intergen smarts 11 (2006)

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The other team to be affected by the Ecentric acquisition is Technical Services. In this case it was more an increase in demand than an increase in capacity. The Technical Services team have been working long hours to migrate the Ecentric internet hosting in to Intergen’s data centre. Ecentric's former clients now have a team of six specialists looking after their internet hosting rather than relying on a single person. As well as boosting the capabilities of our team, the acquisition of Ecentric has alleviated the pressures we had on space in our Wellington office. We have made good use of the office space occupied by Ecentric to house several project teams. Planning is under way for a move to larger premises later in the year to accommodate all of Intergen Wellington under one roof. Last year Intergen also acquired 50% of Microsoft Navision specialists, Interfusion. We did this because we projected increased demand for the integration services that Intergen provides to the Interfusion client base. This is proving to be correct and the teams are now working under the Intergen banner with a number of clients and opportunities. The Navision team are now working from Intergen’s Auckland and Christchurch offices with the Wellington move to come later in the year. This new area of the business is experiencing a lot of success, and has recently appointed Richard Jacobs as General Manager based in Auckland to further grow the business. We are very excited about our increased capabilities and look forward to introducing you to our new and improved services during the year. < Copyright 2006 Intergen Limited. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced without permission of Intergen Limited > 2005 was a year of strong growth for Intergen. Revenue was up by 25% and there is no sign that things will ease this year. There continues to be strong demand across all our offices and markets. Our team was boosted late last year with the acquisition of Ecentric. Ecentric’s strengths were complementary to Intergen’s and the acquisition has allowed us to speed up the evolution of our business. The most visible area for clients is our increased support capability with the establishment of a new business unit called Support Services. The Support Services team combines a helpdesk/ call centre with experienced developers, ensuring that we provide the same quality service and responsiveness after systems are live as we do during development. The addition of this team has enhanced our ability to deliver, measure and report on Service Level Agreements for an increasing number of mission critical systems. With the Ecentric acquisition came additional capability and capacity for our team of Business Analysts. Significant effort has gone in to merging and redefining our methodologies in this area. ISSUE ELEVEN >> HOT NEWS: >> THE INTELLIGENT BUSINESS MAGAZINE Growth provides increased capabilities tony.stewart @ intergen.co.nz HOSTING >> 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 BUSINESS ANALYSIS >> QUALITY ASSURANCE >> BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE >> PREVIEW >> INTERGEN AT LARGE >> Intergen’s Support Team THOUGHT PROVOKER >> We have been busy with web development recently and some of our recent successes include: Northland Regional Council (NRC): we developed a corporate intranet, upgraded the corporate Internet website, including implementation of EPiServer content management system (CMS) to manage its content. CommunityNet: Intergen were actively involved in the CommunityNet Aotearoa website winning an inaugural AccEase Accessibility Tick Accreditation award. The awards recognise websites that demonstrate best practice in accessibility. Navy: The Virtual Frigate part of the new Navy website won awards for allowing viewers to tour ANZAC frigate Te Mana. The virtual tour provides visitors with the ability to view all decks and get a 360 degree view of the various sections of the ship.

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Intergen'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.

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Page 1: Intergen Smarts 11 (2006)

INT SMARTS_11_5 29/3/06 4:40 PM Page 1

The other team to be affected by the Ecentric acquisition is Technical Services. In

this case it was more an increase in demand than an increase in capacity. The

Technical Services team have been working long hours to migrate the Ecentric

internet hosting in to Intergen’s data centre. Ecentric's former clients now have

a team of six specialists looking after their internet hosting rather than relying

on a single person.

As well as boosting the capabilities of our team, the acquisition of Ecentric has

alleviated the pressures we had on space in our Wellington office. We have made

good use of the office space occupied by Ecentric to house several project teams.

Planning is under way for a move to larger premises later in the year to

accommodate all of Intergen Wellington under one roof.

