Hats off to Tom Coughlin for a lot of reasons, but putting 12 guys on the field with 17 seconds left and the ball at the New England 44 was simply Patton-esque. The 5-yards penalty was nothing, double-teaming one more receiver was huge. He wiped 9 seconds very precious seconds off the board with that move. When I'm 65 years old, I hope I'm sharp enough to think of stuff like that. Respect.
Bitrix Intranet lets you put as many people on the field as you want to with our InfoPace edition and with the unlimited user editions of TeamPace and BizPace.
Pronounced "Bee Tricks"
Super Bowl 2012: Tom Coughlin as George S. Patton
02/06/201216:4602/06/2012 16:46:23
Should you add intranets to your range of services?
09/26/201112:5309/26/2011 12:53:31
Question: Which came first, the chicken or the egg?
Answer: Capital came first.
A sustainable system doesn’t just happen; it is put into place by design and with a large amount of effort, especially at the beginning. Something to that effect happened with your business, no doubt. Time, energy, and other types of capital were needed to bring it into existence.
Intranets are no different. Creating an intranet that optimizes current operations, stimulates innovation and does not present undue barriers requires a deep level of understanding, vision, skill, and more than a little courage and persistence.
If you work closely with your clients, spending time not only getting to know their software but also to know the drivers and barriers to their business, then it is likely that you, as a trusted consultant, are the only person who can propose an intranet project with the proper vision of how the technology can improve and enhance the actual daily operations of the company.
One Bitrix partner simply mentioned to me that just a handful of features, such as the document library, employee directory, and enterprise search, provide enough time-savings and convenience that nearly any of his clients could demonstrably benefit from at least the junior version, InfoPace.
So, you can offer the intranet in addition to your other services. The next question is why should you do that. What is the return on the time spent setting up a client’s intranet as opposed to the rather lucrative and well-known process of website development?
It is worth enumerating the added services which often go along with the product: installation, customization, AD/LDAP if applicable, setting up the infoblocks, dashboards, data population, setup of internal and external document libraries, and some amount of training and demonstration. Many users can do these things themselves, so, for the purposes of actually presenting an invoice or proposal to a client, an effective practice is to list a number of working hours and a few very specific tasks like installation, one or two training sessions (for the administrator and for the employees, for example), and leave some extra time for questions, first-time user issues, and other things that pop up anytime new software is introduced.
Intranets can easily produce income that is higher than your average per-hour rate, and because the license fees tend to be higher than for websites, and the yearly commission on license updates is higher. After installation and adoption, intranets tend not to be very exciting – they just work – like chickens and eggs.
Answer: Capital came first.
A sustainable system doesn’t just happen; it is put into place by design and with a large amount of effort, especially at the beginning. Something to that effect happened with your business, no doubt. Time, energy, and other types of capital were needed to bring it into existence.
Intranets are no different. Creating an intranet that optimizes current operations, stimulates innovation and does not present undue barriers requires a deep level of understanding, vision, skill, and more than a little courage and persistence.
If you work closely with your clients, spending time not only getting to know their software but also to know the drivers and barriers to their business, then it is likely that you, as a trusted consultant, are the only person who can propose an intranet project with the proper vision of how the technology can improve and enhance the actual daily operations of the company.
One Bitrix partner simply mentioned to me that just a handful of features, such as the document library, employee directory, and enterprise search, provide enough time-savings and convenience that nearly any of his clients could demonstrably benefit from at least the junior version, InfoPace.
So, you can offer the intranet in addition to your other services. The next question is why should you do that. What is the return on the time spent setting up a client’s intranet as opposed to the rather lucrative and well-known process of website development?
It is worth enumerating the added services which often go along with the product: installation, customization, AD/LDAP if applicable, setting up the infoblocks, dashboards, data population, setup of internal and external document libraries, and some amount of training and demonstration. Many users can do these things themselves, so, for the purposes of actually presenting an invoice or proposal to a client, an effective practice is to list a number of working hours and a few very specific tasks like installation, one or two training sessions (for the administrator and for the employees, for example), and leave some extra time for questions, first-time user issues, and other things that pop up anytime new software is introduced.
Intranets can easily produce income that is higher than your average per-hour rate, and because the license fees tend to be higher than for websites, and the yearly commission on license updates is higher. After installation and adoption, intranets tend not to be very exciting – they just work – like chickens and eggs.
Enterprise 2.0 as an economic stimulus
07/29/201011:1107/29/2010 11:11:24
It’s common for the tools and practices which are the present and near-future of business to be forged at the level of large companies – not everyone has a budget for R&D.
However, what we call “Enterprise 2.0” - the collaboration, interaction, and knowledge management and other functions which rapidly moving across the business world, owes only part of its origins to big companies, and much of it to the Web, not least the “2.0” part of the name. These tools, like there origins, are certainly not exclusively for large enterprises, but very much applicable to small businesses.
