Intergen Smarts 8 (2004)

8
Our Technical Services team deserve a special mention. The team has not only had to deal with the Auckland office move and the establishment of the Christchurch office on top of their normal work load, but also a planned power outage in our Wellington office. We have a contingency plan to cope with power outages. A generator was rented and parked on the car park above our server room. The switch in the server room was flicked from mains to generator and we went through a six hour power outage without a moment’s interruption to service. Neal Blomfield has just returned from a week in Seattle where he was one of about 100 people from around the world participating in a Software Design Review for Microsoft’s Indigo technology. Indigo represents the next step for Service Orientated Architectures and is due for release late in 2005. Neal was the only New Zealander there and the knowledge he gained is critical to Intergen maintaining its leadership in the areas of web services and application integration. Also worthy of mention is the Intergen Creative Studio, finalists in the e-Government section of the annual TUANZ (e)-vision Awards for our work on the www.ltsatransact.govt.nz site. the last SMARTS for 2004 and, although it seems very early, the team at Intergen and I would like to take this opportunity to wish you and your family a Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year. It has been a busy few months at Intergen. Our Auckland team completed their move to new offices in Takapuna. It is great for the team to have new offices with a fitout tailored specifically for our needs. It is also great to have a proper server room in Auckland with a high speed internet connection over AT&T fibre. This gives us the opportunity to build redundancy in to our hosting offering. We have also opened an office in Christchurch. We are now able to provide a greatly improved level of support to our South Island clients. The team is based in Armagh Street and has been busily pursuing new opportunities as well as working with existing clients. ISSUE EIGHT >> HOT NEWS: >> THE INTELLIGENT BUSINESS MAGAZINE NEW PRODUCT >> 2 3 4 / 5 6 7 8 Offices, outages, and ovation < Copyright 2004 Intergen Limited. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced without permission of Intergen Limited > BUSINESS SOLUTIONS >> BUSINESS SOLUTIONS >> INTERGEN NEWS >> tony.stewart @ intergen.co.nz INTERFACE DESIGN >> INTERGEN PEOPLE >> CSA for CRM in NZ. Intergen is now a Certified Software Advisor (CSA) for Microsoft CRM (Customer Relationship Management) in New Zealand. Emma Cuttance and Dwayne Bace passed three exams which covered understanding the application functionality as well as the ability to install, configure and customise Microsoft CRM. The Certification is granted by Microsoft Business Solutions to companies which demonstrate a defined level of expertise with Microsoft CRM, and are therefore better able to help customers achieve successful solutions. For Intergen’s clients, the CSA status reinforces our demonstrated expertise with Microsoft CRM and our ability to deliver successful CRM solutions. New Auckland office phone and fax numbers. As a result of the recent Auckland office move to Level 1, 2 Fred Thomas Drive, Takapuna there are new phone and fax numbers: >> Phone: 09-966 3070 >> Fax: 09-966 3071

description

Intergen&#x27;s newsletter, Smarts, now available for online reading. Intergen provides information technology solutions across Australia, New Zealand and the world based exclusively on Microsoft’s tools and technologies.

Transcript of Intergen Smarts 8 (2004)

Page 1: Intergen Smarts 8 (2004)

Our Technical Services team deserve a special mention. The team has not only

had to deal with the Auckland office move and the establishment of the

Christchurch office on top of their normal work load, but also a planned power

outage in our Wellington office. We have a contingency plan to cope with power

outages. A generator was rented and parked on the car park above our server

room. The switch in the server room was flicked from mains to generator and we

went through a six hour power outage without a moment’s interruption to service.

Neal Blomfield has just returned from a week in Seattle where he was one of

about 100 people from around the world participating in a Software Design

Review for Microsoft’s Indigo technology. Indigo represents the next step for

Service Orientated Architectures and is due for release late in 2005. Neal

was the only New Zealander there and the knowledge he gained

is critical to Intergen maintaining its leadership in the

areas of web services and application integration.

Also worthy of mention is the Intergen Creative

Studio, finalists in the e-Government section of

the annual TUANZ (e)-vision Awards for our work

on the www.ltsatransact.govt.nz site.

the last SMARTS for 2004 and, although it seems

very early, the team at Intergen and I would like

to take this opportunity to wish you and your family

a Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year.

