2 weeks ago I was in the UK giving a on site training session on Mobile. When I arrived at Heathrow I quickly gathered my bags and proceeded thru customs and on to a Taxi that would get me to my hotel. Just outside the terminal, taxi’s were lined up awaiting their passengers, where I was ushered to a cab. I was given a price that seemed very high, but looking down the row of taxies I was left to believe that each cab was the same. On the way to the hotel the driver let me know that he did not know how to get to my specific hotel, so instead he was going to drop me off at nearby Reading station. I complained but relented. When we arrived the dropped the price by 10 pounds, and pointed me to a cab that could take me the rest of the way. When I finally got there it seems, the hotel was back the way we came. The whole trip was 120 pounds or 240 Canadian dollars.

The next day I called for a cab to pick me up and take me to the local Train station to go into London. Talking with the driver and understanding the distance and the rate that should be charged (34 pounds) I set up a pickup back to the Airport come the end of the week.

What made me think this morning as I was preparing my coffee and getting ready to get into a day long undisturbed coding session was how much my cabbie experience relates to the business I am in. Let me explain.

1. The first cabbie was overcharging for their services. He took a fare not on capability but on making the quick buck

2. When he realized that he could not get the job done, he dumped the project and the customer instead of following through with the prearranged agreement

3. Another cabbie had to resolve the problem that the first caused

4. Communication and planning provided a less expensive solution to the problem

5. The first cabbie lost any further revenue from the customer (me) because they did not want the relationship they wanted the buck

In the economic times that we find ourselves in the value proposition of using services from a company are going to be scrutinized and evaluated like no other time. Commitment to the customer, commitment to quality and service I believe is going to assist in riding out the storm. This episode in my life though insignificant within the whole picture really shows the two types of companies that exist and clearly reinforces the type of company I want to run where the customer is first.

 

My UK Fish Episode

I was not going to bring this up, but while training Nick and Jonathan I was going on about the meal (and the jokes that ensued) I had one night at the Inn that I stayed at. I decided to have a traditional Fish and Chips, heard so much about it, thought it would be a great meal to have. Well when I cut into my fish….. which was battered by the way, there was skin on one side. If you know me you will understand that generally I am pretty much a meat and potatoes man. Well this fish..skin episode scarred me for the rest of the night and gave us some good laughs the next day. So if you ask for Fish and Chips in the UK, look out for the skin 🙂

 

Mark

With Apple selling so many iPhones the question is asked when/If SalesLogix Mobile will be getting to the phone. I do not work for Sage nor do I speak for Sage in this so there is no inside information here. I do believe that the next big business smart phone could actually be based on the Android operating system from Google. I believe this for several reasons.

1. The platform is open and will be available from many carriers

2. The development and deployment process is open and allows for more business models

3. There will still be an App Store for the location of trial ware, single purchase licenses

4. The base development can be done in Java which means an easier port from the BlackBerry code  base

5. There are databases available such as MySQL that will allow for quicker time to market so that DB code would not have to be created.

6. For businesses (I am taking a stab here) but I would expect that the TCO to be less then that of an iPhone due to the multiple carrier

7. Motorola has already announced support, a phone is already in the market

Development for any mobile CRM is going to be somewhat a long tail. Jumping on Android now would provide Sage a great win when it came to insights 2009 to show off the Mobile CRM on the Android phone. I am still a big fan for the development environment Microsoft has provided however they still have not come to the market and made a compelling enough argument to get business in general to adopt the phones in mass.

The one thing that Apple really did well was to get everyone to rethink the interfaces we are using on mobile. This is causing a great shift in the device makeup and I suspect that the Sage Mobile product line will have to morph in a UI way to embrace this shift. Let’s hope the UI catches up to today’s expectations.

Before I put BITtelligent into full gear I worked for a company called Corum Corp. In my day to day duties among the management of the development team and architecture of the Mobile platform from time to time I would provide training to outside partners. During my 4+ years at Corum I provided the training in the Canadian office, and various SalesLogix offices in Scottsdale AZ, Reading UK, and Melbourne AUS. For me the training class was one of the hardest things to do, as well as one of the most satisfying. It was one of the times throughout the development of the platform that I could see, and interact with the various companies that be using, and selling the product that I was instrumental in the creation.

