OpenText Fax & Document Distribution Group

Have you ever had a question? Of course you have. How have you answered that question? You research. And when research doesn’t work? You ask. You have a conversation with someone which results in an answer.

When you have a question about our products, who do you have a conversation with? Sure, there is Tech Support for the questions that need an immediate response. But did you know you can also ask us more general questions? There are lots of ways to start a conversation with us.

I want to share one of those ways in this post. It’s called FaxDocs Live and you can find it at FaxDocs.tv/live on the third Thursday of every month. FaxDocs Live is a conversation between the Learning & Enablement group in FDDG, product management, and our partners and customers. When you visit the FaxDocs Live page on the 3rd Thursday of the month, you will see us talking about the topics you are most interested in.

And when I say that you will see us, I mean it. All of us leading the conversation will have webcams and you will actually see us. Here is a screenshot of a recent conversation.

FaxDocs Live February with Kieran Lane, Geoff Anderson, Joshua Butcher, and Matt Williams

Your face won’t be showing in the window, but we will definitely be listening to your questions. On the right side of the page is a chat window where you can ask questions to the entire group. We can all see the questions and we will answer them throughout the session.

As I said, FaxDocs Live happens on the 3rd Thursday of every month. This month it’s on March 15 at 5PM Central European Time (where I am in Amsterdam) which happens to be 9AM Pacific Time. To help figure out the right time where you are, visit this page. Those times will be fairly consistent through the year except when it gets closer to the Daylight/Standard time switchover, since that happens on different days around the world.

This month the topic is the RightFax Integration Module. Chad Derrington from Ingenium Software will get us started with an introduction to the topic. Then Joshua Butcher and Matt Williams (that’s me) from Learning & Enablement, Geoff Anderson from Product Management, and Dave Renner, a Solutions Consultant at OpenText, will start talking about our experiences as well as what our customers typically see.

But don’t let us speak for you, let us know what your questions are in the chat window. You can also tweet them by using the hash tag #fxdxlive. You can also have a say in what we should talk about in later FaxDocs Live sessions. At the bottom of the FaxDocs Live page is a form where you can tell us what you want us to talk about.

I am looking forward to meeting you on FaxDocs Live this month on March 15th.

Are YOU on Google+? In case you haven’t seen it, Google has a new online property that’s taking the world by storm. Is it a Twitter killer? A Facebook Killer? I don’t know, perhaps its’s too early to tell, but it certainly has a lot to offer.

About a week ago, they opened Google+ to businesses, whereas before that it was just for real human beings with real names. Businesses can have pages just like on Facebook. The pages are a bit different than the Facebook variety, but all of it is so new, what I say here today may change tomorrow. All that I can say for certain is that if you are not there yet, you should be. And now that everyone can join without an invite, there is just no excuse to not join in.

The Fax & Document Distribution Group has a page on Google+ now. When you get onto plus.google.com, do a search for FDDG (the full name is OpenText FDDG Videos and Training). Or just click on this link to go right there. Then add us to one of your Circles.

Whenever we post anything to our Google+ page, you will see the message in your main Google Plus page. Go look around for your friends as well and add them to your circles. Then you will see news from everyone. On the left you can click on individual circles to filter down the news. I have circles for co-workers at OpenText, for people in FDDG, and for those in my department at the company. I also have circles for friends from when I was at Microsoft, and at other companies, and photographers I find interesting. How you create your circles is really up to you. Then when you decide to share something, you can share it with only certain circles.

One of the most exciting things for us on Google+ is the idea of a Hangout. This is like a multi-way video conference. You can have a bunch of people (for now its up to 10) join in on a hangout. We might have a hangout to just talk about RightFax or Alchemy. Or we might interview someone, maybe a partner or someone interesting inside OpenText we though you might like to meet. Who knows?

Its a new platform and the first few times we try it, it might not work. But if you would like to join us for the first experiment, add our page to one of your circles. I’ll post the link to the hangout there. At a minimum, I will be on there (this is Matt Williams posting), and Joshua Butcher is planning to be there as well. If you join you can ask us a question about anything you like. I am thinking its going to be on Tuesday at a time thats not too inconvenient for both the US and Europe. But you’ll have to watch for the announcement on Google+ for the precise details. If you aren’t one of the first 10 to join, don’t worry. I plan on streaming the hangout on Livestream.com as well, but the details for that will be on Google. You’ll also be able to post questions to Twitter.

