Integration Maturity Model
Tue, May 1st 2012 5:10p Alan Lepofsky One of the hottest topics in social software is integration, with each vendor hyping up how they can can integrate with, or integrate into various other systems. To help position the degree of functionality and richness of each vendor's solution I've created the following integration maturity model. Level 1 = Ok: At the most rudimentary level, the vendor's platform enables events from other products to be broadcast into their activity stream, shown on pages, or similar. For exa [read] Keywords: application
email
integration
networking
profile
sharepoint
social software
It’s Not About File Sharing. It’s About Getting Work Done.
Wed, Apr 25th 2012 10:31a Alan Lepofsky Today Box announced several enhancements to their platform and partner ecosystem, including: 15 new Box OneCloud apps Version 2 of their API Instant Mode: Enables developers to create Box accounts that link to their applications Box OneCloud App to App Framework: a set of tools that makes it much easier for mobile app developers to tie their app into Box OneCloud Partnerships with New York based General Assembly and TechStars, who will be providing mentorship and assistance to early stage tech [read] Keywords: application
applications
google
integration
mobile
network
143
It’s Not About File Sharing. It’s About Getting Work Done.
Wed, Apr 25th 2012 9:20a Alan Lepofsky Today Box announced several enhancements to their platform and partner ecosystem, including: 15 new Box OneCloud apps Version 2 of their API Instant Mode: Enables developers to create Box accounts that link to their applications Box OneCloud App to App Framework: a set of tools that makes it much easier for mobile app developers to tie their app into Box OneCloud Partnerships with New York based General Assembly and TechStars, who will be providing mentorship and assistance to early stage tech [read] Keywords: application
applications
google
integration
mobile
network
150
Yammer Is Now More Dynamic
Tue, Apr 24th 2012 9:51a Alan Lepofsky Today Yammer announced several new partner integrations, including Microsoft Dynamics. The MS Dynamics integration allows CRM related events such as new opportunities or updates to account records to be broadcast into the Yammer activity stream enabling people to discover and discuss the event. In addition to the CRM announcement, Yammer also added several HR partners including UpMo, Perks, Ultimate Software and Subscribe-HR ; customer service vendor UserVoice ; project management vendors Affini [read] Keywords: ibm
applications
desktop
email
enterprise
facebook
integration
linkedin
microsoft
mobile
profile
social software
181
Email Is The Life Preserver That Keeps Me From Drowning In Information
Sun, Apr 22nd 2012 9:40p Alan Lepofsky The amount of information generated in the blogs, wikis, video & photo sites plus the multiple social networks I am part of, is too much to keep up with manually. Thankfully email is here to help keep me up to date with what's going on. Yes, you read that correctly. Email helps me manage information overload. In Mac's mail.app I've created a Smart Mailbox that displays the daily digests generated by several of the internal and external tools that I use and web sites that I'm a member [read] Keywords: apple
email
facebook
google
mac
mobile
twitter
136
Will Google Drive Tie Together Their Collaboration Portfolio?
Tue, Apr 17th 2012 6:10a Alan Lepofsky A great deal of excitement is brewing over the imminent release of Google's file sharing/synchronization service, rumoured to be named Google Drive which may be launching next week. This new service will have to compete with several existing services such as Box and Dropbox, but could integration with other components of Google's collaboration infrastructure be its secret weapon? I'm curious to see if this new service will just be a simple cloud storage solution, or if there will be built [read] Keywords: collaboration
applications
email
google
integration
office
171
File Share and Synchronization Services
Thu, Apr 12th 2012 7:41p Alan Lepofsky List of products: Box Citrix ShareFile Cubby DropBox Egnyte FileTrek GroupLogic ActivEcho Microsoft SkyDrive (Windows Live Mesh) Soonr SkyDox SugarSync Wuala YouSendIt Questions to ask: What clients are supported: Windows? Mac? Web? iPhone? iPad? Android? What other products/tools/services is it integrated with? Is there an app store? How much (free) storage is offered? What is the max file size? Do synched files have to be in a specific directory, or anywhere? Are there [read] Keywords: collaboration
citrix
community
enterprise
iphone
mac
microsoft
security
Speaker Spotlight on Alan Lepofsky, Presenter at Future Insights Live
Mon, Apr 9th 2012 7:40p Alan Lepofsky The following article is based on an interview I had with Davin Wilfrid, Product Director at Future Insights Live and was first published on their blog. It was only natural that the business world would gravitate toward social platforms as Facebook, Twitter, and other social sites swelled with activity. “How can we use this to get more out of our people?” the business world asked itself. “We need to put a Facebook in our email and have people tweet on their spr [read] Keywords: connections
email
facebook
twitter
94
Social Business Q&A With Alan Lepofsky
Wed, Apr 4th 2012 8:31a Alan Lepofsky Below is the transcript from yesterday's Constellation Research chat on Twitter where I answered questions about social business. The content below is just my responses, to see the questions and comments from other participants please search Twitter for #crchat. Thank you to everyone who participated. Q1: How do you define Social Business? A1: #socbiz involves tools & processes that share info openly (inside and/or outside the company) allowing people to engage. Q2: Your opinion [read] Keywords: development
email
enterprise
integration
twitter
267
Executives Unite In Hatred of Social Business and Seek To Return To Old School Ways
Sun, Apr 1st 2012 9:00a Alan Lepofsky An uprising is spreading through the Fortune 500, as executives from around the globe are rallying around a common theme: "Social Business Sucks." Over the last few months I've met with hundreds of Fortune 500 executives, helping them plan out there 2012-2015 IT strategies. Below are some of the findings and quotes that are part of an upcoming research report, Social Business Is Dead, which I'll be publishing very soon. "Social Business is so 2011. We want our company to b [read] Keywords: enterprise
facebook
networking
What Is A Social Business Platform?
