CityBlogz Design Studio / Blog

IBM Smart Business — After two years of work, I and hundreds of other IBM employees finally see the fruits of our labor. Here’s a press announcement about the general launch of the IBM Smart Business platform to the public.

• IBM Launches Smart Business (Nov 18, 2008)

Some background into IBM Smart Business… The premise was simple. There was a tremendous need to make IT less complex for small and medium businesses. To address this, three things were created.

1. Smart Market: a Web-enabled, one-stop SMB marketplace clients can use to browse, rate and buy solutions or collaborate with other clients, industry experts and vendors from around the world.
2. Smart Cube: a secure, turn-key computer designed to deliver integrated solutions directly to the client. Smart Cubes install and connect users to Smart Market within minutes.
3. Smart Desk: a Web-enabled dashboard that clients can use as a single-point-of-contact for Smart Business maintenance, from updating applications automatically or subscribing to an on-demand service.

The model we tried to emulate in the project codenamed BBP was to think just like the Apple iPod model — the iTunes Store (Smart Market), iPod (Smart Cube), and the iTunes desktop application (Smart Desk).

I can only speak for the Smart Desk side of things, as I played a hand in its initial phases, parts of the GUI, and the build automation/testing of the Smart Desk.

UPDATE: I needed to retract some parts of this posting. Sorry about that.

Some of you may not know, but for the past 1 year and a half, I’ve had the privilege of working on IBM’s Smart Business Platform (BBP) as a GUI developer. Now I get to focus on other assignments (i.e. Rochester International Association’s website redesign work). CTG the contracting company that helps me find work is looking for future job opportunities. Since I’m really interested in webdev and mobile, it seems logical that I’d be targeting mobile webdev positions/contracts. I do have leads, and I am currently evaluating my options. Stay tuned.

Here’s some press about the Blue Business Platform (a project that I was involved with for the past year and a half). To summarize:

IBM said the marketplace will offer pre-integrated products and services from IBM and independent software developers. Customers will be able to use the software they buy on premises or in the cloud.

IBM is working with Google to build a worldwide network of connected servers, an architecture sometimes referred to as a computing cloud, from which it plans to deliver software and services.

The online store will be organized geographically and also by industry. Customers will be able to purchase software or services in just four clicks, IBM said. The company plans to pilot the marketplace throughout 2008

Read more about this from various sources online:

• IBM To Launch Web-Based Application Market – InformationWeek
• Google, IBM Join Forces To Dominate Cloud Computing – InformationWeek
• IBM to Build Apps Marketplace for SMBs – PCWorld
• IBM launching a platform for SMB opportunity – IT Business

I can finally speak about the project that has completely taken over my life for the past year. Project Bluehouse or Blue Business Platform is the official codename in the press release. Essentially, “IBM Lotus Foundations is a new family of software servers currently planned to provide the essential software that companies with five to 500 employees need to run their business.”

Things are still being worked out, but I have already pitched the idea of integrating this server management piece with the iPhone (now that the iPhone SDK is officially out there).  Unfortunately, things at IBM go at a glacial pace, and I have yet to hear much about my idea coming to fruition. Well, here’s hoping they seriously consider it.

Sorry… its been a while since my last post. Tons of stuff keeping me busy. I just recently stumbled upon an interesting feature in Lotus Notes 8, which I had not been aware of until now. If anyone has ever used Google Calendar to invite their friends/colleagues to meetings, you’ll be pleasantly surprised to see that invitees that use Lotus Notes will be able to accept meetings in Lotus Notes and have it update their Lotus Notes Calendar as well as the sender’s Google Calendar. If anyone has tried this out, please let me know how it worked for you.

I just downloaded and installed the Mozilla Sunbird desktop calendar application and tried out the Google Calendar add-on. It appears to be working. It allows you to read, write, and delete calendar events both locally and when you are online with Google Calendar. Pretty neat. Until now, there have been paid-for solutions to sync your desktop calendars with gCal. Now, we have a free alternative. If only we could write one for Lotus Notes. Hmmm. Not a bad idea.