Monthly Archives: October 2010

Momentum Lisbon – Opening, and Technical Keynote.

Posted on by
Reply

During the opening and technical Keynote presentations at this year’s Momentum, I sat, and diligently made notes of everything that was said.

When I started writing this Post, I realised that I was give a blow-by-blow account of the session, and that this was leading to a rather be a lot large (and more tedious) than I had originally intended. So – instead of that I will try and summarise the key points of the session. (I’ll get the other post finished later).

In the morning, Mark Lewis gave his vision on the “future”. He also explained that he is no longer President of IIG but the “Chief Strategy Officer”. In the afternoon keynote session, Rick Devenuti, the new President of the group introduced himself, and, more-or-less, repeated Mark’s message in his own way. Then Jeetu Patel, the new Chief Technology Officer, expanded on the message giving more depth to it.

The forecast is for cloud.

EMC have recognised that the world is changing.

  • More and more information is being created, and is becoming richer (media files, etc) and more disperse (multiple locations).
  • Regulations are increasing, requiring the keeping of more and more documents. At the same time, being able to easily locate information is becoming extremely important.
  • The User is changing. The way information is consumed is changing, as well as the expectation of the user.

Technology is also evolving. The latest “wave” includes:

  • cloud computing – the increase use of divergent ways of using information regardless of where a person is, is a driving force behind the adoption of the cloud.
  • Mobile Internet – the way users connect to the internet are diverse, and includes such devices as iPads, smartphones, Kindles, etc, etc. The way the internet is being used is changing – there are new social and collaboration norms.

Mark Lewis who gave the above thoughts, also pointed out that businesses need to be able to survive they must have the ability to change quickly. A new “partnership” is required between the business, and IT, rather than IT just supplying solutions/technology that the users must use.

The message that came through from all the three speakers is that most innovation is happening on the consumer side, and that EMC has to be open to this, and willing to accept, respond to external changes. Their new Mission is to “help customers get maximum leverage through:

  1. Help organisations to reduce risk
  2. Increase Agility,
  3. Lower cost”

A new Information Management Technology stack” (according to EMC) was shown that consisted of three layers:

Jeetu expanded on this by adding that the bottom layer also includes “Federation”. EMC recognises that information may reside in the repositories of different systems. They want to still add value.

Momentum Lisbon – A welcome invitation.

Posted on by
Reply

I was invited out for dinner after the Welcome Reception by CSC.

CSC offer a product called FirstDoc that adds a compliance layer to Documentum. As well as that, they have products that allows documents in a  Documentum repository to be exposed in SharePoint, while maintaining 96% of the functionality of FirstDoc.

It was a very pleasant evening, and the meal that was served was wonderful.

Thanks Nigel, Paul, Chris & Jim.

Related articles
  • New EMC Solutions for Healthcare, Life Sciences, and Energy Industries

Momentum Lisbon – Virtual Momentum.

Posted on by
Reply

Another surprising offering this year is “Virtual Momentum“.

While attending Momentum is always fun, and educational, EMC have realised that not all companies can send someone to such an event. And so, they have created “Virtual Momentum”. Virtual Momentum allows a user to, using their computer,

  • “attend” sessions (where a recording of the session can be listened to, and the presentation viewed/downloaded ,
  • “visit” the booths, where they have a chance to access further information, or to interact with the “exhibitor” through on-line chatting.
  • Watch the keynote sessions, etc.

Virtual Momentum is something that all attendees of Momentum have access to (normally $200 per person).. After the “real-life” Momentum, I will certainly be “visiting” it, and will post more information on what it is like.

Related Articles

Momentum Lisbon – Welcome Reception.

Posted on by
Reply

On the first day, at about 5 o’clock, there is always the “Welcome Reception”. This allows people to wander around the booths, and catch up with the exhibitors. At the same time, there is always a certain amount of entertainment going on, often with a typically “local flavor”. On this night, there were artists painting small clay models, dancers, a lady in red, on stilts, The Stig! (yes – you read that correctly), and there was also typical Portuguese food available.