Thu, Mar 15th 2012 7:40a Alan Lepofsky When asked what makes a product a "social business platform", the criteria I'm currently providing is: 1. Employees must view it as a primary destination for getting work done, not a secondary system that augments the tasks they do throughout the day using different tools. 2. It must provide core collaboration components such as dashboards, activity streams/notification, profiles, content creation, analytics, mobile access, etc. without requiring 3rd party integration. 3. It must have [read] Keywords: collaboration
google
integration
mobile
131
SAP Hires Sameer Patel As Global SVP for Enterprise Social Software
Tue, Mar 13th 2012 12:11p Alan Lepofsky I'd like to congratulate my friend and mentor Sameer Patel in his new role as Global SVP for Enterprise Social Software at SAP. Sameer has been a source of inspiration for me and his guidance was one of the things that helped me make the decision to work at Constellation Research, Inc. Back in December I attended SAP's Analyst event where they presented some of their future plans and roadmaps. At that time I posted: "They are clearly putting a lot of effort into modernizing both their i [read] Keywords: ibm
enterprise
mobile
oracle
sap
social software
94
SAP Hires Sameer Patel As Global SVP for Social Business
Tue, Mar 13th 2012 12:00p Alan Lepofsky I'd like to congratulate my friend and mentor Sameer Patel in his new role as Global SVP for Social Business at SAP. Sameer has been a source of inspiration for me and his guidance was one of the things that helped me make the decision to work at Constellation Research, Inc. Back in December I attended SAP's Analyst event where they presented some of their future plans and roadmaps. At that time I posted: "They are clearly putting a lot of effort into modernizing both their image and thei [read] Keywords: ibm
enterprise
mobile
oracle
sap
social software
My Social Strand - An Infographic About Your Facebook Profile
Wed, Mar 7th 2012 8:41a Alan Lepofsky Infographics are fun and useful way to display information, or at least can be when done well. A few weeks ago I wrote about how I'd love to see an enterprise software vendor create infographics about usage which employees could share internally or display on their profile. Today I stumbled upon My Social Strand, a marketing project from Be The Match, who connects donors and patients in need of marrow transplants. It takes data from your Facebook profile and creates and infographic about you [read] Keywords: enterprise
facebook
profile
Stop Bad Customer Service
Thu, Mar 1st 2012 3:10p Alan Lepofsky Last week I attended an analyst briefing with Genesys, one of the worldâs leading providers of customer service and contact center software and services. It's rare that I speak with a company who can easily explain their mission in a single statement, but man is it clear with these folks. Every Genesys employee at the event had one thing on their mind, "Stop Bad Customer Service." They even wear it on their sleeves, well on their wrists. With the passion they were showing around this, I [read] Keywords: collaboration
email
facebook
oracle
sap
twitter
348
Social Media Monitoring Maturity Model
Wed, Feb 22nd 2012 10:30p Alan Lepofsky These days it's very important for brands to monitor what is being said about them across various social media channels such as blogs, Twitter and Facebook. But where should the tools used to do the monitoring reside? Should they be stand-alone offerings? Should they be integrated with your collaboration platform, your CRM/Marketing tool, or your Call Center applications? Below is my first draft of a maturity model showing the key benefits and issues of social media monitoring based on whic [read] Keywords: collaboration
applications
facebook
twitter
196
The Future Of Work Is Now
Mon, Feb 20th 2012 11:10a Alan Lepofsky I've been through several "eras of change" at work. I witnessed the shift from mainframes to client server applications. I witnessed email become the core communication tool for business, then seen it challenged by instant messaging, blogs, wikis and now social networks as they are each heralded as "the new way to work." I've watched the web become an irreplaceable part of our lives. But during my two decades in technology, I've never seen so many profound changes occurring all at the sam [read] Keywords: applications
email
instant messaging
server
130
Social Analytics In The Enterprise