Last year Intergen also acquired 50% of Microsoft Navision

specialists, Interfusion. We did this because we projected

increased demand for the integration services that

Intergen provides to the Interfusion client base. This is

proving to be correct and the teams are now working

under the Intergen banner with a number of clients and

opportunities. The Navision team are now working from

Intergen’s Auckland and Christchurch offices with the

Wellington move to come later in the year. This new area

of the business is experiencing a lot of success, and has

recently appointed Richard Jacobs as General Manager based

in Auckland to further grow the business.

We are very excited about our increased capabilities and look forward to introducing

you to our new and improved services during the year.

< Copyright 2006 Intergen Limited. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced without permission of Intergen Limited >

2005 was a year of strong growth for Intergen. Revenuewas up by 25% and there is no sign that things willease this year. There continues to be strong demandacross all our offices and markets.

Our team was boosted late last year with the acquisition of

Ecentric. Ecentric’s strengths were complementary to Intergen’s

and the acquisition has allowed us to speed up the evolution

of our business. The most visible area for clients is our

increased support capability with the establishment of a

new business unit called Support Services. The Support

Services team combines a helpdesk/ call centre with

experienced developers, ensuring that we provide the same

quality service and responsiveness after systems are live

as we do during development. The addition of this team has

enhanced our ability to deliver, measure and report on Service

Level Agreements for an increasing number of mission critical systems.

With the Ecentric acquisition came additional capability and capacity for our team

of Business Analysts. Significant effort has gone in to merging and redefining our

methodologies in this area.

I S S U E E L E V E N

>> 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

Growth providesincreased capabilities

[email protected]

HOSTING >>

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

BUSINESS ANALYSIS >>

QUALIT Y ASSURANCE >>

BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE >>

PREVIEW >>

INTERGEN AT LARGE >>

Intergen’s Support Team

THOUGHT PROVOKER >>

We have been busy with webdevelopment recently and some of ourrecent successes include:

Northland Regional Council (NRC):we developed a corporate intranet,upgraded the corporate Internet website,including implementation of EPiServercontent management system (CMS) tomanage its content.

CommunityNet: Intergen were activelyinvolved in the CommunityNet Aotearoawebsite winning an inaugural AccEaseAccessibility Tick Accreditation award.The awards recognise websites thatdemonstrate best practice in accessibility.

Navy: The Virtual Frigate part of thenew Navy website won awards forallowing viewers to tour ANZAC frigateTe Mana. The virtual tour provides visitorswith the ability to view all decks and geta 360 degree view of the various sectionsof the ship.

Page 2: Intergen Smarts 11 (2006)

INT SMARTS_11_5 29/3/06 4:40 PM Page 2

What about the role of the much maligned ‘portal’? An enterprise version was on

the strategic agenda of most CIOs at Y2K. The technology was available, but why

were there so few notable success stories? And when there was why couldn’t we

relate to them? Seen through yellow lenses the answer is simple – few enterprise

portals offered ‘mutually reciprocated’ exchange of value. Few

enterprise portals offered employees any genuine upside in the

relationship, most focused on enforcing compliance with apparently

efficient and effective re-engineering processes.

Fast forward to 2006 and consider the situation of an energy company

removing the annoying meal time sales call, providing hassle-free

and prompt fault restoration, lowering prices and improving

its own operating margin in the process. Not an easy task and

one not achieved overnight, but neither is it impossible. The real

challenge however is in understanding how to dissolve the

human barriers, not necessarily how elegantly to architect and build

the solution.

Intelligent business is achievable and more than just a consulting

buzz phase. I’d welcome your views, feel free to send me your comments

on [email protected].

>> 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 L E V E N >>> T H O U G H T P R O V O K E R>>2

Anthea Whitlock

What do you do?I am a member of the Support ServicesTeam in Wellington and manage servicedelivery supplied through the Intergenhelpdesk. My role is to ensure that allour clients are provided with a consistentand high quality support service to meettheir needs.

How do you make a difference?I am committed to service excellenceand strive to always understand theclient and end-user view of the world.I work with the Support Services teamto identify new ways to help clients andcontinuously strive for improvement inthe services and benefits that we provide.

What do you love about your job?Helping people and seeing them goaway satisfied. On top of that, no twodays are ever the same. I never knowwhat’s going to happen next and I’mlucky enough to work in a greatenvironment with very motivated andtalented people.

