Jeff's Zone 2

Whew!

Well, I know. It's been a long time since I last posted. I have been completely swamped with the transition after Microsoft acquired Parlano (the acquisition officially closed at the beginning of October!). But, while there is much work to be done, we are well on our way now and I thought I could come up briefly for air. So, a few catch up items:

1. I know many people follow my blog after I spoke at the SLAM Conference last June on the subject of blogging for the enterprise. Yes, I have to admit I broke my own advice after not posting for so long. But, I thought I would fill you in on an interesting stat... without going into details, the acquisition announcement exceeded coverage predictions (if you had a web search alert on "Parlano" you would have seen a lot of coverage). While I believe there are many factors including the product, loyal customers, and hard work by the deal and announcement teams, the fact is that a lot of primary and secondary (ongoing) coverage came from reporters, Parlano fans, and analysts in the blogosphere. Another proof point that blogging can make a difference even if you aren't a top-rated blog (for those of you who missed my presentation, that was the theme).

2. I am happily settling in at Microsoft as part of the Unified Communications Marketing Team to help get the power of persistent group chat fully baked into the UC story and offering. Out of respect for a lot of the fantastic work going on in Microsoft surrounding UC and the vastly different approach the team needs to take to roll out products to the market, I am going to avoid discussing specific products and plans in this blog (unlike my days at Parlano). I assure you this has nothing to do with anything anyone asked me to do-- in fact Microsoft is well known for having an open blogging policy. It's just what I think is right. That said, I do plan to pick up where I left off and talk about the opportunity for Enterprise 2.0 (I am compiling some thoughts on Facebook for the enterprise) because I remain as enthusiastic as ever about the trends we are all seeing and for the real benefits product like MindAlign provide customers. Keep in mind that my opinions are my own and most likely not at all in line with what most people think. ;-)

3. I am deep into my training for Ironman Arizona 2008. Still haven't gotten to the really long weekend rides, but I am beginning to pick up the volume. I am going to raise money for a cause.... still deciding on which one! Stay tuned.

That's all for now!

Exciting News! Microsoft to Acquire Parlano!

Today, Microsoft announced that it is acquiring Parlano. Everyone at Parlano past and present has worked hard to make persistent group chat a mission-critical part of how many, many people conduct their business every day. This acquisition will take the combined products to the next level and onto tens of millions of desktops. Nick has some great thoughts in this post. There will be much to say about this in the next few weeks and months as we move towards the deal close and eventual product integration but for now I just wanted everyone to know, and to thank you all for the continued support!

Ironman Arizona 2008

Many of you know that I have been debating what kind of events to focus on in 2008. I love training, but need big goals. I guess not unlike work.

Last year, my focus was Ironman Wisconsin. This year shorter distance events with a goal to get faster (and it seems to be working!). Next year was the big question, but no more. I am registered along with 15 or so fellow teammates in Multisport Madness to race Ironman Arizona 2008.

Yes, long distance training through the winter in Chicago is tough, but that's what the team is for (support and company on long indoor rides!). And, we are planning to do several training camps where we can get in the outdoor cycling hours.

I promised my family that if I did another Ironman I would use it to raise money for a cause (or causes) and I have yet to figure out the details on that yet, but stay tuned! 

Risk versus Reward

I know many of you follow my blog to get news about Parlano, but I also know there are many of you who like to keep up with my recent sports/fitness endeavors. So, I thought I would share a lesson/decision I made a few weeks back at a triathlon that I think has applicability to work as well… the balance of risk and reward.

A few weeks ago I woke up at 3:30am to drive up to Lake Zurich for a triathlon. Half way there, it started to rain. By the time I got there it was a downpour with lightning. Now, in situations like this race directors are pretty smart and they won't have you go out (especially for the swim) if conditions are dangerous (lightning, heavy winds/waves, etc.). But at the same time, they are pretty motivated to do some sort of event and will often wait it out and/or modify the event.

In this case the race directors were pretty sure the race would go on at some point. But, for the first time ever, I turned in my chip and left (I wasn't the only one). Now, those of you who know me know that is very atypical behavior. I would normally tough it out. But, in this case I had to asses risk versus reward. Even if the race went on, the roads would be slick and dangerous (IMO) and the run would be miserable (wet mud-soaked shoes? No thanks.). Now, if it had been my "A" race I would have stuck it out, but it wasn't. I just didn't see the upside… but there was plenty of downside! I got in my car, grabbed a coffee, drove home, and did a good workout on the bike trainer. Much better use of my time IMO. Don't get me wrong… many people stayed and raced later that morning and I am sure had a good time. I have no issue with that. Everyone has to make the risk/reward decision for themselves.