Fri, Feb 17th 2012 11:30a Alan Lepofsky Yesterday I presented my thoughts on Social Analytics In the Enterprise at the Virtual E2Conf. Below are my slides and I'll update this post with a link to the recording when it is available. If you don't have time to view all the slides or listen to the recording, let me sum up everything I was trying to say in two points: 1) Social Analytics is the collection, measurement and visualization of data related to content, people and the interactions between the two. 2) At work, Social Analyt [read] Keywords: application
consulting
enterprise
social software
410
Discussing The Pros and Cons of Activity Streams on Taking Notes Episode #150
Fri, Feb 10th 2012 1:40p Alan Lepofsky Since my recent posts discussing activity streams have garnered a great deal of attention from customers, product vendors and other analysts, Taking Notes Podcast hosts Bruce Elgort and Julian Robichaux thought it would be a good idea for us to discuss some of the pros and cons. Below are a some of the areas of activity streams that we discussed: ⢠What's the difference between streams of information like Facebook and Twitter, and what we'll see in business in the coming [read] Keywords: notes
enterprise
facebook
mobile
podcast
taking notes
twitter
Keeping Up With The Acquisitions
Thu, Feb 9th 2012 9:00a Alan Lepofsky Acquisitions related to Social Business. (HR, mobile, etc) Announced Company A acquires Company B Terms Industry Feb 9, 2012 Oracle Taleo $1.9 billion Talent Management Jan 31, 2012 Peoplefluent Strategia Talent Management , Learning Management Jan 31, 2012 IBM Worklight Mobile Dec 19, 2011 Telligent Leverage social business software Dec 15, 2011 Salesforce.com Rypple Human Capital Management Dec 3, 2011 SAP SuccessFactors $3.4 billion Human Capital Management Nov. 14, [read] Keywords: ibm
notes
application
archive
consulting
enterprise
facebook
javascript
mobile
network
oracle
sap
twitter
197
Infographics For Social Business Software
Wed, Feb 8th 2012 10:40p Alan Lepofsky So who will be the first e20/social business/collaboration software vendor to take the usage stats for employees and create infographics which can be displayed on people's profiles and shared in their activity streams? Sure many vendors have stats, reports, charts... but I've not seen a product with integrated infographics. Should we dub it "Visua.ly for the enterprise"? [read] Keywords: collaboration
enterprise
twitter
279
Upcoming Presentation On Social Analytics
Tue, Feb 7th 2012 11:30a Alan Lepofsky On Feb 16th I'm presenting at the Virtual E2Conf on Social Analytics. The way I've structured my presentation is to first define how I see social analytics, then provide examples we see in our consumer lives, then map those to examples at work. I'll be covering the business use-cases via examples from various e2.0 vendors, but no I'm not endorsing one over another. If you have not yet signed up, please register here. Here is a teaser version of the slides I'll be using. (the full deck [read] Keywords:
170
Sharing Was the Training Wheels of Social Business Software
Mon, Feb 6th 2012 2:10p Alan Lepofsky "Sharing" was the training wheels of social business software. For the last few years social software has been explained by talking about use-cases such as: Employees can now share status updates, links and files with everyone Ask questions and get answers back from people in any part of the company Everyone now has a voice and can provide ideas for improving products or business processes These are all great ways to get people started using blogs, wikis and activity streams. But now it [read] Keywords: social software
402
Making Activity Streams More Manageable
Fri, Feb 3rd 2012 1:10p Alan Lepofsky Activity Streams - Jambalaya or Steak and Potatoes? In my last post "Don't Cross the Streams" I challenged the idea that integrating multiple sources of information into activity streams is a good thing. This struck a nerve with some people (mainly vendors) while others completely agreed with me. A friend of mine an fellow industry analyst suggested that I follow up by posting possible solutions, so below are the few of the areas I think can help: 1. Don't put stuff in there that doe [read] Keywords: admin
connections
ibm
community
email
enterprise
facebook
google
twitter
359
Don’t Cross The Streams
Wed, Feb 1st 2012 1:20p Alan Lepofsky I've found myself discussing the pros and cons of activity streams a lot lately. While streams, or news feeds, can be a great way to display information and encourage conversations, they can be a huge contributor to information overload. I'm sure your first reaction is to quote Clay Shirky's famous "There's no such thing as information overload, only filter failure" line. Yes, filtering is EXTREMELY important, and the combination of manual controls, automated filtering via analytics, and c [read] Keywords: collaboration
application
enterprise
social software
Location. Location. Enterprise Location.
