New job

Did you think I’d abandoned dadams.co.uk? May 2009 was the first zero-entry month since April 2007. It wasn’t that I didn’t have anything to write about – I did. Loads. IBM Lotus Connections 2.5 had been deployed internally (in April I think) but there’s so much in it to write about that I knew it was going to be a long job… so I didn’t get round to it (but I will). And then I became a Sametime Unified Telephony user, and at some point I’ll tell you about cool stuff like transferring from computer to mobile to home phone in the middle of a conference call with a few clicks in the Sametime client.

The other thing I was going to blog in May was my new job, but there were a few delays and it didn’t get formally announced until today. I’m not leaving IBM, I’m not leaving the Lotus brand, but I am spreading my wings a bit to lead the Messaging and Collaboration business in North-East Europe reporting to Vice President Aidan Troy… and thus I am officially ‘Messaging and Collaboration Business Unit Executive, North East Europe’. I may have to consider trimming that or getting an extra-long business card. In IBM-land, North East Europe consists of:

• UKI (that’s UK and Ireland)
• Nordics (Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland… and Iceland too I think)
• Germany (that’s, well, Germany)
• Alps (Switzerland and Austria)

Admittedly, some of these are strange fits for ‘North East Europe’. Ireland and Iceland are the most westerly countries in Europe. The Netherlands is further North than both Switzerland and Austria, yet the Netherlands is classed as South West Europe. But it still makes more sense than South Africa being part of North East Europe, and it’s not any more.

Naturally, I’m irreplaceable, but the glutton for punishment who’s been elected to give it a whirl is Pete Hampton. Seriously, congratulations to Pete – he has a long history in the Lotus brand, full of successes and valuable experience, and from the moment he heard about the opportunity he pushed himself forward and proved his worth. Great news for Pete, and great news for me too as I have created a mail rule to forward anything that starts with “I was given your name by…” straight to him. He has agreed to leave it at least a month before he starts doing a better job than I ever did.