Last week marks the first instance that I have provided a level of training on the Mobile Platform in some time. In all counts it was a success where already I can see Nick not only asking questions on the NG posts, but also offering fixes to issues in the way some of the core plug-ins were coded. The training is in no way a substitute to the one provided by Sage but augments that process with a more one-on-one approach consisting of on-sight advanced guidance with several days of end customer engagement support. To ensure that you are certified and can get Sage Support the mobile training class will get you there. If you need to go deeper, or have special implementation needs that were our training will fit in.  The time from engagement to being on site in the UK for the training was quite tight (less then 2 weeks) but in the end the results were well worth any inconvenience of moving so fast to deliver.

We are not going to provide class room training, I just do not want to support the infrastructure costs. We will however provide on-sight one-on-one or web based training should the interest arise.

Also if there is enough interest Training can be provided in .NET development with C#, or VB.net as well.

– M

When developing a mobile solution using the Sage Mobile platform there are times in code where you will need to load up a business object to do some action.

Looking at the BusinessObject type displays the getBusinessObject method passing in 2 strings. My expectation is to provide the table/business object entity name and the primary key and a populated business object would be returned.

[Added] Getting a answer back on the NG the getBusinesObject provides the capability to ‘Create’ a business object of a table type. You pass in the business object/table name, and a key value and a business object entity is returned.

To successfully load a business object you should use the BusinessHelper.loadByPrimaryKey method that will return the business object and if not found a newed instance.

BusinessHelper.loadByPrimaryKey(<businessobject/tablename>, <keyvalue>, (bool) new)

This week I was engaged on a project with the SalesLogix BP Pythagoras. Working with Nick Hollis, and Johathan Langley on a Mobile project. I have to say it has been a treat working with these guys. I also have to say that there is some culture shock that I had to get through in my travels.

Arriving in the UK

When I got here I jumped into a Black cab, well as I understand it this is not the best use hard earned dollars. By the time I finally got the the hotel (Bird in the Hand) I was well into a 240cdn dollar investment (wow) . A little confusion at the hotel but I finally got settled in without a hitch.

Where’s the Entertainment , Cannot get Connected

Initially I was setup in a Bed and Breakfast but after finding out that the accommodations did not have Internet access I was moved into a 14th century hotel with WiFi access. When I finally got into my room I found that the WiFi was not working and unfortunately the television only had 3 channels. (ugh).  For sunday it was ok since I was going into London for a day of sightseeing.

In London, my train was delayed

On Sunday, to acclimatize myself to the time zone change I headed into London very early. Since I was there alone I was in power walk mode zipping from Paddington, to the parks, and off to Buckingham Palace. Halfway through the day I decided to head back to hotel, however the plans were de-railed with an unfortunate fatality that shut down the trains for several hours.

Monday, Kickoff, Hotel Got Better

Monday was the first day I was working with Nick and Jonathan and it went very well. The mobile environment got setup and we were well into exploring the customization capabilities of the mobile platform. When I headed back to the hotel there was a pleasant surprise with bot the WiFi working and the Natasha, manager at the hotel arranged for a Digital TV to be brought to my room. It was a very nice thing for them to do and very much appreciated.

Meeting with some Friends

After work on Tuesday both Mike Spragg and Mark Cooper came up for dinner. The evening was filled with Geek talk and was a great time.  By this time of the 3 times I had dinner at the hotel 2 times I ate Lamb. Unfortunately the menu selection was not quite to my tastes.

 

I will post more in the next few days, including an issue I have found with the Mobile Platform.

-M

Rich Eaton posted a reply to an earlier post about the VP debates. I started to think about our expectations of the work and ethic of the people around us. The one thing I can is that I really think the ‘Average’ worker is Global at not only an issue within the American Borders.

When I speak with business partners throughout the world the recurring theme of just punching the clock resonates. Be the UK, Australia, Germany, US, or Canada average seems to be the Norm. What’s worse is that we become excited when our average workers in a instance does a little better, however to back into average mode.

The problem with ‘averages’ is that generally they effect the ability of the ‘Exceptional’ to quantify their skills and get ahead as it is difficult in my opinion to understand or even comprehend skill and value when in day to day you are surrounded by averages. I can also see that there is a good enough mentality.

