Experiences from the world's first IBM IP Telephony site - now with Unified Communications and Collaboration - plus some personal views. | ||
Happy ChristmasJohn M Taylor December 23 2011 20:55:55And finally ... hoping to annoy the politically correct who now call this season 'the holidays', may I wish you and your families a very happy Christmas?We are off to Morocco to swap turkey for sunshine.
Enterprise Connect 2012John M Taylor December 23 2011 20:55:11As you know, in these straightened times, we need to control travel expenses but I always try to get to Enterprise Connect conference (the artist formerly known as VoiceCon). 2012 will be no different. I have saved up the air miles and applied for registration. All the big players will be there ... Avaya, HP, IBM, ShoreTel, etc. If you can only make one conference then this has to be it. See http://www.enterpriseconnect.com/orlando.
Volkswagen’s BlackBerry RulesJohn M Taylor December 23 2011 20:53:43I see that Volkswagen is worried about their 1,000+ BlackBerry users being so addicted to email that they can't ignore it after work. VW has made a rule that the email server will not forward mail to company devices out of business hours. The head of the works council (think 'union') said "The new possibilities of communication also contain inherent dangers". If you want to ask him about it then I suggest you give him a call this evening, tomorrow or Sunday. The devices still work as phones, it seems.
Enterprise Connect 2012John M Taylor November 6 2011 10:17:36If you can only attend one UC conference a year then I always recommend Enterprise Connect 2012. My UC career hasn't yet rewarded me with a yacht to make the trip to Florida but I plan to be there if I have to swim it. Registration is now open at http://www.enterpriseconnect.com. I hope to see many of you there.
HP Share PriceJohn M Taylor November 6 2011 10:16:47OK, this one is rather obvious, but isn't HP's share price rather undervalued these days? Can a billion dollar corporation really be worth half what it cost 6 months ago? (... and don't say it's because it has a woman driver. We all have nowadays.)
Wine for LobsterJohn M Taylor November 6 2011 10:15:50One of my delights of this past summer has been the much awaited lobster in a local restaurant - Beaches. It is really a B&B that only does dinner for the public if they have staying guests. As a result they have no licence for alcohol, which means that we can take a decent bottle of wine and pay corkage rather than paying the usual premium for restaurant wine. When the magical message 'Lobster today' was chalked up outside I arranged a party of friends. Rather than grabbing a bottle of whatever was cool in the 'fridge I thought I would buy something nice so I looked up what wine goes with lobster. I made the mistake of using the 'InterWeb'. It recommended Albarino, Chablis, Chardonnay (unoaked), Gewurztraminer, Muscadet, Pinot Grigio, Pinot Gris, Pouilly Fuisse, Rioja (white), Sauvignon Blanc and Viognier. So, that would basically be anything white? I don't think so. It seems to me that if you prefer your lobster simply boiled and served with melted butter (which we do) then you need something that doesn't overwhelm the subtle white lobster meat but that still works with the butter. Time to drop in to my local wine merchant. He agreed with me that a White Burgundy would work but suggested a Rose de Provence. These tend to be dry and fruity, so I took a chance. I figured that at least the colour would match but he was right - a great combination! Just don't try to substitute a California Blush (too sweet). If, however, you are having Lobster Thermidor then I can't advise you as I don't get that at home.
World Leader’ Holidays and UCJohn M Taylor November 6 2011 10:14:23Our American cousins today caught up with the rest of the world and ended their Summer Time (they call it Daylight Saving Time but how does it do that, I wonder?). This summer was, for me, characterised by world leaders missing their family holidays * for the want of UC.US President Barack Obama cut short his family's vacation on Martha's Vineyard and returned to Washington to await the landfall of a hurricane. David Cameron, the UK Prime Minister, came back early from both his holiday in Tuscany (for the rioting in Southern England) and the one in Cornwall (for the Libyan rebel advance on Tripoli). On the first occasion the Deputy Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer also did the same. They had already been under pressure to come back earlier because of the stock market slide. But why did they all return? To take command of the situation? To chair committees? It's not as if they personally could make much difference to any of these events. Mr Wulff, the President of Germany, rebuked Chancellor Merkel, saying political leaders should not break their holidays every time there was trouble in the markets. Perhaps leaders be more effective if they had restful holidays? Maybe they would panic the markets less rather than more. But even if they can't resist the temptation to get involved, what is it about world leaders that makes them think they have to get on a plane to go to a meeting these days? Didn't they miss a golden opportunity to use and promote the technology they clearly all have. When the South African government (to avoid offending the Chinese) refused a visa to the Dalai Lama to attend Archbishop Desmond Tutu's 80th birthday he simply attended via video conference. To the UC community he was worth his weight in gold. * Translation: English 'holidays' US 'vacation'. US 'holidays' = an extended shopping period formerly known as Christmas.