It has been a busy few months at Intergen. OurAuckland team completed their move to new officesin Takapuna. It is great for the team to have newoffices with a fitout tailored specifically for ourneeds. It is also great to have a properserver room in Auckland with a highspeed internet connection over AT&Tfibre. This gives us the opportunityto build redundancy in to ourhosting offering.

We have also opened an office in Christchurch.

We are now able to provide a greatly improved level

of support to our South Island clients. The team is based

in Armagh Street and has been busily pursuing new

opportunities as well as working with existing clients.

I S S U E E I G H T

>> HOT NEWS:

>> T H E I N T E L L I G E N T B U S I N E S S M A G A Z I N E

NEW PRODUCT >>

2

3

4/5

6

7

8

Offices, outages,and ovation

< Copyright 2004 Intergen Limited. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced without permission of Intergen Limited >

BUSINESS SOLUTIONS >>

BUSINESS SOLUTIONS >>

INTERGEN NEWS >>[email protected]

INTERFACE DESIGN >>

INTERGEN PEOPLE >>

CSA for CRM in NZ. Intergen is nowa Certified Software Advisor (CSA) forMicrosoft CRM (Customer RelationshipManagement) in New Zealand. EmmaCuttance and Dwayne Bace passed threeexams which covered understanding theapplication functionality as well as theability to install, configure and customiseMicrosoft CRM. The Certification isgranted by Microsoft Business Solutionsto companies which demonstrate adefined level of expertise with MicrosoftCRM, and are therefore better able tohelp customers achieve successfulsolutions. For Intergen’s clients, the CSAstatus reinforces our demonstratedexpertise with Microsoft CRM and ourability to deliver successful CRM solutions.

New Auckland office phoneand fax numbers. As a result ofthe recent Auckland office move toLevel 1, 2 Fred Thomas Drive, Takapunathere are new phone and fax numbers:

>> Phone: 09-966 3070>> Fax: 09-966 3071

Page 2: Intergen Smarts 8 (2004)

Web Analytics – IntelligentWebsite Evolution

>> INTERGENITE:

< S M A R T S - T H E I N T E L L I G E N T B U S I N E S S M A G A Z I N E . I S S U E E I G H T >>> B U S I N E S S S O L U T I O N S

Mark Trotter

What do you do?I work in the Professional Services teamas a Solution Manager, but also dabblein a bit of development when timepermits.

How do you make a difference?I look after customers’ needs andconcentrate on project delivery toensure the best solution possible isdelivered.

What do you love about your job?Working in the many differentindustries that Intergen is involvedwith, finding out about the nuts andbolts that make them work andapplying technology to make themwork better!

A bit about yourself?I am a car nut and I’m always lookingfor the next ‘go faster’ bit to make mygo faster! I love playing with newtechnology and am always looking forthe next gadget to play with...

>>2

There’s more to building and developing websitesthan most people think. In this article Intergen’sProfessional Services Jeff Sutherland explains howwe can provide customers with regular analysis ofuser interaction of their website.

Web Analytics works in conjunction with the Interaction Prototyping system our

Creative Studio utilises to ensure web users have a positive experience when

navigating your site.

“Thank goodness our website is finally up (or rebuilt/enhanced/modified), now

we can relax.”

Well yes, and no. Go ahead, take a deep breath and congratulate yourself! OK,

break’s over, it’s time to get on with it.

Websites need to evolve over time to reflect changes in your business and your

customer’s interaction with it. If your store or the service you offer was confusing

or didn’t do the best job possible of serving your customers, you would want to

know so you could change it, right?

Your website is a reflection of you and your organization. It truly is the storefront

or virtual lobby of your business for those who wish to work with you, or more

importantly transact with you online. It carries your brand and for some is

possibly the only channel in which they will ever interact with you.

But given the nature of the Internet and online interaction, how do you know

what your customers are doing or where they are going on your website? How

do you know what changes to make to assure that they have the optimum

experience possible?

If asked, would you be able to tell:

>> How long they stayed in your “store”?

>> Which “door” they came in? (Yes, there is often more than one.)

>> Which “door” they exited through?

>> What “departments” they visited?

>> Where your customers came from?

>> If most of your visitors go to one particular department of your site?

>> What information they look at?

>> What information they don’t look at?

>> If they came directly to your site or were they “referred” there?