A remarkably large survey commissioned by Oracle and cited in an by Steve Evans on cbronline.com, concludes that UK companies lose £900m weekly owing to time lost doing things like copying and pasting documents among various applications and other activities which are addressed by the tools of Enterprise 2.0. Saving that money would be quite a stimulus program – especially given the fact that it wouldn’t be at taxpayer expense!
Immediately, however, a question pops up – what companies? The survey was among 2000 ‘adults’ in the UK. It turns out that the numbers were based on everyone in the UK. Interesting. How many people in the UK work in companies of less than, say, 50 people? While it is certainly true that even a company of 10 persons is familiar with the difficulty of finding the current version of a given document among the various computers, for small companies will be a hard thing to come by once you leave this website. While I greatly applaud the spirit of the study, I see the question of bringing E2.0 to the small and even micro market segments as a glaring oversight.
The article goes on to make some very crisp points concerning the overwhelming willingness on the part of employees to try new technologies to make work more efficient, and pointing out some of the most important barriers to implementation of Enterprise 2.0. In a page full of useful insights, however, the one which strikes the most resounding chord is that Enterprise 2.0 is about getting more out of your enterprise – it is only partly accomplished through getting more efficient work from employees; it is also accomplished through the proper fitting together of the various IT and non-IT processes which comprise business operations.
However, what we call “Enterprise 2.0” - the collaboration, interaction, and knowledge management and other functions which rapidly moving across the business world, owes only part of its origins to big companies, and much of it to the Web, not least the “2.0” part of the name. These tools, like there origins, are certainly not exclusively for large enterprises, but very much applicable to small businesses.
A remarkably large survey commissioned by Oracle and cited in an by Steve Evans on cbronline.com, concludes that UK companies lose £900m weekly owing to time lost doing things like copying and pasting documents among various applications and other activities which are addressed by the tools of Enterprise 2.0. Saving that money would be quite a stimulus program – especially given the fact that it wouldn’t be at taxpayer expense!
Immediately, however, a question pops up – what companies? The survey was among 2000 ‘adults’ in the UK. It turns out that the numbers were based on everyone in the UK. Interesting. How many people in the UK work in companies of less than, say, 50 people? While it is certainly true that even a company of 10 persons is familiar with the difficulty of finding the current version of a given document among the various computers, for small companies will be a hard thing to come by once you leave this website. While I greatly applaud the spirit of the study, I see the question of bringing E2.0 to the small and even micro market segments as a glaring oversight.
The article goes on to make some very crisp points concerning the overwhelming willingness on the part of employees to try new technologies to make work more efficient, and pointing out some of the most important barriers to implementation of Enterprise 2.0. In a page full of useful insights, however, the one which strikes the most resounding chord is that Enterprise 2.0 is about getting more out of your enterprise – it is only partly accomplished through getting more efficient work from employees; it is also accomplished through the proper fitting together of the various IT and non-IT processes which comprise business operations.
AD and LDAP import of users AND company structure
07/23/201018:2407/23/2010 18:24:09
IMPORT FROM AD or LDAP: USERS AND STRUCTURE
Bitrix Intranet Portal has long been able to import users from AD/LDAP. Now, however, it is possible to import company structure along with the users. For each AD/LDAP server which should have its users imported, a ‘New server’ connection should be set up in the AD/LDAP section of the BIP control panel. In the ‘Server’ tab, fill out the first six fields and click Test connection. If the connection is established, the green box you see toward the top of the image below appears.
With the connection established, the AD structure will be visible in the drop-down list. Select the appropriate level in AD/LDAP - the level from which you wish to start importing users.
Then, in the Field Mapping tab, Check the Import Company Structure from AD box and show the (previously created) department in the portal which will take the top level of the imported AD hierarchy. Levels of the hierarchy below this will be created automatically using information from AD or LDAP. Note that in the example below, I’m actually using LDAP, not AD – you will need to click on the appropriate one at the top of the form.
So, going to the company structure (into an editing window just to show the list conveniently), we see that underneath Berlin Office, we now have all of the divisions below that level. In this case, only the levels My Company and Berlin Office were created beforehand, and the London or New York offices could be created and other AD/LDAP servers connected to import to them.
Bitrix Intranet Portal has long been able to import users from AD/LDAP. Now, however, it is possible to import company structure along with the users. For each AD/LDAP server which should have its users imported, a ‘New server’ connection should be set up in the AD/LDAP section of the BIP control panel. In the ‘Server’ tab, fill out the first six fields and click Test connection. If the connection is established, the green box you see toward the top of the image below appears.
With the connection established, the AD structure will be visible in the drop-down list. Select the appropriate level in AD/LDAP - the level from which you wish to start importing users.
Then, in the Field Mapping tab, Check the Import Company Structure from AD box and show the (previously created) department in the portal which will take the top level of the imported AD hierarchy. Levels of the hierarchy below this will be created automatically using information from AD or LDAP. Note that in the example below, I’m actually using LDAP, not AD – you will need to click on the appropriate one at the top of the form.
