Blog Host: Mathew Newman - director of consulting and education, ISW Development Pty Ltd. READ ENTIRE BIO

We recently rolled Notes out to a new client, and part of the strategy the client wanted to use was to let the users play with it for a week without any training.

Not the way I normally like to do it, but the client is always...

Anyway, the first session was the management team and it started with "What do you like about Notes?" Not much feedback here.

"What don't you like about Notes?" Now I get some feedback.

Most of it was, as expected, training and usability issues that were solved with a few quick tips and tricks and some explanation of some concepts (yep -- one person HAD found "All Documents" and decided they didn't need ANOTHER copy of all those messages, you know the story).

The most positive feedback came, as usual, from the "database" features of Mail. You know the stuff -- forward multiple messages, quick-search and full-text search, All Documents, message threads, that sort of thing, as well as the calendar and group scheduling features.

And now for the moment. One part of the rollout involved converting (several) Access databases into a single Notes contact management system. We had developed to spec, and threw in some nice Notes stuff. So now that the audience understood some basic Notes database concepts, I launched into my demonstration of the new system. Normal Notes stuff, categorized views, a bit of workflow for approval-based items, mail and word processor-merge features, etc.

At the end of my demo the room was silent.

Faces were pretty much blank.

So I'm standing there for what seemed an eternity (a quick glance at their IT manager at the back of the room just returned shrugged shoulders) and finally the director of the company looked from the presentation screen to me. He had what appeared to me to be a look of horror on his face.

Oh, shit! What had I done...??

He quietly said, "That ... is bloody fantastic!"

At that point some of the other key players suddenly jumped in and started throwing development ideas around about the systems they currently had in place that could be converted to Notes.

Feelings of trepidation quickly changed to a) relief and b) the feeling of accomplishment at having successfully "converted" another organization over.

That was the moment.

As a Notes geek I live for days like today. Troubleshooting through one hell of a migration (I'd never even heard of their old mail system!), redesigning and migrating systems over, teaching the users how to operate it and great feedback at the end of the process.

The cool thing about this migration: The director had been pushing to replace everything originally with M$. His IT guy had done some homework and persuaded him otherwise.

Notes Rulez.
Posted by Mathew Newman I bleed yellow!
19 APR 2006 21:05 EDT (01:05, GMT)
"What on earth does that mean?" I hear you ask.

It means almost 14 years working with a software product, reading every "Yellow Book" and many of the "Red Books" and "Red Papers" I can get my hands on, playing with almost every permutation of any software setting, ini parameter, configuration document and database that's available.

And getting ribbed about my zealous approach to learning as much about a computer program from my colleagues, wife and friends as a guy could possibly take.

I don't mind the (friendly) smirks I get from a few of my clients when they're talking about implementing a new system and I say that we could "do it in Notes."

What bleeding yellow means to me is that whenever someone has an issue (my clients don't have "problems" when it comes to Notes, just "issues" that arise from time to time <grin>), I can give them a resolution. Most of the time. And if I can't, I troubleshoot my way out of it.

Troubleshooting begins with a basic premise. You need to understand how things fundamentally work in a Domino system. If you know how stuff works, and an issue arises, you don't have to scratch your head and fire up Notes.Net (ooops! I mean "IBM developerWorks") to shoot off a forum question. You start with the fundamentals, "OK, this is supposed to do that…so if I change..."

Yes, bleeding yellow also means you probably carry around a replica of most of the Notes.Net forums on your laptop as well.

Reading through the forums, it is fairly obvious that quite a few people out there working with Domino (it makes me shudder every time a read a post that says "I'm doing this for a client and I need to...") either haven't bothered to attend any training, or have not read any of the product documentation (ever seen a response that says "... from Notes Help..."?).

Of course, you probably don't have the luxury of "playing" with things in your production environment like I do, which means that changing something just to see what it could do to something else would most likely be a career-limiting move!

Side note: I'll never forget early on in my career setting up a system in a training environment that used a batch file to copy databases over the top of the training apps to reset them at the beginning of every new session. One of the other instructors had seen me running this file at the end of classes and decided to "help me out" one day and run it at the end of their class so I wouldn't have to. Only thing was, I still had a class full of people logged into the server doing stuff at the time. Funny how overwriting system and user databases at the OS level can mess things up! :-)

Troubleshooting any Domino issue begins with an understanding of WHAT the thing you are troubleshooting is supposed to do and how it's supposed to work. The next step is to recognize what other components of the system either rely on, or affect, the issue you are trying to resolve.

Start from that point, and you're troubleshooting from a position of power. If you have no idea how or why things were working in the first place, you've really got problems.

