There's probably something wrong when it's much, much easier to find Norris
Weese's career passing yardage total (1,887) than it is to find critical information
about your own company.
One survey suggest that enterprise
search is just lame, which, to us, sounds as though somebody should capitalize
on the opportunity to make it better.
Posted by Lee Pender on 06/26/2008 at 1:22 PM0 comments
Apparently, Symantec's purchase of Altiris, now about a year old, is going
fairly well. The security giant released a mega-suite this week called
Endpoint
Management Suite 1.0.
It's got just about everything in it that a product of that name would seem
to have, and Kevin Murray, senior director of product marketing at Symantec
(and not the former Texas A&M quarterback) said that everything in the new
suite actually works together.
"These things are well-integrated," Murray said. "They're not
just a bundle of products that have separate installers."
At the heart of it all is Altiris Client Management Suite 6, which Symantec
bought when it snapped up the Utah-based vendor last year. "It helps customers
get hold of an IT lifecycle of an endpoint," Murray said. "It's really
the center of the product."
Posted by Lee Pender on 06/25/2008 at 1:22 PM0 comments
A couple of weeks ago,
we
pondered what, exactly, social networking in the office would be good for.
Well, Christine responded to our questions with great enthusiasm:
"Social networking for higher ed rocks! LinkedIn -- keeping up with
your students who have graduated! You know what they are doing, where they
are doing it, and what we missed in their education to correct class content
and keep up with the industry. It also helps us with our completer numbers
as most of my students change their e-mails and cell phone numbers as often
as they change their socks or add additional piercings and/or tattoos, and
we need to follow up with them six months after they graduate.
"MySpace -- post your calendar, let your students know when you are in
class, when you are gone, when your office hours are. They're looking here,
not on your campus Web page! Second Life -- get your administration to sponsor
an island...let the fun begin!"
Christine, we can understand the usefulness of social networking among the
college set, who seem to be the most into it -- although Second Life has always
struck us as being a tad freaky. Sure, we get LinkedIn, and we're on it -- but,
honestly, we almost never use it. So what's the use of social networking in
a boring, old office full of mostly non-pierced people?
Well, we're starting to see it, actually, thanks to Eivind Sandstrand, vice
president of product marketing U.S. at a New York-based company called SalesCentric.
The idea behind SalesCentric is simple -- and actually pretty cool. The company's
software allows users of Microsoft Dynamics CRM to chart and define relationships
between individuals who work for the customers they serve.
Now, that sounds sort of confusing, but trust us, it's not. What SalesCentric's
application with the tiny 5MB installation file lets users do is build org charts
of their customers' operations. But more than just storing info on titles and
contact coordinates, SalesCentric also lets users chart things like how warm
particular people in a customer's company are to the user's company (in other
words, the CFO loves us, but the CEO is lukewarm -- you get the idea), and how
and why customers have relationships with each other and with the user's organization.
So, instead of just looking at a long list of names and titles, a user sees
and can manipulate -- in a simple, drag-and-drop interface -- an org chart with
all the basic data on who reports to whom and how to get in touch with everybody,
plus info on how individuals relate to and feel about each other. It's difficult-ish
to explain on paper (or in pixels) but comes through crystal-clear in a demo.
For SalesCentric, the idea is to get people to actually put enterprise software
to use.
"There's so much clunkiness inside any business application that people
don't use it for what it needs to be used for, which is relationship management,"
Sandstrand said, invoking the last two words of the acronym "CRM."
Using Microsoft as an example, Sandstrand said, "I can see how Bill Gates
is connected to Steve Ballmer and how Steve Ballmer is connected to some other
person. All that information is presented to me visually, and it's driven back
into the CRM system so you have the ability to mine that data."
Take our word for it -- it's cool and useful. But is it really social networking?
Meh, that's hard to say for now, but Sandstrand said that the app is definitely
moving in that direction. "We don't currently have the connection to LinkedIn
or Facebook, but that is the direction the product is moving in," he said.