Caviar and VodkaJohn M Taylor August 10 2011 16:58:32The quality of food and drink in the Baltic is almost as high as its price. One particularly exciting experience was a surprise visit to the Lobby Bar of the 18th century Grand Hotel Europe in St Petersburg (http://www.grandhoteleurope.com). On my actual birthday my wife had secretly booked a table with tasters of caviar (Beluga and Oscietra) on blinis with creme fraiche, washed down with Baltika (a local beer) and shots of chilled vodka (Russian Standard and Tsarskaya - both Silver and Gold). I enjoyed myself nearly as much as the even more elderly gentlemen who were being kindly helped up the grand staircase by what I imagine were their nieces.
UCC For OldiesJohn M Taylor August 10 2011 16:57:02Last month I reached the age of 60. My wife, after arranging a splendid party at home, took me off on a cruise ship around the Baltic cities and St Petersburg (the original one, not Florida). Fantastic trip!Of course, to enjoy ourselves and to keep in touch with work, family and friends we had to take laptop, iPod, iPad, smartphones, headphones, digital cameras and a multitude of chargers and power adapters plus a knowledge of the various cellular and Internet rates in each city and on board using the marine satellite. Apart from marvelling at the WiFi in Estonia, which is widely and freely available even out in the forests, this trip gave me some time to think about Unified Communication and Collaboration for oldies, seniors citizens, the retired, etc. It seems to me, now that I am in at least one of those categories (the oldies one), that we tend to have three main differences from the bright young things in full time employment. Firstly, some of us have slightly weaker eyesight, poorer hearing, less nimble thumbs or whatever and may need brighter, larger screens, bigger buttons, volume boosters, etc. Secondly, we are generally less computer literate (and less tolerant of poor interfaces) than youngsters, we may not type at speed and we may even still have difficulty operating the TV remote control. Thirdly, for many, our lives are not so dominated by any one full time commitment to work or education as we may have interests in a variety of work, community, charitable and social activities. None of these characteristics are unique to the aged but it seems to me that UCC will never achieve its full potential if it does not embrace all of them. To date, it has been focussed either on the PC-driven enterprise experience or on the youth/leisure combination in the form of social networking, increasingly via smartphones. However, if we are to have a manageable UCC experience then it will have to embrace all aspects of our lives. I draw several conclusions from this. - We will all want to choose our own device(s) and we will want just one. BYO Device is here to stay. We will have to manage this ourselves but we will tend to choose a platform such as Android, Apple, Windows or hopefully something based on the TV remote. - We will want a seamless set of roaming connectivity options between WiFi and cellular, even in the Estonian forests. This is a job for network providers and aggregators such as AT&T or Boingo. - We will want one or few collaborative environments regardless of the range of organisations and communities to which we connect. We will want to do this via email, Facebook, IBM Connections, BlackBerry IM, Skype, the TV or some combination. We should not have a different environment to be a customer, employee or supplier to an organisation. This is a job for the cloud. - We will want one end user experience per user, not one per connection. This could be Lotus Sametime, MS Lync, Avaya Flare or something from Apple or Google and it will need to work with our device(s) and our 'interface(s)'. So this needs a federation of cloud solutions into which businesses can tap. - Each organisation to which we connect will want to manage its own security, its network routing and its access to, and integration with, its own applications for true CEBP. This will typically make sense to be 'on premise' as it will tend to be based wherever the applications themselves are based. - However, if a trusted third party such as IBM, RIM or LinkedIn has already authenticated the user, why would the organisation need to do so again if they can be passed the credentials? Perhaps it is just as well that IBM's Enterprise Identity Mapping can scale to cover everyone on the planet. As an example, a person might choose an Apple iPhone with an AT&T connectivity package to 'work' via a Sametime interface to Facebook which then authenticates them to all of the organisations with which they choose to communicate and collaborate. So, organisations might move away from supporting 'users' and devices and away from providing communication and collaboration applications and towards managing a federated connection of their applications to the cloud. The question is, How do we get from here to there?
