The Workplace Blog

Looks like Bill’s energies are heading toward the Philanthropic side of life at this point. Imagine what he can do in that area, given the success he has had in the enterprise software world. This is very exciting, especially when we consider that Ray Ozzie will be taking over as Chief Software Architect. I think this is a fantastic turn for Microsoft especially consider the strong focus in the industry on web 2.0 style technologies like wikis, blogs, tagging, and user generated content. Having cut his teeth creating the ‘groupware’ industry, Ray certainly has the focus on the right place. Getting enterprise workers to come together.

Rim and Palm have announced that Blackberry Connect will run on the Palm OS. With the treo supporting Windows Mobile, Blackberry and PalmOS, it’s an interesting strategy. Just like the day last week when I watched a Mac PowerBook boot up with the Windows logo, the times are a changing. Interoperability is the word of the day.

There is a new Google Enterprise Search version available. One of the cool new features is OneBox. OneBox can help you access information from existing business systems. There’s an impressive list of enterprise software vendors who have already signed up like Cognos, Oracle, Cisco, Salesforce.com, SAS and many others. Thinking how to make that effectively show up within a search result will be a fun challenge.

This deal brings together two of the most popular open source products available to the enterprise workplace today. As they highlight in the red hat press release, bringing together these companies provides a great open standards based toolkit to implement a services oriented archtiecture in any organization.

Delta Airlines found the perfect killer application to fuel adoption of their enterprise wide intranet DeltaNet - the itineray bidding system according to Line56 magazine. Delta Airlines move the bidding system which allows pilots and flight attendees to custom design their iteneray to the intranet. And by making it accessible via mobile devices, they not only saved costs but also built trust with their employees. To quote a Delta executive, the intranet became “a targeted, effective, and reliable communication experience” for all Delta employees.

Delta Airlines made the intranet the most reliable source for workplace information but by also developing the communal aspects of the intranet they captured their employees’ attention. Employee message boards that relate both to workplace issues (such as the airlines efforts to improve turn time for employees) and casual information sharing (vacation experiences and recommendations) have made the Delta work environment better.

Even though Delta airlines was going through bankruptcy they saw that investing in their intranet would be a worthwhile endeveavor. Demonstrating ROI by saving CMS licenses and streamlining communcation processes, managers were able to make a case for the redesign quite easily. Over the long term, the intranet team expects to demonstrate ROI via knowledge management, employee productivity and employee morale.

At MIX.06 Microsoft was encouraging folks to download and start using their new AJAX framework. Leveraging the XMLHTTP call that Microsoft invented they are taking AJAX to the next level. Microsoft also took this opportunity to remind us that their first AJAX implementation, Web Outlook, was available years before Google Maps! Check it out here Microsofts Atlas.