So, going to the company structure (into an editing window just to show the list conveniently), we see that underneath Berlin Office, we now have all of the divisions below that level. In this case, only the levels My Company and Berlin Office were created beforehand, and the London or New York offices could be created and other AD/LDAP servers connected to import to them.
Virtual Appliance 1.6
05/07/201015:3905/07/2010 15:39:57
Bitrix Virtual Appliance 1.6 is ready!
By way of comparison to 1.5, there are the following changes and additions:
* By default, the VM site is accessible via HTTP and HTTPS protocols, and for the sake of optimizing resources, the Zend Server control panel is turned off. Both of these options, as before, are easily adjusted in the root user menu.
* Support for SMTP server, coinciding with the addition of an SMTP server in version 9.0 of BIP. This server, like the XMPP server can be configured to launch automatically
* Indexation and search of PDF files published on the portal, like what is already available with office suite documents
* ALL software has been updated, including Zend-Server-CE (which has undergone serious changes)
* PHP-5.2 memcache module for use of the cache in the operating memory
* Improved configuration of NGINX and APACHE for caching of PHP pages (HTML caching) – this is especially useful on public sites built using BSM.
* WebDAV error corrected
* APACHE error which appeared in the ‘classic’ form for loading photos into the portal has been corrected.
* More efficient bitrixsetup script
* Other corrections and improvements
By way of comparison to 1.5, there are the following changes and additions:
* By default, the VM site is accessible via HTTP and HTTPS protocols, and for the sake of optimizing resources, the Zend Server control panel is turned off. Both of these options, as before, are easily adjusted in the root user menu.
* Support for SMTP server, coinciding with the addition of an SMTP server in version 9.0 of BIP. This server, like the XMPP server can be configured to launch automatically
* Indexation and search of PDF files published on the portal, like what is already available with office suite documents
* ALL software has been updated, including Zend-Server-CE (which has undergone serious changes)
* PHP-5.2 memcache module for use of the cache in the operating memory
* Improved configuration of NGINX and APACHE for caching of PHP pages (HTML caching) – this is especially useful on public sites built using BSM.
* WebDAV error corrected
* APACHE error which appeared in the ‘classic’ form for loading photos into the portal has been corrected.
* More efficient bitrixsetup script
* Other corrections and improvements
You say potato, I say Kartoffel
01/27/201015:2801/27/2010 15:28:30
It seems that everyone has their own name for Germany – Deutschland, Allemagne, Tyskland, Nemecko, even Saksa. Bitrix calls Germany "the next market", with the opening of . We’ve been planning this move for a long time, and we see this move as a major step toward our European and especially German customers and partners.
Bitrix has already been active in the German market for several years, but now we proudly offer much more convenience and comfort as we complete our localization process and flesh out the website. Along with this process, we have added new staff who will take care of everything involved in the Bitrix’ German-language activities, from the website to demos to marketing strategy for the DACH countries (Germany, Austria, and Switzerland).
Already available in German are:
- Bitrix Intranet Portal versions
- for Bitrix Intranet Portal
- Bitrix Intranet Portal
- and
- Bitrix services
- and this list keeps growing… )))
The German website of Bitrix, Inc. began to operate last week, and although the website contains less information in comparison to , it has already gotten significant attention from PHP developers, CSM/ECM professionals and web-design studios. Adding Bitrix Site Manager (CMS) to the Intranet Portal in German is a very high priority for us, so look for that announcement in the future. The translation of all modules and demo data is expected to be accomplished by the end of April 2010. Simultaneously, we are working hard to translate all the technical support documentation and tutorials so that our German customers and partners have a more convenient way of getting acquainted with the Bitrix CMS and ECM platforms.
There's also a news item already published on this subject; you may find it useful as well:
Please contact our German team members and introduce yourself or make any inquiries you like—they are here for you! Herzlichen Willkommen, folks! And see you at !
Bitrix has already been active in the German market for several years, but now we proudly offer much more convenience and comfort as we complete our localization process and flesh out the website. Along with this process, we have added new staff who will take care of everything involved in the Bitrix’ German-language activities, from the website to demos to marketing strategy for the DACH countries (Germany, Austria, and Switzerland).
Already available in German are:
- Bitrix Intranet Portal versions
- for Bitrix Intranet Portal
- Bitrix Intranet Portal
- and
- Bitrix services
- and this list keeps growing… )))
The German website of Bitrix, Inc. began to operate last week, and although the website contains less information in comparison to , it has already gotten significant attention from PHP developers, CSM/ECM professionals and web-design studios. Adding Bitrix Site Manager (CMS) to the Intranet Portal in German is a very high priority for us, so look for that announcement in the future. The translation of all modules and demo data is expected to be accomplished by the end of April 2010. Simultaneously, we are working hard to translate all the technical support documentation and tutorials so that our German customers and partners have a more convenient way of getting acquainted with the Bitrix CMS and ECM platforms.
There's also a news item already published on this subject; you may find it useful as well:
Please contact our German team members and introduce yourself or make any inquiries you like—they are here for you! Herzlichen Willkommen, folks! And see you at !
