Lists are not something I believe in that much, especially in blogs, since people tend to over-exploit them at times. Still, there are occasions where I find them useful, as they help convey a message in exactly 10 sentences (or in this case 8).
Kenny Smith is a principal at Strongback Consulting, a full service IT consultancy agency specializing in Lotus, WebSphere and Rational software. Kenny posted about ‘8 reasons you’ll love Lotus Notes 8‘, and linked to one of Luis Suarez‘s presentations at slideshare.
Those are my kind of lists.. 😉
While I agree that Notes 8 is a great tool, the presentation is showing items that are not necessarily part of Notes. It shows a composite application, which is a nice and powerful feature of Notes, but I wouldn’t show that to someone and say “Look how great Notes is!” because it is a custom app, rather I’d say, “Look what can be created with a new feature within Notes call Composite Apps”. Also it show Quickr as a solution for managing project and work flow, but by no means is what was show included with Notes and Domino 8. Quickr is a stand alone application that has integration built in with Notes, but is in no way part of Notes it’s self. I’ve found that there are several products that are being spoken of like this. Another example is Activities. For some reason, it’s already added as a plug-in for the side bar, but you need a completely separate server product to use it. Yet it’s commonly spoken of as if it’s Prego… “It’s In There”. Like I said, I do like Notes 8, and I’m excited to see the improvements that have been built for 8.5, but I don’t like misleading demo’s, nor do I like when people beat their chest and become Brand Homers… no matter what the brand may be.
Hi Scott,
Thanks for your comment. Pleasure to meet fellow Notes fans 😉
Presentations are an excellent tool to sell, filled with promises. Personally I believe in ‘what you see is what you get’ method – and put the features that are built into the product, or make a little notation if it’s a different product and/or requires separate entitlement.
In Lotus Notes 8, we’ve always went with ‘more than an email client’ approach, because it is. I haven’t built composite application and don’t see myself building one in the future, but it’s an existing feature.
Lotus Notes 8 entitled users get Quickr Entry capabilities (http://www-01.ibm.com/software/lotus/products/quickr/personal.html)which allows you to store and share files.
As for Activities, you’re right. Although it’s part of Lotus Notes, you do need a Lotus Connections license to use it. As I said, it’s a sales presentation (18 months old), so I understand why this reason is listed.
Lotus products are constantly evolving, and the new 8 client is getting high marks from our customers and the market. Version 8.5 will add plenty new features – worth waiting for. Glad you like it 🙂