Risk/Reward is also a decision that we all should be making in training, not just races. Joe Friel (well known cycling and multisport coach) recently wrote a blog on the subject that I found useful. This is the time of year that many of us (in the Northern hemisphere) are peaking for races and feeling invulnerable… now's when we really have to pay the most attention to how we are training. I hope those of you who are training for events/races/fitness are having great seasons!

P.S. Thanks to my buddy Howard Solomon for hosting me in SanFran last weekend. We did some awesome workouts…. Friday evening swim, double brick (20 mile ride, 4.5 mile run, 20 mile ride, 3 mile run—yes, all back-to-back) on Saturday on a fairly hilly bike route (The Paradise Loop in Marin County), and a master's swim (1.5 hours) and trail run on Sunday. Good times! J

 

Persistent Group Chat in CRM

Here is another article published by DestinationCRM by Nick Fera on the value of persistent group chat in a Unified Communications solution. This time a little more focused on the CRM (sales, marketing, support) use case. We are seeing a lot of demand from global organizations looking to improve global, cross-functional, team communications in customer-facing roles as well as IT so this article is timely.

 

Article on UC by Nick Fera

Nick Fera has an article on TMC.net about ways that persistent group chat can help organizations get started with unified communications.

Microsoft Unified Communications in Wealth Management Scenario

Parlano MindAlign has a brief appearance (the part about "checking group chat") in the Microsoft Unified Communicaitons Wealth Management scenario on You Tube. Check it out!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAVMU30hK-U

Thanks for your support!

Special thanks to everyone who supported me in the MS150 ride to raise money for the Illinois MS Society. My friends Andy (pictured) and Bill and I rode 102 miles on Saturday in a constant downpour. Miles 65-80 were pretty rough because I have not been training for that distance ofa ride, but I rallied at mile 80 and had a strong finish.

It was not freezing but just cold enough to get chilled if we stopped too long at the rest stops(click on the picture to see what it really looked like in the rain). Between the non-stop rain and being splashed by water from the lead bike as we drafted into the wind, it was a pretty miserable ride but well worth the cause. After all it was only 6 hours of discomfort compared to what people with MS and other diseases go through all the time. And, once you are done and warm its a great feeling to have done it.

Again, thank you for all the support and generous donations!!!!!

For any of you who would still like to donate you can do so here: http://www.msillinois.org/goto/jeschultz

Round up of this week’s news

We have had a busy week this week! Two trade shows, two announcements, and some great coverage. Here is a round up:

Announcements:

mindSHIFT and Parlano partner to address customer needs for federated group: This is an important relationship because it is a big step forward in our strategy for providing secure, federated connections between customers who want to share chat channels with each other. MindAlign 2007 makes this easy because of our use of Microsoft Live Communications Server but some of our customers do not want to manage federated connections to all of their customers and partners. mindSHIFT solve this issue with managed chat channels and compliance services.

Parlano announces new compliance and ethical walls capabilities for group chat at SIFMA Technology Conference: This announcement discusses some pretty substantial improvements we made in MindAlign 2007 with regard to integrating with leading compliance frameworks. It also discusses our new channel security approach.

Some coverage from this week:

Michael Sampson's writeup on The Instant Messaging 2.0 Panel (Nick Fera was a panelist)

Eric Mack's writeup on the Instant Messaging 2.0 session.

Alec Saunder's writeup on the Presence 2.0 session (Nick was a panelist)

Actually, Michael posted great write-ups on several sessions as did Eric Mack.

Also, Wall Street and Technology posted coverage of our announcements at SIFMA. I expect more coverage soon!

(P.S. Michael and Eric it was great to finally meet you both in person!!!)

Great new article on MindAlign in Financial Services

Windows in Financial Services published a great article on the use of persistent group chat (MindAlign) in financial services and quoted several of our customers. I won't bore you with extra commentary because the article is a great read on its own!

By the way, we will be in both Boston (Enterprise 2.0 Conference) and New York (SIFMA Technology and Management Conference) this week. Nick Fera is speaking at Enterprise 2.0 and Microsoft will be in our booth and having us at their big parties both nights. I get to be in both places at once!

We have two big announcements at the SIFMA show… to be posted later this week!