LCTY Chicago: A different kind of audience

April 9 2009

We had about 200 people at the Lotusphere Comes to You in Chicago today.  The venue was awesome -- the Metropolitan Club, located on the 66th floor of the Sears Tower in the Chicago loop.  Today was a beautiful day in the Windy City, and as the event started, you could see for about 20 miles in any direction from our vantage point.  I think it was inspiring.

While it was great as always to see familiar faces in the hometown crowd, there were a lot of new ones today, too.  There was something else different, too -- when I asked the question of which customers are running Notes 8 in their environments, only about 20-25% of the hands went up.  I was a bit surprised, as this number has been running in the 40%+ range for the last several months of similar speaking engagements.  Much later in the day, I brought this up in an executive roundtable, and we realized there was a correlation with the increased attendance and new faces.  

It's all in-line with something Andrew Pollack said to me a few weeks ago...he said that he was hearing many Lotus business partners indicate their business was up so far this year, even despite the tough economy.  

Attendance up at Lotusphere Comes to You (all over the world...Paris 500, Tokyo 1000, Washington DC 300), new faces, back-level deployments, busy business partners.  It all points to an interesting phenomena -- the current climate is driving IT to look around at what tools you already have and see what else you can do with them.  This is a real opportunity, and I am so glad that we have come into the market with Notes/Domino 8.5 at just the right time.  There are so many reasons to upgrade and so many more ways to derive value from existing Notes/Domino investments, and the customers at LCTY today were there to take home ideas and actions.

Other interesting observations from the day were how many people in the room

  • Use LinkedIn -- almost everyone
  • Use Twitter -- more than half the room
  • Use Facebook -- 2/3rds of the room
  • Have Apple Macs in their business environment -- 75%+
  • Had heard of Lotus Notes.... well, nevermind.

Late in the day, Bob Picciano hosted a roundtable with executives from half a dozen key Lotus brand customers.  Also there were Bob McDonald who runs Lotus support and Tom Wroblewski who runs Lotus sales in North America.  This was an interesting new experience for me -- both in terms of watching Picciano in action with customers and also being part of the action.  My learning from this hour -- you all have more opportunity to tell your bosses about great new Notes/Domino cost-saving features like DAOS, DCT, and Symphony.  We spent a good ten minutes talking about DAOS with these CIO-level executives, with three of them rapidly scrawling notes on the topic.  I wouldn't be surprised if one of you gets the call on Friday from your boss to start looking at DAOS :-)  We also talked a lot about Symphony and the opportunity for user segmentation, and several of the organizations in the room indicated that this is an important part of their thinking for the year.  

Bob and I also had the opportunity to talk to Burton Group analyst Craig Roth, who raised some interesting points about Lotusphere, LotusLive, Lotus Connections, etc.  Wish we had had more time for that.

All in all, a very good day spent with customers and partners in the big city.  If Nashville/New York/Boston/Columbus/Toronto/Indianapolis are all as useful in the next few weeks, I'm going to be a pretty happy guy.  Thanks to everyone who made the time to be a part of today's event.

Ed Brill Metra U.P. North Line, Chicago-Ft Sheridan Category:  Lotusphere2009  Add/View Comments [21]

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  1. 1  Ron Shoults  | 4/9/2009 10:13:16 PM

    The round table with Bob Picciano must explain what happened to most of the IBM folks following lunch. Most seemed to have disappeared. But, it was still a great day full of information. For those who haven't implemented DAOS on 8.5, you need to. It really works!

  1. 2  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 4/10/2009 7:13:41 AM

    Ron, Bob and his entourage went off-site for a customer meeting after his presentation but were back around 2 PM. Other IBM Lotus VPs, Directors, and a large local team were around. Many of the technical staff disappeared into the hands-on lab starting at noon so the big "back wall" contingent was in there.

    I was in meetings off and on during the afternoon but did talk with some of the attendees before going into the meetings and round-table around 3:30.

