I’ve just discovered the EMC Momentum app. Even though I’m not at the conference – this looks like a great tool to have!
It lists:
Check out the maps of MMTM11
Watch videos from MMTM11
Man! What a great tool!
Read more about it here
(https://community.emc.com/thread/120187)
This year’s EMC’s European Momentum is being was held in Berlin.
The Momentum conference is something I have always tried to attend. It is a great opportunity to:
Hopefully I will be adding to this page as I find more excellent ways to “be there” (virtually).
Also check out my Google+ stream. I’ll post regular updates there as well. (https://plus.google.com/u/0/110973870217970854594/posts)
A Tweet by @pelujan the other day started me thinking. The tweet was:
Speaking of waxing nostalgic – who remembers #FileNet distributor and rendezvous queues? Remember WorkFlo script? Talk about #BPM 1.0. :D—
Patrick Lujan (@pelujan) March 07, 2011
I responded to his tweet because I do remember “workflo”. It was something that FileNet developed back in 1985. I admit that this was indeed 10 years before I got into IT (having spent those 10 years doing stuff in laboratories), but I was very aware of it as it played a big part in a lot of their technology.
In fact, my first introduction to ECM was PC Docs, and also FileNet’s early Content Management application “Saros Mezzanine”. This was followed by their Image Management Services application running on an AIX system. It stored scanned images on WORM disks in an OSAR unit, and had a robotic arm jukebox. It was a bloody impressive , but also daunting, system (especially when you are new on the job, and you’ve been told to support this system at a very hostile client site).
Over the years I got more an more involved with FileNet and their products, getting to know the idiosyncrasies of each one. I worked as a consultant, and each client had its own unique requirements, environments, and situations. Very often I would go home at the end of the day feeling beaten up.
At the end of 2006 I moved into a position working with Documentum, and quickly after, SharePoint. However, this time, I was the client, and so if something didn’t work, someone else was responsible for “fixing it”. This gave me more time to think about the potential of the systems in terms of the industry I was now working in. I actually went home feeling a lot more relaxed.
Now, the one thing that always struck me, when I was working with FileNet, was that, compared to a Microsoft product, there was not a lot of material available. The majority of what you learnt came about through personal experience. You were on the battle field getting the scars. You felt that you had “earned it”.
Of course, there were forums available, and FileNet themselves had a great store of answers to questions, etc. (I used to trawl their partner site just to pick up nuggets of knowledge). Documentum (now EMC) have the same thing which I still use.
At the end of the last century (gawd – that sounds awful) I got my MCSE, and have kept up to speed with Microsoft technology since then. In 2007 I developed a Portal site that hooked into Documentum, and then, having got some scars with that, I got my SharePoint 2007 certification.
Now I am trying to build up my knowledge of SharePoint 2010. This time I’m trying to take a more business application view of the technology. I did AIIM’s SharePoint Master course, which gives a more “real” view of SP2010, especially with regards to Document Management. (See this post, and this one.) However, I realise that it’s still handy to have the MS certification under my belt, so I am working towards Microsoft SP2010 certification also.
I’m don’t want to pay for a course, and so I’m using the over-abundant resources that can be found on the internet (white papers, MS videos, MS learning material, etc). The more material I cover the more I am aware that the same message is being thrown at me – “how great SharePoint 2010 is”. (I’m not going to get into a discussion regarding this, as this has been covered by multitudes of blogs and forums on the internet).
The fact is I find myself slowly, (and blindingly), convinced. I’ve started chanting the mantra, and doing the dance.
Microsoft has produced so much stuff on their latest “shiny object”. It’s amazing. There books, videos, whitepapers, forums, faqs, technet articles, etc, etc, etc. There is also a conference/user group/gathering for the devout, almost every second week. And there are “evangelists” – people who spread the Word.
Got to admit, I am going to one of these conferences in April – the Best Practices Conference, being held in London (#bpcuk). The US one has just finished, and I was following the tweet stream (#bpc11). The funny thing was – I got to the point where I was “religiously” checking on the progress of the conference, and the activities of the participants (albeit the more “tweetal” – think of the word “vocal” but in terms of tweeting – amongst them). And I found myself just wishing I was there, wishing I was with these people and seeing, and sharing, what they were. (Quick – slap me!)
I never got this “ecstatic feeling” with FileNet. It was all mud and barbed wire. You were earning your stripes “old school”. And even though I have attended the Documentum user group conferences (Momentum) for a few years now (which is one of the high-points of my year – have only missed one over the last 5 years), I’ve never felt the (illogical, zealot-like) fervour that I am starting to experience now.
Related Links
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.
Technology is also evolving. The latest “wave” includes:
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:
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.
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,
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.
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.
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:
PADDIE – the acronym for the model used for Curriculum Development. This includes:
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.
