Posts Tagged 'lotus notes domino'

Suntel goes with Lotus Notes/Domino, migrating from Exchange

Published February 10, 2009 Uncategorized Closed
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Being without a laptop has its advantages, but also some disadvantages. One of them is not being able to keep track over my Google Reader and check what’s happening in the community (Yes, I know GReader is available for mobile – not the same).

Ed already posted about Suntel’s migration ages ago, but since my Google Alert linked to the CIO.com article, thought this story’s worth another mentioning in the blogosphere.

The main reasons Suntel (Sri Lanka) migrated away from Exchange/Outlook were:

  • lower licensing cost (50% lower than Microsoft) and lower TCO
  • strong value of Lotus Symphony integrated in Lotus Notes
  • strong collaboration and web 2.0 technologies
  • scalability, poised to grow with Suntel

In addition to Lotus Notes and Domino, Suntel will also deploy Lotus Sametime for instant messaging and UC capabilities, as well as Lotus Symphony for creating, editing and sharing documents, spreadsheets and presentations.

TCO, licensing costs and integration of Symphony are some of the answers for ‘what’s the difference between IBM and Microsoft?’ Every company nowadays, especially SMB (small-medium businesses) are looking into ways to cut expenses, improve productivity and increase revenue – and examining your licensing costs is an excellent first step. Three months ago I spoke to CIOs/CTOs of local hi-tech and start-up companies on IBM’s collaboration portfolio, specifically tailered for SMB. Slide 18 showed the difference in licensing, between IBM and Microsoft, in the collaboration space – Lotus full collaoration suite starts at $151 per user (Linux, no support package). How much do you pay for your Microsoft deployment, per user?

You can download that presentation at my slideshare.net space, or view it below.

Lotus collaboration solutions for Start Up Companies

View more presentations from Dvir Reznik. (tags: costs up)

Links:
CIO.com – Suntel bids adieu to Microsoft, embraces IBM
Ed Brill
Lotus Notes and Domino at ibm.com

Gmail Labs adds Lotus Notes Replication Capability

Published January 31, 2009 Uncategorized 1 Comment
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

One of the many things I love about Google Reader is its Offline mode – which comes in handy especially during flights. I can read (a lot of) feeds and blogs, marking for later the things I want to tag/dogear/post/delicious. This story at Calcalist.co.il caught my eye, talking about Gmail Labs adding offline capability to the popular e-mail service. Wow.

Don’t get me wrong, I do love Gmail (much more than Yahoo! Mail), and the Labs have some cool products, BUT, two things bugs me in this story:

The first, Lotus Notes has been sporting this ‘offline’ mode since its inception, some 16 years ago. It’s called ‘Replication‘, and allows you to take everything (not just emails) offline, including composite applications, calendar, emails with attachments – and syncing with the Domino server when such a connection is available.

The second is the total disregard to Lotus Notes and Domino as a desktop email client/platform. The reporter, Dora Kishinevsky, mentions that such a feature is similar to what desktop email clients do, like Outlook. Israel is a Microsoft country, but there are other vendors, and some journalists know that.

Links:
Gmail Labs adds offline capability – Calcalist.co.il
Google unveils beta of offline Gmail option – NetworkWorld (via Ed Brill)
Gmail Labs adds a decade old Notes feature – Alan Lepofsky

CIO.com: 7 Things IT Manager Should Know About Lotus Notes

Published December 10, 2008 Uncategorized Closed
Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

CIO.com has published Thomas Duff’s (aka Duffbert) article, titled ‘7 thing IT manager should know about Lotus Notes‘. In the article, Tom goes over some basic Lotus features, that in my opinion are the differentiators between Lotus Notes/Domino and other messaging solutions. Both Ed and Alan have caught this up early.

Particularly I connected to #5, one of Lotus Notes strongest feature: Replication lets you work both offline and online:

Today’s knowledge workers don’t come to the office at 9:00 am and leave at 5:00 pm. They are “always on,” and they need to access their data whether or not a network connection is available. The Notes client accommodates this requirement by replicating data between server and local versions of your mail files and applications. It’s among Notes oldest and most cherished features—for good reason.

When a network connection exists, Notes synchronizes data between the server and client. The replication occurs at the field level, so two people can update different fields in the same document (such as an invoice or travel request); the server merges the updates so that the document shows both sets of changes. Frankly, this is slick. Nobody else has ever achieved this level of WayCool synchronization sophistication, particularly because it’s so trouble free that the feature is usually invisible.

