Category Archives: Events

Jan 12 2012

WEF wags the dog at Lotusphere 2012…

Dave Jacob

by Dave Jacob

What a difference a year makes. Last year at Lotusphere 2011, Davalen was touting the career path move for Domino developers to Web Experience Factory (WEF) and now that move has taken over our business!

We doubled our development staff in this space and continue to train and contract with former Domino developers. We have seen major adoption of WEF by major corporations in the US and abroad and continue to win new engagements and add staff. With IBM’s move to adopt WEF as one of the preferred portal and web application development tools, we see continued major growth this year. This growth has enabled us to become a Tier 1 provider directly to IBM /ISSL and insure additional penetration in this market.

Stop by our booth #312 in the Showcase to discuss how this may be a good career move for you to become a Davalen employee or contractor. Yes, we are hiring and we authored the WEF Top Gun training materials for IBM, so we will also train you in the technology and keep your career moving forward.

Information on where to find us can be find on our Lotusphere 2012 event page.

Jan 10 2012

I read the sign at your Lotusphere 2012 booth. What’s this about Social, Mobile and Staffing Support?

So, you’re walking around the Solution Showcase at Lotusphere 2012 next week, trying to take in all the people, signs, and overall scale of the room when you walk past Exhibitor booth #312. “Davalen”, you might read, “hmmm… let’s see, RapidValue… a huh, social development… mobile…staffing support… interesting… I wonder what that all means?”

Well, of course, you’re more then welcome to ask one of the lovely Davalen staff members but maybe you’re in a rush to get to the next session and are dreading the walk between the Dolphin and Swan again because you forgot your comfy shoes. Have no fear… my Lotusphere Marketing Mashup is here!

Infrastructure for Social Development

Social business software and services help you become a social business and Davalen provides support infrastructure for social development with market leading technology, extensive expertise, and a lengthy track record for solving challenging problems. Davalen provides the latest solutions that offer an integrated, extensible set of capabilities utilizing IBM Connections, IBM Sametime®, and IBM Lotus Quickr®.

Connections is a social software designed for business, while Sametime® provides an integrated, real-time communications services. To round it out, Quickr® provides team collaboration and content management software.

Extend User Access to Mobile

Davalen understands everyone is on the go and therefore can extend user access to mobile devices for IBM Lotus Notes®, IBM Sametime®, and IBM Connections so your employees can access their information wherever they might end up.

Mobile access to existing web applications is accomplished using IBM Web Experience Factory. Davalen mobile design patterns allow a single code base to be used to serve up an application to web browsers or mobile devices.

IBM/ISS Tier I Staffing Support

Davalen provides subject matter expert (SME) resources nationally across all of the IBM Software Services (ISS) portfolios. And, our clients utilize and rely on those very same Davalen technologists for help with their projects. Our IBM certified technologists specialize in the latest IBM software products and solutions, from cradle to grave; including environment assessments and recommendations for a higher return on your IBM software investment (ROI). We provide our clients with experienced technologists who truly understand IBM software, from architecture, design, administration and implementation, to custom development.

So, those are my three bullet points explained and while, of course, we still have our large focus on collaborative software solutions for the enterprise in other ways (Lotus Domino, WebSphere Portal, Retail & Enterprise Search and Web Content Management) we’d love to chat with you about all of these services, software, trends, and more!

Come visit us at Booth #312 at Lotusphere 2012 this year. We’ll have recent projects showcased at our booth so you can see what we’ve been working on this past year and we invite you to share what you have been working on with us. See you there!

Jan 9 2012

Jump start your career in 2012 with Davalen, LLC, a Premier BP to IBM Software Services!

Stop by Davalen Booth#312 at Lotusphere and meet with Deborah Corcoran, Davalen’s Resource Deployment Manager, for new Career Opportunities!

Give your career and skills a shot of excitement!
Davalen is currently looking to hire corp-corp (1099) consultants with the following IBM software skill expertise:

  • IBM WebSphere Architects, Administrators and Developers
  •  IBM Web Experience Factory Developers (Formerly known as IBM WebSphere Portlet Factory)
  • Senior level IBM Lotus Domino Architect, Administrators, and Developers specializing in Lotus Notes Connections, Quickr and QuickrJ, and Lotus Notes Mobile applications

Do you want to start working on cutting edge engagements with high profile nationally known companies? Then here’s your chance to make an exciting change to Davalen, LLC, a, a Premier core Business Partner to IBM Software Services.

Come to Booth #312 at Lotusphere 2012 to learn more about exciting career opportunities with Davalen. If you are not attending Lotusphere this year, please send your resume to: dcorcoran@davalen.com. 