The great thing I've found working with Notes is the sense of community between the users. There are loads of great resources out there ready to help, forums like this and the official and non-official discussion groups.

But becoming a Notes geek, even to the point of bleeding yellow, means that you learn about your system and not rely -- too much -- on these resources. Solving issues by troubleshooting your way through them can be one of the most rewarding things that we do.
Posted by Mathew Newman SameTime, just chat?
18 APR 2006 17:18 EDT (21:18, GMT)
Over the last couple of days I wrote about an application that utilized objects, rules, routes and roles. The transition between sending and receiving e-mail and becoming a "Hard Core" Notes user.

Today it's about one of my "pet" features of Notes (also available outside of Notes) that brings a whole new meaning to the word IMMEDIACY.

It's SameTime (or Lotus Instant messaging, depending on whom you speak with).

It's great that we can operate within an environment that allows us to review the work that others have created. It's even better now that we are aware of their PRESENCE.

In the olden days (I'm speaking with reference to the immediate past here), one wrote an item of correspondence, mailed it and waited patiently for a reply (anyone dealing with some legal practitioners would still be aware of this method of communication <grin>).

E-mail revolutionized communication and correspondence, so that I could send a Note and expect a response in the not-too-distant future. Immediacy -- ain't it great! Even now, we expect a response from an e-mail message within a matter of moments.

In the modern Notes environment, I have the benefit of reviewing other peoples work AND being able to determine immediately if they are available to correspond about that work. It's called SameTime. And it's more than just chat.

Yes, of course I can initiate a "chat" with whomever I need via a buddy list or global address book, but the ability to review a person's presence is one of the things that makes SameTime such a great plug-in. Whether it be an e-mail message I am reading or a policy created months ago, the ability to see that the author is available NOW for me to converse with is the thing that make it such a great utility.

If the document I am reading raises questions, then the author of that document is only a click away, thanks to presence. Immediacy has a whole new meaning. Not just "in the not-too-distant" future. But right NOW!

"Chat" has become the new e-mail. It's often faster, easier and less cumbersome than writing an entire message and infinitely more convenient than the alternatives.

Letter. Pony Express. Telegram. Telephone. E-mail. SameTime!

It's a progression that has lead us to the "I want a response -- NOW!" phenomenon. In the business world it's called efficiency.

Calling someone normally meant passing the time of day, asking how their children were, where they spent the Easter break, etc. Now it's as simple as "this policy mentions ______. How do I do this?" in a chat initiated via the authors online presence link. Some might contend that the "personal" side of business has gone out the window. But then again, who said that you had to know the name of the HR guy's dog on the other side of the country? Then again, if you were that interested, you might have began your chat the same way anyhow...

The cost of an interstate or international phone call can quickly add up. The cost of a few bits of information passing down the super-highway -- negligible. And I don't have to dial a number to get voicemail to know whether the person is available.

It's presence that brings a whole new meaning of immediacy to business, and the benefits and ROI become as quickly apparent as the implementation of e-mail. Even something as mundane as a lunchtime rendezvous utilizes less resource than the equivalent mail conversation, without the storage, management and transmission overhead.

"Do you want to meet for lunch?"
"Yeah, sure. Where?"
"Rossini's, the Italian place on the corner."
"Great. What time?"
"12:30."
"See you then..."

Presence. It's one of the features of SameTime that makes it more than just chat!
Posted by Mathew Newman "HARD CORE" Notes, part 2
14 APR 2006 19:28 EDT (23:28, GMT)
So yesterday I wrote about the starting point on a path to becoming "Hard Core" Notes. It wasn't an earth-shattering revelation, just pointing to a feature that a "...traditional e-mail client..." does not have.

But that was only the beginning. Moving away from e-mail, calendar, address book and to-do list towards a suite of APPLICATIONS created in Notes is the path to becoming "hard core."

And the best thing about the switch is that it doesn't require a mountain of training for your users. Typically training is one of the things that makes or breaks a technology roll-out. If the users are well trained and take ownership of a system, it will be a success. That's the beauty of rolling out a new Notes application. If your users are well trained in the first place and understand the "Notes is a database application; here's how you use the Mail database" concept, then putting a new database in front of them should be as easy as "this database has this type of content, and it has these features."

Most organizations that have implemented Notes successfully have -- in my experience -- started with a few key systems. CRM, policies and procedures, basic workflow and approval (take your vacation system as an example). They have then quickly recognized the benefits that Notes can bring to their organization and even start looking for EXCUSES to re-engineer and automate their processes.

Of course, at this point they are no longer just using a "mail client."

They are on their way to becoming "Hard Core" Notes users.

