1,151 enterprises return to Notes/Domino YTD in 2012

October 23 2012

One of the metrics of the Notes/Domino business that my team has been tracking this year is "reinstatements," or customer purchases that bring lapsed licenses back on active maintenance contracts.

For the first three quarters of 2012, that number is a surprising 1,151 enterprises.

Why is this a focus, and why does it matter?

It matters because those organizations, at some point, had walked away from their Notes/Domino investment. Even with annual feature releases, innovation in XPages, Traveler upgrades, and entitlements, they let their software subscription and support lapse. Thus, a conscious decision to go back and reactivate those licenses is an endorsement -- a recognition that there is value in what IBM is delivering, now and in the future. These customers have determined that it is valuable to have access to support for currently-deployed mail and applications, and to the latest software versions. With Notes/Domino Social Edition, the biggest release in years, coming in Q1 2013, they may have felt it was time to recommit to Notes/Domino -- as some very large enterprises that thought they were moving to competition have recently done -- or to explore the latest capabilities of the product.

This is a focus for my team because it gives us a chance to revisit decisions from the last few years. As in the last point above, recently we have reinstated some of the marquee companies that claimed they were moving their email to Microsoft Exchange. In a few cases, they did, but those Notes applications that had built up over years or decades kept running their business. In others, the mail migration proved pointless, when they started to look at IBM's leadership in mobile collaboration, or the entitlements to Connections Files and Profiles, or the forthcoming Notes browser plug-in as a way to extend the useful life of those applications.

Earlier this year I announced that we had strengthened our business relationship with Trust Factory. Part of the motivation for doing so was reinstatements, and in fact our internal working group prioritizes Trust Factory engagements related to reinstatements. Why? Because often the outcome of the Trust Factory analysis is recognition of how strategic the organizational investment in Notes/Domino was...and what it can be in an optimized future state. We want to help those organizations that thought there was less of a need to focus on their use of Notes/Domino to, based on data, rationalize how they view that estate going forward. Trust Factory's DNA is a huge help.

Not surprisingly, we have been working with IBM sales on this focus, and in fact this data point was first brought to my attention by my sales partner, Jack Welch (no, not of GE fame). It's one of many solid data points about the strategic nature of Notes/Domino for IBM today, which I'll be blogging more about in the coming days.

Ed Brill | Highland Park, IL USA Category:  Notes Domino  Add/View Comments [34]

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  1. 1  ChrisC http://www.xsptalk.com | 10/23/2012 7:08:21 AM

    Great news Ed. Hope to see some more in the UK!

  1. 2  Sean Cull http://www.seancull.co.uk | 10/23/2012 7:22:09 AM

    Ed, that is great news. It would be great to see IBM mobilise real teams on the ground - as in visiting customer premises - to secure existing and lapsed customers.

    Notes is a great product and is set to get even better - but most of the customers have no idea it is now so good - and in many cases the BPs who are keenest to go after the small and mid size customers have no idea who the customers are either.

  1. 3  Tim Malone http://www.intec.co.uk | 10/23/2012 7:26:27 AM

    Congratulations to you Ed, and your team, and to Trust Factory who have no doubt contributed much to this success. It is a great endorsement of the IBM product strategy that is being driven, and shows how the IBM ICS offerings provide a depth of solution which cannot be matched by the competition. I very much hope we can all continue this trend and extend the competitive advantage of using ICS solutions.

  1. 4  Andy Brunner http://abdata.ch | 10/23/2012 7:53:49 AM

    Great news, Ed!

    Make sure you also pass this information in the OGS in January.

  1. 5  Stuart McIntyre http://collaborationmatters.com | 10/23/2012 8:18:49 AM

    I remember years ago talking with colleagues at the partner where I worked at the time complaining that, unlike some IBM sales folks, we believed that "a customer is for life, not just for Christmas". It seemed that the plans that sales teams were on meant that the blockbuster 'net new' licence deal in 4th quarter was all that mattered - keeping existing customers happy and using the latest greatest features in the products they already owned was of no consequence.

    It is *fantastic* that you and your team are going back around those existing customers and reinvigorating their interest in ICS products. Of course, IBM will be getting additional revenue from the reinstatement, but that is nothing compared to the importance of having satisfied customers seeing the value of their investment and telling others this is the case. Hopefully they're also likely looking to ICS for future product decisions as well...

    Great job!

  1. 6  Richard Thomas  | 10/23/2012 8:36:00 AM

    This is a great result for IBM Collaboration and for the customers who have come to appreciate the benefits of the product.

    It would be great if we could add more figures to this to show how many seats swing this is or to show the gain in market share. If there are any comparative stats for the swing to or from other messaging, application and collaboration platforms it would really complete the article.