>> Did they find you via a search engine? If so, which one?

Answers to these questions are available for your site but how do you make meaningful

changes based on this information? What indicators do you look for and how do

you modify your site to optimize its value to your visitors and your organization?

This is the art and science of Web Analytics.

In a nutshell, Web Analytics is the method of looking for patterns in thedata generated by the use of your website and then applying that informationin the best possible way for you and your visitors. One of the greatestaspects of making this informed change is that the resulting variation (orlack thereof) in behavior by your visitors is itself measurable and can bemade meaningful. The application of web analytics results in a continuing

“feedback loop” that allowsyou to intelligently evolveyour website to support yourbusiness objectives.

This is what we bring to thetable… the knowledge,experience, technical savvyand business acumen tointelligently effectmeaningful, informed changeto your web presence.

[email protected]

BUILD

ANALYSEwith webanalytics

FEEDBACK(site data)

CLIENT DEPLOY

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< S M A R T S - T H E I N T E L L I G E N T B U S I N E S S M A G A Z I N E . I S S U E E I G H T > >>3>> I N T E R F A C E D E S I G N

SERVICES OFFEREDBY INTERGENCREATIVE STUDIO

Brainstorming and workshopfacilitation

Identity development

Web site usability audits

Concept prototyping

Web site interface design

Application interface design

New Zealand Government WebGuidelines compliant design

Web site build, production andmaintenance

Digital illustration and photographicmanipulation

Motion graphics (animation)

Visual standards documentation

You’ll find more information aboutIntergen Creative Studio at our web sitein the Services sectionhttp://www.intergen.co.nz/Services/CreativeStudio/

and some descriptions of ouraccomplishments in the Experiencesectionhttp://www.intergen.co.nz/Experience/DesignLead/

You can also contact our Creative DirectorEamon O’Rourke [email protected]

Get creative!

It’s time to shed a bit of light on the visualcommunication design skills offered by ourspecialist Creative Studio team. Our interfacedesigners are well known for their successesdesigning application interfaces, intranets and e-government compliant web sites. However, there’smuch more to their skills andexperience than that!

No project too big, no task too smallThere’s no question that with massive, successfulweb sites like www.meridianenergy.co.nz,www.immigration.govt.nz andwww.wellingtonnz.com under our belt, noproject is too big for Intergen’s creative team.

“I know you guys are busy. I didn’t want tobother you with this small project”. Not true!Our interface designers pride themselves ontheir attention to detail and looking after the absolute minutiae of our customersweb sites on an ongoing basis. We enjoy long relationships with our loyalcustomers and know that the greatest mutual benefits come from brand andbusiness knowledge accrued over time.

Having made a significant investment in the look and feel of your web site,sustaining the consistent and professional presentation of your brandcommunication online requires ongoing resource and commitment. While contentmanaged solutions enable you to freely publish new content, they also presentongoing challenges sustaining the visual presentation standards establishedwhen your web site was first rolled to live.

“Because the internet is an inherently fluid medium, the greatest challenge facingweb site owners is sustained control of visual presentation standards achievedat go live” – Alan Doak, Senior Interface Designer

Don’t make me thinkIs your web user interface keeping up with the needs and demands of youraudience? Is it meeting the communication and interaction requirements of thebusiness? Is it providing the returns you anticipated?

Keeping your interface design aligned with desired user activity is a constantchallenge. Even a relatively new interface solution can benefit from a usabilityaudit and customer activity review, as subtle changes can achieve dramaticresults.

We recently conducted a mid-life review of the highly successful WellingtonNZ.comhomepage and have significantly changed traffic patterns through the site asthe result of minor design and information hierarchy presentation.

“Accessibility and usability criteria must befactored into decision-making processes forthe entire project duration. Anything lessis a Bandaid strategy” – Rebecca Cox,Production Designer

TUANZ (e)-vision Awards FinalistWe were thrilled to be recognised by ourpeers in the annual TUANZ (e)-vision Awardswith the Land Transport Safety AuthorityTransaction Centre (www.ltsatransact.govt.nz)reaching the finals in the e-Governmentcategory. This project represented a rare

opportunity to create a transactional web application that eliminates the needfor our country’s 2.2 million vehicle owners to conduct over-the-counter transactionsevery time they need to relicence their motor vehicle (among other things).