Recognizing the return on investment for Lotus Notes goes beyond just an email feature-for-feature comparison. The value proposition for Lotus Notes in your organization is the benefits a single application, with a consistent user interface and multifaceted capabilities, brings.

One of the most human reasons I has seen for implementing an application as powerful as Notes came following a recent natural disaster. One company had -- only weeks before -- implemented a system that interfaced with handheld computers, enabling an assessor to click a few buttons on their screen, which then submitted to the claims department -- wirelessly -- which then "routed" (approval process) through the appropriate channels in the organization for processing. Some people in that town where left wondering why those who dealt with that organization had had their claims processed so quickly, and why those people had received cheques so quickly when some of them, who dealt with other organizations, were still having their assessments organized.

It reminds me of a scene in The Incredibles where Bob tells the elderly lady to visit Ms. Wilcox in the legal department (or something like that) to help her out (yes, I DO watch a lot of Pixar movies with my children -- it's one of the "benefits" of having kids).

That example really does point out the power of Lotus Notes. Yes, it is an e-mail application. But if that is all you are using it for, then you may have missed the point. Lotus Notes OBJECTS are tested against business RULES, which determine the ROUTE that they should take to arrive at the destination to be processed by a person with the appropriate ROLE.

Objects -- Rules -- Routes -- Roles. THAT is what WORKFLOW in a GROUPWARE environment is all about. Groupware isn't just an e-mail message or an attachment arriving at some destination -- despite what some vendors will have you believe; it's the path an object takes automatically within a predetermined time-frame according to business rules to arrive at a predefined destination. And if you want to achieve that goal within your organization, there is no other application, or rapid development environment, that will do it as quickly for you as Notes can.

If you've forgotten why you implemented Notes in the first place, or if you're wondering why so many organizations are making the switch to Notes, then simply consider the collaboration, storage and workflow you could achieve with the software and the ROI (return on investment) that is possible by going beyond a "...traditional e-mail client...."

As I've mentioned before, everything we do beyond accounting and graphic design in our organization is done in Notes. Job logging, marketing information, CRM, bookings, policies and procedures, all the way down to jokes and this week's football tipping competition.

Are you using an e-mail client?

Or, like us, are you "Hard Core"?
Posted by Mathew Newman 'HARD CORE' Notes
13 APR 2006 19:39 EDT (23:39, GMT)
I've seen a few blog entries recently -- Ed Brill's, to name one -- which mention the Wikepedia entry for Lotus Notes, either condemning or praising the article, most condemning and proposing "someone" submit an update to the site.

The thing that I like about the Wikepedia entry is the opening line: "The Notes client provides functionality that reaches far beyond a traditional email client...." Here the entry hits the nail right on the head. If you're serious about communicating and collaborating (in Notes, this also means off-line) within and without your organization, you need look no further for the right piece of software. I've written before about the numerous server and client-based software you would need from the "Dark Side" to even get close to what Notes can do for you and your organization.

A number of people I deal with -- including some of my colleagues -- are aware of (and even smirk about) my evangelical approach to Notes. OK, it's e-mail. And it's got a calendar, to-do list and an address book, so at that point I guess comparing it to the other product from the "Dark Side" would be a fair thing. But to stop there would be doing the software -- and yourself -- a disservice.

Sure you can spend hours creating and customizing "public folders" to try and achieve some parity with Notes, but really -- the limitations on creating APPLICATIONS within the "other" environment mean that you really can't do a real side-by-side comparison with one of the most effective pieces of software ever created.

I demonstrated this quite simply the other day to a group of "newbies." Lunchtime chat turned to recipes; recipes turned into a full blown demonstration of how my PERSONAL JOURNAL stores information on my favorite eats; and seconds later I was asking for an e-mail address for some of the best entries from my personal information store to share with the participants of that conversation.

One participant was so impressed she immediately asked for blow-by-blow descriptions on how to create a personal journal database (she couldn't believe it was as easy as Ctrl+N, pick the journal template, give it a name and hit OK) so that she too could start moving recipes from a directory full of Word documents.

The biggest problem that this person had found that when dealing with personal information until now was where to store it. The Lotus Notes Personal Journal was the answer. No more typing into Word and then storing in a directory and trying to remember what file name she had given something. Of course, I had the same problem scrolling through a mountain of recipes I have collected over the past few years. Then I did a demo of a feature from earlier that day in the class, hit the magnifying glass on the toolbar and typed "Thai yellow curry." One result came up, which, of course, contained "Thai yellow curry." Bang -- it was an e-mail message one click later. The rest is history.