Thu, Jan 26th 2012 3:00p Alan Lepofsky You can't attend a conference or webinar these days without hearing how social, location, mobile, gamification, cloud and big data are currently the most influential trends in enterprise software. Of these, location is currently getting the least amount of attention, but that may be changing soon. Take for example Tibco, who have just announced some location features to their Tibbr product. So what role should location play in enterprise software? I think the best way to answer that is to s [read] Keywords: enterprise
google
mobile
office
social software
216
Producteev Updates Their Applications To Help People Get Work Done
Tue, Jan 24th 2012 1:51p Alan Lepofsky You may have noticed that I'm really excited about the plethora of new team project management solutions that are popping up such as Do, Strides, Asana, Wunderkit, Podio, Trello and many others. The reason I like them is that they enable colleagues to do more than just share status updates and links and instead help teams actually focus on getting work done. Today Producteev announced updates to all their clients, integration with TaskRabbit, printable task lists and more. Producteev u [read] Keywords: applications
integration
mac
workspace
198
Producteev Updates Their Applications To Help People Get Work Done
Tue, Jan 24th 2012 1:00p Alan Lepofsky You may have noticed that I'm really excited about the plethora of new team project management solutions that are popping up such as Do, Strides, Asana, Wunderkit, Trello and many others. The reason I like them is that they enable colleagues to do more than just share status updates and links and instead help teams actually focus on getting work done. Today Producteev announced updates to all their clients, integration with TaskRabbit, printable task lists and more. Producteev uses the t [read] Keywords: applications
integration
mac
workspace
Podio Enhances Their Tasks Features
Mon, Jan 9th 2012 9:40a Alan Lepofsky Podio (pronounced like podium) is one of those companies that just keeps impressing me. The problem is, they are hard to categorize because they are more of a platform form creating applications than an application themselves. You can use Podio for CRM, Project Management, Sales Tracking, or hundreds of other use-cases. Visit the Podio App Store for examples. Today Podio announced several improvements to their task capabilities, including repeats and reminders. Podio is one of the ven [read] Keywords: application
applications
Why Startups Win Over The Large Software Vendors
Fri, Dec 30th 2011 11:50a Alan Lepofsky My post What's Next For Social Software Startups sparked a great deal of feedback both positive and negative. I received a flurry of responses ranging from "spot on" to "why would you say that!" So I want to be clear, I don't think startups are a bad choice at all. I was simply trying to assert that the large software vendors (LSVs) are no longer lagging years behind when it comes to social software (Microsoft being the exception). However, they are many reasons that Startups still have an [read] Keywords: microsoft
security
social software
154
The Renewed Focus On Getting Work Done
Thu, Dec 29th 2011 11:01a Alan Lepofsky In my Predictions for 2012 blog post I wrote that one of the trends I'm seeing is a surge in new project/task/time management tools focused on Getting Work Done. My Constellation colleagues and I are working on a report that will cover this topic in more detail, but for now I wanted to share with you a few of the factors that I think are contributing to this occurrence and differentiate the new generation of tools from ones like Microsoft Project. 1. The web - Back in 2004, 37 Signals pione [read] Keywords: collaboration
connections
ibm
lotus
google
microsoft
mobile
network
sap
vmware
wiki
3 Things I Find Wrong With the Social Networks Versus Email Discussions
Tue, Dec 27th 2011 8:50a Alan Lepofsky 1. Email feels mandatory where social networks are voluntary. BS! As companies adopt internal social networks the pressure to "check your stream" is going to be just the same as "check your inbox". 2. You can check social networks when it's convenient as opposed to feeling like your inbox is waiting for you 24*7. BS! As companies adopt social networking people's expectations will be that you're always monitoring the stream. I can't wait until the first cases of: Manager: Why is your T [read] Keywords: collaboration
email
facebook
google
linkedin
networking
twitter
Will SalesForce.com’s Acquisition Of Rypple Help Do Get It Done?
