Reflections on 15 years at Lotus

June 14 2009

I started working at Lotus Development Corporation on June 14, 1994.  My story today is hardly the longest tenure or most unique among colleagues who have been here for 20 or more years.  Still, it seems like a fairly opportune moment, especially in the solitude of a vacation trip, to reflect on the last fifteen years of my professional life.

When I joined Lotus in 1994, I had been a cc:Mail administrator for a couple of years.  I was responsible for the first major rollout of Lotus Organizer 1.1 for group scheduling, and I had been trained as a Lotus Notes 2.1 administrator.  Lotus products were behind a lot of my success as an IT guy.  In short, when Jon Raslawski called and asked if I wanted to interview for a sales engineer position at Lotus, I was on cloud nine.  I was interviewed by seven different people (and hurriedly bought two suits and three ties) before receiving the coveted job offer.

My instincts at the beginning were not quite so honed.  I was worried that I had joined Lotus "too late", and that four years in, perhaps Lotus Notes had peaked already.  This was reflected in my question to Jim Manzi during "Pespectives", the two-week sales training class for new hires.  I asked Manzi, "What comes after Notes?"  He replied, "more Notes".  And he was very, very right.

In 1994, I spent a fair bit of my time as a sales engineer on products like SmartSuite, cc:Mail, Organizer, even Lotus Improv.  Notes still cost US$495 a user and ran on OS/2 servers.  There was no Exchange, and my main competitive worry with Microsoft was around Office 95.  We still shipped shrinkwrap boxes of software, and were just starting to introduce "Lotus yellow".  During one of my first sales calls, I wanted to take notes in Notes on the conversation with the customer...popped out my monochrome Compaq 386/25 laptop....and was promptly told by my sales partner to use a pen and paper in order to be "quiet".

I wasn't much for the rumor mill in the early days.  I was on a sales call at Motorola, one of my early large clients, when one of the sales reps mentioned that word on the street was that either AT&T, who was building Network Notes, or IBM, who was working with Lotus on SmartSuite for OS/2, would buy Lotus.  In the era before the Internet, I found out about the IBM acquisition through a phone call (to a landline phone, of course) from my mom, who had heard the news on the radio.  Oddly, word had not even made it around the Lotus Chicago office yet that morning.

With much hindsight, IBM should have integrated Lotus into the bigger company much sooner.  It was awesome to operate as "Lotus, we're part of IBM" for a long time.  Clearly, many of the things we did back then (yes, including Denis Leary and R5) were unique traits of being a subsidiary and able to act independently.  But Lotus wouldn't be here today if it were not for IBM, and IBM brought much-needed structure and rigor to the organization.  There is nothing that riles me up more than when I hear how IBM is killing Lotus (or Notes specifically), or how IBM will do to Lotus Notes what it did to OS/2.  When IBM acquired Lotus, we had sold around 3 million licenses of Notes...or more than 142 million since.  Even if some of those were shelfware or whatever, so what.  Under IBM, Notes has grown into a significant and successful business.  There are some amazing memories of the time when Lotus was operating independently, but plenty of challenging times, too.

What I originally envisioned as a two-year job has turned into an incredible, exciting, and successful career.  I have held nine different positions over the last fifteen years, including three product management roles, two four-year sales stints, and a slew of marketing and strategy jobs.  I moved to Boston from 1998 to 2000 to be part of the product organization around Notes...a couple of trips to Lotusphere and a week spent in Cambridge had convinced me how exciting it would be to actually work on building the product and market.  I would say those two years were my coming of age.  I started traveling the world, doing multi-million dollar deals, and making decisions with real impact.  The 75 or so of us who were Notes product management and marketing back then all share some great memories...I think 2/3rds of that team still works in IBM, and most continue to work in Lotus-related positions today.

The early part of this decade was a rapid succession of different positions.  I was one of IBM's early pioneers for telecommuting, and an early adopter of blogging and other social media tools as part of my job.   The positions I held from 2000-2004 taught me a ton about operating a business...that was my on-the-job MBA.  In 2004, I was fortunate enough to be in the right place when Ambuj Goyal started the process of increasing investment in Lotus Notes, and a product sales position was created for me.  The irony at the time was that the very week I moved into that job, my career was embroiled in controversy as a result of this blog and an analyst firm's astroturfing.  The analyst firm said Notes was dead, and when I asserted that not only were they wrong, it was my personal mission to ensure they would be wrong on all predictions, they tried to have me fired instead.  Today, if you go back and read the analysis, they were wrong on all accounts (both Lotus- and non-Lotus related), and well, I would say my career did OK in the aftermath.