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Jan 5 2012

You know you want to chat with Davalen… So, where can you find us at Lotusphere 2012?

Only 10 days to go until Lotusphere 2012 kicks off in Orlando!

It’s an annual pilgrimage for Lotus business and technical users of all types and we’re happy to be a part of it every year.

We’ll be busy spreading the news on Davalen’s latest RapidValue Services but you can still find us at some of the great events planned for the week including: poolside for the opening reception, at SeaWorld for the Lotusphere party, during the OGS, and of course, in the showcase!

So, the easiest way to chat with one of us it to come by our Booth #312.

Here’s in the information:

Solutions Showcase and Solutions Showcase Reception

WALT DISNEY WORLD DOLPHIN Atlantic Hall

Mix, mingle, and get social with the minds behind the greatest solutions for enterprise collaboration.  All the solutions, applications, tools, and services to enable better business decisions are under one roof at the Lotusphere 2012 Solutions Showcase.

It’s the world’s largest collection of IBM software-related, real-world innovative solutions.

Days Hours
Monday 10:00 AM – 8:00 PMReception from

6:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Tuesday 9:30 AM – 5:00 PM
Wednesday 9:30 AM – 4:00 PM

And I couldn’t resist posting these fun details as well…

Welcome Reception

Sunday, 6:30 – 9:00 PM 
Poolside at the WALT DISNEY WORLD SWAN and DOLPHIN Resort

Get social means business at the Lotusphere Street Fair! This festival trifecta focuses on food, music, and art. Enjoy wandering through the fair and discover exciting activities, including interactive games, artist exhibits, and delectable food stations!

Listen for the featured live music on the main stage and be riveted by roaming entertainment. Come prepared for an evening of fun and make sure you bring your appetite!

NOTE: Attendees must check in at Conference Registration prior to entering the Reception and must wear their badge in its badge holder for admittance. Guest tickets for adults can be purchased at Registration. Children are not permitted to attend.

Lotusphere 2012 Party

Wednesday, 7:00 – 10:30 PM
SeaWorld® Orlando

SeaWorld welcomes Lotusphere guests to an evening of celebrating, connecting, and memory making all wrapped up with excitement, wonder and thrills!

Lotusphere guests will enjoy thrilling rides, amazing shows, delicious food, fantastic shopping, and unparalled animal encounters—one-of-a-kind experiences only SeaWorld Orlando can create!

  • Manta, SeaWorld’s newest mega attraction will seamlessly transition guests from the awe of encountering rays in underwater flight into the sensation of actually being one. Swooping over sea and sky, Manta will inspire riders with amazing underwater animal habitats, then soar them face-down, in a horizontal position, aboard a manta-inspired flying coaster.
  • Kraken, Orlando’s tallest and only floorless roller coaster, is themed after a massive, mythological underwater beast unleashed from the depths of the sea.
  • Ready for our amazing performances? Lotusphere guests will marvel at our talented animals and trainers in Blue Horizons, a dolphin theatrical performance about a place where sea meets sky in a world of acrobatic dolphins and whales, soaring birds, and leaping water.
  • At Clyde and Seamore Take Pirate Island, the journey begins with the HMS Pinniped setting sail to Pirate Island. This show will be customized with Lotusphere jargon and innuendos.
  • Shamu Rocks is a rock n’ roll concert of unprecedented proportions combining improvisational movements of killer whales with music remixed by some of the hottest rock stars in the industry, including Savage Garden, Cold Play, Jennifer Lopez, Rascal Flats, and Shakira.

Attendees are encouraged to take advantage of special event transportation provided to and from the Lotusphere conference hotels. Complimentary parking is available at SeaWorld Orlando.

Security at the park will inspect all bags upon arrival. Lockers are available at the Front Gate, Manta, and Kraken. There is a locker use charge of $10 – $15.

 

Oct 20 2011

The countdown begins for Lotusphere 2012

It’s official – Davalen is confirmed as an exhibitor at the upcoming Lotusphere 2012 event at pedestal #312. Now, the countdown to the event begins (cough, cough, 87 days to go, cough cough)!

The official Lotusphere blog has already been busy (you can find it here) discussing potential tags for the event (#ls12 and lotusphere2012), the new lotusphere.com website, what to check out at the future event, and thankfully, the social aggregator. Yes, the process has already began!

Don’t miss your opportunity to take advantage of all the information and register early here.

So, register and get prepared for this amazing annual event. Of course, more information to come in the upcoming months so check back soon! Per usual, Davalen will be covering the event from an exhibitor, business partner, and user standpoint on our Lotusphere 2012 Event page.