I really like this event because, over the years, at each Momentum I have attended, I am getting to know more of the partners. It’s always great to catch up with these people in a reasonable “non-rushed” moment.

Momentum Lisbon – Social Presence.

Posted on by
Reply

 

This year, EMC are using “social media” to capture the mood of people. They are encouraging people to “Get Connected”. They have published a hashtag for this event (#MMTM10) for those people who are tweeting, and they also point people to their Facebook page, et up specially for this event.

They have a stand set up with a large screen showing people’s tweets, and even have a Foursquare mayor!

… Day 1 continued – Training

Posted on by
Reply

Momentum EMC Documentum ECMS

In the afternoon, there were a number of “Tutorials”. I attended one entitled “Successful End User Rollout – EMC End User Enablement.

(When you register at the beginning of Momentum, you get the “Conference Guide”, a thick book containing the programme for each day, along with descriptions of the sessions, and oodles of other information. I am learning that there is a lot of value in actually reading the description of the sessions, rather than just the titles. While the tutorial I mentioned above wasn’t quite what I expected, it was still very valuable.)

“Successful End User Rollout” was about an important part of a project that often gets underestimated. User training. This session was given by Gunny Cameron, a lady who oozed passion for training. This came through in her delivery, and was great!

End-user training is something that is often the first victim in a project when budgets are stretched. If, for one reason or another, a cut has to be made in a project, it is Training that gets sacrificed. Often, the actual training given does not quite “enable users”. This can lead to poor adoption of the new system by the end-users because they do not understand it, with the result that a project can be deemed as having failed because the system “is too complex”, or not used properly.

Gunny presented a User Enablement Plan, that would lead to “Strong End User Adoption”. The key components of this are:

  • Curriculum Development – PADDIE.
  • Power User Training (prepare someone to be the “Go-To” person).
  • Train the Trainer
  • Web Based – make standard modules, and modify them for different situations as required.

PADDIE – the acronym for the model used for Curriculum Development. This includes:

  • Plan – Identify training needs
  • Analyze – Assess current situation, identify roles, envision the future, etc.
  • Design – Create learning objectives, and determine the approach used for giving the training (instructor, led, web based, hands –on, demonstration/stimulation).
  • Develop Content – also take into account job aids, and a glossary of terms.
  • Implement
  • Evaluate – how do you know whether the training has been successful. Is there something measurable?

Obviously Momentum is to promote EMC (and its partners), so there was a subtle push for EMC’s own training and education services, but sometimes it makes sense to get the “people who know a product inside out” to be involved with preparing training material because they know the product well (and have the technical resources to call upon when necessary).

After the tutorial session, I was able to talk to Gunny. The main question I had was, actually, about her name. As it tuns out her real name is Guvnor Cameron. It is a Swedish name.

EMC Momentum – Day 1

Posted on by
Reply

I arrived yesterday in Lisbon, Portugal for this year’s EMC Momentum, the event focused around Documentum, as well as presenting EMC’s offering to the world of Content Management.

The previous year’s Momentums have been valuable, offering a chance to get to know the vendors in this space, along with their offerings, see how EMC are adapting themselves to meet the continuously changing landscape of Electronic Content Management, and to meet other customer’s, and hear from their experiences (and pain).

Today (Monday) is Day 1. This day is a day for the vendors to set up, the partners to meet to hear EMC’s has planned for them, and to, also, update yourself at one of the several “Fundamentals” sessions that EMC holds. Tomorrow, is when the event starts in earnest, and there are several keynote speeches. This is where we, the loyal customers, get to hear about EMC’s master vision.

Looking at the conference guide, it appears that EMC will be focussing this year on the cloud, and making content available through diverse clients – smartphone’s, web browser, etc, etc. In keeping with this, there are also sessions that update us with what EMC is doing to work with that annoying new kid on the block, SharePoint.

The week promises many opportunities to get to know more about this industry, and to forge new relationships with other customers of EMC, as well as EMC’s partners.

Related articles
  • EMC Security Reviews
  • EMC World Day Two Round-Up
  • EMC World – First Impressions and Partner Summit
  • Upstart Pure Storage Takes Aim at Giant EMC