that the end-user, particularly in this arena, is king and queen. IBM seem to dismiss continually the issues that end-users raise about usability even though they are fixing them. I’ve even been in a discussion with a customer who has said that they are leaving Notes just because of the end-user experience, they were more concerned that their staff were not enjoying their technology experience than the cost of running the infrastructure. Whether Outlook was really the answer to this customers problems can be debated for ever, but the main point was that they didn’t see anything from IBM that was going to make it any better.

Knowledge workers who use Notes or Outlook spend more than 80% using the products and their experience has to be impeccable. All that you have to do is to add a few minutes to each user each day; project costs for a migration are tiny in comparison. Expand that experience into Instant Messaging and other collaboration tools and the numbers just get bigger and bigger.  

That is where IBM needs to take the fight to Microsoft – at the end-user. They are the ones who will make all of the decisions. But don’t do it for Notes, do it for the whole collaboration experience.

(I have no idea why it’s “Red Bull” – how naive of me)

AT&T Teleworking – Continued

Jimmy and Grandad show how big their feet are

David Goldes continues his article on collaboration at AT, more precisely about teleworking at AT&T. I’ve talked a lot about the process and business change issues with all technology before so it was interesting to see the three pieces of advice from Joseph Roitz, AT&T’s director of telework:

1. Keep in mind that technology is paramount; if the technology doesn’t work and support applications, whether it’s the intranet or connectivity, the initiative is doomed

2. Corporate culture is of paramount importance.  It’s necessary to create a culture that embraces telework, or at the very least allows it to exist.  Telework is subject to the network effect, where each incremental addition adds value.

3. Telework is a business strategy, not a perk.  It’s not a project or a program, it’s an entirely different way of doing business that is more effective, efficient, resilient, and flexible.

Value Multipliers

Grandad never did understand desk chairs

Jeffrey Phillips has a great article on Value Multipliers:

The military has a phrase that I like a lot – force multiplier.  What they mean by that are conditions,weapons, tactics or other factors that increase the force brought to beat on a particular enemy.  This means that because of other conditions and careful planning they get even more firepower or results from a small team.

I think we in business should define some value multipliers.  What processes, systems or cultural changes can we make to our business that will add significant value given the same inputs?  I think this is especially true in workgroups or teams.

A great example of a value multiplier for an individual is the Getting Things Done methodology.  As an individual, I can become more productive as I adopt the process and methodology and put it to good use.  But there is a limiting factor – as long as I’m the only one using the methodology and becoming more efficient, there’s an upper level impact to the gains for the work group or team.  What can we provide for teams or workgroups to multiply their value and results?

In a sense he is saying that the total value is greater than the sum of the parts. We see this issue in all sorts of places, unfortunately in reverse most of the time. How do we get through to an organisation culture that if everyone works together on something we all get the value, but if some choose to opt out we all loose. I’m yet to see an organisation, for instance, where everyone uses the calendaring capabilities of their infrastructure in a way that makes everyones time management as effective or productive as it could be. There is normally someone who refuses to put all of their appointments in their making everyones free and busy information of low value.

Having said that I have worked in teams where the team came together in a way which provided value that we could never have as individuals. If I could bottle that culture and that feeling I would not be sitting here now, that’s for sure.

Jimmy and Grandad on Flickr

Jimmy and Grandad contemplate going for a hair-cutJimmy and Grandad now have their own Flickr Set please feel free to comment on their adventures.

eWeek does a review of Notes 7

eWeek has done a review of Notes 7. Ed Brill has pointed to the bits that he likes.

Not enough detail for my liking, but if you want some basics about the changes then take a look.

Blackberry Accessory

There are so many people I know who need this blackberry accessory that I think I might buy some of them one.

Perhaps I should get Granddad and Jimmy fixed up?

via jkOnTheRun.

Microsoft Monitor does some Pondering too

Yesterday I did some pondering about what would happen if Apple had a monopoly. Today Microsoft Monitor talks to some of the issues I raised.

Related, I also would like to point out that Apple presses its advantages just as hard as Microsoft. I’ve heard lots of gripes (some justified) for many years about Microsoft’s bundling strategy and how it hurts competitors. Apple does the same. Yesterday, I tried to get product information at Apple’s Website, but Internet Explorer 7 would crash. I used Firefox with the same result. With Tuesday’s new product announcements, Apple retooled its Website with lots more QuickTime (Doesn’t everyone else use Flash?). So I decided to update my QuickTime version from 7.03 to 7.04. But when I tried to download QuickTime, Apple’s Website directed me to iTunes. Apple wouldn’t offer QuickTime download separate from iTunes. I did search Apple’s download site for QuickTime 7.04, but got directed to 7.03 instead.

Jimmy and Grandad

Jimmy shows Granddad his unique light blue iPod-Video-MP3-Photo-Telephone Thingy

I’ve had a few questions about “Jimmy and Grandad” and there current showing on Oak Grove well here is an explanation.

In a house at the end of a cul-de-sac in a quite corner of Lancashire’s newest city is an upstairs room. Some would look at this room and believe that it was just an ordinary room. It has four walls, a window and a door, nothing special there. In one quite corner of this room though is a four storey wooden house. It has a basement with a garage for the car. It has bedrooms for the inhabitants. It has a bathroom in the attic. It has everything that a modern family could possibly want.

Jimmy tries to ignore Tyke's requests for a walk

In this house lives a wonderful extended family; Grandma, Grandad, Mum, Dad, Jimmy, Emmy and Tilly the baby. There is even a full set of pets rabbit, cat, and everyone’s favourite Tyke the dog.