I frequently come across this "storage" issue when dealing with clients. People are just used to either putting e-mail into a folder or typing a Notepad/textpad/Word document and saving it into a directory if they need to remember something. Anything. Thus begins a mountain of information that eventually needs to be recategorized into subfolders and even file names changed so that identification and retrieval is possible at some point in the future. Don't even get me started on a Windows Explorer search for "a word or phrase in the file," or even the magical "search folders" feature. I'll take that up with you at the end of your search.

Searching a Lotus Notes database is as simple as: magnifying glass on the toolbar, type what you want.

I love that searching our entire jokes database (about 4 GB of data with 15-odd thousand documents) takes about 10 seconds to find all the entries containing "little Johnny."

Come to think of it, that's the same process when searching any Lotus Notes database, so again we demonstrate the point "Notes is EASY software."

Leading people to think beyond e-mail into something as simple as a personal journal when dealing with the Notes client is normally the first step along the path to "Hard Core" Notes.

The Personal Journal database in Lotus Notes is just one of the out-of-the-box APPLICATIONS bundled with Lotus Notes that set's it apart from a "traditional e-mail client," just like Wikepedia said….
Posted by Mathew Newman Single vs. multiple domains
12 APR 2006 16:16 EDT (20:16, GMT)
Yesterday I wrote about a fictional company that was setting up a single-domain, multiple-organization Domino system.

The key points were to recognize that the domain is "a collection of servers and users who share the same Domino directory," while an organization is a certifying authority that primarily is used as a security mechanism. All members of an organization automatically "trust" one another by virtue of the fact that their security certificates were all issued by the same certifier. When an additional organization is included within the domain there is NO automatic trust created between entities created (registered) under the separate organizations; an administrator must create cross-certificates to establish the level of trust between the organizations.

The main difference between a single-domain, multiple-organization Domino system and a multiple-domain Domino system is that the members of the separate domains are not contained within the SAME Domino directory.

This can have some upsides and downsides.

• In a multiple-domain system, each domain has it's own Domino directory.

• Members of one DOMAIN are not -- by default -- able to see the names/resources/groups of the other domain.

• To be able to use names from the other domain's directory, Administrators must configure directory assistance or utilize directory catalogs.

• Cross certificates must be issued to the other ORGANIZATION to establish trust.

• If the domain contains only one organization, the members of that organization nominated as administrators have complete control over the content of their own Domino directory.

Given that this multi-domain system still needs to communicate with one another, most administrators would configure "directory assistance" and "directory catalogs" so that members of their domain would still be able to communicate and collaborate with members of the other domain.

In addition, another point needs to be addressed. Trust.

Yesterday I mentioned that there is no default "trust" between organizations, even if they belong to the SAME Domino domain. It then follows that there is also no trust between organizations who are members of DIFFERENT domains. Cross certificates must still be issued between the ORGANIZATIONS to ensure trust is established.

The key point here is that it is still the organizations who are controlling the security, NOT the domain.

So which one is better, a multi-domain system, where each (Notes) organization maintains it's own directory, or a single-domain system containing multiple (Notes) organizations?

At the end of the day, there is no right or wrong answer, although some of the variables involved include:

• physical locations
• infrastructure
• management and administration teams
• the ability to segregate or integrate as required
• the level of collaboration between the companies

Company "A" has a number of subsidiaries, which operate in various industries where there is little collaboration between those subsidiaries. In that case the requirement to maintain a single directory containing many users for the purpose of cross-company communication and collaboration is negligible.

The case of Company "B" is vastly different as their subsidiaries operate in closely related industries, they collaborate extensively and members of any organization are frequently posted to become team members and consultants to other organizations. Something as basic as managing a user's mail database in this environment then becomes much easier if an administrator can post an admin request to move a mail file temporarily to another server within the domain, or even delegate access to a database or suite of applications simply by adding their user name to the appropriate group(s).

After gaining a better understanding of the function of the domain and organizations within the Domino system, you are then able to apply that knowledge to create an effective implementation of Domino in your company.
Posted by Mathew Newman Domino domains vs. Domino organizations
11 APR 2006 17:01 EDT (21:01, GMT)
One of the things that always seems to be strange concept for new Domino administrators to grasp is the relationship between Domino domains and organizations.

You might be a Domino geek if...you understand the relationship between domains and organizations.

Mainly, the confusion stems from a typical Notes installation where the domain name and the first organization name are the same. This configuration then lends itself to users and administrators confusing or interchanging the two components and not recognizing their roles within the Domino system.

At this point, I'll include a couple of definitions to refer to later:

• Domino domain: a collection of servers and users who share the same Domino directory.

• Domino organization: a certifying authority (cert.id) used to issue and maintain certificates for members of the Notes system, it forms the basis of Domino security.

