off the Hook - 911s Chief Lotu...

Maybe you remember seeing GROUP Business Software at Lotusphere last year, or maybe you noticed the name on this year's Knowledge level sponsors list. Maybe you recall hearing about GROUP acquiring Relavis or the IT Factory assets over the past couple of years, or about a recent strategic alliance with Unify Corporation for email archiving. Maybe you've heard some recent buzz, or maybe you've never heard of them and you're wondering why I would even bring it up.

GROUP was one of the world's largest providers of Notes-based CRM and extended email management solutions, headquartered in Germany. This past October, GROUP Business Software and Lotus 911 merged (relatively quietly) to form the largest provider of collaborative business solutions and professional service dedicated solely to the IBM Lotus software brand in the world (or so I am told). The Lotus 911 heritage will continue as the GROUP Experts division of GBS, just on a larger scale. By combining these two awesome teams, we now have a more global presence, the ability to provide our services customers with turnkey solutions to more business problems, a channel to market for some of the amazing technologies Lotus 911 has developed over the years, and a complete end-to-end service offering for customers worldwide.

I am enthusiastic about attending this year's Lotusphere as a member of GROUP Business Software. I am a little sad to retire the famous (or infamous) red shirts, but be on the lookout for our new black GROUP shirts. There will be at least 24 of them instead of just the 12 red ones. Over the next couple of weeks, we hope to put the finishing touches on our merger and hopefully emerge as the "go to" partner for everything Lotus.

For more information, visit www.gbs.com.

Live blogging from the bus... For those of you that don't know, Lotus 911 typically takes an RV from Atlanta to Orlando and we party the whole way there. This year, we have 16 people attending Lotusphere, 11 of whom gathered in Atlanta this morning to board the "tour bus" we are taking this year (since the max legal limit for even a large RV is 8). This thing is LOADED! We're talking leather furniture, an HD LCD, 2 additional TV's, wireless internet access (obviously), a surround sound stereo (currently blasting The Crystal Method), a kitchen, bathroom, and a professional driver. As a bonus, we added a giant version of the Bleed Yellow claws to both sides and the back of the bus. Don't worry, we plan to host some events on it, so be sure to grab one of us (in the red shirts with the claws) and ask when the next bus party is.

We got a late jump, so we probably won't arrive at the Dolphin until about 6:00 PM. So for those of you that want to greet us, see the bus, and grab some early SWAG, keep an eye on this blog. I'll post again when we're close.

BleedYellow.com was created by Lotus 911, Inc. in an effort to (1) showcase the capabilities of Lotus Connections, (2) create an online community and central gathering spot like Facebook specifically for the Lotus faithful, and (3) provide an integrated Domino server and development environment for registered Domino gurus.

 

We are very excited about hosting this community and continuing to expand its capabilities and invite you to share the ownership of this community with us.  If you haven't already, please register and unlock the power of social networking today.

 

Thanks,

Scott Hooks

VP of Services, Lotus 911