2004-2008 is when many of you first met me, on this blog or at conferences or user groups.  Though there were many battles, externally and also internally, these years put Notes back in the revenue growth column, and solidified many of your investments.  The competitive landscape was incredibly challenging, with Microsoft (by my estimate) spending $100 million to try to kill Notes.  Yet for four straight years, we grew revenue and the active number of end-users on maintenance contracts.  The coming together of the Lotus community was and is absolutely a key part of that success.  My own personal sense of accomplishment from this time period is measured in your success, and in knowing that every one of us, perhaps even the naysayers and egobloggers, helped get Notes where it is today.

Eight months ago, Bob Picciano, Kevin Cavanaugh, and many others brought me into the IBM executive ranks.  While my perspective and workload have changed, my passion has not.  I now work with a team of incredibly talented professionals across development, sales, marketing, and my own organization.  We have great ideas, and we're making as many of them happen as we possibly can.  Some problems are hard when you work with a set of products which have been in market for twenty years.  Others are simply opportunities for creative, smart business thinking.  Every day brings limitless opportunity to get involved in real-world decisions and customer situations, and the biggest challenge of the job is deciding which ones will be most impactful.  Some of our daily victories will never be celebrated in the public eye, while others are page one news in the Wall Street Journal.  No matter which type are on the agenda any given day, it's always going to be something interesting and challenging.

There is no way I would have hit this fifteen-year milestone without your daily inspiration, support, passion and creativity.  There are few jobs in the IT industry where the entire marketplace contributes directly to the success of a product or solution.  I'm frequently asked how much time I spend on the blog (or other social media) every day, and of late, my answer is, it doesn't matter.  It is some of the most valuable, interesting, and inspiring activity for me every single day.  For that, I thank all of you, past and present, who have been part of my career.  

Some day, I will write a book about the business side of Lotus Notes.  That book has been in my head for a long time.  I'd love to tell you more of the stories of the events, activities, and personalities that shaped this product's 20+ year history.  But I can't, not yet.  For while I have worked on this product a long, long time, I am but one of thousands of people who have been part of that fantastic story.  More importantly, we're nowhere near ready to write the climax, not even close to the last chapter.  It may be fifteen years today, but there is still much to do in the future.

Ed Brill | Category: Add/View Comments [48]

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  1. 1  Mary Beth Raven http://www.notesdesignblog.com | 6/14/2009 9:20:13 PM

    Bravo, Ed! I look forward to our professional future. A a New Hampshire resident, I'll quote another new Hampshie resident: Robert Frost. " We've got miles to go before we sleep!" Here is to 15 more years at Lotus (if you want them!)

  1. 2  Rishi  | 6/14/2009 9:41:55 PM

    Congrats Ed !!, Hope you make many more successful stories in the future.

  1. 3  Michael Kobrowski  | 6/14/2009 9:53:31 PM

    Herzlichen Glückwunsch! And Mazel Tov for at least another 15 years.... as Mary Beth said, if you want them....

  1. 4  Bill Geimer  | 6/14/2009 10:10:22 PM

    Happy 15th. I recall many of those years, and thank you for all the things you have done for me since the early support days. Bill

  1. 5  Nick Halliwell http://www.comware.net | 6/14/2009 11:20:36 PM

    Many congratulations Ed.

  1. 6  Andrew Price http://www.healthspace.com | 6/14/2009 11:53:44 PM

    Congrats Ed! I too must have just passed by 15th "Notes Anniversary" as I borrowed money to take the app. dev. and sys. adm. courses in April 1994.

    It is an amazing testament to the Lotus team and strong early design that -- 18 years after launch -- I have only recently seen toolsets that rival it.

    Bravo, Ed, bravo.

    Andy

  1. 7  Mike Reyher  | 6/15/2009 1:24:55 AM

    Congratulations and I know you have made a huge positive impact on Notes and your organization through your talented communication here.

    But you did leave out one important milestone. And that is when you switched to a Mac. ;-)

    Cheers.

