I had a chance to read a couple of stories about VCC, a retail construction company based out of Little Rock, Arkansas.  The articles were of interest for a couple reasons.  1) Lotus does a poor job of advertising its success stories for its customers and partners and 2) more and more companies are looking into mobile applications.  Few of the Lotus customers I talk to know that you can extend Domino applications to mobile devices.

Little Rock, Ark.-based VCC deployed an application called Mobile Edge, from IBM  business partner iEnterprise, to connect about 80 project managers mostly using BlackBerry Bold smartphones to a custom-built customer relationship management application. VCC runs IBM Lotus Notes and Domino 8 and also deployed iEnterprise’s product for extending CRM data, called iExtensions CRM.

The application “helped us attract new clients in a field where we’d not worked before and became a useful tool,” said VCC Vice President Wayne Alley. He estimated that because employees can work more efficiently, the investment in the Mobile Edge software — less than $10,000 — was recouped in less than a year.

To read more about this success story, check out the following:

• Computerworld-> Mobile CRM app helps construction firm diversify its business
• PR Newswire -> IBM Helps Construction Firm Boost Number of Clients by 40% Through Mobile Real-Time Trends Analysis
• The Official Lotus Knows Blog -> VCC adds new clients by 40% with mobile solutions

Fundamentals of IBM® Lotus® Domino® 8.5 Application Development (Integro Rate – $2940/student)

September 27 – October 1, December 6-10 in Denver (Englewood), CO

Creating a XPage Application in IBM Lotus Domino 8.5.x (Integro Rate – $1764/student)

September 21-23, November 16-18 in Denver (Englewood), CO

IBM Lotus Domino 8.5 System Administration Bootcamp (Integro Rate – $2940/student)

October 25-29, December 13-17 in Denver (Englewood), CO

IBM Lotus Notes Domino 8.5 : Building Collaborative Applications Workshop (Integro Rate – $1764/student)

October 6-8, December 8-10 in Denver (Englewood), CO

Objective:

The Domino 8.5 Upgrade PoT is intended to provide the customer with an in-depth examination of the new capabilities of version 8.5 of the products.  For existing customers, this exploration will help them assess the additional value and potential impact to their existing environment.  For new customers, this exploration will not only give them a hands-on experience with a product new to them but it will also reinforce our advantages over the competition, such as the power of applications.  At the conclusion of the Proof of Technology, the customer will leave with an excitement about the business problems this new version can help solve.

Audience:

This Proof of Technology is targeted for IT Managers, Application Developers, System Administrators and Architects evaluating IBM Lotus Notes / Domino. No prerequisite knowledge of Notes or Domino is required; however, it is recommended that participants have an understanding of their business needs and current IT technologies.

Agenda:

Cost:

This session is offered free of charge.  Complimentary refreshments including continental breakfast and lunch will be provided.  However, participants are responsible for their own business travel expenses.

Schedule:

For your convenience, registration and continental breakfast will begin at 8:00 AM. The session on day 1 will start at 8:30 AM and end at approximately  6:00 PM.  On day 2, breakfast will start at 8:30 AM, the session will start at 9:00 AM and end at approximately 5:00 PM.

Registration:
Register here to register

In 2007, I had the privilege of listening to Mr. Leigh Branham speak at an IBM – Cisco event in Denver.  The topic was Generational Diversity and the new tools that employers should leverage to attract and retain the best employees.  It was the first time I had seen this now popular topic discussed.  To this day, I still reference Mr. Branham’s presentation.

Mr. Branham publishes a free quarterly newsletter on the latest ideas and practices that keep employees engaged.  You can subscribe to the newsletter here.  Three topics are included in the latest newsletter:

• Know The Enemies of Employee Engagement
• Employee Engagement Enemies List
• Notes from the Global SHRM Conference

I have found each Newsletter to be very informative and insightful.  The latest newsletter isn’t just for senior management.  It is a worthwhile read no matter where you are in the organization.