    Congratulation Again,

  1. 7  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 10/23/2012 8:57:53 AM

    @6 unfortunately, those are numbers that are off-limits for public disclosure. Market share numbers are available from third parties such as IDC, who report on an annual basis using their own analysis of the size of the market and revenue per competitor.

  1. 8  David Vasta http://www.davidvasta.com | 10/23/2012 9:18:39 AM

    Good News Indeed! Good to see IBM making ground in a market many "C" levels had written off as old and useless.

  1. 9  joe singer http://www.vigilus.net | 10/23/2012 9:22:23 AM

    Ed....this is a fantastic and extremely helpful post.

    This is exactly the type of information a company like mine needs.

    Thanks very much for this. Posts like this are more helpful than you may know.

    Joe Singer

  1. 10  John Deer  | 10/23/2012 10:29:02 AM

    Great news but does it deliver us jobs, jobs, jobs?

    XPages is a leap forward and if mobility gives high value will it get more focus? Iow Domino lacks mobile development controls/functionality.

  1. 11  norm  | 10/23/2012 11:03:01 AM

    Thanks for this information, Ed. How does this triangulate with recent numbers released from IBM relating to Lotus brand numbers being down this year?

  1. 12  Sarah Wise http://unplugged.teamstudio.com/ | 10/23/2012 11:07:40 AM

    This is such great news to read! I am already sending the link to customers that have expressed concerns about "migration" decisions that are being taken at a high level, with little understanding of what is actually involved. Let's hope this number of companies finally coming to their senses continues to rise and rise !!!

  1. 13  Steve Mullen http://www.dai.com | 10/23/2012 3:54:54 PM

    Thanks Ed. This is a very helpful post and precisely the type of information I need. We're a solid Notes/Domino company but we're always getting nudges about moving to Google.

  1. 14  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 10/23/2012 4:33:56 PM

    @11 Norm, as with @7, I can't comment on IBM financial results publicly. I would remind you that "Lotus" != just "Notes" in external reporting.

  1. 15  John Turnbow  | 10/23/2012 4:38:20 PM

    Read Adam Osborn's blog... It's about the apps...

  1. 16  Adam Osborne http://www.preemptive.com.au | 10/23/2012 9:20:15 PM

    Well done Ed. A totally amazing number.

    Now the trick is keeping them there.. and that is about the Apps.

    I think giving them fantastic xPage templates that do all things Sharepoint related would be a wonderful start. Please consider this for Notes.next.

  1. 17  Jfranchetti  | 10/23/2012 10:00:17 PM

    Will Notes support Winows 8? Specifically mail integration with the metro style dynamic tiles? I worry that Outlook will have tight integration on that front screen, and will feed the new touch mail app, but Notes will force users to the back desktop.

    These things are never important, until they are important. Would be great to see the team responsible for brainstorming the above be visible. Like the days when MaryBeth had a UI Dev blog.

  1. 18  axel  | 10/23/2012 11:52:53 PM

    Certainly good for the Lotus Division of IBM.

    We don't know what that means for projects with notes technology.

    I get the impressions that lately there were more adds looking for LotusScript, Formula, Java coding skills, but thats my impression, nothing more.

    Maybe there is kind of backshift from leaving the boat attitude. It was often an exagerated attitude, anyway. Its quite hard to create an IT Infrastructure with long and fecund undesruptive lifecycles. There is no such thing as a silver bullet in technology. I like JEE technology. Same time I have seen to many organizations that have made themselves dependent on outdated frameworks or patterns. Organizations that want to replace, should think very well. Decisions-Takers should really meditate how far they can trust the folks who declare change of the underlying platform really easy.

    Worlds getting more complex. I distrust any correlation of statistical data that I haven't made up.

    Solidary Greetings

  1. 19  axel  | 10/24/2012 1:06:18 AM

    to clarify: meant "have seen to many organizations that have made themselves dependent on outdated framework and patterns INSIDE J(2)EE. A lot of organizations fall into this trap. I guess that .NET is very similar.

  1. 20  Gerson  | 10/24/2012 6:34:12 AM

    In Brazil, the number of companies that are migrating from Lotus Notes to Sharepoint is growing

  1. 21  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 10/24/2012 7:28:05 AM

    @17 initially focused on OS support, but we do recognize the opportunity for a metro-style integration. I understand why it is important.

  1. 22  Bulut Nesim http://www.linkedin.com/in/bnesim | 10/24/2012 3:29:33 PM

    Great news!!

  1. 23  Irv Schor  | 10/25/2012 3:35:43 PM

    This is all great news. But what is IBM Marketing doing anything to attempt to obtain new customers for growth? I'm not referring to those smaller companies that may be absorbed by the larger to increase/drive volume, but actual efforts to actively develop, create, obtain and retain new enterprises? Is the IBM Notes/Domino 9 efforts embracing all things social going to be a theme/method to do so?

