Technology Hands-on Workshop 2011 Series:
"Super Productivity Tools for Superwomen"
Getting Things Done with IBM Lotus Notes
Presented by productivity experts Kelly Forrister and Eric Mack





On September 14, 2011, the IBM SVL (Silicon Valley Labs) Super Women's Group will host another productivity event as part of their 2011 technology hands-on workshop series.

Continue Reading: "Invitation: Super Productivity Tools for Superwomen" » For the second time in just six months, PCWorld's Robert Strohmeyer writes about making Lotus Notes users more productive. As a follow-up to his article, "master your email so it doesn't master you", Strohmeyer talks about the recent announcement of eProductivity Stand-Alone:

Last week, eProductivity released a new version of the product, eProductivity Stand-Alone, designed for Notes users who lack the administrative permissions to change their mail template. However, like its enterprise-grade cousin, eProductivity Integrated, it still has the ability to turn messages into next actions, set customized contexts, categorize the inbox, and walk you through your weekly review.

While he no longer uses Lotus Notes as his primary email system - a point not missed in his article - he's quick to point out that there are many professionals who depend on Notes for the bulk of their daily business communications, calendar tracking, and other essential work stuff.

Continue Reading: "PCWorld: Making Lotus Notes users more productive" » In January 2011, you may recall that we conducted a survey of eProductivity users. Over 400 respondents later, some very interesting data points emerged.

One trend that jumped out was the shift in user satisfaction with IBM Lotus Notes once users installed eProductivity...

Continue Reading: "User Satisfaction with IBM Lotus Notes for Email and Tasks Skyrockets with eProductivity" » Lotus Notes and eProductivity were mentioned in a PCWorld article today: Work Smarter in Windows: 55 Great Productivity Tricks.

The closing section of the article features tips from recognized productivity experts such as David Allen, who of course happens to be a long-time passionate champion of Lotus Notes and eProductivity.

The article had this to say:

Allen is a Lotus Notes enthusiast, through and through, but he enhances the spartan Notes interface with the eProductivity add-on, which adds next-generation features to the software. One of these features, for example, enables the user to drag an e-mail message to a "call" button in order to place an immediate phone call to the person who sent the message.

David Allen also mentioned ActiveWords (which integrates seamlessly with eProductivity) and MindManager as being among his favorite tools.

Hat tip to Ed Brill. I've posted about the new Gmail Priority Inbox over on the "Notes on Productivity" blog. Did you know that Notes has had a similar inbox style available for almost 10 years? Find out more.

Mark Hughes is the Lotus Notes developer behind the ITANA app that makes it possible to access Lotus Notes tasks, Journal entries, and more from an iPhone or Android device.

The iPhone is notorious in productivity circles for not having a native task application. This makes syncing the iPhone to desktop task managment software like Lotus Notes to be a challenge at best. Mark's ITANA application could be a solution to this gapping need in being productive with the iPhone. Plus, his solution works on Android.

Mark has contacted us about getting eProductivity to work with his solution and there has been progress on that front. He wrote a blog post today called Manage eProductivity Projects & Actions on your iPhone and Android. He's got a few screenshots there that show what he's been working on, including this one:

Head on over to Mark's blog to see more screenshots and ITANA information.

IBM announced a new Lotus Solutions catalog today, and eProductivity is one of the featured apps. Also cool was seeing eProductivity featured during Kevin Cavanaugh and Mike Masterson's Business Development Day session here at Lotusphere. You can see some pictures over at the Notes on Productivity blog.

Here is a screenshot of eProductivity's featured product page (click to go to the page):

Lotus Knows has been running since 8am this morning. Already 400+ ideas, 5500+ votes cast, and 825+ comments posted as I write this.

A better email system in Notes has been a hot topic. People are clearly fed up with having cluttered inboxes that nag at them all day long. Here at eProductivity, we get excited about helping people gain control over a rowdy inbox and it's always great to hear stories of people going from inbox chaos to inbox zero by using eProductivity. It'll be interesting to see the solutions the Lotus community suggests for relieving the email burden.

Continue Reading: ""Lotus Knows" ideas for a better Notes" »

Last week, Bilal Jeffrey of IBM announced an upcoming IdeaJam session called Lotus Knows. I'm excited about this Jam because it's squarely focused on Lotus Notes end-users.

IBM has had the reputation of focusing their marketing on large companies and IT departments. But IBM seems to be working hard on changing up their game plan and focusing on the end user. This IdeaJam is another step in that direction.

As has been well-publicized in many other places, companies are finding out that end users now drive the adoption of new technology. Ending quickly are the old days of the IT department dictating completely what technology tools their employees can use. The top-down approach is leaky.

Employees, especially younger ones, have expectations that they can use whatever technology tools appeal the most to them. They tend to figure out ways to get their hands on these tools, and perhaps more importantly, they tend to tell their friends about their tools.

Tapping into the viral power of "my buddy says 'xyz tool rocks!'" is crucial. Lotus Notes could use a few more end users talking about how cool Notes is. As a company that makes an individual productivity tool for Notes, eProductivity could use a few more end users talking up the hipness of Notes.

So yes, I'm excited about Lotus Knows  I plan on dropping by frequently over the 3-day Jam span.

And remember, this is a public event, so you can join in too. Register at http://lotusknows.ideajam.net/register

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