The other reason for this post is that Mr. Branham has a new book out called, “Re-Engage:  How America’s Best Places to Work Inspire Extra Effort in Extraordinary Times“.  Like his books before, Mr. Branham does not simply rely on theories, he backs up his assertions with quantifiable data.  In this case, surveying 10,000 employers in 43 states.

I recently purchased this book and it is next on my list of books to read. Once I finish the book, I will post my review on the LotusHunter site.

Take a look at his Keeping the People site here.

For more information about his book, click here.

About Leigh Branham:

Leigh Branham is principal and founder of Keeping the People, Inc., in Overland Park, Kansas. His firm helps clients analyze root causes of employee disengagement and turnover and implement strategies to grow revenues and profits by becoming better places to work. His book, The 7 Hidden Reasons Employees Leave: How to Recognize the Subtle Signs and Act Before It’s Too Late, was selected as one of the top 30 business books of 2005. He is also the author of Keeping the People Who Keep You in Business (AMACOM, 2000). Leigh has consulted with multinational companies and has spoken at human resources and leadership conferences in China, Poland, Argentina, Paraguay, Canada, and Malaysia. He has been interviewed on National Public Radio and has been widely quoted as an expert on employee retention in BusinessWeek, The Harvard Management Update, and by the Associated Press.

We would love to hear your feedback on this post.

IBM® Lotus Notes® and Domino® 8.5.2 provides enhancements for both the end user (Lotus Notes, Lotus® iNotes™ and Lotus Notes Traveler) and developers (Domino Designer). Lotus Notes and Domino 8.5.2:

• Allows Lotus Notes to take advantage of improved instant messaging and unified telephony services provided by Lotus Sametime®
• Contains usability and productivity enhancements to the Lotus iNotes mail and calendaring experience
• Supports the Apple iPad and new features of the Apple iPhone with Lotus Notes Traveler
• Has new XPage features and extensibility APIs, as well as Lotus Domino Designer enhancements that provide developers with additional capabilities

IBM Lotus Notes and Domino 8.5.2 delivers powerful new features for your messaging and collaboration infrastructure. There are many new features and enhancements that improve the end-user experience, mobile access, and application development capabilities for Lotus Notes and Domino.

The Notes® client improves real-time communication by taking advantage of the latest instant messaging and unified telephony services provided by Lotus Sametime 8.5.1. Improved integration with IBM Lotus Quickr means you can more easily store files in Quickr. The Notes client also complies with 2009 Federal Desktop Core Configuration (FDCC) requirements.

Lotus iNotes delivers productivity gains with improved performance when creating mail messages, and the ability to create Lotus Sametime meetings from within your calendar invitations. iNotes Ultra-light adds Android support for Nexus One and support for Apple iPhone 4.0.

Mobile users get more device options with the addition of Apple iPad support for Lotus Notes Traveler, and added operating system support for Apple iOS 4, Windows Mobile 6.5, and the Lotus Notes Traveler server for Linux. Additional Traveler enhancements improve security support of HTTPS for push notifications and Apple iPhone and iPad security policy enforcement.

Lotus Domino and Domino Designer 8.5.2 continue to deliver innovation for developers. XPages ships the CKEditor for enhanced rich text editing on the Web including in line images and tables. XPage and Domino Designer extensibility APIs allow developers to add new XPage controls to simplify development and increase the functionality of the collaborative applications they build. Developers can also take advantage of Domino in the cloud through developer and test images on Amazon Web Services.

Lotus just published a new case study for the Poland Border Guard.

Overview:
In 2004, Poland joined the European Union. After entering the European Union, Poland started making efforts to join the Schengen area, a group of European countries that operates very much like a single state for international travel purposes.

Business need:
At the same time, the Polish Border Guard made progress on tightening controls for Poland’s eastern border, which became the eastern border of the European Union. To meet these challenges, the Guard had to update its methods and IT systems.

Solution:
A new security solution with document management and workflows helps ensure the integrity and immediate availability of information. Integration technology enables access to information from all sources, including the registry of alien records and the visa registry. IP telephony, instant messaging, data transfer and multiprotocol label switching, spanning all control points, support instant status checks that identify trespassers on the spot.