Notes e-mail users replicate their mail files to local versions on their laptops, so they can be productive offline. When they once again connect to the network, all the changes are replicated with the server and messages are sent to the appropriate people. That applies to Notes databases and applications, not just e-mail.

Head over to CIO.com for the full article.

140,000 Lotus Symphony users at IBM

Published October 12, 2008 Uncategorized 10 Comments
Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

I’ve been using Lotus Symphony for several months now, both for daily use and also part of the development and translation efforts made around the product.

When talking to customers I always mentions numbers, as they provide a better indicator of a product’s success. In IBM’s case, even thou Lotus Notes 7 comes pre-installed on new machines (IBM image), there are over 80,000 employees running Lotus Notes 8.x, while our Domino servers are almost migrated fully to 8.0.1 (8.5 coming next year). There are also 140,000 Symphony users, either on Lotus Notes 8.x or the standalone software.

Impressive adoption!

Links:
Lotus Symphony
Chris Pepin – IBM internal deployment of Lotus Notes/Domino and Symphony
The Symphony Blog – IBM now has 140,000 users

Seeing the value of LND in Israel

Published May 3, 2008 Uncategorized 4 Comments
Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

During the past 2 weeks I met different customers and business partners, discussing how we can better communicate the excellent value of Lotus collaboration solutions. This whole marketing and communication aspect of Lotus Software has been discussed both internally and externally for some time now, and even my friends Alan and Ed across the pond are facing similar customer questions.

Marketing is an issue, not only in Israel. Alex and myself are working hard to change that, in every way imaginable. I hope you will see a difference soon.

The CIO of Israel Securities Authority told me that Lotus Notes/Domino is an excellent platform, stable and secure – I only wish more people would know about it. When I travel to conferences in Europe, everyone are using Lotus Notes. In Israel, only a hand-full of colleagues. ISA are an IBM case study, and we mention them in every customer meeting, and invite them to tell their story when ever possible.

Earlier this week I sat down with the Israel Security Agency, also known as ‘Shabak’ (our FBI).
The last time we met, it was with different people, so I handed the guys (and one lady) my business card. Other than their first names, they were pretty scrimp on details…
Shabak are a veteran Lotus Notes/Domino customer, doing incredible work with the platform. Needless to say security is always an issue and ‘down-time’ is not in their vocabulary.
We met to discuss future collaboration solutions, and understand how those can integrate within their priorities. They were highly impressed with the capabilities of Lotus Sametime Client (they are running Lotus Notes with the embed Sametime client – chat & awareness), especially the VoIP integration and Eclipse as a platform. Lotus Quickr also interest them, particularly since they’re running massive Domino DBs and need to find a better way to share information across teams (store once – share forever), other than email.

Although the high degree of security and classification, Shabak are open to Web 2.0 solutions, as well as Enterprise 2.0 solutions. Only recently they allowed 4 employees to open a public blog, sharing their daily routine with the public. The goal of the initiative is intended more at luring potential employees, but the blog method grants them douze points.

I also met with HSBC Israel this week, a global Lotus account, with roughly 300,000 employees, spread across 10,000 offices in 80+ countries. They use Lotus Notes and Lotus Sametime Client, and couldn’t be happier. I even showed the IT manager how we can chat on Sametime, using the BleedYellow community. They are looking into team collaboration and social software solutions, and seeing E2.0 solutions as a business priority – which is very refreshing to hear.

LND is an excellent platform for collaboration, and there are more examples I can share. Lotus Software has grown for the 14th consecutive quarter, we gained market share, over 140 million Lotus Notes customers, 100 million Lotus Sametime corporate users, 850+ developers working on the portfolio, Linux and Mac versions are already available.
Yellow is the new black, haven’t you heard?

Links:
HSBC Israel
Shabak (Israel Security Agency)
Israel Securities Authority
IBM case study – Israel Securities Authority
Sam Lawrence – Why hasn’t marketing duked it out?
Andrew McAfee – The mechanism of online emergence
Ed Brill – Sending a message to management
Alan Lepofsky – Introducing a revolutionary software platform…

Next Page »



Mobile & Media Consultant. I help startup companies launch products to the consumer market. Reach out: dvir.reznik [at] gmail.com
Website
About

Archives

Disclaimer

This is my personal blog. The postings here do not represent the thoughts, intentions, plans or strategies of my past employers or of my clients. It is solely my opinion.