  1. 24  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 10/25/2012 4:29:12 PM

    @23 We're doing that too, with things like XWork Server. But a lot of what you'll see these days are sales tactics as well as marketing. Marketing has some pretty exciting plans for next month, which I will be blogging about either tomorrow or Monday....which will carry through into 2013. If you were watching how Connections 4 was launched last month, that will give you some reference points.

  1. 25  Matti Lattu http://www.heeros.com/summary-in-english | 10/26/2012 1:03:47 AM

    Great news!

    Keep on developing XPages. We are building the next version of our financial management software on XPages. First XPages -version went to production last week and looks good.

    Matti

  1. 26  JFranchetti  | 10/27/2012 12:28:22 PM

    @21 Thanks Ed. Both the full Lotus Notes and Sametime clients work fine with the released version of Windows 8. The only issue I have seen so far is that iNotes does not work in Internet Explorer 10.

  1. 27  Himanshu Soni http://in.linkedin.com/in/himanshusoni | 10/29/2012 5:37:16 AM

    Hello Ed,

    That is some good news!

    Will it be possible to share some plans for Lotus/Domino "9". I am aware that Notes Social Edition is coming up in Q1 2013. But it would be good to know if there are any tentative dates for Domino 9. MS is already previewing Exchange 2013. We, Lotus Domino fans, would be happy if some timelines and tentative features are out in the public domain.

    Release some teaser videos/previews/screenshots... anything that keeps the excitement going!

    While I am at it, a suggestion: Please keep the next notes client as clutter-free as possible. Introduce a 'Lite' version as default, while the feature rich full client should be available as an option for advanced users.

  1. 28  Julio  http://www.ytria.com | 11/6/2012 7:01:58 AM

    Hello Ed,

    My name is Julio and I'm an account manager here at Ytria. Ytria is an IBM business partner that develops solutions for better administration and faster development in Notes. Because we are in constant communication with managers, administrators and developers we often know when companies are thinking about migrating away from Notes, this being something obviously that effects IBM and us.

    I have one particular case where the IT department will apparently have some say on the matter and they are interested in documentation on the negative aspects of migrating away from Notes. Is there any documentation that you can assist us with to pass it along? Any information that can be relevant to why companies should not migrate would be of great help.

    This can always come in handy when we run into this event in later times as we tend to do so.

    Looking forward to your reply.

    Julio.

  1. 29  Kanagaraj http://www.csscorp.com | 11/6/2012 9:19:32 AM

    Hi Ed,

    Congratulations !!

    Thanks for the update ! I am a Lotus Notes administrator for more than 10 years. I would like to post a suggestion here. Will you ask in a forum "What the customers say as a reason to move away from Notes?" I heard from one of my customers that IBM is not releasing patches in time. That might be false but we should clarify the customers by keeping them in constant touch.

  1. 30  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 11/6/2012 4:22:31 PM

    @28 our competitive engagement team certainly has tons of documentation to help. But I'd prefer to work offline on this. I'll send you a note or you can follow up with me.

    @29 we issue feature releases every year and fixes quite frequently. Not sure what the basis would be for that.

  1. 31  Donald De Foe http://www.orica.com | 11/8/2012 6:17:45 PM

    Good news Ed.

    What is the Net figure in IBM. What is the number of Enterprises exiting Notes/Domino compared to 1,151 return enterprises. This stat will defend the case to stay.

  1. 32  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 11/8/2012 6:58:36 PM

    @31 that is a harder number to track. I'm sure that sounds like a dodge. But since a customer might stop S&S on one form of the product and then buy it another way, the lapse in S&S by itself is not an indicator of an exit. Some stop paying S&S and keep on using the product... in some markets we still have customers running Notes 6.5. Do you consider them having "exited"?

    Also, I would have to tell you how many brand new companies (as opposed to reinstatements) have bought Notes for the first time this year, because actually only those two numbers added together would form the meaningful comparison. And I haven't vetted that number for external publication.

    I'm not sure how the number of companies moving in and out of Notes by itself is the way to defend its continued use. Does it continue to deliver value? Does it continue to be supported by the vendor in the same way as in the past? Are new features being delivered? Is there an ecosystem of user groups and business partners? All of those things are positive indicators.

  1. 33  Norm  | 11/15/2012 1:26:22 PM

    Am sitting in a SharePoint Conference 2012 session (on exporting data to SharePoint from various sources) and Gary Devendorf just stated that Notes/Domino has a questionable future. I wonder if he knows that Notes 9 was just announced.

    I wonder if he can offer anything more than just exporting data from a view to Excel?