A bit about meI am a lover of nature and the greatoutdoors and have recently made amove to rural living where I will nodoubt end up with an eclectic farmyardof animals! I believe personal growthis an important part of living life andenjoy seeing both myself and otherssucceed in challenging themselves andtheir boundaries.

We provide a helpdesk service with both analysts and experienced developers

permanently situated within the support team. Issues are resolved quickly using

the most effective approach and with no impact on other project delivery work.

Our strong track record in support provision and working with third parties means

that we really understand what it takes to support systems. We get involved

early in the development phase to ensure that Intergen-developed systems can

be easily supported, so that by the time an application is released into production

we generally know it well, minimising the support upskilling time that is required.

We look forward to working with you in the future, to help understand your

support requirements and how we may together identify ways to improve the

value obtained from your systems.

To learn more about Intergen’s support capability and services contact

[email protected]

Keeping systemsrunning smoothly

With organisations investing significant time and resource into systems

development, high quality post-implementation support is crucial. This is

more than just ensuring system access is maintained and problems dealt

with on a reactive basis – systems need to be proactively managed to keep

on top of emerging issues and to continue evolving to meet needs and

achieve critical success factors.

Intergen operates a dedicated support function within the Support Services

team. Its role is to ensure that production systems work effectively and to service

a wide range of customer requirements – from direct end user support to technical

escalation, defect fixes and small enhancement projects.

INTELIGENT BUSINESS… meaningful concept orjust another consulting buzz phrase?

Engaging in business models in which entities collaborate to mutual advantagesounds intuitively intelligent. But is it little more than a pipe dream?

When observed through ‘Intergen’s yellow lenses’ communities are collaborativein nature and this inclination has influenced businesses to seek opportunitiesto engage more with customers, employees and suppliers. ‘Intelligent business’recognises and exploits the opportunity offered by collaboration to lower costs,enhance customer experience and extend service offerings.

The internet evolved as a ‘mechanism to facilitate collaboration’, in an environmentwhere it provided mutual benefit to the participants. Initially developed as a‘translation service’ the focus soon turned to the ‘transport service’ as its benefitswere recognised by a wider audience. As it became popularised the basicphilosophy of fostering collaboration was suppressed as considerations such asreliability, security and protection of competitive advantage crept in.

Seeing yellow

Page 3: Intergen Smarts 11 (2006)

INT SMARTS_11_5 29/3/06 4:40 PM Page 3

It shouldn’t be a gamble

Security and lawlessness problems mean theInternet can be a risky place to play. As an Internethosting provider Intergen’s challenge is to be awareof these problems and continuously review ourcapacity to manage them on behalf of clients.

Highlighting this challenge, a major security organisation, the US

Government Computer Emergency Readiness Team (CERT), has

published the top three attack strategies; automation, increasing

sophistication and faster discovery of vulnerabilities.

Together these strategies mean a smarter intruder is

capable of discovering and attacking vulnerabilities

faster than ever before. The duration between a

vulnerability being discovered and a hacker exploiting

it is quickly diminishing. It is now imperative that vulnerabilities

are understood and security patches applied to Internet-connected

devices as soon as possible.

Effective security can only be achieved with a combination of technical

excellence and the implementation of meaningful policies and procedures –

this forms the basis of Intergen’s Security Framework. The key elements are:

>> MULTILAYER FIREWALL SECURITY

Providing multiple layers of firewall security from diverse vendors is a key strategy

in accomplishing robust Internet security.

>> PERIMETER INTRUDER DETECTION & PREVENTION

Intergen has implemented two high availability Intruder Detection and Prevention

(IDP) appliances which scan all internet traffic entering and leaving our hosting

facility. Using this approach intrusions are terminated before the attack reaches

our hosted platforms.

>> INLINE ANTIVIRUS PROTECTION

An effective approach to computer antivirus protection is similar to New Zealand’s

bio-security safeguards. The most effective place to block pests is at the border.

Intergen’s scanning service searches for viruses within all of the data entering

and exiting our hosting facility. It identifies viruses, worms, trojans, adware and

other threats, at the border and denies them entry into our hosting facility.

