Admin2008: Sending a Message to Management: How to keep Lotus Notes and Domino in your Company

May 2 2008

During Admin2008 here in Boston, I lead a birds-of-a-feather session yesterday called, "Sending a Message to Management: How to keep Lotus Notes and Domino in your Company".   There were about 80 people in attendance... as I said at the start of the session, I considered the attendance a "win" because at this very same (and equally well-attended) conference two years ago, I had 125 people attend a similar session.  The situation is improving.

I spent the first several minutes discussing the state of the Notes business, mainly in terms of statistics -- 40% market share according to IDC, 46,000 active (= on maintenance) customers, 10% growth in active end-users, revenue growth in 13 of the last 14 quarters, 850 developers within IBM working on the Notes/Domino platform, wins as big as 200,000 seat deals so far this year.  I realize that upfront five or ten minutes might have been a bit overwhelming, but the point was to show, this is a business IBM is investing in, continues to invest in, and as we move forward towards public beta of 8.5 and 9.0 and beyond releases, will be here for a long time.

Then we started open discussion. I really wanted it to be a collaborative discussion, with input from the audience as much as from me.  For a few minutes, we got some good comments and questions -- talk about positioning versus SharePoint (which I also talked about from the perspective of integration with SharePoint, more on that next week too), some solid questions about what's going on to make rollout and consumability of Notes 8 easier, end-user reactions.

From there, though, we took a turn around that dark corner and I felt like we stepped away from a collaboration, sharing kind of session to a "what are you IBM going to do about..." approach.  The first step, 22 minutes in, was the "Lotus marketing sucks" lob.  Then, as I started talking about user acceptance of Notes 8 -- that in all of the technical, head-to-head user acceptance "bake-offs" we did since notes 8 shipped, users have chosen to stay with or adopt Notes 8.  Someone in the audience started visibly showing disagreement with my statement.  Her challenge was, "I don't believe you.  In my market, you are losing every major law firm to Microsoft."  

Note that I was talking about technical bake-offs, but now we were off in a different direction, about a concentrated "groupthink" situation going on in one industry segment, without (in many cases) any technical evaluation or business case.  I tried to explain that these variables are different in every company that considers moving away from Notes, and that looking at what is going on in the business that is causing the consideration or migration is critical.  Unfortunately, it seems a few came to the session looking for "silver bullets" -- the answer on what specifically to do next.

Problem being, that answer is different from company to company, industry to industry, and even country to country.  A lot of the information and technology used is the same, but the tactical how to do it is different.  

My hope in running the Birds of a Feather was to share some practical experiences and ideas, some information, and make some contacts and introductions.  Perhaps the title was a bit misleading -- we simply can't go into a room with 75 different companies for 45 minutes and come up with the single right answer for all.  But I am always happy to have the individual conversation -- I, and my team, and our SWAT teams, and our specialists, etc.  

As I said at the end of the session, I was also at the "meet the experts" from 6 PM to 7 PM last night, and would have been happy to carry on the conversations from the Birds-of-a-Feather (which ran over time to begin with).  Alan Lepofsky and I had six guys sit down with us at the start of the hour, and only one or two other attendees joined as the evening progressed.  I am not sure if the full table scared off anyone else from joining -- if so, my apologies, we really WANTED to talk to as many people as possible!  Be sure to reach out to me via e-mail, IM, twitter, or comment here.

See you all next time!

Ed Brill Boston, MA USA Category:  Lotus  Add/View Comments [35]

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  1. 1  John  | 5/2/2008 10:36:02 AM

    "Note that I was talking about technical bake-offs, but now we were off in a different direction, about a concentrated "groupthink" situation going on in one industry segment, without (in many cases) any technical evaluation or business case."

    Unforunately, this is one of the "giants" that has to be taken down -- a marketing reality. I'm very glad that Lotus is taking away the technical excuses for defecting. It would be great for it to become a "why would you want to use anything else" product, but overcoming the lemming effect will be a challenge.

    Apple has managed to re-position itself in such a way that even though their market share is not on a par with Wintel, everyone knows that they are a worthy contender. They are not just dismissed as kooky any more.

  1. 2  Olaf Boerner http://www.bcc.biz | 5/2/2008 12:55:36 PM

    Ed,

    i was not aloud to attend the session; even as a Platinum Sponsor :-(

    My experience at ADMIN2008 is that it a common thinking that Lotus is loosing ground.