Fri, Dec 16th 2011 5:20a Alan Lepofsky Today Salesforce.com announced it's intent to acquire Rypple, the Toronto based developer of social performance management software which helps employees and managers improve individual/team/company performance by enabling continuous feedback instead of the relying on the ancient "year-end performance review" process. While most of the initial industry reaction is focused on how Salesforce.com will now be in the Human Capital Management (HCM) space, I'm going to instea [read] Keywords: notes
application
enterprise
integration
server
social software
113
GMail iPad App Adds Scribbling
Thu, Dec 15th 2011 7:00p Alan Lepofsky The Gmail App for iPad has added a new feature that allows you to use your finger to scribble notes/pictures/ideas and then send them via email. When composing a memo, there is now a new scribble icon... ... which brings up a blank page where you can draw. It's a very simple app (just lines, no shaped or text like Skitch for example) but fun and useful. Images are saved as PNG files and attached to the outgoing email. [read] Keywords: notes
email
82
Embedded Tweets
Fri, Dec 9th 2011 8:10a Alan Lepofsky I really like the new Twitter user experience that was rolled out yesterday to their web and mobile clients. In addition to the new layout they also added a new feature that allows you to embed tweets into other web sites similar to what people do today with videos, maps, slide presentations, etc. Here you can see some of my tweets from yesterday. Nice job. It took #NewNewTwitter 2 minutes to grow on me, where #NewTwitter took many days.— Alan Lepofsky (@alanlepo) December9, 2011 [read] Keywords: mobile
profile
twitter
widgets
72
IBM = It’s Better Measured
Tue, Nov 29th 2011 8:50p Alan Lepofsky Today at IBM's year end Analyst Connect event, a common theme surfaced in every talk... analytics. IBM clearly sees analytics as the special ingredient to be mixed into every solution, be it e-commerce, social business/collaboration, health care, financial services and the list goes on. Perhaps their next ad campaign can be, IBM, It's Better Measured. IBM does not approach this without a lot of data backing them up. In 2011 they conducted a study (w/ 3,018 companies) that indicate [read] Keywords: collaboration
connections
ibm
community
networking
54
Oct and Nov Have Been Quite The Blur
Tue, Nov 29th 2011 10:50a Alan Lepofsky It's been about two months since I started my new job at Constellation Research. During that time I've travelled to Vegas, San Diego, Colorado Springs, Denver, Scottsdale, Santa Clara, San Francisco, New York, Boston and probably a few other places that I've already forgotten about. I've been to 6 conferences and have probably had 50+ product/vendor briefings. I've been fortune to stay in some gorgeous hotels and also crashed on a few couches. I've had too little sleep and exercise and too [read] Keywords: ibm
application
blogging
enterprise
microsoft
vmware
68
Links To IBM’s Collaboration Mobile Applications
Wed, Nov 23rd 2011 11:10a Alan Lepofsky I was looking for some info the other day and could not find a simple page that listed which products IBM had mobile apps for and on what OS, so I created this wiki page: Mobile Applications for IBM Collaboration Solutions Since it's a wiki page, everyone* can help keep it current. (*you need to have an ID on Greenhouse) If there already is such a page, please let me know, otherwise edit away and help make the page above complete. [read] Keywords: collaboration
ibm
lotus
applications
mobile
wiki
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Bring Back The Silos. Sort Of.
Thu, Nov 17th 2011 6:41p Alan Lepofsky Of the the primary tenants of the "social" movement has been to take content and make it more open or transparent. The belief being that this will liberate information allowing it to be shared across a larger audience, foster greater participation and result in improved business results. Activity Streams or New Feeds have become the Holy Grail of user interfaces, aggregating together the people, content and actions taking place in multiple systems. The industry talks of breaking down silos, pr [read] Keywords: lotus
notes
application
applications
community
mobile
76
What Applications Have You Built?
Thu, Nov 17th 2011 11:20a Alan Lepofsky Over the years many of you have built applications that accomplish specific goals for your customers. I was hoping you could share with me what some of those applications are. I'm not looking for high level buckets like CRM, HR, SFA, etc. Instead, I'd like to hear "I built an application that enables the Sales team to _____" or "Using so and so application, Support was able to _____" In other words, I'm looking for specific situational applications that help businesses run. I don't ne [read] Keywords: domino
notes
application
applications
mobile
sharepoint
I’d Like To See TedTalk-Like Sessions At Lotusphere 2012
Fri, Oct 28th 2011 4:30p Alan Lepofsky Earlier today I was thinking about submitting a session for Lotusphere 2012. The problem is, I have several "TedTalk-like" ideas which I think would be fun, interactive and informative, but they would only be 10-15 minutes long. I don't want to do a 45 minute technical talk. I don't want to put 2-3 of my ideas together into a longer talk. But maybe if 2-3 other people had ideas for short talks we could submit them together as one session. Wouldn't it be fun to have a part of the da [read] Keywords: lotusphere
47
Three Videos That Peek Into The Future Of How We Interact With Devices
Fri, Oct 28th 2011 4:00a Alan Lepofsky From Microsoft: Watch how future technology will help people make better use of their time, focus their attention, and strengthen relationships while getting things done at work, home, and on the go. A prototype at Nokia World in London of device controlled by how it's flexed. RightNow sets a vision for the future of Customer Experience [read] Keywords: application
microsoft
56
The Future Of Customer Experience, Starting RightNow