For the second year running Eamon was also a guest judge at the TUANZ(e)-vision Awards, this time in the Information/Reference category. Once againhe was highly impressed with the standard of the finalists and the eloquenceof the solutions in this challenging category.

“I’m greatly encouraged and enthused by the quality of solution New Zealand’sleading web designers are providing. The bar has been raised again!” – EamonO’Rourke, Creative Director

At the TUANZ (e)-vision Awards: Eamon, Kahu,Mark, Alan, Jill and Rebecca

Page 4: Intergen Smarts 8 (2004)

Intergen and ContentManagement

The Internet continues to redefine the possibilitiesfor organisations well beyond what many haveever imagined. Websites and online applicationsare now a core component of business interaction.Some organisations now focus much of theirattention to what they do online.

This requires levels of quality, service and timeliness not possible or practical

using traditional tools and techniques. A centralised and easy-to-use content

management solution is a critical component. Successfully designed and

implemented it will streamline content publication and allow content to be

personalised to meet customers’ requirements.

Intergen has a long history of the design, development, implementation and

hosting of content managed Internet solutions. This includes the set-up of New

Zealand’s first Microsoft Content Management Server-based website and hosting

environment. Our methodology has been finetuned to cater to the aspects

particular to ensuring successful content management.

K a n d u h ö r a t r u m m o r n a , F e r n a n d o ?

Can you hear the drums, Fernando? Intergen is proudly beating the drum for the

latest import from Sweden. To compliment our extensive experience with Microsoft’s

Content Management Server product and based on customer feedback, we

determined that an alternative product offering from Intergen was required.

Following a worldwide search involving product suppliers from New Zealand,

USA, UK and Sweden, Intergen has chosen to bring EPiServer to the

New Zealand market.

EPiServer, from ElectroPost in Sweden, stood out as the best fit for New Zealand

website requirements. In addition to offering extensive out of the box functionality,

EPiServer allows Microsoft solution specialists like Intergen to extensively customise

and extend functionality without requiring significant redevelopment or negatively

impacting on-going support. Used in over 1150 Internet-based solutions, EPiServer’s

pedigree dates back 10 years to well before content management solutions were

common. Over this time ElectroPost has focused on user needs and continually

enhancing the solution without compromising these needs.

Intergen is the first EPiServer partner in the southern hemisphere. A number

of our staff have completed product training and we are about to launch a new

version of our own website using EPiServer as the content management engine.

In addition we are working on several opportunities in the New Zealand market.

If you would like any additional information on EPiServer

or would like to organise a demonstration to see just why

we are so excited by it, then please contact Wayne Forgesson.

[email protected]

>> INTERGENITE:

Imelda

What do you do?I am setting up the customer supportnetwork and structure for the ever-growing number of Intergen customers.I am working within the TechnicalServices team assisting with Domainregistration queries and managing theTechnical Services helpdesk.

How do you make a difference?Ensuring customer’s queries andconcerns are listened to, investigated,answered and actioned is reallyimportant in maintaining customersatisfaction. Keeping up goodommunication with customers canpotentially produce more work forIntergen with future enhancement jobsor new technology upgrades.

A bit about yourself?After obtaining my InformationTechnology degree I started full timework at the Electoral Enrolment Centrewhere I was responsible for managingenrolment contractors (people on thestreet obtaining enrolments). Becauseof my study I also ended up being theinternal application support person forthe organisation.

Wanting to get more into the IT industry,I applied for this job at Intergen andstarted work in August 2004.

Outside of work I enjoy socialising withfriends, going to the gym, participatingin sports like indoor netball /soccer andany other outdoor activities.

< S M A R T S - T H E I N T E L L I G E N T B U S I N E S S M A G A Z I N E . I S S U E E I G H T >>>4 >> N E W P R O D U C T

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>> N E W P R O D U C T >>5< S M A R T S - T H E I N T E L L I G E N T B U S I N E S S M A G A Z I N E . I S S U E E I G H T >

A d d i t i o n a l p r o d u c t s o f i n t e r e s tIn addition to our current content management solution offerings; Microsoft Content Management Server and EPiServer, Intergen also supplies

and implements Mondosoft’s enterprise search and behaviour analytics solution.