>> HOST BASED SECURITY

Although Intergen’s perimeter security framework delivers exceptional protection

it would be complacent to assume that any system was foolproof. As a further

layer of security, hosts within the environment are protected by local antivirus

and intrusion prevention applications.

>> RAPID CYCLE SOFTWARE UPDATE PROCESS

Intergen has implemented a proactive automated process to

gather critical and important software updates and distribute

them to servers within our hosting facility. Although

there is a risk that the implementation of an update

may adversely affect hosted solutions, this is

significantly outweighed by the risk of security

breaches caused by an implementation delay. The risk

is partially mitigated by our three day implementation cycle.

Updates are applied to hosts supporting our testing and stage

environments within 24 hours of the update’s release. Following

this they are applied to Intergen’s production platforms (which include

our shared hosting environments), within 48 hours. Finally, 72 hours after

release, updates are applied to all other hosts.

>> PROACTIVE SECURITY SCANNING & INTRUSION SIMULATION

Malicious Internet hackers utilise a vast array of tools and techniques to probe,

prod and compromise Internet hosting facilities. By regularly simulating the

increasing array of attacks available we can identify potential weaknesses and

react accordingly.

Client confidentiality precludes us from giving too much detail about what we

have done for some of our hosting clients, but if you want to discuss how your

hosting can be improved then talk to us about stacking the odds your way.

[email protected]

>> INTERGENITE:

>> H O S T I N G < 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 L E V E N > >>3

Robin Tay

What do you do?I am a Senior Developer Consultantat Intergen Auckland working in theDevelopment & Integration team. Ispecialise in the both the portal andcontent management space utilisingproducts such as Microsoft OfficeSharePoint Portal 2003 and CMS.

How do you make a difference?Provide a professional service to clientsand try to exceed their expectations.I believe in doing whatever it takes to getthe project completed so I am alwayshappy to tackle any issue head-on doingwhatever is required.

What do you love about your job?Getting to work with the latest technologiesgives me a real buzz. Transforming newtechnologies into working applicationsthat benefit our clients and moving upthat learning curve. And of course, workingwith a great team in the Auckland office.

A bit about yourselfI migrated from Malaysia with my familyto New Zealand about 19 years ago. I amproud to be a Kiwi and call New Zealandhome. Outside of work I enjoy gaming(consoles, computers). I also have a strongbackground in graphics and multimedia.Other than that I enjoy my outdooractivities such as kayaking and rowing alsospending time with my girl and family.

Page 4: Intergen Smarts 11 (2006)

INT SMARTS_11_5 29/3/06 4:40 PM Page 4

>> 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 L E V E N >>> B U S I N E S S A N A L Y S I S>>4

Kirsten Bockett-Smith

What do you do?I’m a business analyst, part of theProfessional Services team. My roleinvolves eliciting and managing businessrequirements for our clients. I am theline of communication between the enduser and the development team.

How do you make a difference?I am involved at the beginning of aproject. I coordinate stakeholders andbring a consensus on requirements whichwill then be translated into anapplication. Listening to customers andunderstanding their problem is one ofthe key skills of being a business analyst.

What do you love about your job?I love the fact that I get to work witha large range of clients, private andpublic sector, and get to learn abouttheir organisation along the courseof a project.

A bit about meI have recently taken up golf and amgetting used to searching in the woodsfor golf balls rather than driving downthe fairway. I’m looking forward toprogressing to an under 10 handicap!

I spend far too many of my weekendsdoing DIY house and landscapingprojects. I think our next house will haveto be new with no maintenance required.

Business Analysis:the key element to gaina competitive advantage

Unclear about the direction your project shouldtake? Unsure who the stakeholders are or how toget their buy-in? Know what the outcome shouldbe, just don’t know how to get there or what it willlook like? So how can you resolve these dilemmas?Fortunately the solution is easy.

It starts at the beginning

When it comes to finding the right solution to your business problem, putting the

right effort in upfront helps to reduce cost and increase the likelihood of success.

The initial analysis of client requirements or investigation of business processes

done by a business analyst are the most important tasks in ‘getting the project

off on the right foot’.