Most of the time they are just an ordinary family doing ordinary things in an ordinary way. But like all ordinary families they are really extraordinary. When Jimmy and Grandad get together anything could happen and it regularly does. Jimmy is a lover of gadgets and technology, Grandad his somewhat slower side-kick. Physical slowness isn’t a problem for the quick minded Grandad though and he gets it faster than Jimmy most of the time. In this world it’s mental agility that counts.

They may not look cool, they may never change their clothes, they may never comb their hair, they may be made of wood, but they are extraordinary.

Welcome to the adventures of Jimmy and Grandad.

AT&T Collaboration – Teleworking

Granddad and Grandma try to take Tyke for a walk

Interesting article in Collaboration Loop on AT&T and it’s move to teleworking, particularly interesting is the political change that this change has made. It again promotes the issue of process to the top of the pile.

One of the reasons for the program’s success at AT&T is because there is no differentiation in terms of work habits between employees who work in AT&T offices and those who work remotely.  AT&T has rather effectively embedded telework in the way all work is performed.  Security policies do not, for example differentiate between “security at home,” “security on the road,” and “security in the office”:  there is but one security policy, and it is designed to anticipate all facets of the knowledge worker’s environment, mobile or otherwise.   People even work in a remote style when in office:  the tools that teleworkers use, such as instant messaging and the telephone, are also frequently used to contact workers in adjoining offices.

If Apple had a monopoly?

Jimmy shows Granddad his unique light blue iPod-Video-MP3-Photo-Telephone Thingy

This is a question I ponder sometimes. If we had chosen to buy Apple instead of IBM PC what would the world of IT look like today. For one thing we wouldn’t be dominated by Microsoft, would Microsoft still exist, etc.

I’m no great historian so this isn’t some great thesis, it’s just some simple pondering.

Apple has always been the deliverer of an an integrated solution – hardware and software. Get one, get them both. If Apple had dominated would this have continued? Would they have reached a monopoly in the same way as Microsoft is reported to have? Would they have fallen into the hands of the regulators earlier or later? Would the regulator have made them split the hardware and software sides of the business?

If all of the personal computers and their software came from one organisation what would have happened? We certainly wouldn’t have had Dell or Gateway; IBM, Toshiba, HP, Sony, would all be smaller.

Would Apple have chosen to leverage the dominance in the personal computer space to increase the scope of their monopoly into say the office productivity or media space?

Without the cash from Windows would Microsoft have been the ones shouting foul over the encroachment of Apple into it’s office productivity market? Would they have developed Exchange and would it be something completely different? SQL Server? SharePoint?

I like to ponder history because it tells me something about the future.

If Apple is dominant in the portable media player market will it try to use that dominance to build a dominance somewhere else. Well they already are, they are trying to build a dominance in music downloads. They aren’t building this dominance in an open accessible way they are locking people in. If you buy protected music from iTunes the only portable media player you can play it on is your iPod. Businesses aren’t really that different you see. If you use an iPod and you buy music from iTunes you’ve been locked in (well almost because you can get the tunes to another format but it isn’t easy and it will cost you money).

If the dominance continues and moves towards a monopoly will the regulators move in? Will they be told to open up their software to others (in the same way as Microsoft has)? Will they be forced to license the iPod specification to allow others into the market? Will they be forced to bundle other digital rights software from people like Microsoft and Sony? Will they see it coming and let others into the market once they have defined its shape and size? Will the global copyright structure fall apart before that happens, making all music free and removing the need for digital rights management?

It’s fun pondering – but remember, it doesn’t mean anything.

Or perhaps it does .

Count Your Blessings #46 – Pondering

Borrowdale Boxing Day

Ponder: To reflect or consider with thoroughness and care.

I love to sit and ponder. I suppose I’m doing it now as I consider what I’m going to write, but this isn’t true pondering because there is a sense in which true pondering is done with a purpose but doesn’t actually produce anything for a long while. I know some authors ponder over words for days on end, but I’m not that precise. But I do ponder some things, I do consider them over and over again. Many of these pondering haven’t produced anything, and perhaps there isn’t anything to produce other than a sense of pondering in me.

Some translations of the Bible use the word ponder quite a lot particularly in the Psalms:

Praise the LORD! I will thank the LORD with all my heart as I meet with his godly people.

How amazing are the deeds of the LORD! All who delight in him should ponder them.

Everything he does reveals his glory and majesty. His righteousness never fails.

Psalm 111

Another translation uses a slightly different phrase and I love that too:

GOD’s works are so great, worth a lifetime of study–endless enjoyment!

Psalm 111

This Psalm talks about one of the things that I must ponder the most – God’s works. God’s works in my life, God’s works in those around me. God’s works in the broader world and in creation.

Some of the things I ponder go like this, and this is where I reveal my technical side I’m afraid:

If God is outside time and can do anything at any time with no limit to the number of times that He can do something He doesn’t need to be all powerful as well?

How does God constrain His power?

Does Heaven in an way follow the same line of time as the earth? If it doesn’t is Jesus on the earth and in heaven at the same time or is that an irrelevant question?

The point about pondering is that there is endless enjoyment in a lifetime of study. It’s not about quick answers, there may not even be an answer. Pondering is about the joy of laying with the study of something, using that study to broaden the mind to stretch the imagination, to reach beyond ourselves into something or some other place.

Having something to ponder is a wonderful companion when alone on a walk in some beautiful countryside. I could take some music or a radio or any number of electronic companions, but they are nothing compared to a question that requires some pondering.

Much of our current world is about quick answers to quick questions. We have all the information we could ever possibly want available to us. The other day I read a really interesting article on how we are answer rich but question poor and how this was impacting our ability to be creative. We have to learn to delight in the pondering, without it we are just information and not fully human. Some people ponder things for a lifetime and never find an answer, but that’s not the point of the pondering.

I was prompted to write this post after reading Maggi’s post on it earlier today.