Posts Tagged 'צאט'

Surviving the rough economy with Lotus Software

Intranet Journal published this super article, on how Lotus Software can help you and your company reduce expenses and navigate through the rough economy. My friend Ed Brill posted about this earlier this week. John Roling outlines nine actions you can take, that will help you weather this economical crisis, including: moving to Lotus Symphony, upgrading to Lotus Domino 8.5, deploying Lotus Sametime for IM and web-meetings and others:

As we’re all painfully aware, the current economic climate is far from wonderful. Businesses are looking for ways to cut corners and reduce costs whenever possible, and many times that leads to belt-tightening in your IT departments. I want to share with you some ways that products from Lotus can help you reduce costs in some obvious, and not-so-obvious ways.

Links:
Intranet Journal – Surviving the rough economy with Lotus Software
Ed Brill
Dvir Reznik – Now’s the time to deploy IM

Coming up this Sunday… – It’s HERE!

I need to sort out my time line, I know, but with the recent events and ongoing stuff at work you’ll understand and forgive this 24 hour delay. So, after promising something Sunday, then Tuesday, it has finally came, Wednesday, Dec 31st 2008.

Globes is the leading financial and IT publisher in Israel, issuing a monthly IT Magazine, by the exact name. IBM has bought some page space, 6 of them to be precise, dedicated entirely to Lotus Software. Excellent way to wrap up 2008!

Since IT Magazine doesn’t sport a website, I can’t send you links to the articles, but you can see them, scanned, at facebook. This is what you’ll find between the 6 page insert:

You can see and read the articles over at the facebook album.

US troops are chatting with Lotus Sametime

The US Army is considered very hi-tech, adopting many technologies that enable the troops and commanders to be more connected – to the field and to each other. Nevertheless, I was pleased to read over at The Sametime Blog (John Del Pizzo), that the US troops in Iraq are using IBM Lotus Sametime to communicate with one another, and video-chat with colleagues back in the US. The Army usage of Lotus Sametime isn’t for chatting alone – it’s a complete unified communication and collaboration solution, that enables troops to transfer text, audio, video and files, over a secure network, in a single interface.

“We’re hitting between 5,000 and 6,000 chats per day,” said Lt. Col. Mathew Riordan, product manager for the Army’s program office for EIS Enterprise Information Systems. “There is a lot of communication. Someone in theater can easily chat with someone in Warren, Mich.”

The army also took advantage of the solution’s development platform, and added a plug-in that creates groups based on geographical location:

“Basically, what we did was took their product and added a thing called groups,” Riordan said. “When someone goes into the system, they can go in to chat online. There are 351 public groups showing who is online. You can add your office and see anyone that is online.”

Lotus Sametime also enables forces on the ground in Iraq to get better intelligence, using the knowledge the previous force gathered on its tour:

“If I go to Iraq, I can reach back and ask about a mullah or a mosque or an intersection,” said Daniel Gouré, vice president of the Lexington Institute, a Fairfax, Va.-based think tank. “It can really help the knowledge base. This is the Army really thinking.”

Links:
The Sametime Blog – The official US Army chat room software
Defense News – US Army buys collaboration software
Strategy Page – The official US Army chat room software
IBM Lotus Sametime on ibm.com

And, finally, while on the subject of Lotus Sametime, a nice retrospective video of Sametime’s first 10 years (1998-2008):

Now’s the time to deploy IM

Now’s the time to deploy IM? really? you must think I’m joking – what about the crisis, the economy, the layoffs, the roi, the recession, the stock market? why should anyone make the decision to invest in IT? Well, simply put – because we must !
Businesses are still working, offering solutions, products and services – outcomes that will benefits the economy, save jobs (and creating new ones), healing the market, bouncing the stocks up. We’re facing harsh times, but we can’t close shop and go home. Furthermore, businesses are looking for ways to be more productive, getting more work done faster, while keeping a watchful eye on expenses. And they’re looking for easy to deploy and manage solutions, that can show real benefit in 2-4 weeks, not 6-12 months.

Some facts about IBM Lotus Sametime, the leading corporate instant messaging solution:

There are many reasons to freeze any IT related expense, and just wait. But there’s also the demand to grow your business, be more productive, more collaborative, save money – IM has transformed the way IBM works. Want to reap some of those benefits as well?

Related articles:
CIO.com – how to make unified communications and collaboration work for you
networkworld.com – UC can help you through hard times
Sametime blog – the official US Army chat room software
IBM CIO Office – Lotus Sametime saves money
Sametime blog – global Hyatt signs for Lotus Sametime UC
IBM Lotus Sametime at ibm.com
Jon Mell – instant messaging ROI

To twit or not to twit

I wasn’t a twitter fan to begin with. In every customer/analyst/colleagues meeting I spoke, twitter was always my example of ‘too much information’, ‘too much sharing’.
The reason I sighed up to twitter was really to update my facebook status, using the Twitter application in FB – made my life easier, telling the world where I am and what I’m doing (sometimes too much information.. ;-).
I often met friends after hours and they were like ‘how was the meeting in Tel Aviv?’, or ‘enjoyed that lunch?’ – and I didn’t know where they got their info from.

Working with Twitter was difficult at first – how do you explain yourself in 140 symbols or less? what should I twit about? when to update? what application to use?
Sam Lawrence provided some insights on different twitter services, Ouriel talked about email vs. twitter and my friend Alan compared twitter to IM. And there are many more twits out there, discussing how twitter changed the way we communicate. Even in a time of disaster.

Most of the day I use twhirl – simple desktop application for twitter. Easy to use, follow, reply, direct and add friends. I also use TwitNotes in my Lotus Notes 8.0.1 client from time to time. When I’m offline (strange – I’m never offline, only ‘laptop-less’) I use twibble on my Nokia N95, or text message instead. Twibble provides a fair alternative for twhirl, but there’s no way to add urls or photos like it twhirl. There’s also Fring on my N95, mostly for VoIP and chats, but I can also update twitter from there (chatting via Google Talk).

For me, the main question is choosing the right sharing tool:
Should I twit about it? maybe write a post like this one? or post to my facebook profile? why not IM? IBMers are no strangers to technology and innovation and some of my good friends are twitting – sometime I find it easier to communicate with them using twitter, because it’s more instant than IM. Especially if they’re ‘offline’.

My thumb rule for choosing which tool is the content. You can’t twit about everything.

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Mobile & Media Consultant. I help startup companies launch products to the consumer market. Reach out: dvir.reznik [at] gmail.com
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This is my personal blog. The postings here do not represent the thoughts, intentions, plans or strategies of my past employers or of my clients. It is solely my opinion.