Real World Computing

In my last post , I went through the initial setup of Sametime (from Creating a user to getting to a logon in the cloud). I promised that I'd be back with information on getting Sametime (IBM Chat) working on other devices and away from the web browser.  So, after a slightly longer than expected break (holiday), I'm back.  Last time, we got to the point where you could access Sametime in the Connections Cloud. As part of this, you should have ended up with; A login name (email address) A password A connections location Your connections location will probably be a URL something like this. https://apps.ap.collabserv.com/ This is a good URL worth understanding and remembering. The .ap. bit refers to Asia Pacific, which is the most correct option for Australia at the moment. Yours may be .na. (North America) or .eu. Europe Getting the Relevant EXE Files Once logged onto IBM Connections Cloud, it's very easy to get the installation files for a local ve...

One of the best reasons to move to the new IBM Connections Cloud is IBM Sametime.  Until recently, we were using the "free" bundled IBM Sametime 7 offering. This was a useful feature but of course, some of us were spoiled by the chat options available in other software (Google Hangouts particularly). The version 7 feature has not aged well.   We looked at upgrading the functionality some time ago, only to be told by many people that "the new SameTime is too complex to set up". It also required considerably more investment in hardware and software. Essentially it wasn't going to be economical to use and we had ditched the product.  The plan was to eventually install a replacement, but in the meantime, we were learning to live without it - after 6 months, our users had stopped complaining. Then along came the IBM Connections version of Sametime.... and it's good. Very Good.  Cloud: The Fastest Way to Get up and Running The fastest way to get up and...

Last September, when renewing our Notes and Domino Licences, IBM offered us a trade-up to IBM Connections SmartCloud.  Essentially, there we were presented with two options; 1.  50%  of our licenses upgraded to the full services (S1) 2.  100% of our licenses upgraded to a subset of the services (S2) I chose the first option, knowing that either way I'd have a struggle on my hands with management when I wanted to take advantage of the full services but also knowing that it's easier to justify getting the other half of the organisation onto the new service than it is to widen services for the whole organisation.  We're still only half there but I'm very hopeful - it's the first time in years that I've had real confidence in IBM's direction.  So What is this Connections thing Anyway? It's weird but IBM seems to have come full circle in the Domino product line. They spent years barking up the wrong tree with ideas like the ill-fated "workp...

Blackberry Professional vs Blackberry Enterprise Server One of my greatest disappointments with RIM's recent "downgrade" of the Blackberry Enterprise Server to a Blackberry Professional Server for small business customers was the loss of Lotus Sametime. When I first read about this, I was really miffed. After all, we hadn't yet got around to using Sametime on the blackberry and they were going to block it. The other thing that I couldn't understand was exactly how the version of Blackberry Server affected the use of Sametime anyway. After all, blackberry messenger still works and Google Talk works extremely well on the Blackberry. The Blackberry server has no impact on these applications so why should it affect Lotus Sametime. The answer is I don't know and it doesn't. It certainly doesn't affect Sametime in any way that I can see however perhaps I'm not using all of the features that were once available. Installing Sametime for the Blackberry...

Microsoft, of all people, have released a "Unified Communications" survey tool. If anything, I'd have thought that their suite is dis-unified, since every component likes to run on it's own separate server. Perhaps that's why they're pushing virtualisation now? In any case, I decided to have a go of their survey - answering questions based on our usage of Lotus products. Note that we don't use SameTime at all yet, so I wasn't expecting a great response. I rated at the top end of "Basic". If there's anyone out there who is using the entire Lotus product range, I'd be really interested to see how it rates. The assessment takes about 1 minute - if you're a fast reader. Microsoft Unified Communications Assessment http://www.microsoft.com/australia/business/uc/assessment/assessment.aspx The assessment also comes with a download package containing case studies, whitepapers and other "goodies". IBM, this is one area where ...

A few days ago I posted lamenting the loss of Sametime because neither of our production Domino servers could run it (one was way too critical and the other was running Blackberry, which doesn't happily co-exist (without a lot of tweaking thanks very much Lotus Evangelist for the info ). Thanks also to the people who posted and suggested that the licensing model allowed me to install a separate instance of domino provided that it was used for Sametime-only. This seemed a little risky in terms of licensing interpretation, so I took the time to query IBM on it. The response I got from IBM on this issue was nothing short of fantastic. Why was IBM's response so good? In the first instance, I got an admission that they weren't sure and that they'd find out. IMHO, this is a good response because it shows that they're prepared to admit when they aren't sure of something and, more importantly, that they're geared up enough to want to find out. I'd prefer a resp...