    So IBM / Lotus should focus to communicate against that.

  1. 3  Keith Brooks http://lotustech.blogspot.com | 5/2/2008 1:33:39 PM

    Sorry to hear this, but you knew it might happen.

    At lotusphere some people I met also wanted one silver bullet and I told them it just doesn't work that way.

    We all come from different angles and so does the battle.

    Knowing everything going on at the appropriate level is key.

    One of the clients i discussed with you int he past may finally come around to listening so it just takes time in some cases and persistent effort.

  1. 4  Paul Robichaux http://www.robichaux.net/blog | 5/2/2008 3:20:37 PM

    So, were there more people at ADMIN2008 than last year? My sense has been that overall attendance is down across a broad category of events, so don't be too quick to claim a win :)

    More broadly, these kinds of BoF sessions can be very hard to control. As soon as you open the door to the audience, they feel free to hijack the discussion. Sorry it happened to you, but props for being open about it-- perhaps that will help forestall future occurences.

  1. 5  Charles F. Phillips  | 5/2/2008 3:49:33 PM

    So what can be done about the federal government? One by one all of the government agencies went over to Exchange in the early part of the decade and now there's just a dwindling number of applications still running on a dwindling number of Domino servers.

    The IBM marketing types apush WebSphere over Domino and the govies don't want to hear about that either. They're already paying for Windows servers and they want applications that will run without licensing another server on top of Windows. In other words, ASP.NET.

    I was laid off from my last job and I'm now an employee of another government contractor. There are fewer and fewer apps for me to work on because they are being replaced one-by-one in the government's effort to rid themselves of paying for Domino servers.

    Moving out of the area is not an option until the housing market improves, so I'm going to my third class on ASP.NET next week. It appears to be the only way to survive as the Domino apps dry up, but I'd much rather continue doing Domino.

    It seems to me that since Notes lost the email war here in D.C., there's no effort to push Domino's other capabilities. Most govies see it as just an email platform and no one seems to be trying to convince them otherwise.

    I saw some new adverts posted the other day that actually give the viewer more information than some silly "clear your desk" ad - why aren't they on national TV? Showing them to CIO's is a good start, but the CIO's will pay a lot more attention when average employees come into the office talking about them on Monday morning.

    Sorry for the "bitchfest," but I really feel like I'm wandering around alone in the wilderness. Put me down as another whiner if you like, but I would be thrilled to see D.C. become a Notes/Domino Mecca.

  1. 6  Susan Sulloch http://notesgoddess.net | 5/2/2008 5:37:10 PM

    @4 I don't work for the View per se, but I have spoken at this conference for the past few years. From the looks of it, I'd have to say that attendance was up. The rooms had more people overall and the lunch room, which stays the same size each year was JAMMED. Maybe the View folks will publish the number, but few conference organizers publish actual numbers. More bodies, more feedback and more excitement.

    IMHO, conference attendance really doesn't show the health of a product tho - it shows the health of travel budgets.

  1. 7  Chris Miller http://www.IdoNotes.com | 5/2/2008 6:42:23 PM

    @4 I definitely agree with Susan (6). The numbers were way up with people staying at other hotels and the lunch and breaks were packed. Who knows if it is the Domino 8 push or such a good technical conference, but it was definitely better attended than last year

  1. 8  Peter Wilson  | 5/2/2008 7:10:51 PM

    I really don't see a large advertising campaign happening from IBM on Notes... the marketing guys in Armonk love the vague quirky ads which will undoubtably continue.

    If IBM's serious it needs to really think outside of the box. Maybe a crazy pricing offer for firms that have Exchange to tempt them to think about Notes/Domino. Or the very least crazy offers to consider Quickr and/or Sametime. If nothing is done now, about 5 years from now those same firms will also have OCS and Sharepoint, and they definately won't be considering anything else then... unless it's a FREE Open Source alternative.

    Pete

  1. 9  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 5/2/2008 7:25:28 PM

    One cool and really interesting sidebar following up from the conference -- I have at least a dozen new Twitter followers who were at Admin2008/Developer2008. Welcome!

  1. 10  Rick  | 5/2/2008 7:35:12 PM

    It's scary being a Notes Developer. The jobs are scarce. I've suffered from long lays off due to this. One simple way to see this is just go to Dice.com and try to find Lotus Notes developer positions. In my area of Chicago, they are scarce.