Jul 19 2011

Are you craving more information about IBM Web Experience Factory?

Participate in this landmark opportunity to join Davalen’s beta class (WPC53 Beta 1.0) coming summer 2011 - IBM Web Experience Factory 7.0: Application Development II.

This is the first version of the new follow-up course made available to a select public and will be offered at a reduced rate of $1,000 for up to 4 days of online instructor-led training. The author of the course, Michael “Spoon” Witherspoon, our local Web Experience expert, will also teach it. That is a $2,800 savings with the added benefit of Spoon’s experience and the opportunity to provide critical feedback.

 

What’s the primary objective of the course?

To teach experienced IBM Web Experience Factory (formerly named IBM WebSphere Portlet Factory) application developers advanced user interface techniques. These include Web 2.0 using Ajax/Dojo, JavaScript specific to Web Experience Factory, error/exception handling, and extending portlets to mobile devices through effective lecture and hands-on exercises derived from common, real-world situations.

Who’s the audience for this course?

Web Experience Factory application developers with at least 6 months of experience developing applications using this tool.

Any Prerequisites?

Since this is an advanced level course, completion of IBM WPC52 (Davalen TG916) or equivalent knowledge and experience is required. As an FYI – the next WPC52 course is taking place August 15-19, 2011. You can enroll here. A strong foundation in Data Page, Model Container, Imported Model, and Profiling are necessary. Moderate experience in Java, HTML, and JavaScript is also required.

So ask yourself…  

  • Am I craving more information about IBM Web Experience Factory?
  • Do I enjoy being an early adopter of technology
  • Am I available late summer 2011?


Contact Davalen immediately to sign up for the WPC52 Beta 1.0 course for just $1,000! Call (800)827-8451 or email us.


May 17 2011

Mobile Apps in Experience Factory: Very Promising

by Michael “Spoon” Witherspoon, Lead Portlet Factory Architect

IT has been my thing for a long time.  As a result I don’t get too excited about new technology or advancements in existing technology all that often.  Today is different.  I just attended Jonathan Booth’s presentation on building mobile apps with WebSphere Experience Factory (Portlet Factory 7.0.1) and now I’m excited about an advancement in existing technology.  In my opinion, these new capabilities are the best thing that has happened to Portlet Factory in a while. (I’m not implying anything bad has happened but this new stuff is huge!) Today I intend to download the beta and build some sample apps using the models and portlets we already have in our Top Gun course (IBM WPC52).  It looks pretty easy to do.

When building applications for multiple devices when you are not using Portlet Factory, there is a ton of extra work to do to create the myriad versions of the app in order to get it to work in web browsers and on mobile devices.  Even within the mobile device world there are iPhones, Android phones, Blackberries and all of the tablet PCs such iPads and the like.  When using Portlet Factory, the mobile application builders coupled with Portlet Factory profiling make light work of creating these variations of the core application.  If any development tool could be custom designed to be a perfect fit for developing multi-channel applications, WebSphere Experience Factory  is it.

It looks to me like the Portlet Factory team has hit a home run with these new features.  I’m really looking forward to doing some late night dev work to try this stuff out.  Maybe tomorrow I’ll have my first multi-channel application built.  Since the world seems to be headed toward mobile computing as the de facto standard, the timing of this next release of the Factory is excellent.

May 16 2011

I’ve believed in Web Experience Factory (aka Portlet Factory)!

by Dave Jacob, Managing Partner

Exciting opening session with lots of applause around using Web Experience Factory (Portlet Factory) to enable mobile displays for web pages with a simple theme builder. The shift for WEF from a portlet development tool to a total web development tool has been a dramatic shift in positioning for the product by IBM.

I’ve believed in this product for the last five years and am glad to see this product succeed in the marketplace.

On a related front, an area that I see in Davalen’s future is an emphasis on search refinements for presenting relevant data on mobile devices. While we have made great strides in the use of roles and profiling to show a user only relevant information that they are authorized to see, we haven’t put the same emphasis on arranging the relevant content in a meaningful order or context. With limited real estate on the mobile device, we have to get much smarter about showing specific content to the user thru making educated guesses as to the relevancy of the content based on this person’s persona and buying habits.

IBM has a robust product in this space – OmniFind® Enterprise Edition , which fills this space. We’ve all got to learn more about this product and how it can help us more closely generate that elusive Exceptional Web Experience.

