An open letter to the new ICS GM Inhi Cho Shu
1) The schedule for new on-prem software releases requires much more regularity. Thinking Notes and Domino here. See this post as to why 9.0.2 Where for art thou?.
2) The IBM process for buying/on-boarding/using cloud stuff is totally insane. I could outline those here but Gavin Bollard did an excellent job here and here. You can learn a lot by trying to buy what you sell. I would suggest everyone fully read Gavin's posts at least twice, you are likely to miss something if you only read them once.
3) (The seemingly ignored issues of) Verse on-prem and the future of the Notes client need to be addressed so that customers and partners can prepare.
4) The constant renaming of products makes finding anything on Passport Advantage (already a nightmare) even more difficult. While we're on this please try navigating the aforementioned Passport Advantage in the shoes of a customer. Customers have no idea what they have, need or use anymore. Some in your organization seem to think that renaming will fix things for the "Lotus" brand. It does not. Only doing things that your customers (and maybe even someday, potential customers) need addressed will do that.
5) Support is broken. Badly. Although really, I don't think this can be fixed. It seems too far gone.
6) Find the dissenters and the naysayers and talk to them. You can learn a lot from the "WTF is IBM thinking/doing?" crowd.
7) Look and use your competition's software. You'll see some shocking holes in functionality in IBM's offerings when you do. For example, IBM is being outmaneuvered by Office365. Figure out why (or ask) and see what can be done to address these failings.
While this is not everything, I wanted to keep this post at a 50,000 foot level and not get into the weeds. Again, as with everyone else in this community, I wish you every success in your new endeavor.
Darren Duke.
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Comments (6)
Excellent post.
**LOOK at things from a customer's viewpoint. **
Warning: You might want to down some Dramamine beforehand, because it'll make you quite nauseous.
Excellent post.
**LOOK at things from a customer's viewpoint. **
Warning: You might want to down some Dramamine beforehand, because it'll make you quite nauseous.
I've always held that developers (and the teams and organizations that employ and lead them) should be locked in a room and forced to USE their own product exclusively and extensively for at least SIX months. Darren, thanks for this post. Like you, I've tried to reach this organization but the walls are high. I don't know what impact your letter will have but I think you express the sentiment of many. Well put.
Darren, You will be pleased to know that she is committed to stay directly engaged in the IBM Champion community. We were quietly given an audience earlier today (3:30am via webinar for me). If you do not have the opportunity to share those questions or comments directly, I will do my part to present them so that they can hopefully be addressed. Meanwhile, a link to them has been tweeted.
why is there no graph interface for domino data? now we have to wait on opensource initiatives while MS flabbergasting with their office graph