Do you use week numbers?
by Volker Weber
There is is currently a a discussion in the Notes 8 beta forum about the calendar. Beta 3 does not display week numbers, as Notes 7 used to do.
This is a big omission for the German market. Business people here think in terms of week numbers. They won't say "we do that after June 18" but rather "we do that in calendar week 25".
How does business in your country work? Do you depend on week numbers? The results of a quick poll:
Comments
IMVHO, the week numbering is essential if you happen to work with ties in Germany.
Sidenote: What's really weird is the display of "XX weeks left" in the Notes 7 calendar, week view. So what, when they're all used up? Does the world go ka-boom? Do I need to renew my Domino license then? O:-) You get the point. You should never ever tell a user how much time he's got left ;-)
Personally, I can do without. But many of my business contacts would really be out in the cold.
Yes. I use and depend on week numbers. As most of my peers in my industry (IT services).
I use them.
Well, all of the comments so far were from Germans. Can we hear some other nations as well? :-)
Here the votes from the norwegian jury:
Yes, we use week numbers. In the shipping industry, this is normal. We have crew change in week xx, need to dock in week xx etc. The dates are seldom fixed long in advanced, so we use weeks to get the general idea.
I agree with loosing the "of ..." part. Thats not needed, but then again there might be someone out there who needs it.
I have never used week numbers in the context of business and have never understood their use beyond "hey that's interesting, it's week #34!".
My experience has always revolved around calendar quarters or monthly billing cycles. The one exception was a company I worked with in Colorado that divided up the year into 13 accounting periods. To make things a bit more confusing, each period was not of equal length.
I have always assumed week numbers were used by the banking/finance sector, but I have no direct work experience to back that up that statement. My work experience is limited to Canada and the USA. There was that week in Swansea, but that's another story.
Ken Porter
Never use them personally. Whether that's an individual preference or a British nationality thing I can't tell you. However I have run several Notes courses for end users in the past and no-one has ever asked about week numbers...
We never use week numbers in routine business in the USA.
But the need for them has long been well-known by US software developers. In my first position in the International Products group at Wang Laboratories in 1983, I learned that week numbering was essential for products that presented calendar data. It surprises me that IBM would omit them.
Yup, here in Sweden we use them, but I personally don't use them very much. Only when planning for vacations, like "I want week X to Y".
Week numbers are very commonly used in Britain, particularly in the sector with which I am most familiar, manufacturing.
I use them intermittendly.
But beware - the definition of week one of a year differs in the US and Europe.
I think three or four years ago we had the amusing fact that the week of year was different in US and europe.
I never use calendar week numbers, and have not come across anyone using it in common usage. Certainly not in the way that others on the continent are reporting.
In my finance and retail former life its more done based on Period(Month) and Week numbers, 'Period 4 week 2' results etc etc. This approach differs from company to company because everyone has different financial year end dates.
Now that would be a different matter....if the week numbers could be offset, so they didnt start at Jan1, but could start based on a Financial year parameter...I might find that useful.
Jc
Personally I do when I make a plan however, very few people use week numbers here in Italy.
They prefer, for instance, a week starting on Monday the 28th like this one.
Johan already talked about Sweden, but when I lived in Sweden (10 years ago), everybody used week numbers. Not only for vacation, but for all kind of planning. "Have it ready by friday week 18" or "I will see you wednesday week 27" were common ways to indicate dates. Since everyone knew the week, you did not have to mess with dates. :-)
I use them a lot in relation to projects, projects tend to talk in terms of week numbers.
From a management perspective if you are looking at time sheets they are frequently in week numbers vs dates.
As I deal with a lot of European countries its handy to be able to switch between dates and week numbers depending on whom I am dealing with.
So yup, dead handy.
Contrary to Chris I find that people in the UK are getting confused when we Germans start talking week numbers. I personally can do without them here but probably not my fellow German countrymen.
Autriche: un point
In business-environments, the week numbers are essential in Austria.
did you say weak numbers? ...
I have never referred to a week's number in the calendar year in my entire life.
At best it's one of those trivial things I like to know, but absolutely zero business value to me (here in the United States).
Vote for Switzerland: Used very much in our country e.g. will deliver in KW2207. KW stands for Calendar Week.
Can't say I've ever used them, or heard of them being used, in a business or social context in the UK, ever.
Doesn't bother me that they are there though.
One question - does Outlook have week numbers?
I think it does.
In New Zealand I've never heard references to week numbers during the course of my working life.
And yes, Outlook has week numbers - or at least 2003 did anyway. They're turned off by default. Tools \ Options \ Calendar Options \ 'Show week numbers in date navigator' to turn them on.
In the UK - yes week numbers are everything for us, all time based reporting and allocation is done by the week, so weeks in calendars are essential for ease of use
Vote from Belgium : no, I don't use weeknumbers here either, and I'm working in the banking industry. Might be handy to start using them though.
This blog was not nececary as IBM post a reaction on my topic in the Beta forum:
http://www-10.lotus.com/ldd/nd8forum.nsf/Customer/a99d58a88f46efc3c12572e6004d2cdb?OpenDocument
A reaction by Moe Kraft from IBM on this topic was:
We are working on adding week numbers to the footer area of the Java calendar views.
Sander
This reaction is less encouraging:
Week numbers will not, unfortunately, be in Notes 8. We do realize how important they are, and we are working very, very hard to get them into the 8.01 release.
John Lance
Notes 8 Calendar Designer
The post may not have been necessary for you, Sander. But it is necessary for me to understand how important this feature is.
I would never use week numbers except that I have many customers in countries that do, so it is important for me that they be there. Otherwise, I spend a lot of time counting to figure out what my customers are talking about.
@Sander, Moe's comment doesn't specify when they will come, whereas John Lance's does (8.0.1).
I am very aware of this issue and working to pull it back into the 8.0.0 scope. No promises...
Folks,
It very common in Austria to use language like, ' deliver by week xx', 'finish milestone Z by week y'.
I know for sure that this is used in production and manufacturing as well as logistics.
So dropping them could block adoption of Notes 8.
Go Ed, go... ;-)
Best regards, Martin
Feature has been pulled back into 8.0.0. See here
We use week numbers frequently in Denmark and it will be a loss not to have them i Notes 8.
I think weeknumbers are very usefull for several reasons. There is one basic calendar online for quick reference.
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