Ideal for organisations who want to know what their website visitors are looking for, Mondosoft works with both Microsoft Content Management

Server and EPiServer based solutions. More information can be found at www.mondosoft.com

E P i S e r v e rEPiServer is a database-driven platform comprising all the core

functionality necessary for managing content and publishing websites.

Since its inception, EPiServer functionality has been driven by the

day-today needs of web publishers and authors. As importantly, it

caters to the needs of technical staff in regard to security, performance

and expandability. EPiServer is a web publishing tool for simple and

swift handling of information on Intranets, Extranets and public

websites all from the same environment.

Simple – working with EPiServer can be compared to a simple form

of word processing. This simple approach means employees can focus

on the content and structure of the website not how they will make

updates. EPiServer also includes bi-directional seamless integration with

Microsoft Sharepoint, enabling content and documents to be shared.

Use Office as your editor – In EPiServer, authors can create and

modify content directly from MS Word, Excel or PowerPoint. Texts

and pictures can be edited in Office and published on the web via

EPiServer. The graphical profile of the web site can be obtained,

because EPiServer takes away unnecessary formatting from the Office

documents. After publishing the information, the author can update

and modify it from Office or in EPiServer.

Dependable – EPiServer is the most widely adopted web publishing

tool in Scandinavia, with over 1150 sites using EPiServer.

Personal – EPiServer is designed to allow different roles for different

people and includes support for different types of workflow.

Secure – EPiServer uses the same authorisation model as Microsoft

Windows. This means that different access rights can be set-up

depending on who the user is and that a public website can also

function as a company’s Intranet or Extranet solution.

Technology – EPiServer is 100% based on Microsoft’s proven .NET

framework. Key technological features include caching, Open

Development Architecture (ODA), load balancing, synchronisation

and scalability.

EPiServer is a web content management platform that can be tailored to meet the specific requirements of customers during installation or that

delivers standard content management functions “out of the box”. A number of templates and functions are included with EPiServer including:

>> Normal information page

>> Multi lingual page (that can

be customised for Maori)

>> News listing

>> Forms

>> Voting

>> Calendar

>> Newsgroups

>> Flash Viewer

>> Forums

>> Sitemap

>> Alphabetical contents

>> Recently changes

>> Document and file listing

>> Subscription

>> Searching

>> Mobile handsets

>> Slide show

>> Profile search

>> Portal function

>> Exchange integration

>> RSS Source

>> The authority of the

Swedish railway

>> The Swedish Integration Board

>> The Swedish Consumer Agency

>> The Prison and Probation

Administration

>> National Food Administration

>> National Board of Forestry

>> Swedish Maritime

Administration

>> Swedish Nuclear Fuel and

Waste Management Co

>> The District Court of Stockholm

>> Swedish Institute

>> Swedish Road Administration

>> University of Örebro

>> The County Administrative

Board of Stockholm

>> Swedish Export Credit

Corporation

>> Swedish Institute

- www.sweden.se

>> Ministry for Foreign Affairs

>> County Goverment of Dalarna

>> County Goverment of

Stockholm

>> County Goverment of Uppsala

>> Swedish Museum of Natural

History

>> Statistics Sweden

Functions not included can be built or may already be available from EPiServer’s international partner community.

EPiServer is utilised by a number of leading Europeans companies including:

EPiServer is also extensively used within the public sector at organisations such as:

[ L O G O S T O G O H E R E ]

Page 6: Intergen Smarts 8 (2004)

>> INTERGENITE:

Tony Yee

What do you do?I’m a Quality Assurance Analyst in theProfessional Services team. My role isto establish the degree of quality ofapplications and websites to ensure ourclients’ business and software requirementshave been met.

How do you make a difference?Part of my role involves testing theapplications to minimise any risk in aproduct, we have developed. This enablesme to improve any areas of weaknessassociated to a product providing ourcustomers with confidence in theirrelationship with Intergen. Some peoplemay argue that developers should beresponsible for the quality of theirapplications. This can be summed up withthe quote: “The significant problems weface cannot be solved by the same level ofthinking that created them” – Albert Einstein.

What do you love about your job?There is an excellent work culture at Intergenthat I’ve never experienced in previous workenvironments. The enthusiastic staff, careerdevelopment and very entertaining Fridayafternoon meetings are only a few reasonswhy Intergen was a finalist in the 20 bestplaces to work.