Tue, Oct 25th 2011 8:20p Alan Lepofsky Today at the RightNow Summit, the customer service vendor announced two new additions to their Customer Experience (CX) solutions. The first, CX For Mobile Apps makes the power of their CX Suite available on mobile devices. The second, CX for Twitter adds a whole new dimension to customer self-service automation. CX for Twitter allows customers to post questions via Twitter and answers are automatically returned in seconds, with no support agent required. Here is how it works: 1) You post [read] Keywords: agent
application
desktop
email
google
integration
mobile
network
oracle
twitter
70
SuccessFactors Seeks To Define Business Execution Software
Mon, Oct 24th 2011 4:30p Alan Lepofsky Last week I attended the SuccessFactors Insight conference, which was held just after the closing of their acquisition of Plateau. My coverage of the conference keynote can be found here. SuccessFactors origins are routed in Human Resource (HR) tools, often called Human Capital Management, or HCM. With the addition of e-learning to their suite, SuccessFactors is looking to shed the moniker of HCM and expand their reach into what they are calling Business Execution software, or BizX. Succ [read] Keywords: application
applications
database
facebook
integration
mobile
social software
twitter
vmware
53
My Podcast With Collaboration Matters
Thu, Oct 20th 2011 9:00a Alan Lepofsky Topics Include: Just moved to Constellation Research Group from Socialtext Why the move to analysis and research? What does the role entail? What does Constellation do differently? What did you learn from your time at Socialtext? Did working for smaller software house give you any new perspective on working for IBM? The state of the union First up, what do you call âitâ? (Enterprise2.0, Social Business, Social Collaboration, Collaboration?) Where do you see social collaboration tod [read] Keywords: collaboration
ibm
application
google
podcast
47
SuccessFactors and Plateau Focus On Business Execution
Tue, Oct 18th 2011 1:00p Alan Lepofsky As the CEO of a company that focuses on the "human" parts of business such as talent acquisition, learning and peer reviews, Lars Dalgaard certainly walks the talk. Today during his keynote at the SuccessFactors Insights 2011 Conference Lars took to the stage with his 2 year old son in his arms and explained that executives have families too. During his talk he left the stage and walked trough the aisles as he expressed sincere thanks to their customers. He proudly talked about SuccessFactors [read] Keywords: development
enterprise
integration
mobile
networking
41
Recommendations Done Right Via IBM Connections
Mon, Oct 17th 2011 7:20p Alan Lepofsky In a briefing with IBM today I noticed something very subtle, yet so significant that I interrupted the presenter in mid-sentence so that I could ask about it. Take a look at the "Do You Know" widget below. Notice it does not just provide the standard list of recommended people, it also displays information about WHY each person is being recommended. Providing this context makes it far easier to make a decision about connecting to a person or not. Compare that to the ridiculous re [read] Keywords: connections
ibm
community
google
widget
41
No Social Software Is Not Just About People
Mon, Oct 17th 2011 12:10p Alan Lepofsky Everywhere I turn vendors and analysts are writing about how "social is all about people." We're being inundated with marketing hype around people-centric computing and slogans like people are the platform. I respectively disagree. Yes, people are extremely important. However, if social were all about people we'd just be creating phone books, community directories or at best... dating sites. For social software to provide business value, these "people" need to be sharing something. Tha [read] Keywords: collaboration
community
enterprise
network
social software
40
Hey Yahoo! You Suck
Thu, Oct 13th 2011 6:50p Alan Lepofsky Here's a lesson in how NOT to handle customer support. This weekend I was having problems logging into Flickr. So, I figured I'd simply reset my password. Unfortunately, Yahoo won't let me reset my password online (I think it is because of the combined Yahoo! And Rogers account) and instead instructed me to fill on a form. Alright, annoying but I went ahead and did it. Seconds later I received a very nice auto-response back from Customer Care providing me an incident number and telling me [read] Keywords: email
password
51
APPL vs RIMM
Thu, Oct 13th 2011 9:10a Alan Lepofsky Rate of return of RIMM vs. AAPL over the last 12 months. RIMM = - 53% APPL = +36% I'd want RIMM to do well, they are an important Canadian company, but even I switched away from my Blackberry, opting for a Android/Google phone with my last purchase. I hope they can turn it around. [read] Keywords: blackberry
google
40
Consistency Matters
Tue, Oct 11th 2011 11:30p Alan Lepofsky A lot of people talk about the need for "simple UIs". I agree, but simple does not have to mean sparse. In my opinion what is most important about keeping a UI simple is consistency. Things should look and function the same way across all aspects of a product/site. If the designer uses the same icons, the same words, the same colours and the same gestures in a consistent manner, the UI will be simple to learn and simple to use. [read] Keywords:
61
Collaboration News: Oct 3-9
Tue, Oct 11th 2011 8:50a Alan Lepofsky Here are a few of the things that happened around the enterprise collaboration software industry last week: IBM improved their integration of IBM Connections and Lotus Notes. More... Jive World 2011 was held in Las Vegas. More... Podio Launched their new Employee Networks feature. More... Oracle held their Open World conference in San Francisco and announced Oracle Social Network. A Microsoft SharePoint Conference was held in Anaheim, CA. I've not read much about it yet, but I know Newsgator [read] Keywords: collaboration
connections
ibm
lotus
notes
enterprise
integration
microsoft
network
oracle
sharepoint
55
Calendars. Planners. Schedulers. Oh My!