‘When too many cooks might spoil the broth’, your business analyst will help you

prioritise, balance interests against constraints, and ensure stakeholder buy-in

that helps focus the project.

Just as ‘there’s more than one way to skin a cat’, there’s no one method to

perform analysis. A good business analyst will use the right tools for the job –

from workshops, business and use case design to structured documentation.

Even if your organisation has business analyst resource, there is benefit in working

with external analysts to complement each other or provide mentoring to ensure

project success.

Projects that Intergen business analysts can help you with:

I T s o l u t i o n d e v e l o p m e n t / p r o d u c t c u s t o m i s a t i o n

>> Facilitation of stakeholder workshops

>> Clarification and documentation of requirements

>> Accessing feasibility and stability of requirements

>> Production of comprehensive functional specifications.

B u s i n e s s p r o c e s s i m p r o v e m e n t

>> Business Modeling to display an accurate model of processes

>> Advising on alternative paths for improving business processes

C o n t e n t m i g r a t i o n

>> Formation of content migration strategies

>> Creation of a content audit

C R M c o n s u l t a n c y

>> Identification of business requirements through stakeholder workshops

>> System configuration and customisation

I n f o r m a t i o n a r c h i t e c t u r e

>> Perform content analysis

>> Definition of navigation structure

>> Documentation of user workflow

Help! I need somebody. (Help!) Not just anybody…….

When your organisation has a problem or a goal in mind; you need help with

decisions big or small, an Intergen business analyst can help you.

To find out how our business analysts can add value to your business,

please contact: [email protected]

Page 5: Intergen Smarts 11 (2006)

INT SMARTS_11_5 29/3/06 4:40 PM Page 5

The Quality AssuranceTeam: butterfly collectorson a bug safari

< 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 L E V E N > >>5>> Q U A L I T Y A S S U R A N C E

As the complexity and scale of projects at Intergenhas increased over time, we’ve increased ourdedicated Quality Assurance team to help projectsof all sizes benefit from a focus on building qualityinto applications and services.

While many people can’t fathom why we might enjoy bug hunting, I like to tell

them that we’re butterfly collectors – we never know what kind we’ll catch next,

or if we’ve ever seen it before. There is something fascinating in the fact that

bugs are elusive and unpredictable. You get some good hauls from using a purely

scientific approach, but the most colourful ones are caught by creative and

out-of the-box thinking.

I keep the best ones stuck down with pins in a little drawer.

S t r a n g e l y s a t i s f y i n g

All the good quality analysts I’ve ever met have an obsessive streak. We’re

naturally curious and inquisitive people. We were the kind of children who took

complicated machines apart to work out “Why?” It’s a vocation.

While no-one wants any bugs, it is our job to find them. We usually get a feel

for the ‘overall goodness factor’ or OGF pretty early on, but we need to gather

solid information to identify and solve any problems. Where there are issues that

need work, there is some consolation that we’ve successfully prevented any bugs

from entering the production environment. Where things are working well, we

like to recognise the good work done by the project team and give them some

positive feedback.

P r o c e s s i m p r o v e m e n t

Bugs live in little gaps. These gaps can be introduced anywhere in the project, between the specification and the solution,

between the documentation and the interpretation, or between the client request and their actual need. No-one intends to

introduce a bug – but we have to recognise that humans (and developers) will make mistakes. By encouraging a strong core

of interlocking documentation, we PREVENT bugs. Obviously, this is quicker and cheaper than reworking something that

isn’t built quite right.

P e a c e o f m i n d

Of course things do sometimes slip through, so extensive testing is done – mainly to get CONFIDENCE that the solution

will fly (and not just on the developer’s machine!). We catch the occasional issue but there tends to be more butterflies than

hagfish, and we have a very talented development team behind us to sort them out. The type of testing we do depends

on the nature of the system and its intended purpose. We have skills in testing techniques across the board – everything

from system testing to test automation and performance.

H e l p i n g o u r p a r t n e r s

We encourage our clients to look hard at the solutions we deliver. To promote their adoption of the system, it helps to get

familiar with it and prove that it meets their needs. Our team will guide clients through the planning and execution of their

own testing process and supply tools and approach to make this as painless as possible.