A bit about yourself?I graduated from broadcasting school withaspirations to become a radio announcer(I didn’t have the face for TV). I left radioand fell into a job as a test analyst in oneof New Zealand’s leading banks. WhenI’m not testing applications I like topractice the guitar, do a little boxing, paintand cook culinary delights – my biggestchallenge is trying convincing my friendsI can cook something other than fried rice.

< S M A R T S - T H E I N T E L L I G E N T B U S I N E S S M A G A Z I N E . I S S U E E I G H T >>>6 >> I N T E R G E N P E O P L E

Frag… Camper... Owned...

Just some common word used in normal conversations?Yes, but these are also well recognised by the largenumber of Intergen staff who are keen computer gamers.

A large number of our team enjoy computer gaming on either PCs or specialist

consoles like the X-Box. That’s no surprise given the number of technically-focused

staff at Intergen. What is interesting however is the number of years that some

have been playing games – over 20 years for our more diehard gamers.

Also of interest is the large number of staff who say computer games were the

inspiration for their chosen careers. Spend some time on the gamers e-mail

subscription list at Intergen and you’ll get a sense of the interest and passion

that this geekiest of geek topics invokes. It isn’t just the debate about the latest

games but also numerous comments about the hardware required to run the games.

Obsession or commitment?Both and neither. Like most hobbies and recreational activities everyone does

it for different reasons. In some cases it is the stress relief of mindlessly shooting

anything that moves, while for others it is the challenge of beating others in fast

paced online activities with a blur of the fingers over the keyboard.

Yes, there are some signs of obsession like the following from JD: “I brought a

second copy of Roller Coaster Tycoon because I lent my copy to a girl in high

school and couldn’t handle not playing it for a couple of weeks.”

One thing they all agree is that it’s entertainment.

We are starting a whole new generation of Intergenite gamers with the Intergen

XBox becoming a popular attraction for children during the weekend visits to work.

Glossary – for the non-gamersFrag : term to describe you killing another player – e.g. I fragged his ass!

Camper : term to describe someone who hides in dark/hard to get to places

to try and gets cheap surprise kills (or sniper kills)

Owned : When you got fragged and there wasn’t going to be any other result.

(similar to “you got schooled”)

Hax : General wahhhh used when you can’t believe someone can be better

than you – basically trying to implicate that the person is cheating

or using some kind of game hack (because you just got owned)!!

What is it about gaming?By far the most common response from the group is the stress relief, relaxation

and interactivity that gaming offers through escapism. Comments included:

“There is nothing like “blowing away” your workmates and friends

in the latest FPS” (first person shooter).

Other reasons included the challenge of playing against other human players

and the social aspects of competing against other gamers.

RecommendationsBy far the most contentious question

is what games the gamers recommend.

While all acknowledge that gaming is

fun, and when pressed they will play

almost any game, they all have their

favorites. First however, you need to

cross the threshold of debate around

PC games versus console based games.

Beyond this comes the first person

shooter vs real time strategy. A topic

and question that requires extensive

time to debate and to which there

really won’t be a definitive answer.

However the following are games that

were suggested as “must trys”:

R e a l t i m e s t r a t e g y :

Command and Conquer Generals Zero Hour

Age of Mythology: The Titans

Civilisation series the latest being Civ 3

F i r s t P e r s o n s h o o t e r :

Unreal Tournament 2004

Aliens vs Predators 2

Doom 3

Halo (Xbox)

Role playing

Thief 3

Page 7: Intergen Smarts 8 (2004)

>> B U S I N E S S S O L U T I O N S < S M A R T S - T H E I N T E L L I G E N T B U S I N E S S M A G A Z I N E . I S S U E S E V E N > >>7

You’re going to Sydney!

That’s how a love affair began. A trip to MicrosoftAustralia to attend a briefing on a new technologycalled Information Bridge Framework (IBF).

Microsoft technical briefings are like a box of chocolates; you never know what

you’re going to get. In this case, I went to Australia with little idea about what

I was going to see. There was some mention of MSOffice 2003 XML support

which is one of my favourite technologies so I was already interested to see

where the Microsoft Office team were taking this feature.

Boy was I impressed.