  1. 11  Scott Sullivan  | 5/2/2008 11:36:27 PM

    Ed - wanted to set down with you at the Ask the Experts but the table was always full. Didn't have any particular questions but I always like to hear how the conversations about this topic go. Thanks for the recap.

    I was however surprised at the number of presenters using Macs. In fact of the 3 days I can only remember 2 presenters that did not have them.

  1. 12  Ian Randall  | 5/3/2008 5:40:36 AM

    Pardon me for swimming against the tide and actually saying something nice and positive about the IBM Sales team...

    but a few days ago I needed to get some pricing information from IBM for a proposal to a customer.

    I have been specializing in Lotus Notes since version 3 was released and even I still get confused as hell about the various IBM pricing options available for Domino and how to convert PVU's into dollars needed for a quote the following day. Perhaps Ed could blog on this topic in the future.

    However, to back to my topic... I phoned IBM and expected to get some run-around (based on my previous experience over the years), but to my surprise and delight, I was quickly put through to a specialist SMB Sales guy who quickly and efficiently provided me with the most cost effective pricing option for my proposal.

    However he didn't stop there, my client happened to be a major multi-nationalorganization that had an IBM major account team assigned to support. I was given the name of the team leader and some of the key specialists in this major account team along with their direct contact phone numbers.

    At a time when IBM is getting some considerable flack through the blogging community for what is percieved as poor marketing and sales practices, I just wanted to congratulate the IBM sales staff that I delt with in Sydney Australia over the last few days for being professional, helpful, efficient and very generous with their time and assistance (even if the result of their efforts didn't benefit them personally).

    Well done IBM.

  1. 13  Nathan T. Freeman http://nathan.lotus911.com | 5/3/2008 7:18:04 AM

    @12 - Ian, if you were pricing IBM software products through a dedicated IBM rep team for a major multi-national, they most certainly got a commission. If they were net new licenses, it was considerable.

  1. 14  Keith Strickland http://www.keithstric.com | 5/3/2008 9:05:45 AM

    @5 Charles, I too work in the government sector as a contractor and when I arrived I was seeing the same discussions in my region. I took this upon myself to start "selling" Notes to the government project managers as a viable alternative to .NET.

    Our .NET team have had projects on the books for more than a year that haven't been started (this is not a slam on our .NET team, they are very knowledgeable and capable but the time involved for their apps is prohibitive to rapid roll out). I volunteered to take over a couple of these projects and do them in Lotus Notes. After having to prove my case and try and explain that Lotus Notes is more than email I was allowed to tackle some of these projects. I now have a constant flow of new projects and Notes awareness is growing and now people are more eager to turn to a Notes solution, especially if there is a time line involved.

    While I agree in part with your statement some of the burden has to fall on the Notes professionals within an organization to stand up, take a risk and sell Notes as a solution and show that it can compete with .NET and replace MS Access applications. Loudly and determinedly if need be. Of course you have to be objective and if the app doesn't belong in Notes but requires a relational db, say so, don't be a "Notes can do that" for everything guy, it turns management people off, but be honest.

    And a little tip, Notes is becoming a great tool within my region for disaster response applications because of it's ability to work dis-connected and a lot of these apps are looking to go national and are becoming "best practice" parts of the disaster response SOP.

    While I agree that IBM marketing needs to be more aggressive, until the Notes professionals in an organization prove the value of Notes to end users and it's place in the organization it will continue to house small "shops" and be just an email platform within the organization.

  1. 15  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 5/3/2008 9:13:37 AM

    @12 / 13, Nathan, Ian said that he called into an IBM call centre. That doesn't mean he was talking to the dedicated IBM rep team. Rather, it sounds like he ended up with a teleweb specialist who was on the ball.

    @14 exactly my point. Very cool to hear a real-world success story. Thanks for sharing.

  1. 16  Nathan T. Freeman http://nathan.lotus911.com | 5/3/2008 11:04:42 AM

    @15 my client happened to be a major multi-national organization that had an IBM major account team assigned to support.

    I'm not saying that someone making money on that deal was a bad thing. Not at all. IBM has all kinds of massive incentives for its sales and support people. That's a good thing.

  1. 17  Keith Brooks http://lotustech.blogspot.com | 5/3/2008 10:18:35 PM

    @8 pricing is not the issue, if you truly understand the pricing scheme(and it is a scheme) from Microsoft compared to IBM. Yes, IBM pricing can be confusing, but there is only one price for a Quickr license, compared to the multiple CALs and licenses involved in a Sharepoint deal.