Benefits:

• Automating allowances to cross borders based on the most current and integrated data practically eliminates permissions for people who are unauthorized.
• Even felonies committed outside Poland show up online, stopping guilty travelers at the border and enabling the temporary arrest of suspect travelers
• The number of trespassers arrested at the border has increased by roughly 40 percent, and deportations after crossing the border have been cut by more than half.

Effective November 19, 2010, IBM will withdraw from marketing, part numbers associated with the IBM Enterprise Suite Accelerator. Replacement part numbers are available and can be found on the following page.

The IBM, Alacrinet, and EffectiveUI teams would like to invite you to a special event at Arrowhead Golf Club. We hope you can join us for a round of golf and learn how various organizations are leveraging web portal technologies, social networking, and business intelligence to empower employees, reduce costs and provide exceptional service to your customers.

Today’s work environment is characterized by pressure to do more with less. Successful organizations must make bold changes, integrate globally and innovate beyond customer expectations. Whether you need to expand into new marketplaces, change your business models, improve efficiency or understand your customers better, you’re going to need help.

Fortunately, you can harness the social capital and collective intelligence of your employees, partners and customers. They already have the expertise and knowledge that is needed to tackle these challenges; they just need a way to share their insights and connect with the right people. That’s where social software begins.

You are cordially invited to attend a special event hosted by IBM, Alacrinet, and EffectiveUI in which you will be able to learn about how various organizations are leveraging social networking, web portals, and business intelligence technologies to empower their employees, reduce costs and provide exceptional service to your customers. We can help build a Smarter Planet.

You won’t want to miss this event, as it is followed by an exquisite round of golf at one of Colorado’s premier golf courses!

This exclusive event has limited capacity and is by invitation only, so please take advantage of this unique opportunity.

We look forward to seeing you there.

Where:

Arrowhead Golf Club
10850 West Sundown Trail
Littleton, Colorado 80125
Directions

When: Tuesday, August 24

Agenda: Schedule
8:00 a.m. Registration & Continental Breakfast
8:30 a.m. Welcome & Introductions
8:45 a.m. EffectiveUI – Creating an Exceptional User Experiences
9:25 a.m. The Evolution of Portals and Social Software – Applications in Action
10:15 a.m. Coffee Break
10:35 a.m. Business Intelligence & Performance Management – Set Targets, Allocate Resources, Make Better Decisions
11:25 a.m. Customer Success Stories – Implementing Social Software and Portal technologies to achieve optimum benefits
12:00 noon Box lunches served
1:00 p.m. Golf Tournament (optional)
19th Hole Reception with awards and prizes

Click here to Register:
http://www.alacrinet.com/events/register/ibm-workplace-transformation-co

The City and County of Honolulu and Alacrinet Consulting Services will be speaking together at the Portal Excellence Conference in Chicago, IL.  They will be covering how the City and County of Honolulu moved to a Portal-based solution to meet the needs of employees, business owners, citizens, and tourists.

Where: Portal Excellence Conference – Chicago, IL

When: Tuesday, July 20 @ 4:30PM in the Stevens 1 room

Session Abstract:
Communications and responsiveness are critical for governments today.  The City & County of Honolulu has implemented a single, common web experience platform called “City Central”, using WebSphere Portal, Lotus Web Content Management, and Lotus Forms.  This session discusses how the Honolulu Fire Department (HFD) used that platform to transform their communications and business processes.  When recent tsunami alerts went out across the Pacific following an earthquake, emergency responders were alerted within minutes via the HFD Portal.  The HFD implemented Lotus Forms within the Portal to further speed cycle time and reduce costly errors in their business processes.  The HFD was able to build complex logic into their forms to allow for intelligent routing.  Utilizing this IBM platform, HFD has streamlined communications and business process with their fire fighters, improved overall HFD performance and most importantly increased the safety of Honolulu citizens.

The HFD was the first department in the City to move forward on the City Central platform, and has provided an example of what a successful public – private partnership can do.  Going forward, additional departments are joining in and high value online government services are being expanded to businesses, residents and tourists.

Please contact the Lotus Hunter for more info.