And why would anybody need SalesCentric on top of those more traditional (if
we can use that word for such a relatively new concept) social networking models?
Because SalesCentric goes beyond names and e-mail addresses, Sandstrand said.
"If I need to get in touch with a person in an organization, the fact
that he sees that I have more than 200 connections in that business space makes
him more likely to talk to me," he said. "I have no idea how he's
connected, though. I have no idea how these networks extend beyond that. Eventually,
you'll be able to automatically start importing these external networks into
your [CRM] applications. When you know what these connections are, that's when
you have the ability to capitalize on it."
Now, that makes sense. And there are no piercings required.
Have any more stories of useful social networking apps? Get in touch at [email protected].
Posted by Lee Pender on 06/25/2008 at 1:22 PM0 comments
Apparently Patch Tuesday isn't exactly a national holiday yet, as most users
choose to
ignore
it completely.
Posted by Lee Pender on 06/25/2008 at 1:22 PM0 comments
Dell is giving XP one more week to live, and if we're to believe some
reports
from credible sources, Microsoft might be thinking of extending the stay
of execution for the popular operating system, too.
Well, it only makes sense, doesn't it? Look, Vista's
a dud, especially in the enterprise. We can pretty much state that as fact
now. So why not give customers what they want -- XP -- for now and hope that
Windows 7 will fare better than Vista? Why is Microsoft so afraid to do something
that might actually make customers (and, in turn, a lot of partners) happy?
Maybe it isn't. We'll see.
Posted by Lee Pender on 06/24/2008 at 1:22 PM0 comments
We intentionally gave, or tried to give, this entry a
New York Times-sounding
headline -- they always seem to start with a dependent clause -- because this
is one of those times when the big-name, mainstream, non-business media are
storming into our territory.
Oh, sure, the Newsweeks of the world write about technology a lot more
frequently than they used to, but they still mainly show up just for the big
events -- enormous product launches, executive departures and arrivals, earnings
disasters (or, less frequently, blockbusters), that sort of thing. Down here
in the trades, we grind out technology news every day. Only relatively rarely
are we visited by our friends in the big-time.
Metaphorically speaking, we trade hacks are there for NBA regular-season games
in Minnesota in January, while Newsweek only bothers to waltz in when the Finals
are on. And yet, because they are who they are, the big guys get the exclusive
interviews with Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett, while we're stuck crowding around
Brian Scalabrine, trying to get a quote. (And, yes, this paragraph is brought
to you in honor of the World Champion Boston Celtics. We love you, Paul, KG...and
Scal.)
So, with Bill Gates, icon among icons, finally finishing the longest victory
lap in industry history, the big guns are all over the story. This week in particular,
Newsweek has unleashed a long
and, we're sure, interesting (we haven't read the whole thing yet) story
on the future of Microsoft without Gates...and of Gates without Microsoft.
The big N, whose little logo on the Firefox tab makes us think of the
Nebraska Cornhuskers, also offers
an update on the folks in the famous Microsoft photo from 1978. You know,
the photo that's made the rounds on the Internet thousands of times over the
last few years and has even turned up in an ad or two. There's even a 2008 (or,
at least, more recent) version of the photo.
Big ol' TV network ABC is in on the act, too -- albeit with an article written
by somebody at PC World; hooray for the hacks! -- with an article sorting
out the myths and realities of what Gates has and hasn't said over the years.
(Actually, we're pretty sure that tech mondo-publisher IDG has a deal with
some of the big news sources like The New York Times and ABC because
we see trade articles on those mega-sites all the time, so this doesn't really
count as the mainstream media invading our space. But we're trying to stick
with a theme here.)
And even a regular Computerworld blogger gets into the spirit of things
with an entry on Gates' five
dumbest decisions, which we find a little funny given that most executives
in any industry would give their left, um, eyes to have even been in the position
to make dumb decisions and still end up with more money than anybody else in
the world.