    We win technically and financially, but rarely does the former make the sale and in only some cases will the politics and open minds recognize the 2nd as a valid reason.

  1. 18  Randy Shimizu  | 5/3/2008 11:30:59 PM

    Lotus's marketing has made some improvements in recent years. There still is a corporate aversion to spending money on advertising within IBM. It's almost as though IBM believes that advertising is throwing money down the drain. This belief dates back to the OS/2 days. I remember how IBM would announce how they were launching these big campaigns for OS/2 and then suddenly all funds were pulled back.

    The big problem is that Lotus/IBM don't benchmark their marketing efforts. As I have stated before Microsoft is willing to commit the resources necessary to achieve it's market goals. It's a bit more difficult now since Microsoft generates more revenue these days. But IBM is still one of worlds largest companies.

  1. 19  alan lepofsky  | 5/4/2008 12:02:50 AM

    @18 if by benchmark you mean measure, record, and analyse the marketing efforts, then I know an entire team of go to market managers, directors, and a marketing vp who would STRONGLY disagree with you. Stats from every lotus web page, blog, live event, web banner, product download, demo video view, marketing campaign, etc are looked at in detail.

  1. 20  Randy Shimizu  | 5/4/2008 2:30:09 AM

    @20

    By benchmarking I mean how effective or what the level is as compared compared to Microsoft. It's really not enough to ensure that there is a good ROI. Also one has to differentiate between new markets vs a captive one. Microsoft can afford to spend large amounts of resources marketing to their own customers because they have much more to gain. IBM/Lotus has spent much of it's marketing efforts on their own customers

  1. 21  Peter Wilson  | 5/4/2008 4:30:55 AM

    @19 I'd love to hear what customers really think about some of the ads such as "clear your desktop" or what ever it was.... I think it was to promote Notes. I think...

    Pete

  1. 22  Christopher Byrne http://www.controlscaddy.com/ | 5/4/2008 5:56:35 PM

    The reason law firms as a group lean towards outlook/exchange has little to do with group think. It is that software developed for law firms is designed to seamlessly work with MS products.

  1. 23  Randy Shimizu  | 5/4/2008 10:44:16 PM

    @22 Law firms

    Law firms tend to be primarilly in the classical definition of the SMB market. So it is difficult for IBM/Lotus to compete until they address the 50 client and under market.

    Can you talk a little more on the types of software attorneys are using aside from Office and Westlaw etc...?

  1. 24  Charles F. Phillips  | 5/5/2008 8:54:23 AM

    @14 Keith, we all evangelize. I'm pleased to hear that it's gone well for you, but as is obvious by Ed's response, you let him off the hook... :-)

    Seriously, when Joe Schmuckatelli comes strolling into the office on Monday morning and says, "Boss, you shoulda seen that commercial about Notes yesterday - we should be using that..." then the "deciderers" will take notice.

  1. 25  Darren Duke http://www.simplified-tech.com | 5/5/2008 10:39:23 AM

    @23 TimeMatters is the main one I see in Law offices now { Link } shoving Notes out the door.

    Quote "Lexis Front Office offers seamless integration with applications such as Microsoft® Outlook®, Microsoft® Word and Adobe® Acrobat® to fit the way you work."

    Notes? If not, why not? And don't tell me that is the BP arena. I work for one of smaller Lotus BPs we're luck to get invited to BP events, let alone access to the technical resources needed to build these types of "plug-ins" as an ISV. Unless you are selling tons of net new licenses you can forget it. But that isn't the real issue.

    And the real issue has not changed. A SMB client calls Dell and mentions they need a server, Dell sells them 2003 SBS and with it Exchange. The battle is over even before it began. I know about Nitix, but do potential SMB customers? I can't even find the price for it. And was the last time you saw a Lotus Notes or Nitix advert in Inc Magazine? I mean, come on, how many people read eWeek and convert platforms either way based on "Gil" and his comical server room antics or yellow boxing gloves?

  1. 26  Nathan T. Freeman http://nathan.lotus911.com | 5/5/2008 11:06:59 AM

    And was the last time you saw a Lotus Notes or Nitix advert in Inc Magazine? I mean, come on, how many people read eWeek and convert platforms either way based on "Gil" and his comical server room antics or yellow boxing gloves?