May 16 2011

Time to kick off Exceptional Web Experience

by Ruth Jarvis, Director of Marketing

Events are my absolute favorite part of my job. I actually get to integrate and emerge myself in a vast array of knowledge with like minded people!

This year, I am thrilled with our Gold Sponsorship. From our tiny racecars (you got one in your IBM bag), to our fantastic booth, we are here to have a good time and communicate our successes and best practices tips. These can be based on an industry solution, a business need, a particular software (Portal, Portlet Factory, Connections, OmniFind, WCM), or just enthusiasm for creating Exceptional Web Experiences.

The one thing I can’t push enough is the fantastic sessions that the Davalen put together. These are NOT sales pitches folks, these are deep dives into technical or business solutions.

First up, is Michael “Spoon” Witherspoon. He has been speaking about Portlet Factory at this conference for 4 years now. His presentations are also a technical deep-dive into the developer mind of Portlet Factory (or Web Experience Factory, now) that never fails those who work directly with the product.

Dave Jacob, our managing partner, is partnering up with our client Kemper (a Unitrin company) to present information about the integration and implementation of an intranet portal into their system. Don’t let the title fool you, this session comes from the business perspective letting you know the positive outcomes as well as the roadblocks for you to avoid!

Of course, we’ll have representatives at our Booth #112, includes a fun demo, exciting remote control racecars to win in a daily raffle, and tons of great information about Davalen, our services, our recent projects, and more!

Therefore…. come chat with us! Find in the hall, in a session, at the booth, at our mixer. We’re hear this week to spill our knowledge in the business and technical field and send you hope with incredible information.

So here are the details:

MONDAY:

11:30AM – 12:30PM – Enjoy the Davalen sponsored lunch!

4:30PM – 5:30 PM – TECH-D12 “Practical Field Experience – Using Ajax/Dojo with Portlet Factory) with Michael Witherspoon in Scotland C

5:30PM – 7:30PM – Welcome Reception – Booth #112 and Raffle!

TUESDAY:

12:15PM – 1:45 PM – Solutions Expo – Booth #112 and Raffle!

5:30PM – 7:30PM – Solutions Expo – Booth #112 and Raffle!

8:00PM – 10:00PM – Davalen’s Exceptional Mixer. If you’re an IBM or Davalen client come by to find out how you can attend!

WEDNESDAY:

11:14AM – 12:15PM – BUS-S07 “Experience and Best Practices from Integrating and Implementing a Intranet Portal at Unitrin/Kemper Insurance” with Daniel Jaffa, Unitrin & Dave Jacob, Davalen in Ireland C

12:15PM – 1:45PM – Solutions Expo – Last time to come by and also enter the raffle!!

Don’t forget to keep up with the conversation online. There’s twitter @Davalen, @PortletFactory or new addition @IBMWebFactory as well as #ibmexperience and #xwebx. We are also keeping a conference page: http://www.davalen.com/ibmexperience2011.php

Lastly, I couldn’t resist to throw up a few pictures!

Demo's, Giveaways, Information! What else could you want from Booth #112?

A little bit of Davalen pride :)

Ruth Jarvis & Dave Jacob enjoying Epcot

May 16 2011

At the EWE 2011 Conference!

by Michael “Spoon” Witherspoon, Lead Portlet Factory Architect

And having fun.  As always one of the great things about these conferences is seeing old friends and making new ones.  In the short time I’ve been here (just since yesterday) I’ve done both already.

The opening session was great.  I learned two great new things:  First, WebSphere Portlet Factory, my bread and butter for over 10 years now, is getting a new name:  IBM Web Experience Factory.  Second, the world of mobile computing as really caught on.  

WPF (WebSphere Portlet Factory) to WEF? or will it be WXF?  or something else for short?  It seems that Portlet Factory isn’t just for making portlets any more.  With the widgets and mobile apps it’s become so much more.  The mobile computing stuff in Portlet Factory 7.0.1 looks quite promising.  By using a couple of builders and a Theme XML file one can expose a portlet app to a mobile device in a format and using functions that are natural for that device.  It sure looks to me like exposing portlets to mobile devices is going to be pretty easy.

Re mobile computing:  it seems everyone is doing it now.  Considering that I only got an Android phone less than one year ago, I’m surprised in myself that I’m excited about mobile computing.  I got the phone so I could get my GMail on it.  Now I’m using a variety of apps.  I’m following the NHL Stanley Cup playoffs in one app and playing Scrabble with friends using another one.  And, yes, I get my email there, too.  Now that I know that the number of mobile devices will soon exceed the number of desktop and laptop PCs I’m pretty sure that this mobile computing thing is going to be here for a while.