I look forward to seeing you add us to your circles. I’ll then add you to our circles so that I can see what you are up to as well (if you choose to share any news with us). And look out for the posting on Monday or Tuesday morning at the latest. And then we will see each other on the Hangout.

See you then!

A very Happy New Year to one and all! In an article by Debra Aho Williamson posted on 27 Dec 2010 on eMarketer, she writes that companies will be spending more than ever on social media marketing in 2011. But to succeed in having any sort of depth in a relationship, one needs to engage in a dialogue; share their thoughts, opinions, and experiences. In short, they need to spend time together & communicate. According to Wikipedia, “Human communication was revolutionized with speech perhaps 200,000 years ago^{[citation needed]} while symbols were developed about 30,000 ^[1], and writing making an appearance about 7,000. Telecommunication has run on a much shorter scale, it is only in the past few centuries that there have been major developments in this field.”

The outlets (Facebook, LinkedIn, Myspace, Twitter, Flickr) currently available to engage in social media seem overwhelming and endless. But social media is not a new thing; we’ve been doing it for thousands of years. Thinking of it this way hopefully puts things in perspective and makes engagement in the field less daunting. Just like the evolution of telecommunication platforms and instruments, the social media platform is a new way of communication. Be wary however, of approaching social media with the notion that it is something you have to do or it can easily become a chore, creating frustration that may lead to overspending just so you can be in the game. Instead, try embracing the new platform using the social networking channels you’re already engaged and in conversantion with. Place more emphasis on the outcome you would like first and you’ll begin to see and experiment with how you can use the new platform.

Start by selecting an area in your business where a social media platform can be easily integrated. For example, when integrating with existing marketing initiatives, consider creating or posting an entry to an existing blog in order to reinforce the theme of a campaign. Promote a webinar or an event and then be sure to continue the conversation afterwards to generate momentum in the discussion of the topic. Additionally, you can raise awareness of your company by contributing articles in external blog forums. If you’re in Product Management and would like to obtain more insight to the environment of your (potential) customer, you can create a social community, like a forum, to encourage regular and informal dialogue.

It is natural for any business to focus on ROI and rightfully so. With so many organizations still testing the waters, the rules of engagement have not yet been fully established within the social media platform. For this reason, if one can first focus on ROO – the return on objectives – one would be able to better develop a sense of ROI over time.

The last few years have shown us that the presence of social media is only growing more prevalent; and the platform will mature even more over time. But don’t worry; it need not be costly or an ordeal as long as you remember that you’re already engaged in social media. The next step is just an update as you integrate a new platform into your existing strategy.

At Open Text Content World 2010, there was a big push to get our partners, and employees, turned on to social media. We invited Mike Whitmore and Brent Dance of Fresh Consulting to talk to the FDDG partners and show them how important social media is to us. And while Mike and Brent demonstrated how one can find people to follow, I realised that we didn’t have any sort of directory of Open Text Twitter Personas anywhere….at least, not that I know of.

What follows is a list of Open Text employees who are sharing the limelight with me on Twitter. Find the people you know and others you’d like to hear from. I have organized it alphabetically by first name, linked to their Twitter page, and included a brief description of their role and what group they are in. If you notice I have forgotten anyone, add a comment and I will update the page. I have included only public information from their Twitter or Web pages, but the advantage is that they are all listed in one place. To easily follow them all, just use a list under my name: http://twitter.com/#!/Technovangelist/otpeople

Again, if you have any comments, or you work for Open Text and I forgot to include you, leave a comment below.

UPDATE: May 10, 2012 – Checking everyone is still here

UPDATE: March 16, 2011 – Added Kim Dezen and Michael Melhem
UPDATE: February 9, 2011 – Added Alisha Lyndon
UPDATE: February 9, 2011 – Added Dylan McConnell, OTCC, Anders Adolfsson, Cindy Schaffer, David McKanna, Russell Davis
UPDATE: December 17, 2010 – Added Peter Gorman, Jeremy Schrack, Peter Jonker
UPDATE: December 6, 2010 – Added Joerg Thoss
UPDATE: December 4, 2010 – Added Jason Varmazis
UPDATE: December 3, 2010 – Added Lyle Bush and Bill Bernat
UPDATE: November 24, 2010 – Added Peter Steggall
UPDATE: November 23, 2010 – Added Jonathan Sze
UPDATE: November 22, 2010 – Added Cuneyt Uysal
UPDATE: November 19, 2010 – Added Lisa Probst
UPDATE: November 16, 2010 – Added Greg Settle and Matthew Hoare