    IBM doesn't market software to users or business managers. They only market software to IT people.

    To users and business managers, they market the overall company, combining services, software and hardware into one giant bundled message. And when they market to users and business managers, the message is not "IBM rocks," it's "not-IBM sucks."

  1. 27  Victor Toal  | 5/5/2008 11:19:45 AM

    I have to agree with Susan Bulloch - the part about budgets.

    I also think that the name of your session basicaly created the expectation in people that they woudl be served if not with a silver bullet at least with a marketing plan on what to do ...

  1. 28  Darren Duke http://www.simplified-tech.com | 5/5/2008 12:08:18 PM

    @26 exactly, and I think your blog on it the other day covered the deficiencies in that area.

    The war is being fought at a far lower level (and far earlier in personal development, yes personal) that IBM can get down to. They want to target CxO's et, al as they make the decisions, and I don't disagree that. It is is a good option. But it is only one option in the war.

    I think they are missing another battlefront about who becomes or makes a CxO. This goes back to my Inc Magazine question. Where do all of the successful people come from? What do they read? What do they need in terms of IT? How can IBM get the message out to them? Or should it even be IBM to carry the message? So that if some enterprising entrepreneur who uses a Nitix server is bought via an M&A by a MS shop, the buyer is at least given pause for though that alternatives, good, even great alternatives do exist.

    Another area that IBM is woefully deficient is that de-facto IT phrases have become synonymous with MS products, and that is real marketing:

    Email = Outlook & Exchange

    Interoperability = Interoperability between or with MS products

    Database = SQL Server

    Work = MS Office

    Computer = Windows

    It is all about perception. And if you don't change perception it will become reality. Think about Toyota when it created Lexus in 1989 as their luxury brand. They knew the average punter wouldn't pay >$50k for a Toyota. Is it perception with the brand.

    The same is true for IBM in the SMB space except in reverse (where the war is really being fought and will be won or lost). They are viewed rightly, or wrongly, as a big, bloated, expensive, single source solution. They need a specific SMB brand, that can distance itself (like Lexus) from the famous parent. Is Nitix it? Maybe. But people other than those who read the Notes blogs need to be illuminated to the existence of such a product or brand.

    It took Lexus { Link } 8 years to win the JD Power award. Surely IBM can do the same thing.

    Incidentally, a review on the Nitix site { Link } starts with "If you thought Lotus was dead - you're wrong....". Oh my.

  1. 29  Randy Shimizu  | 5/5/2008 7:21:01 PM

    @28

    Perception is the key and currently Exchange has the advantage. The question now is if IBM/Lotus willing to commit the marketing resources necessary to change this. One problem today is that IBM/Lotus is to focused on the big wins. Lotus is making progress, but is it fast enough..? There is a recognition that Lotus is making major contribution to IBM's bottom line. This is evidenced by remarks made in IBM earnings report webcasts.

    It would be cool if there was a notes 'live' trial. DVD available.

  1. 30  Miguel Calvo http://www.zarazaga.net | 5/6/2008 2:34:08 AM

    As this is a email worldwide war (MS vs IBM), we in Spain don't have any tool to fight it. Marketing materials in Spanish are really scarce and obsolete (I don't know in ather languages). I don't have numbers, but I guess marketing efforts depend on stablished customer numbers ?? In any case, it's really difficult to sell a Domino environment to SMB (and I mean spanish SMB !!!) because of lack of those tools.

    And as @28 Darren said, there are plenty of battlefronts to be fought. Small BP need small tools for their arena, IBM could help us with "small" efforts, not necesarily nation wide advertising, that by the way, would be "big" help.

  1. 31  Fabrice   | 5/6/2008 3:12:48 AM

    I have been a Notes Developer since 1999. It's more and more difficult to find contracts. French bank & assurance have all Lotus Notes, but the big part of the job is to keep existing Notes applications alive (which is tedious and with no carreer evolution). I have not been involved in a "big" application Notes project since 2005. This is really terrible. Moreover, daily fee are often less than 3 years-Java developer.

    Notes could have been really interresting for small business, specially because it was possible to quickly develop terrific application, but licence price was too high, and now they prefer to use specific open source solution for their needs.

    From a IT consultant point of view, I cannot even advise to buy small company to buy Lotus, because It's very difficult to find good developper and administrator.

    Good time were in 1996-2000. I was waiting for Notes 8, but I haven't seen lot of marketing in France for it.