Typex & IBM - A Longstanding PartnershipJohn M Taylor June 21 2011 07:12:03Typex was born in 1978 as a design and management company. Finding too much time on her hands spurred Girl Friday, Deni Wilson, to search out extra typing work to keep her out of trouble. Finding a ready market, the company blossomed into a word processing bureau employing up to 10 typists producing everything from pure maths theses to legal documents as long as the bible and all using a brand new machine called the IBM Displaywriter.Noticing the high skill levels within the company, IBM suggested that Typex might find a niche in training others to become as proficient as themselves and in 1983, suggested Typex help IBM sell and install systems. This was IBM's first step on the ladder to using business partners as a complementary sales force and in the beginning, Typex staff were paid for their efforts with a superb lunch at the Fisherman's Wharf on Newcastle's Quayside! Over the next 28 years, Typex embraced every type of partnership with IBM and became one of their leading hardware resellers. In fact, Typex and IBM links were so close, they shared office space. In parallel, Typex were quickly gaining a worldwide reputation for their expertise in office products such as email and calendaring. When IBM bought the Lotus Corporation in 1995, Typex were instrumental in producing software to migrate 80,000 worldwide customers using proprietary IBM software to the new Lotus Notes platform. Deni was even loaned to IBM in the USA for 18 months to help with their worldwide marketing campaign. 28 years on, IBM are the first technology company to celebrate their Centennial and Typex are now a world leader in Unified Communications and Collaboration. As well as their continued close links to IBM, they have added other suppliers such as HP, AT&T, GXS and Vodafone to their portfolio implementing solutions which integrate mobile devices with IP Telephony systems and collaborative software such as Lotus Notes & Domino or Microsoft Exchange as well as supplying the supporting infrastructure such as servers and networks.
Auto AttendantsJohn M Taylor May 9 2011 22:42:41You might like this UK Channel 4 TV documentary of a Scottish actor shown battling an automated UK National Rail Enquiries helpline:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/8391414/Victor-Meldrew-vs-National-Rail-Enquiries.html
Maslow’s Hierarchy of NeedsJohn M Taylor May 9 2011 22:41:48A good friend recently showed me a fascinating paper by Frost & Sullivan entitled "Finding the Value in Unified Communications - Understanding the Hierarchy of Return". It looks at Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs which says that humans attempt to satisfy their needs in an order of priority from Physiological, to Safety, to Love & Belonging to Esteem and finally to Self-Actualisation. Essentially, we look for food, water, shelter, sleep (and sex) before wanting a sense of achievement and creativity. What Frost & Sullivan (www.frost.com) go on to say is that "for many companies, the value of UCC is found in a hierarchy of return" something like the following:- Reduce Communications Costs - Improve Operational Efficiency - Enhance Productivity and Collaboration - Gain Competitive Advantage. I couldn't agree more.
Texting Californian ModelsJohn M Taylor May 9 2011 22:39:41At the recent COMMON Confernece opening session session (http://www.common.org/livetrack @28 minutes on video) the annual IBM Innovation Award was won by a UC2 solution from the great team at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising (think fashion models and Southern California - somebody has got to do it). FIDM started off in 2006 by rolling out the second live, virtualised IP Telephony solution in the world (just after ours!), then added Lotus Domino and Sametime integration, extended it to WebSphere Portal and have now integrated SMS text messaging - a very focussed medium for communicating with students. Well done (yet again)! By the way, they use the same IBM Power System as Watson and us - just a few less processors!