If you would like to ask us more about out quality assurance services please email: [email protected]

Software Methodology

QA Methodology

ENVISIONING PL ANNING DEVELOPING STABILISING DEPLOYING

Quality Assurance

Analysis QU Planning UnitTest

SystemTest

AcceptanceTest

Scope / TestRequirements

Testing Approach ComponentTesting

IntegrationTesting

Test Execution User AcceptanceTest

1 2 3 4 5

KEY DELIVERABLES

1 Testing scope document

2 Master test plan

3 Test cases / execution artefacts

4 Test summary

5 QA sign off

Page 6: Intergen Smarts 11 (2006)

INT SMARTS_11_5 29/3/06 4:40 PM Page 6

>>6 >> B U S I N E S S I N T E L L I G E N C E

Business intelligence across the business– yeah right!

Key improvements are:

>> Integration: SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) replaces SQL Server 2000 Data Transformation Services (DTS). DTS

provided a limited toolset and was challenging for developers to create complex interfaces. SSIS is a completely new

product and solves many of the problems with DTS.

>> Business Performance Management: Business performance visibility is increased by using Key Performance Indicators

(KPIs) where rich supporting information is used to compare metrics to goals and provide visual indicators of status

and trends.

>> Self Service Reporting: SQL Server 2005 extends ad hoc reporting to business users through a new interface known

as Report Builder, which provides report writing functionality over a business centric data model. This encourages end-

user independence and eliminates requirements for database familiarity.

NEW TOOLS FOR DEVELOPERS

A new development environment separates development tasks from operations. BI developers can now enjoy integration

with Visual Studio 2005. Solution components can be developed and tested before any server deployment. This enables

greater rigor in application testing and increases the speed of the development cycle.

Visual Studio 2005 integration provides a consistent experience for developers encouraging cross-training and extends

existing development practices such as source control, versioning, change management and deployment to BI solutions.

< 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 L E V E N >

Business Intelligence (BI) is a powerful tool for organisations thattransforms overwhelming quantities of data into a meaningful, usefuland valuable resource.

Historically BI has been expensive and undertaken only by larger organisations. The release of Microsoft SQL Server 2005

provides an organisation running SQL Server with a powerful BI platform previously available only to larger enterprises. SQL

Server 2005 is based on the solid architecture of SQL Server 2000 which ensures a natural upgrade path and protects existing

investments. SQL Server 2005 delivers dramatic feature and performance enhancements with minimal investment.

UBIQUITOUS BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE

Excel helps all knowledge workers access, process, analyse, share, and display

the information they rely on to run their businesses. Excel can be used to work

with data stored in SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services.

Microsoft Reporting Services is a complete report authoring and delivery platform

that ships with SQL Server 2005. Many organisations deploy third party reporting

solutions – now SQL Server has its own out of the box.

Microsoft Business Scorecard Manager (BSM) is a comprehensive scorecard and

dashboard application that provides greater visibility into business metrics.

Microsoft SharePoint Technologies can be leveraged to develop a BI Portal using

a combination of Microsoft Business Scorecard Manager, Microsoft SQL Server

Reporting Services and Microsoft Excel web parts.

Businesses of all sizes can benefit from Microsoft SQL Server 2005. Integration

with familiar knowledge worker tools allows a wide cross section of an organisation

to interact with and derive beneficial information from the rich business data

[email protected]

Page 7: Intergen Smarts 11 (2006)

INT SMARTS_11_5 29/3/06 4:40 PM Page 7

>> P R E V I E W < 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 L E V E N > >>7

Groovy!!

Later this year Microsoft will release the next installment of its Office suite,the 2007 Microsoft Office system.

Intergen has been part of the technical beta program for six months and has investigated how the new capabilities

of Office can be used to increase productivity and drive more collaboration.

If you have not heard much about what’s coming in this next version of Office, here is a sample of what’s on the menu:

>> New user interface

The big buzz around the new version of Office is over the new

user interface for the standard Office tools such as Word and

Excel. The interface has been redesigned to allow a more task

centric view of available commands with contextual tabs which

expose functionality relevant to your current selection or view.