Tue, Oct 11th 2011 8:30a Alan Lepofsky My calendar is a mess. The back-end for my work calendar is Exchange, but I don't use Outlook, I use Mac's iCal app. Occasionally I have to log into the ever so painful Outlook Web Access. My personal calendar is on Google. Both my work calendar and personal calendar synch with iCal.app, and I think that is working fine. Where things get complicated is when I try to start booking events and meetings using other web based services. Here's what I "think" I have set up atm: Events from Even [read] Keywords: exchange
exchange
google
mac
outlook
Las Vegas Is Oh So Cosmo
Sun, Oct 9th 2011 11:10p Alan Lepofsky Here are a few shots from the trip I took to Las Vegas last week. I stayed in the amazing Cosmopolitan Hotel. Click on a photo to see larger versions on Flickr, or to view more pictures from the set. Arriving in Sin City Gorgeous Lobby of the Cosmo The view from my 49th floor balcony During the day [read] Keywords:
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Podio Launches Employee Networks
Thu, Oct 6th 2011 8:20p Alan Lepofsky Podio (pronounced poe-de-oh similar to podium, not paw-de-oh) is a web-based collaboration platform that enables people to easily build form-based web applications using drag and drop. Today they announced the addition of Employee Networks, which provides organizations microblogging and a company directory. Employee Networks follows a familiar stream interface where colleagues can share status updates, pictures, etc. Here is a short video that provides an overview of the new microblogging and [read] Keywords: administration
collaboration
application
applications
email
interface
It’s Time For the Next Version... of My Career
Mon, Oct 3rd 2011 8:30a Alan Lepofsky My adventures in the IT industry began in 1993 as a coop student working at IBM Canada on this unknown "groupware" product called Lotus Notes. That was the start of 14 years at IBM, during which I experienced both the joys and headaches of working for one of the largest companies in the world. In 2008 I switched gears and dove head first into the startup world, joining one of Silicon Valley's pioneering social software companies, Socialtext. The contrast was remarkable, as every decision I ma [read] Keywords: collaboration
ibm
lotus
notes
email
enterprise
facebook
google
integration
microsoft
social software
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Google Maps Helicopter View Is Facinating
Sat, Oct 1st 2011 7:30a Alan Lepofsky Google Maps has added a new feature to "Get Directions" called Helicopter view. Enter point A and point B, click Get Directions, then at the top of the route list click on the 3D button. This will bring up an animation of your trip, displayed from a helicopter like view. You can pause, spin around, zoom, etc. It took a little while for the buildings to render when I was looking at places like Toronto, New York, Vegas, etc. but that's completely understandable. [read] Keywords: google
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Excellent Google+ Widget
Thu, Sep 29th 2011 9:30p Alan Lepofsky Via http://widgetsplus.com/ mbgc='ffffff';ww='600';mbc='6F4A5A';bbc='F1BFBC';bmobc='D1A9C9';bbgc='D1A9C9';bmoc='F1BFBC';bfc='FFFFFF';bmofc='ffffff';tlc='6F4A5A';tc='6F4A5A';nc='6F4A5A';bc='6a6a6a';l='y';t='Add_me_to_your_circles_on';fs='16';fsb='13';bw='100';ff='4';lu='6a6a6a';pc='4889F0';wh='450';b='s'; pid='106470960570872432720'; [read] Keywords: google
javascript
widget
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A Software Experience That Actually Made Me Smile
Sun, Sep 25th 2011 9:10a Alan Lepofsky Facebook's new Timeline Profile has done what few software experiences have, it made me smile. Timeline provides a fun way to recall memories. It was able to scroll back to my when I first joined Facebook and see that that my original group of friends were not family or tech colleagues, but the people I went to Australia and New Zealand with at the end of 2006. I also really like the Map view, which shows not just checks-ins (status updates with a location) but also photos and other e [read] Keywords: facebook
profile
Is Salesforce.com Really The Cloud Platform Expert?