The first Information Bridge Framework demonstration had barely started and

I was sitting on the edge of my seat. I stayed like this for the rest of the briefing.

Charles Maxson, the project lead for IBF, welcomed my questions. There were

lots of them. When I left Sydney there was one thought buzzing around my head:

Everyone is going to want this!

W h a t i s M i c r o s o f t I n f o r m a t i o nB r i d g e F r a m e w o r k ?

IBF is a collection of tools and guidelines for leveraging Web services and bringing

corporate data directly to desktop-based emails, spreadsheets, and documents.

Solutions based on IBF allow information workers to access business critical data

in familiar desktop applications. This gives them immediate visibility into corporate

information, across disparate data sources, and provides for faster response time

and decision making. Requests to IT and other specialised groups for specific

data are eliminated; because all the necessary data is accessible via the task

pane in Word, Excel, or Outlook. This also eliminates the need to manually collect

and publish this content.

H o w d o e s i t w o r k ?

When an IBF-enabled office document is

opened on the users’ desktop, context

sensitive business information and available

actions pertaining to that information are

displayed in the Office task pane. Business

Objects can be recognised with the

deployment of Smart Tags so that incoming

emails, documents and spreadsheets can

transparently provide additional information

about the person, organisation, account, etc

from any or all of the line-of-business systems

that store this information.

B e n e f i t s o f I B F i n c l u d e :

>> Improved decision making process as information workers now have

access to all data necessary to analyse and address business issues

>> Line-of-business applications are easier to use as the Office application

becomes a single source for data and business logic

>> Reduced cost associated with information worker research and data

integration – users don’t need to request and aggregate information

from multiple sources, the application does it

>> New and temporary staff need only be trained in the use of Office.

The application provides a standard interface to multiple systems.

The information that is displayed has been retrieved from the line-of-business applications with the deployment of

XML web services that expose this information. These web services can also expose methods to act on the information.

Actions are made available within the familiar Microsoft Office environment without the need to open multiple

applications to facilitate changes in disparate line of business systems.

In a nutshell, the IBF can provides the information worker with the information they need, when they need it, and

the ability to act on that information from within the familiar Microsoft Office desktop environment.

IBF is an exciting addition to the Microsoft Office 2003 suite and I am looking forward to demonstrating this awesome

technology for you.

A word documentcontaining areference to aclient organisationis received.

The smart tag isclicked and theorganisationdetails aredisplayed in thetask pane.

Page 8: Intergen Smarts 8 (2004)

>> I N T E R G E N N E W S < S M A R T S - T H E I N T E L L I G E N T B U S I N E S S M A G A Z I N E . I S S U E E I G H T >

F i n d o u t m o r e a b o u t I n t e r g e n :

Auckland: 09 966 3070

Wellington: 04 472 2021

Christchurch: 03 964 0017

[email protected]

www.intergen.co.nz

Clockwise: Ready Steady Go! Robert Ingledew at one with hishorse! Wine Tour – AJ and David Brown discussing the finerqualities of wine tasting! Derek Watson stuck in the river!The Flying Elvis’s! (JJ & Partner, AJ & Partner in foreground)Horse riders – Paddy Payne and Family, Nick Urry, RobertIngledew, Daryl Gill and Partner;

Intergen Weekend AwayOn the 18 – 19 September the annual Intergen Weekendaway was held. Previous destinations have includedTaupo, Napier and Turangi, but this year, the Wairarapawas destination of choice.

With everyone settled into Masterton base camp, Saturday marked the beginning

of the weekend proper. Two groups were formed – those taking part in a horse trek

and the remainder boarding the ‘magic’ bus bound for the Martinborough vineyards.

The horse trek was enjoyed by all who attended with most notable blunder going to

Robert Ingledew, who found dismounting his horse at speed a rather painful experience!

Likewise, the tour of the vineyards presented an excellent opportunity for some of

the Intergen wine connoisseurs to practice their skills – or lack there-of in some cases!

A final stop at the Martinborough Brewery was a highlight, especially with the unexpected

arrival of a bus load of Elvis look alikes in full regalia!

Quad biking was the order of the day for Sunday. Some rain over the previous few days

had made for a challenging course with many numerous Intergenites succumbing to

the various mud and river hazards, offer but all making it through unscathed!

Roll-on weekend away 2005!

Mark Trotter [email protected]

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