When I looking for a first hire, I interviewed many junior developers. They all had the feeling of entitlement, that they were going to start off their career with a large salary and that somehow it was deserved at this point in their lives. Unfortunately I think this is somewhat attributed to the Google effect where the Google’s and Microsoft’s of the world pretty much eat up all of the first class graduates and those who are left over are not ready for real world consumption. My first hire was unfortunately a disappointment, a mismatch if you will between my passion of technology and solving problems coupled with an old world work ethic. He starting of his career in what I consider a very difficult learning path, neither had the drive to learn new things or to put in the effort required to become a valuable team member.

I guess is average enough, do you work with average people or have you gotten to the point where the desire and commitment to excel is gone. I like to work with ‘Excellent’ people, they bring up my game to a place were I am proud. I am going to do everything I can to fight any urge to fall in the average trend.

Microsoft just recently released the 3rd commercial in their new advertising campaign. This commercial moves away form the Gates/Seinfield style into a more open based approach. One of the things that bothered me about the “I am a Mac” advertisements were that they played on ones self esteem. Being a developer really there is already enough post 70’s stereotypes of what a typical PC user was. As a PC your were not cool, you would break down, you would have instabilities. The stereotype was to define what a PC was dull/boring/and utilitarian. As both a PC and a MAC (I own both) have found both platforms equally successful and also equally problematic at times. Having a Mac does not make you smarter, more creative or any better then the person beside you that has a PC. At times it may even be challenged that the PC offers a better value and a lower TCO. In the 3rd commercial MS tackles the misperception that a PC can be boxed into a single stereotype, and in my opinion does well to flatten the playing field by showing diverse peoples in different industries all claiming to be a PC. The culture of Mac and Linux needs to be in my opinion more inclusive then they are today.

I have written it before and I will say it again, Apple seems to hold too much control of the products, software and worst of all market place if it does become a monopoly based on its current strategies it could be far worse then either IBM or Microsoft was in the past. Sometimes its hard to see the forest through the trees when one is blinded by the sparkle of a shiny apple.

I said I was a PC and a Mac, but thinking of it really I am an opportunist, and will do the right thing for my customers.

It seems to me that Silverlight is now accessible in most of the major browsers and is becoming a viable choice for the .net developer looking into getting into RIA development. I had touched on in a couple of months back and liked what I initially saw. I suspect that in the near future I will be back into it especially looking into ways of embedding Silverlight into the new SalesLogix web client to enhance the customer experience.

You can find more details of Silverlight on Chrome at John Galloway’s blog.

Late last night version 7.5 of SalesLogix CRM went RTM. For me the represents a significant step in the products evolution and I am already receiving conversion work on LAN to Web Client conversion customizations. The web client looks great and later on today we will be putting it into production here at BITtelligent. For the web client there are too many features added for all of them to be mentioned but some are;

• Process workflow
• Enhanced UI
• Way better group support including RMB item selection to group support
• New web based Intellisync based client
• Web based remote office, Web based remote client
• Activity attachment enhancements
• Spark lines
• Timeline view
• Enhanced developer experience in deployment, Form interfaces and other underlying fixes

 

And so much more. Congratulations to the Development team and Sage for getting this product to market. I look forward to supporting our customer base on 7.5.

As of Monday BITtelligent software has hit its 5 month anniversary, Its been around much longer but only really active in the public for the last 5 months. For me certain milestones exist to benchmark how a company is headed. Opening the office, the first customer, the first paid invoice :), the second customer, and hiring your first employee are some of the exciting milestones that have happened very quickly. As of Monday, we will have a new developer working for BITtelligent helping with the ongoing workload. For me this is a very exciting time and represents a shift in the capabilities we will be able to provide and the level of commitments that we can well, …. commit to.

Joel will initially be focused in getting up to speed on the SalesLogix LAN/Web Client allowing for our company to take on more LAN to web conversion if they come up. We will also be looking at building out some Web Client vertical solutions more so around day to day services and needs that we have here but to a point that they will be engineered and available to the outside community as a whole.

We are also going to start to engage the community more around the Sage Mobile Platform, from a support and development side of things, and introduce over time advanced developer training specific on getting the most out of the platform and identifying the tool sets and processes required to implement customer solutions faster with less risk. Some of the things you might see are some new functionality plugged into Mobile App Architect to provided ‘extra’ support in getting your customizations completed.