  1. 3  Palmi  | 4/10/2009 7:56:51 AM

    Ed,

    We are also feeling the "driving IT to look around at what tools you already have and see what else you can do with them." and with population of just over 300.000 we had 150 people come to see and hear what's new is coming in Domino/Lotus arena. Now all we need to a heavy Marketng move from IBM for 3 and 4 Q 2009 - lets do it

  1. 4  Dale Cybela  | 4/10/2009 8:23:04 AM

    If the economy is helping Domino in the market, wouldn't the be the most opportune time to raise the visibiity of Domino by direct TV adds? It appears that it is only the CIOs that are looking hard to find something are the ones you saw at the user group. This might be the time to spend some $'s to take advantage of a CIOs that are under pressure but don't know where to turn.

  1. 5  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 4/10/2009 9:17:54 AM

    Software vendors do not run TV ads for specific products.

    IBM is working on some TV ads in the "smarter planet" milieu of "smart work"...those will focus on messages around Lotus products but, to the chagrin of this audience, won't be screen shots and factoids about DAOS. It just doesn't scale or reach the right audience.

  1. 6  Mark Hazlitt  | 4/10/2009 9:27:56 AM

    Ed, I like the way you say "I wouldn't be surprised if one of you gets the call on FRIDAY from your boss to start looking at DAOS".

    What makes you think we were not receiving BB messages during the meeting? :-)

  1. 7  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 4/10/2009 9:39:17 AM

    ROTFL - Mark, that sentence was indeed directed at you! Hope you are enjoying your DAOS implementation today :-)

  1. 8  Brett H   | 4/10/2009 10:31:35 AM

    "Software vendors do not run TV ads for specific products."

    Yessiree Bob, that's the way we've allways done it and we is ain't gonna change.

    I can remember three product ad campaigns that Lotus has run, that were specific to Notes/Domino...

    Work the web.

    I am Superman.

    and of course the ever popular...

    Dennis Leary.

    Dale is right, the time is right, the version is right, it's a perfect storm of "rightness".

    C'mon Lotus, break the mold!

    Cheers Ed, and congrats on the LCTY in Chicago, I am looking forward to the one here in Southern California next week.

  1. 9  Ishmael Muhamamd http://www.edbrill.com | 4/10/2009 1:49:44 PM

    Ed,

    I think the sessions were timed just right. There is a ton of improvements in the Domino 8 which you know. However just looking at the job postings in the Chicago area you see that there are many jobs out there for migrations away from Domino. What this tells me is that despite the economy business really isn't looking at the existing tools they have. What makes the biggest difference is the all mighty dollar. How much will be saved if moved from Domino?

    Sorry to bring down the tone of the blog but I am just one of the solders on the frontline who has to justify staying with the current platform.

  1. 10  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 4/10/2009 2:14:08 PM

    @9 I'm sorry, Ishmael, but I don't buy it. I just searched careerbuilder and indeed.com for Chicago-based jobs... I saw exactly one Domino to SharePoint migration, versus 20+ Domino admin/developer positions.

  1. 11  Craig Boudreaux  | 4/10/2009 11:15:01 PM

    @5 Fascinating comment.

    I've see ads for Vista, Office, 95, etc. Apple currently runs ads promoting software that runs on their devices, and any ad by Apple is about both their hardware and software.

    I'm sure many of us mistook the phrase "Providing 'Air Cover'" to mean the exact opposite of "Software vendors do not run TV ads for specific products."

  1. 12  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 4/11/2009 9:04:52 AM

    @11 You are actually almost in agreement with me. The Apple ads certainly do show the product - something I wish we would do - but they do not tout it. You don't see ads for iLife or iWork specifically, other than as capabilities of the Mac overall. Windows Vista ads - well, when you have a $16 billion business that is more than 100% of your profit, you do typically operate by different rules.

    I understand how much everyone *wants* to see television in the marketing and advertising mix from Lotus. What I don't understand is why there is a continued belief that such advertising as you envision it would affect buyer behavior. Even the Windows Vista ads don't seem to be doing it -- that division at Microsoft is shrinking, not growing.

  1. 13  Bob Balaban http://www.bobzblog.com | 4/11/2009 11:04:12 AM

    @12 Question - how can something be more than 100% of a company's profit?

    Regarding the efficacy of advertising for Lotus products, my own opinion is that you're not going to sell any seats directly by advertising Notes. The benefit to the product and to BPs in general is that advertising would (perhaps vastly) increase product awareness. How many times have you heard stories of potential customers making remarks like, "I thought Notes died years ago", or "Is that still around?"