  1. 32  Devendran  | 5/6/2008 4:24:18 AM

    I have been a Notes Developer Since 2000 and living in Singapore. Every day or other, i have to argue and prove with the Business User or our internal IT team that Notes is not inferior to Exchange or Outlook.

    We have ERP, CRM, J2EE and Data warehousing team apart from Lotus Notes. Initially, the battle was between J2EE and Lotus Notes team to who can win the projects internally. As a Notes Developer, we always have advantage of the quick turn around time and manage to get projects(applications) coming in and most of them are integrated with other systems.

    Lately, when ERP & other systems started coming up with their own portal, now, we started feeling things are drying up and the Notes applications are goes back to the respective system because anyway they holds the master data.

    Lotus Notes as an individual Application platform is fading at a very fast pace. Outside to my company, the companies which i worked or my friends have worked have either moved to .Net or put the applications in maintenace mode for the past few years. Things are not so easy here as a Notes Developer and the salary is below par to a 4 or 5 years Java developer.

    I have banked on R8 but, sadly R8 doesn't posses any real compelling reason for the business users to really consider Notes. Notes can rejuvenate itself by providing more plug ins (Obviously it has to be free)for different systems. This can at least extend our battle against the extinction(Though not to use this word, but i have no option).

  1. 33  Darren Duke http://www.simplified-tech.com | 5/6/2008 9:11:54 AM

    @29 there is "Live" DVD available. It is for the OCC (Open Collaboration Client) campaign. If you are Stateside, email me your mailing address and I'll send a couple your way. I will also try to make an ISO image for it for download provided I'm not breaking any laws.

    It is exactly this kind of disjointed, left hand, right hand issue that all massive companies have issues with. Again, I point to Nitix as an example. If the BP's and their sales forces don't know about this stuff how are potential clients ever going to find out. As Nathan pointed out on his blog, it is not like they are going to advertise their way into potential clients. So it is left to folks like us. And unless you attend every conference, or read every email, or every blog posting you will not find out. Conferences are a fine place to release this new product information, but you are preaching to the choir. We need to bring new blood into the church. What part of this do the advertising department at Lotus or IBM not get?

    @30 I feel for you. I really do. But it is not that much better over here. Take RIM for example (and the company I work for is BlackBerry Alliance Member, as well an IBM BP), they will send you all the marketing collateral you need, and I believe we pay the shipping cost. Hand-outs, competitive advantage documents, etc for each and every product they have. You then have product specific leave-behinds for the client, and hence, another critical touch point to them. This is highly important stuff needed to win a potential customer who maybe on the fence.

    One of the sales people called IBM and asked if IBM could send something similar for the Lotus products. After several days they were sent PDF's for us print out. ???

    @31, we actually manage a few client's Domino installs for them, and while it is not hosting, it does help generate follow on business. I like that IBM offers hosting now, but (and this is going to sound bad), what is in that for me, as a BP?

    R8 is a potential game changer, but by lines like "If you thought Lotus was dead..." need to be addressed, and IBM should have the clout to do just that.

    And since everyone is posting it, I started Notes in 1996, in a different Lotus Notes world. Notes apps were everywhere.

  1. 34  Perry Hiltz http://blog.perryhiltz.com | 5/6/2008 10:02:40 AM

    Ed

    Just a few thoughts on this. First off it was great to see you at the Admin show and thank you for stopping by out booth. While I do work for an organization that regularly moves people from Notes to Exchange, I have always been a die hard Notes person. I've got 11 years of administration and development in Domino and nothing per se on the Microsoft side.

    We are seeing a lot of major organizations moving their mail off of Domino and onto Exchange. Living in the Metro Detroit area, this is really scary. The economy in the Detroit area is currently in it's 7th year of recession and given that the number of Domino positions is so scarce right now, I've had to realize that I need to learn Exchange to remain as a marketable individual. I'm personally none to happy about this but I agree that Lotus desperately needs to get back into the face of CTO, and CIO individuals and provide incentives to either move back to Notes or to keep in house.

    Just my thoughts.

    Thank you.

  1. 35  Sean Jennings  | 5/6/2008 11:11:01 AM

    @5 @10 @31 @32 @33 etc

    same here in London, UK... for every advert you see looking for a Notes developer there's at least one for a "Notes to Exchange to migration specialist"

    have been with Notes since '97 and don't want to change, but we all need to eat..