The result is an interface which is surprisingly easy to use, and

allows you to get results faster and find the advanced features

that you need.

>> Microsoft Office open XML file format

With previous versions of Microsoft Office, documents were stored

in a proprietary binary format. By default, documents created

in the next release of Microsoft Office will be based on a new

XML-based file format. This will allow documents to be portable

and allow ease of interoperability.

>> Enterprise content management

One of the big challenges facing modern organisations is handling the mass of structured and unstructured information

that is generated each day. By integrating content management and workflow with Sharepoint, electronic content can be

managed and repurposed in a single centralised manner while maintaining the appropriate processes required in the business.

We are looking forward to presenting 2007 Microsoft Office in more depth at our Twilight seminars later this year.In the meantime for more information, please contact Jeremy at [email protected]

Intergen is a proud sponsor of the up-comingWebstock conference. Webstock is a four-day webexperience in Wellington, with a speaker line-up thelikes of which New Zealand has never seen before.

To be held between 23 and 26 May, Webstock aims to show inspiration,

education, insightful analysis and practical application will improve websites.

These are also Intergen’s passions and as soon as we were offered the

opportunity to become a sponsor, our answer was “where do we sign up”.

Our sponsorship involves bringing Joel Spolsky, an

internationally recognised expert on software

development, to New Zealand. In addition to Joel’s

appearance at Webstock he will also be making a

presentation in Auckland Monday 22nd May with

the New Zealand Software Association. So if you

can’t make Webstock but want to hear Joel, check

www.nzsa.org.nz for more details.

For those coming to ‘the’ IT conference event of the

year come and join us at Webstock. Intergen will

have an exhibition area where we will be running

some competitions to entertain and challenge you.

Joel Spolsky is an expert on software development and the founder of Fog Creek Software.

His website Joel on Software (www.joelonsoftware.com) is popular with software

developers around the world and has been translated into over thirty languages. His

latest book is Joel on Software (Apress 2004).

Sneak preview

Page 8: Intergen Smarts 11 (2006)

INT SMARTS_11_5 29/3/06 4:40 PM Page 8

>> I N T E R G E N A T L A R G E < 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 L E V E N >

National Dragon Boat FestivalTo the land of ABBA

When I was offered the opportunity to go to northSweden in the middle of winter it was logical thatI would need some time to consider if I should go.After the required 0.1 seconds to digest, the answerwas a simple – “sign me up!”

Intergen was invited to attend the EPiServer partner summit at Åre in north

Sweden and I was privileged to be chosen to attend. EPiServer is the Content

Management solution that Intergen represents in the New Zealand and Australian

marketplaces. With over 1500 solutions based on EPiServer worldwide, it was

obvious that there was going to be lots of opportunity to find out more about the

product, partners and customer implementations and this proved to be the case.

Yes, it was a shock going from +25 deg in New Zealand to -17 deg in Åre but

some pre-travel purchases of Icebreaker thermals made it comfortable.

The absolute highlight of the trip was Intergen being awarded Premium Partner

Status and receiving the International Partner of the year award at the summit

dinner. Intergen is the first organisation outside of Scandinavia to be awarded

Premium Partner status and this is a reflection of the success we have had to

date with EPiServer implementations.

Other highlights were the preview of the next release of EPiServer (due April)

and getting a glimpse into the future of EPiServer. Both confirmed that we have

chosen well and will continue to be able to offer a world class solution ideally

suited for our marketplace.

If you would like to know anything more about EPiServer contact

Wayne Forgesson on [email protected] 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

Sydney: 02 9904 0443 www.intergen.com.au

[email protected]

www.intergen.co.nz

It’s not all hard work at Intergen. The social club and other groups are always

on the look out for a challenge or just a bit of fun. The newest team, the Intergen

Yellow Raptors, were involved in both. The Raptors took to the water on March

11 after weeks of training as part of the Dragon Boat Festival on Wellington’s

waterfront. They certainly made a big splash with their energy and colourful

yellow tops. Way to go Raptors!

Wayne Forgesson receiving theEPiServer Premium Partner status