Ed Brill

Through a happy timing coincidence, I was able to sit in on an eProductivity seminar this afternoon given by Eric Mack.  Eric was hired to speak to a company's regional salesforce on how to use Lotus Notes to increase their productivity.  It looks to me like there are about 100 people here.  An interesting but somewhat strange feeling for me to be amongst this large a group of Lotus Notes end users (as opposed to IT people) -- it's been a long time.  It feels like a live-action version of some of the Notes usability lab test videos I've watched since coming to staff -- I'm getting to hear about all the joys, and, well, challenges, of using Notes in their daily work environment.
Eric's methodology on how to increase productivity is compelling.  I don't want to give away his trade secrets here, but it seems like he's got a great way of applying David Allen's Getting Things Done methods, plus of course his own insights, within the capabilities of Notes.  Even for this client, where the end-users are mainly still running Notes R5, Eric had some excellent approaches to aspiring to a clean inbox, and a more responsive way to interact with incoming e-mail.
What's really great for me to hear in this case is how many of the core Notes/Domino strengths are actually in use at this particular client.  They have a number of Notes applications that are part of the fabric of daily life.  They are using a modified mail template, customized to their particular needs (and apparently, several of the incremental suggestions Eric has made to them today will make their way into the supported mail environment as well).  He's talking about how to use the Welcome Page to their benefit, even in Notes R5 (as the one-time product manager for this feature, thank you, Eric!).  They aren't afraid of replication, or of teaching end-users how to create standard databases from templates).
It's really refreshing to have the opportunity to hear first-hand about how Lotus Notes really benefits an organization and their productivity.  I know that sounds like a line I'd use on my lotus.com/weblog, but it really does feel good to know that what we say in marketing is actually what customers are doing in the real world.
Thanks for the tag-along invite, Eric!