    You need (I know, *everyone* is telling you what you need...) to combat the "conventional wisdom" out here that Notes is old technology, irrelevant to the IT and appdev problems of today.

    WE know that the conventional wisdom is wrong, now someone should tell the rest of the world.

  1. 14  John C. Cummins  | 4/11/2009 7:47:05 PM

    @13 - Q:how can something be more than 100% of a company's profit?

    A:Other divisions of Microsoft lose money. I haven't seen the latest financial statements, but it used to be that the home entertainment/gaming division (e.g. Xbox) lost a couple billion per year.

  1. 15  Carsten  | 4/12/2009 4:49:21 AM

    Microsoft did not win the world by having the smartest and most cool kernel ...... they won the world by "looks".

    And AMD did not win the war with Intel, because they had a "true" Dual Core and came first with 64 bit.

    I worry that if you try to beat Microsoft with cool technology that is invisible, then I dont think you will win any hearts at all.

    Domino is cool enough allready, I dont think we need to spent the engineers time coding for DAOS, they need to code the coolest UI and a fast client.

  1. 16  Nathan T. Freeman http://nathan.lotus911.com | 4/12/2009 7:32:45 AM

    "The Apple ads certainly do show the product - something I wish we would do - but they do not tout it."

    Ummmmmm.... iPhone App Store? They run 30-second prime time spots in which they highlight OTHER PEOPLE'S APPS.

    Have you looked at the projections on revenue generation from the app store, Ed? $10 for every iPhone in existence for FY 2009.

    Contemplate that number for a moment. Compare and contrast with other revenue streams you know.

  1. 17  Craig Boudreaux  | 4/13/2009 9:41:50 AM

    I don't believe that Lotus has to 'beat' MS (or Google) either, but they need the products to be as *visible* in the market.

    You don't really have to 'show the product', that would be limiting (and probably boring). Just show people using the product, or show people talking about the product, or show people excited about product. At least show that the product is still ALIVE (and modern).

    BTW, I've started asking people after the iTouch and iPod ads, what did they just see, an ad for the device of for the software. So far, the only answer I've received has been for the software.

  1. 18  Seth Spergel  | 4/13/2009 11:46:32 AM

    Ed,

    My wife told a colleague the other day that I sell Lotus Notes. Do you know the colleague's response? "I thought IBM stopped selling that years ago." Admittedly, my wife does not work in IT, but I get similar comments from those who do. (At a conference a couple of weeks ago, I gave someone quite an earful after he made a similar statement.)

    Yes, we have better technology, and yes it is my job to convince people of that, but my job would be a whole lot easier if people did not start out with the assumption that Notes has been discontinued. When our competitors are telling people the product is dead and the last ad people saw on TV was for R5 in 1999, they are going to assume there hasn't been an update in 10 years.

    Per your comment in @12, I'm not saying that ads will directly sell Notes. But they will level the playing field, at which point the advantages of the product will help us sell. There is just no awareness at the end-user level, and that ends up putting pressure on the IT shop.

  1. 19  Mark Hughes  | 4/13/2009 1:05:27 PM

    We should not ask for anything right now! IBM is busy making a smarter planet, leave them alone it is important work!!

    Saw 50,000 "smarter planet" commercials on the masters this weekend. I am guessing it was a brand image campaign as it does not sell or mention a product or a solution to any particular problem. It just says IBM can fix all of your problems and make you smarter. Which i guess means the entire world is stupid compared to IBM.

    Efficient might be a better term than smarter.

    How about 1 Lotus branded ad to every 10 smarter planet ads?

    //"No one else runs ads for a particular software"

    var1 = "Would it hurt if they did? Are their bad consequences for doing so?"

    if (var1 != "Yes"){"What the hell, brand awareness is important too."}

  1. 20  Michael de Haas  | 4/15/2009 3:58:39 AM

    A friend of mine, working for IBM in a finance dept, travels a lotu around Europe, told me that he thought IBM was "giving Lotus Notes away?" - he uses Outlook!!! Go figure! Wonder what he told others before he dropped that one.

  1. 21  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 4/16/2009 12:28:37 PM

    Looks like Minneapolis was a similar experience to Chicago, according to Mike Miller:

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