There are tons more of these Gates end-of-an-era things floating around, but
those were the ones that stood out to us. In case you were wondering, we at
RCP the magazine are planning our own story on this topic, but we're
focusing on Microsoft's current technological and leadership transition and
not so much on Gates himself. (By the way, if you have any thoughts on post-Gates,
Ray Ozzie, cloud-computing, virtual Microsoft, send them to [email protected]
ASAP. Thanks.)
Frankly, we'll be glad when all the glamour magazines and fancy Web sites clear
out of here and let us get back to the grind. And, as for RCPU's take on Gates
-- well, his legacy speaks for itself, as does Microsoft's success and current
position on top of the software mountain. There's not really a lot for us to
say that hasn't been said (or won't be said, over and over again), so, for once...we're
not saying anything at all.
Posted by Lee Pender on 06/24/2008 at 1:22 PM0 comments
Good overview
here
on the state of Voice over IP, including how the technology fits into the bigger
picture of UC.
Posted by Lee Pender on 06/23/2008 at 1:22 PM0 comments
Hello, again. Why are you hearing from us on a Monday? Well, we're back with
another UC special edition of RCPU.
If you've figured out exactly what UC is, then you're already way
ahead of a lot of people. So, now it's time to figure out how big the UC
market is -- something analysts have discussed without really reaching any
kind of consensus.
Last week, though, a few more hints came out. No lesser a light than the
mighty IDC is fairly bullish on UC, and why shouldn't it be? The category
makes tons of headlines (and gets covered fairly extensively in RCPU special
editions) and has huge mega-vendors such as Microsoft and Cisco rushing to be
part of it.
But the fairly well-kept secret about the UC market, at
least one analyst says, is that it's really not very big right now -- and
even with predicted rapid growth, it'll still be relatively small in 2012. Still,
everybody agrees that it's got potential, and one blogger posits that UC will
gobble away at the traditional telecommunications and messaging markets rather
than swallowing them whole. From the blog entry linked above, we quote:
"Which leads to the second point: The UC market, today, is tiny:
$200 million is a pittance in absolute terms, and it's a very small share
-- just 2 percent -- of the total 'UC-capable' market. Blair's projection
calls for the net UC share to increase to 15 percent by 2012.
"Still, even at that point, you're talking about a $2.433 billion
market, which isn't gigantic. To me, it's more impressive that the 'gross'
market -- all the communications gear that's eligible for UC but may not be
implemented in a UC way -- is projected to grow at more than 50% annually
and reach almost $16 billion by 2012.
"Partly, I imagine that's because as we go forward, essentially every
addition to the installed base of communications gear will be UC capable,
and will most likely be replacing a piece of TDM equipment that isn't UC capable,
or at least isn't a very good candidate for UC-enabling."
Well, that makes a lot of sense to us, anyway, which is why we afforded a longer-than-usual
quote space to another blogger. UC might be one of those categories for which
the headlines are currently outpacing actual adoption, but it's poised to grow
-- if a bit methodically. That is, of course, if people can actually figure
out what it is.
Posted by Lee Pender on 06/23/2008 at 1:22 PM0 comments
Microsoft's
UC
mega-partner is getting around with other vendors, as well.
Nortel
and IBM have just released some Lotus-specific UC stuff that's sure to make
folks in Redmond grit their teeth just a bit.
Posted by Lee Pender on 06/23/2008 at 1:22 PM0 comments
By now, you all know that the Boston Celtics have won the NBA championship
-- sometimes called the NBA "World" Championship, so take that, Europe
-- for the first time in 22 years. To celebrate the return of the legendary
franchise to greatness, and because your editor was out a bit late last night
celebrating, we're going to bring back Reader Feedback and feature messages
from some of RCPU's legendary e-mailers.
We love all of the reader feedback you send us, but some folks have shouted
out to us often enough to become bona fide RCPU legends. We have thoughts from
two of them today, along with a funny e-mail from a less prolific but no less
loved reader. So, we're pretty close to having a Paul Pierce-Ray Allen-Kevin
Garnett-style trio.