Fri, Sep 9th 2011 7:50p Alan Lepofsky Over the last few weeks there have been several outages in the sandbox instance of SFDC that I use. Surprisingly I've not seen a lot of negative press about this. I applauded SFDC for the way they have handled the situation, sending several emails with a lot of details about what happened and their actions plans. That said, tonight's update concerns me a bit: "We've identified that our infrastructure is vulnerable to edge case database corruption and we need to make it more resilie [read] Keywords: database
enterprise
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40
Fri, Sep 2nd 2011 10:40p Alan Lepofsky Last week my mom surprised me with an album of old photos. I'll properly scan them when I get a chance, but for now I just used my phone to take a picture of four of my favs. [read] Keywords:
Then A Gorilla Jumped Over The Car
Tue, Aug 16th 2011 10:46p Alan Lepofsky Well, a man in gorilla suit jumped off a ladder over a car... but still! My favourite turn is at 5:30 I love the line at 4:18 - "I'm talking about donuts with liquor in them" [read] Keywords: application
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Skype for iPad
Tue, Aug 2nd 2011 7:43a Alan Lepofsky Here is a quick review of Skype for iPad. The UI is pretty straight forward. The "tags" button at the top allows you to see your contacts sorted by the groups you've made plus a few defaults such as Online Contacts, Skype Contacts and iPad Contacts. I'm not sure how it chooses which photo to use as the group's main image, I'll investigate that later, hopefully you can change it. Opening up a group (in this case Online Contacts) you see a nice grid of contacts. You then click a n [read] Keywords: apple
mac
skype
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All Is Not Lo.st
Fri, Jul 29th 2011 7:53a Alan Lepofsky Last year the Arcade Fire and Google did a great job introducing people to customized HTML5 based videos with The Wilderness Downtown. Now Google is back, this time with OK Go along with dance troupe Philibolus bringing us the song All Is Not Lost. The project was created to help the people of Japan after the disasters that struck earlier this year. Or perhaps my new business card? Or a little fun... [read] Keywords: google
A Week With The Google Nexus S
Thu, Jul 21st 2011 10:33p Alan Lepofsky I've been meaning to write a review of my experiences with the Google Nexus S, but I've not found the time. So instead, I'll simply list out the items I've been keeping track of. Please comment away with suggested solutions, work-arounds, your favourite apps, etc. In short, I'm very happy with it and would highly recommend one. Note: There are many things I've not done yet, like used it as a wifi hotspot, place Skype/Gchat calls, listen to music, shoot videos... In no specific ord [read] Keywords: apple
application
blackberry
email
google
iphone
mobile
skype
widget
widgets
wifi
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Infographic Of My Twitter Usage
Fri, Jul 15th 2011 6:30a Alan Lepofsky Via http://visual.ly. I don't think books are really my likely obsession, nor I'm I impressed with topic cloud at the bottom, but overall it's a fun thing to look at. [read] Keywords: twitter
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I’m Finally So 2010
Tue, Jul 12th 2011 12:40p Alan Lepofsky My new Google Nexus S arrived today. Yes I know the next generation of Android phones will be out soon (ex: Samsung Galaxy S2) as well as the next iPhone, but I really needed to replace my old Blackberry Curve now. So why the Nexus S? Here are a few of the things that contributed to my decision, not in any particular order: - I have an iPad2, so I already get to experience the iOS world and wanted to learn about Android - The Nexus S comes unlocked, and takes normal SIM cards, so I [read] Keywords: blackberry
google
iphone
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The Evolution Of Streams
Sun, Jul 10th 2011 9:53a Alan Lepofsky No this is not a post about fishing. Sites like Facebook, Twitter and now Google+ have all adopted the "stream" as their core user interface for displaying content. Similarly, most enterprise software vendors like Socialtext, Jive, Moxie, Tibco, IBM, etc have also added some form of stream to their (our) products. However, today streams are mainly "Activity Streams" which show in real time what is happening, and provide some type of filtering options and interaction methods. I envision [read] Keywords: ibm
enterprise
facebook
google
interface
twitter
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The key to Google+ is understanding the relationship between Circles and the Stream
Sat, Jul 9th 2011 12:20p Alan Lepofsky In the technology world if you blink you can miss the latest product announcement or service. While most of these are flash-in-the-pans that burn out after a few minutes of bright flames, Google's new social networking site Google+ is one that (for better or for worse) is here to stay, and something I think everyone should have at least a basic understand of. The key to Google+ is understanding the relationship between Circles and the Stream. Circles are your personal way to organize th [read] Keywords: ibm
email
facebook
google
networking
profile
twitter