Adam Doti – Vignette – UX Designer Developer

Adam Feder

Alisha Lyndon – Field Marketing Manager – UK

Alison Clarke – Product Marketing Manager for OT Case Management & Contract Management

Anders Adolfsson – Senior Solutions Architect – Social Media – Sweden

Andy Counts – Solution Consultant

Bill Bernat – Fax & Document Distribution Group – Bellevue, USA

Bob Tennant – Product Manager, Fax & Document Distribution Group – Bellevue, USA

Brad Bosley – Director, Enterprise Deployments & Architecture – Phoenix, USA

Chris Myers – Fax & Document Distribution Group – Gates Mills, USA

Chris Scott – Product Manager – London, UK

Cindy Schaffer – Fax & Document Distribution Group – Portland, USA

David Templeton – Software Architect

Deb Louison Lavoy – Director, Product Marketing – Washington DC

Doreen Eatough – Director, Marketing, Fax & Document Distribution Group – Seattle, USA

Dustin R - Fax & Document Distribution Group – Bellevue, USA

Dylan McConnell – Customer Care Team – Waterloo, Canada

Ed Middleton – Marlow, UK

Erik Schmidt – eDOCS – Product Marketing & Business Development Manager

Franz Pauthner

Ginny Bartosek – Marketing

Greg Settle – Business Development, Fax & Document Distribution Group – Portland, OR

Jaap-Jan Pepping – Regional Manager, Fax & Document Distribution Group – Netherlands

James Latham

James Storm – Livelink Product Manager

JDixon – Program Manager for Online Communities

Jody White – Portfolio Manager for Extended ECM for SAP Solutions

Joerg Thoss – Frankfurt, Germany

Jonathan Sze – Director, North America Solutions – Fax & Document Distribution Group – Bellevue, USA

Joshua Butcher – Senior Instructor, Fax & Document Distribution Group – Tucson, USA

Joyce Hostyn

Jurgen Dauk – Fax & Document Distribution Group – Hamburg, Germany

Kim Dezen – Senior Red Dot CMS Consultant – Melbourne, Australia

Kimberly Edwards – Product Marketing Manager for Collaborative Solutions, Social Business and Portal Solutions

Lisa Probst – Territory Sales Manager South Central US, Fax & Document Distribution Group

Lubor Ptacek – VP Product Marketing – Waterloo, Canada

Lyle Bush – Fax & Document Distribution Group – Bellevue, USA

Malia Sleight – Engagement Manager, Fax & Document Distribution Group

Marci Maddox

Marco Landry – Solutions Consultant 

Martin van Ginkel – Strategic Alliance Manager, Fax & Document Distribution Group – Netherlands

Masaru Tsukada – Regional Account Manager for Japan and Korea, Fax & Document Distribution Group – Tokyo, Japan

Matthew Brine – Vice President, Fax & Document Distribution Group – Bellevue, USA

Matthew Hoare – Sales Director EMEA, Fax & Document Distribution Group – London, UK

Matt Williams – International Trainer, Fax & Document Distribution Group – Amsterdam, Netherlands

Matthias Tausendpfund

Michael Melhem – Software Architect – Sydney, Australia

neowilson – Technical Marketing Manager

Owen Brandt – Strategic Alliance Manager, APJ – Sydney, Australia

Patrick Niehot – Solutions Consultant, Fax & Document Distribution Group – Netherlands

Peter Gorman – U.S. Public Relations and Social Media Strategist – Boston, USA

Peter Jonker – Trainer – Rotterdam, Netherlands

Peter Near – Director of Product Management – Ontario, Canada

Peter Steggall – ANZ Regional Business Manager, Fax & Document Distribution Group – Sydney, Australia

Roel Gillesen – Solution Consultant – Netherlands

Sam Trieu – Waterloo, Canada

Simon Wickes – Product Designer for Content Server

Stephanie Fazio – Public Relations – Toronto, Canada

Ted Parkinson – Senior Training Consultant – Kitchener, Canada

Todd Partridge – GM for eDOCS – Boston, USA

Tracy Caughell

Werner de Jong – Senior Solutions Architect

General Twitter Accounts

OpenText – Overall Open Text account

OpenText Customer Care Team

OpenText eDOCS

OpenText Fax Solutions

OpenText First Class

OTLearningServices

OpenText Exceed

OpenText France

OpenText Social Media

OpenText UK

RedDot CMS Blog