Hybrid COMMON ConferenceJohn M Taylor May 9 2011 22:38:26Last June I wrote about how I had suggested Hybrid Conferences to COMMON, the IBM midrange user group - see http://www.typex.com/Blogs.nsf/dx/19062010201813JMTPGG.htm. By Hybrid Conferences I mean a blend of live and virtual attendees with different fee and free levels at the same event. Surely the way to go. Well, COMMON US last week took up the idea with a LIVETRACK stream to their annual conference - their president is a consummate marketer. See http://www.common.org/livetrack where the opening session video is still available for free. It includes a fascinating look (start @1hr 2 mins into the video) at how the IBM Watson computer won the US Jeopardy! quiz show.
SMEConnect?John M Taylor April 1 2011 17:56:44Much has been written about last month's Enterprise Connect, the worthy successor to the VoiceCon conference. I have little to add other than to repeat that if you can only attend one UC conference a year then it has to be the one. It provides unique access to the experts and to all the big players. It is actually a series of conferences within a conference with different tickets providing access to different sets of events so there is something for everyone at a price you can afford. Except for one thing - an SME stream. Enterprise is one of those terms that can simply mean a business (including Small and Medium Enterprises) or some vendors use it to refer to their larger customers. Enterprise Connect has more of the large customer focus at present but there is a growing number of SMEs who need access to its content. Most vendors have products suitable for SMEs but try the Microsoft booth and you will get an MS Lync architecture chart with literally scores of servers in a single configuration - not very SME-firendly.
Welcome to ShoreTel!John M Taylor April 1 2011 17:55:41Welcome to a new member of the team - ShoreTel. As a result of their collaboration with HP on VCX integration they now join you all in having to put up with my ramblings.
Les Arches D’OrJohn M Taylor April 1 2011 08:00:00Some of you like to hear about the various restaurants that I encounter on my travels. Well, Les Arches D'Or is one to watch for. Its branches take traditional French cuisine and adapt it to suit local palates. Their signature dish is le bifsteak hache au pain du region avec oignons, moutarde et sauce tomate. You are always asked if you would like pommes frites with that. There is a refreshing lack of the pretension of canapes and amuse bouches in other French restaurants. The decor is a simple rustic theme in the French style with no table linen or cutlery. Monsieur R. McDonald is the head chef and his quality control is rigorous. The table service is a little slow and the wine list is practically non-existent but ... je l'aime!
YotelJohn M Taylor February 27 2011 14:30:55No, not a telephone system for dudes but a hotel chain. The man behind the YoSushi restaurant chain figured out that if a hotel room worked like a first class aircraft cabin then it didn't need to be too large or too expensive and could be sited next to the airport departure gates. The compact but efficient 'luxury cabins' come with en suite facilities including a great shower, cool purple or soft yellow mood lighting, digital TV, a small desk, free WiFi and 24 hour room service. You rent overnight or by the hour. At £60 (E70/$100) a night for a London hotel I will use them again. Also available in Amsterdam where the hourly rental concept is already well established, of course ;-)
Time to Sell?John M Taylor February 27 2011 14:29:23What is making me nervous? I look at all those uprisings in North Africa and the Middle East and wonder why we seem to think it will end in that geography. Why not China? Now all of this might be a good thing for democracy and the world in the long run but what will it do to the world economy and share prices in the short term? Time to get out of the market for a while. I just did.I do wish I could buy shares in Siemens Enterprise Communications but it is privately held. Those rumours of an IBM purchase of SEC would make a lot of sense for both parties. Siemens needs a buyer, IBM needs a SIP-PBX and OpenScape is already the technology behind Lotus Sametime Unified Telephony.
Enterprise Connect 2011John M Taylor February 27 2011 14:28:02I type this somewhere over Iceland on my way to sunny Florida for Enterprise Connect, the artist formerly known as VoiceCon, to get my annual fix of the latest and greatest in the UC world. This time I am taking one of our engineers so that when it all gets too technical I can ask him. I hope to see many of you there and to share an early beer before the jet lag gets to me. The engineer can drive.
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