Organizations are typically created where organizational hierarchies have a requirement to be segregated for security or identification purposes.

An example of this might be a large multinational organization that has a number of subsidiary companies, the names I have used here have been changed to protect the innocent.

Kraft is a global food giant. One of Kraft's subsidiary companies, Vegemite Corp., is a well-known brand, and the people working for that company strongly associate themselves with that brand. Similarly, another of Kraft's subsidiaries, Peanut Butter Inc., have a slightly different culture, but still have the same sort of affinity with their company. Kraft has decided that all members of its subsidiary companies should be able to share information and resources, while still maintaining their independence, infrastructure and administration. This is a classic example of a multi-organization Domino domain.

The structure will be created as follows:

Domino Domain:  Kraft 

Domino Organization: Vegemite 
Domino Organization: PeanutButter

A user registered within this Domino system would then have the following name:

Fred Nurk/vegemite@kraft 

Susan Citizen/peanutbutter@kraft 

In addition, Domino domains can be configured to host multiple Internet domain names, which means the following configuration is used:

Notes Name:         Fred Nurk/vegemite@kraft         
Internet:                fred.nurk@vegemite.com.au 

Notes Name:        Susan Citizen/peanutbutter@kraft 
Internet:                scitizen@peanutbutter.com 

In the same way, users wishing to correspond and collaborate with members of the other subsidiary are able to since all members of both organizations are members of the same domain and can see other members of the Domino directory.

Coming back to my first point, many companies implement a single-organization Domino system, which typically means that the domain and the organization name are the same. This is the case in our company, where I am identified as follows:

Mathew Newman/isw@isw

Tomorrow, I'll expand on this concept by writing about a multi-domain Domino system.
Posted by Mathew Newman You're a Domino geek
10 APR 2006 00:59 EDT (04:59, GMT)
You might be a Domino geek IF...you come back for another stint on the EAC.

I was "chatting" with Dana (the editor for this site) a few weeks ago and the EAC abbreviation came up. I had just finished watching Finding Nemo (for about the hundredth time) with the children and "EAC" brought a smile to my face, especially since I couldn't see Dana coming out with a "Crush Dude" accent and talking about the "East Australian Current" (for those who don't have children, rent "Finding Nemo" anyway -- you'll enjoy it).

So I thought about how much fun I had last time, and how fulfilling it was answering all those questions (and, yes, there were quite a few) and couldn't resist jumping on for another go.

And, of course, there was the daily blog -- I didn't mind writing about my favorite topic every day for a couple of weeks. <grin>

Today, Notes and the next generation.

Over the last few years, bloggers, lurkers and posters to many a Domino and "I Lurve M$" forum have been posting about the Death of Domino.

Despite these claims, in the last couple of months I have seen the biggest outbreak of interest in Notes that I have seen for years. Most of the interest is coming from SMBs whose IT budget is no longer capable of supporting endless consulting hours repairing and restoring their mail servers, protecting flaky clients, who have been shown and (finally!) understand the benefits of REAL Workflow applications.

The introduction of IBM Express licensing has also had a big impact in the perceived cost barrier for SMBs to even entertain installing a platform other than "Small Business Server."

The installations have been going better than I would have expected for sites entrenched in other "e-mail" programs, given the lack of motivation and interest from many employees to make the move. ("Why do we have to use Lotus Notes?" is a common question at the beginning of most user inductions.) Training has -- of course -- been the key to the success of these implementations, especially to ensure that the users aren't just shown the "mail client."

Actually, I had a similar experience a few weeks ago with an "advanced" group of long-term users who had only ever been shown "Notes as an e-mail program" and how to click the New Memo/Send buttons. A group of people who began the day with a distinct antipathy towards Notes. Demonstrate a few standard Notes features (Ctrl+M, Escape, Enter, Backspace, Quicksearch, Full-text on "All Documents"), and opinions normally change in a hurry.

BIG TIP: DON'T use people to train your staff who don't use Notes themselves; and preferably use someone who has some basic admin and development skills. People who work in and teach O**l**k day to day DON'T "GET" NOTES and pass on this lack of understanding to your users!

So who are the "next generation" of Notes users? Surprisingly, they aren't all white-collar knowledge workers. They are people "at the coalface" (in some instances -- literally) of many organizations. The staff who build things, now have access to technology, and the organizations who are looking to make their working (IT) lives as simple as possible are rolling out systems to access procedures, policies, applications (i.e., vacation forms) etc.

These workers -- and more -- are joining the Notes group of users. Maybe there's a few Notes geeks amongst them.
Posted by Mathew Newman