My view of the world and anything that might interest me.
See from Ed that some South Africans will attend a Lotusphere Comes to you event. Wonder who this South Africans are and hope they are going to take some notes so that they can bring the event also to us poor sods that have to stay behind here in South Africa.
Technorati Tags: lotus, lotusphere, ibm, south africa, ireland
Yes I know this is mostly old news but it only hit the press here in South Africa yesterday. It is good to see IBM South Africa doing so well.
IBM SA had a record year, delivering a 20% rise in revenue for its 2006 financial year, says Mark Harris, IBM SA country GM.
Speaking at the annual IBM gala dinner for channel partners, Harris noted the year saw growth of 33% from the company’s Server and Technology Group, 30% from Business Consulting, 33% from its Software Group and 59% from its Services Group.
This contributes a bit to the $91.4billion revenue that IBM made during 2006.
Technorati Tags: ibm, results, south africa
For those that want to see a bit more on what Lotus Connections is all about .. there is now a video on YouTube for you to look at.
Technorati Tags: ibm, lotus connections, colaboration, youtube
A lot has been written and said about Notes 8, Lotus Connections and Quickr since announcement at Lotusphere 2007. I like particularly what Bill Buchan wrote and I quote:
Notes – my long term partner – well. She’s been tucked, trimmed, lipo’d, exfoliated. A complete makeover. But she’s still the rather interesting person behind this new facade. Some new tricks, of course. But the old ones still work. The in-laws – IBM – well, they cant get enough of her. The twin sisters – Quickr, and Connections. No talk of the ugly cousin -Workplace -anymore.
and then Bill gets a stab into MS also — love it
Let me tell you – Quickr just makes Sharepoint look like an ugly sister. Ouch.
I have run the latest beta build of Notes 8 and must say I like what I see. Much more slicker and responsive and that for a beta build. Cannot wait to get my hands on Connections and Quickr.
Technorati Tags: ibm, lotus, notes 8, quickr, connections
While reading John Tolva’s blog I came accross some NASA wisdom around projects and I quote:
“If a major project is truly innovative, you cannot possibly know its exact cost and its exact schedule at the beginning. And if in fact you do know the exact cost and the exact schedule, chances are that the technology is obsolete.â€
— Joseph G. Gavin, Jr., discussing the design of the lunar module* that landed NASA astronauts on the moon.
Now at IBM we strive to be innovative for the customers we serve … does this mean that we as Project Managers should not be bound by fixed project cost and fixed project schedules?
Being innovative means that some leeway must be provided for. To be innovative also means that there is no history and/or experience on which costs and schedules can be based. However what goes hand in hand with this is to make sure you have good Risk Management processes in place since being innovative also means that one must take more risks.
Technorati Tags: project management, nasa, ibm, innovation, risks
I wanted to comment on the spat that is going on between IBM and Microsoft and Open Standards. Actually it is not really a spat since all IBM is saying, support a ratified open standard like ODF rather than getting another quasi standard like openXML from Microsoft. Now Microsoft is blaming IBM for taking sides. Glyn Moody summed it up well in his post titled “Microsoft’s Fruedian Slips”. I quote
What Microsoft glides over, of course, is that the choice is within the standard. There are now a number of programs supporting ODF, with more coming through. That’s choice. I doubt whether there will ever be a non-Microsoft program that supports fully its own XML format: there will be no choice, just lock-in under a different name.
Technorati Tags: ibm, microsoft, odf, openxml, open standards
Friday is my last day at work before going on leave for about 4 weeks. My first proper leave in about 18 months and boy, how do I look forward to the break.
However, before going on leave there is so much still to do in making sure that everything is in order for the team to keep on delivering on the outsource deal to Safmarine. Luckily for me, there is some very capable people that can look after some of the things that have to be done.
There is an article on eWeek Microsoft Watch asking and I quote
“Is Microsoft missing the boat here and doing its instant messaging customers a disservice?”
I have to answer with a big Yes!!!
Technorati Tags: ibm, sametime, IM, microsoft, MSN, collaboration, messaging
At last I can use my Sametime (that is if you run version 7.5) and connect to other IM clients. And I quote:
The world’s largest instant messaging community is now available for IBM Lotus Sametime customers via the Lotus Sametime Gateway. Lotus Sametime users can now instant message users of Google Talk, AOL AIM, and Yahoo! Messenger. This capability bridges a big gap in communications between the enterprise and consumer communities.
How cool would it be if it also connect to MSN and Skype eventually ..
Update: Here is a link to an eWeek article.
Technorati Tags: ibm, sametime, msn, gTalk, Yahoo, instant messaging, IM
On Friday, 1 Dec 2006, we all got given a goody bag from IBM .. we had no idea what was in it. In it was:
This week all of us are going through induction and medicals. I had my induction on Monday and we told all about Security, BCG, ILC, WWER, CHRIS and a lot of other acronyms and systems.
Yesterday evening we were officially welcomed at a party at Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens here in Cape Town. We listened to a great speech by Greame Codringtom from TomorrowToday on why people from different age groups does not understand one another. Met Mark Harris, Debbie Graham and a bunch of other great existing IBMers.
And inbetween all of this I had to do my day job also — making sure the customer is happy and we deliver what we suppose to deliver.
The next milestone on my journey into IBM is getting my first payslip around the 15th of December.
Overall I must say things went fairly smoothly with a few bumps here and there.
Technorati Tags: ibm, welcome, induction, kirstenbosch, tomorrowtoday