Back in Black... I mean Yellow
April 17 2006 07:00:00 PM
Add/Read Comments [18]
So my entry
last week generated some interesting
reactions in both the blog's comments section as well as several emails
and instant messages! My apologies for being cryptic at the time.
Honestly, I was really busy with work and the holidays, plus it was
fun to generate some mystery! ;-)
I'm happy to report beginning today I am returning to the Lotus division of the IBM Software Group. This may not sound like a change to many of you, as you may not have realized that I hadn't previously been working for Lotus. Truth is, for about the last two years, I've been working in IBM's Business Partner (Channel Marketing) organization. Efforts such as writing this blog and answering questions in various Lotus related forums has actually been "outside of the duties of my day job" and were driven solely by my passion for all things Lotus, not by my IBM pay cheque! So to me (and hopefully the Lotus community and our customers) this announcement is important, and something I am very excited about, and yet another indication of the good things happening at Lotus.
What will I be doing? Well, I am going to be performing a mishmash of duties. I'll be helping with product and marketing strategies, gathering intelligence about our competition (Lepo... Alan Lepo), keeping up with industry analysis, reading the latest market research, and hopefully working closely with my colleagues in business development. This new roll allows me straddle the line between "developer techy" and "marketing guy". I'll be diving deeply into areas such as Hannover, as well as our Application Development products such as Workplace Forms. I'll be paying close attention to things going on at companies such as Google and Microsoft, along with all the "cool new web 2.0 companies".
Of course there are dozens of people within IBM already working in each of the areas, so how do I fit in? My goal is to provide some "glue" between the various groups such as Product Management, Development, Marketing, Sales, Research, and many more. One day I may be working on a detailed product comparison for the sales force, the next helping justify a business decision using market data, the next helping highlight weaknesses in the competition's roadmap, and the day after that making suggestions on acquisitions we should investigate. I'll be offering my opinion and making recommendations on things I think Lotus is doing well, and more importantly things we are not! I hope to speak with customers, press, and analysts to help demonstrate and articulate the Lotus mission of "Making more people… more productive… in the context of what they do… everyday".
So why the change? Simple. Lotus is great place to be.
Executives such as Mike Rhodin, Surjit Chana, Ken Bisconti, Larry Bowden, and Craig Hayman have Lotus moving in an incredibly positive direction. Lotusphere 2006 kicked off the year with an amazing event. Customers and Business Partners can't wait to install Hannover, Domino.Next, and Sametime 7.5. Announcements were made around Notes running on Thumb-drives, Domino based blogging, and seamless Notes and SAP integration. Portal is blowing away the competition, and has just launched version 6. IBM's acquisition of companies such as PureEdge and Bowstreet are examples of IBM strengthening the Lotus portfolio. Workplace Collaboration Services, Workplace Services Express, and the Workplace Managed client are driving creativity, innovation, and adoption of standards across all the products in the Lotus portfolio. For example: Activity Explorer, Open Document Format (ODF), XForms, Role-based provisioning, and Composite Applications. IBM Workplace solutions such as Business Controls and Reporting and Business Strategy Execution are providing customers applications for solving specific critical business needs. On the marketing side, Lotus is "taking the gloves off" with more aggressive tactics against the competition. Outside the walls of IBM, the Lotus community itself is helping drive success with initiatives such as OpenNTF, Taking Notes, Show and Tell Thursdays, and LotusUserGroups. In short, Lotus is hot.
I'm very excited. I think this is a perfect fit for my skills and experience. Additionally, now I don't have to feel guilty about blogging during work hours, as I think it will I can justify it as part of my job!
So please don't be shy. Feel free to share your opinions and ideas with me, and together let's help the next decade of Lotus be the best ever.
P.S. Hi Gus! ;-)
I'm happy to report beginning today I am returning to the Lotus division of the IBM Software Group. This may not sound like a change to many of you, as you may not have realized that I hadn't previously been working for Lotus. Truth is, for about the last two years, I've been working in IBM's Business Partner (Channel Marketing) organization. Efforts such as writing this blog and answering questions in various Lotus related forums has actually been "outside of the duties of my day job" and were driven solely by my passion for all things Lotus, not by my IBM pay cheque! So to me (and hopefully the Lotus community and our customers) this announcement is important, and something I am very excited about, and yet another indication of the good things happening at Lotus.
What will I be doing? Well, I am going to be performing a mishmash of duties. I'll be helping with product and marketing strategies, gathering intelligence about our competition (Lepo... Alan Lepo), keeping up with industry analysis, reading the latest market research, and hopefully working closely with my colleagues in business development. This new roll allows me straddle the line between "developer techy" and "marketing guy". I'll be diving deeply into areas such as Hannover, as well as our Application Development products such as Workplace Forms. I'll be paying close attention to things going on at companies such as Google and Microsoft, along with all the "cool new web 2.0 companies".
Of course there are dozens of people within IBM already working in each of the areas, so how do I fit in? My goal is to provide some "glue" between the various groups such as Product Management, Development, Marketing, Sales, Research, and many more. One day I may be working on a detailed product comparison for the sales force, the next helping justify a business decision using market data, the next helping highlight weaknesses in the competition's roadmap, and the day after that making suggestions on acquisitions we should investigate. I'll be offering my opinion and making recommendations on things I think Lotus is doing well, and more importantly things we are not! I hope to speak with customers, press, and analysts to help demonstrate and articulate the Lotus mission of "Making more people… more productive… in the context of what they do… everyday".
So why the change? Simple. Lotus is great place to be.
Executives such as Mike Rhodin, Surjit Chana, Ken Bisconti, Larry Bowden, and Craig Hayman have Lotus moving in an incredibly positive direction. Lotusphere 2006 kicked off the year with an amazing event. Customers and Business Partners can't wait to install Hannover, Domino.Next, and Sametime 7.5. Announcements were made around Notes running on Thumb-drives, Domino based blogging, and seamless Notes and SAP integration. Portal is blowing away the competition, and has just launched version 6. IBM's acquisition of companies such as PureEdge and Bowstreet are examples of IBM strengthening the Lotus portfolio. Workplace Collaboration Services, Workplace Services Express, and the Workplace Managed client are driving creativity, innovation, and adoption of standards across all the products in the Lotus portfolio. For example: Activity Explorer, Open Document Format (ODF), XForms, Role-based provisioning, and Composite Applications. IBM Workplace solutions such as Business Controls and Reporting and Business Strategy Execution are providing customers applications for solving specific critical business needs. On the marketing side, Lotus is "taking the gloves off" with more aggressive tactics against the competition. Outside the walls of IBM, the Lotus community itself is helping drive success with initiatives such as OpenNTF, Taking Notes, Show and Tell Thursdays, and LotusUserGroups. In short, Lotus is hot.
I'm very excited. I think this is a perfect fit for my skills and experience. Additionally, now I don't have to feel guilty about blogging during work hours, as I think it will I can justify it as part of my job!
So please don't be shy. Feel free to share your opinions and ideas with me, and together let's help the next decade of Lotus be the best ever.
P.S. Hi Gus! ;-)