Anyway, to start us off, we have an e-mail from Jon, who actually signed his
message thusly: "The serial e-mailer, using my personal address this time."
Yes, Jon, we know you well. And now, here are some of your thoughts on Windows
7's touch screen interface (yes, we're going a bit retro here):
"Touch would be great for moving windows. But at this resolution,
a lot of buttons are pretty tiny, and I'm not sure how accurately I could
click with a touch screen. And I am NOT willing to give up a single pixel
for giant buttons! Office 2007 has already begun the migration away from menus
to a dazzling array of screen-consuming buttons -- which would really use
a lot of pixels if they were all enlarged. (And frankly, I'm having trouble
adjusting to the loss of menus as it is.)
"Monitor prices have been dropping. But do I really want to replace
two perfectly good 1600 x 1200 monitors, one of which has lived long enough
to have been attached to four or five generations of computers? Or even if
I just had one monitor? If this takes off, it's an e-waste disaster waiting
to happen. Just like all those analog TVs that are going to get tossed next
February by folks who don't want to be bothered with a government-subsidized
converter box. I hope that some sort of recycling program can be set up to
harvest the screens from all those discarded monitors so that they can be
reprocessed into new touch screens."
If those two paragraphs seem a little disjointed, it's because we plucked them
from different places out of Jon's, uh, thorough e-mail. But we like both of
these points -- and, really, we don't like the idea of a touch screen for the
same reasons that Jon mentions. Besides, touch screens to us just seem like
a greasy screen waiting to happen, and the thought of that is kind of nasty.
Our next RCPU legend to weigh in is Mike, who gets a few shots in at our favorite
punching bag, Vista:
"I think part of the problem is Microsoft did a poor (marginal, at
best) job of convincing people that they needed Vista. You have a solidly
functioning OS with XP and then they come along basically saying, 'New and
Improved.' That may work for a $2 bottle of dish soap, but not so much for
a several-hundred-dollar OS.
"Then folks start hearing about upgrade issues, which is the category
most business users fall into because who the heck wants to buy a new PC (or
hundreds or thousands depending on the size of your business)? The company
I work for has about 23,000 employees across the country; many of the machines
(clients and servers) we use are leased. These leases are on a rolling three-year
basis. So then you start introducing compatibility issues (potential or real)
if some were Vista and others were XP. We also have a number of employees
who remote in, so then there are issues with supporting that.
"XP is working -- and just fine, at that -- so why risk Vista for
a marginal net gain? If we lose functionality or have downtime due to these
issues, then we start dramatically affecting our ability to work, which hits
the company in the pocket a second time (first being the cost for the upgrade
or replacement machines, etc.). We're in the service industry, and if customers
can't be served by us, then they'll go elsewhere. Who can afford that?"
Nobody, Mike, or at least not many people, as yet another
study has confirmed. You might as well get your fingers limbered up for
that Windows 7 touch screen. Oh, and lay off the potato chips.
Our third contributor, Doug, has only e-mailed us a couple of times, so he
technically shouldn't have "legend" status. But we'll let it go this
time, as we really enjoyed his timely contribution about Europe
being a Microsoft shop despite Neelie Kroes crying in her Heineken about
Microsoft's market dominance:
"That story about the EU using Microsoft products reminds me of when
I worked at UUnet from 1999 to 2002. The UNIX SAs talked trash about Microsoft
all the time. Joe Blow staff person got a SendMail mailbox. Senior management
got Exchange mailboxes because they liked shared calendaring and OWA. Of course,
since my team was the Microsoft tier 3 support group, we got Exchange mailboxes
also. We also ran several multimillion dollar applications on Windows servers."
We love it, Doug. We like our irony thick and fat like a Red Auerbach cigar
(although we don't actually smoke). Good stuff.
Got anything else to add? Want to step up to RCPU legend status? Want to celebrate
the Celtics or grieve for the Lakers? Send your thoughts to [email protected].
Posted by Lee Pender on 06/19/2008 at 1:22 PM0 comments