    Mike

  1. 8  Darren http://www.dadams.co.uk | 6/15/2009 3:13:55 AM

    15 years? Oh yes, you're the new boy ;o)

    I remember when I heard about the IBM acquisition - I was in Singapore (in the shower), the current Mrs Adams heard it in on CNN and then shouted through the door. I remember saying "oh yeah, they're always saying that". This time it was true.

    I agree about the anti-IBM sentiment we sometimes hear (I mean I agree that it's wrong). The world is a very different place - we couldn't charge $400 a seat now, and IBM's patronage allowed Lotus to steadily reduce the price to a point that was palatable for a mass-market. I don't think Lotus could have made that shift alone. Being part of IBM isn't always easy, but it provides a tremendous amount of future-proofing.

    Ed, I think we first met at one of the technical rallies, but I do remember another early meeting. It was 11 years ago this October, and I was on 2 weeks assignment in Cambridge. One morning a few colleagues and I (Craig Iffert included) traveled to Westford to sit in on a product management meeting - in these days Cliff Reeves was your boss and there was a product manager for seemingly every conceivable part of the Notes / Domino product line.

    Congratulations on 15 years of success, here's to many more.

  1. 9  Frank Cseh http://twitter.com/fcseh | 6/15/2009 3:37:03 AM

    We like you Ed, keep up the good work to inform us about all Lotus Notes/IBM development. I wish you would inform us about the "new great MARKETING PLAN of Lotus Notes !"

    I'm with Lotus Notes ( developer) since 1991 and this is an itching issue.

    Cheers

    Frank Cseh

  1. 10  Antoine Leboyer http://www.gsx.net | 6/15/2009 3:48:21 AM

    Congrats and onwards to the next 15.

    AL

  1. 11  neil agate http://www.4gatesllc.com | 6/15/2009 6:27:55 AM

    Ed,

    Great retrospective. Keep up the good work (after you're vacation <gr>).

    cheers,

    neil

  1. 12  Mike Robinson http://www.invcs.com | 6/15/2009 6:53:34 AM

    Wow, must have been some vacation to be this reflective. A nice entry to start the week.

    I'm not sure how soon you think IBM should have pulled Lotus into the "IBM Way", but I think it was absolutely critical and necessary to keep it as *not* IBM (culture-wise) to retain talent and energy, and to diminish everyones legit fear that IBM wouldn't do to Notes what it did to (or didn't do for) OS/2.

    All that being said, we wouldn't been having this discussion today if it wasn't for IBM's $$$

  1. 13  Dave Taylor  | 6/15/2009 7:14:11 AM

    Congrats Ed, and thank you, you have a lot to be proud of.

    And if you have ever wondered if you made the right decision years ago between becoming a technologist or becoming a rock star, don't worry, you've done both :)

    I appreciate the great job you do being out front there for Lotus and for speaking your mind!

  1. 14  Denny Russell http://www.sherpasoftware.com/blogs/SherpaBlog.nsf/  | 6/15/2009 7:58:08 AM

    Congrats Ed. Thanks for being the strong advocate that you are. It's inspired a lot of us.

  1. 15  Rebeca Furtado http://www.rfurtado.com | 6/15/2009 8:23:00 AM

    Congratulations, Ed. They're inspiring 15 years. Keep it up. ;)

  1. 16  John Voigts  | 6/15/2009 8:40:01 AM

    Late 1994 is when my company purchased Notes and I was tasked with moving the fledgling CRM database I had build on Filemaker Pro ... you heard me right :-) ... to Notes. It's been an interesting ride. There has been alot of fun at times. There has been alot of frustration too. I thought we would be doing things years ago that we are just starting to do now... or not. Your blog has been a constant source of encouragement to me and often helped me see the bigger picture. You have helped me alot. Thanks.

  1. 17  Paul MOoney http://www.pmooney.net | 6/15/2009 8:40:23 AM

    Congrats Ed - best wishes for the next 15

  1. 18  Kevin Pettitt http://www.lotusguru.com | 6/15/2009 9:04:35 AM

    Congratulations and thanks for the recap Ed. Can't wait to see how the next chapter unfolds :-).

  1. 19  Carl Tyler http://www.iminstant.com | 6/15/2009 9:13:21 AM

    Totally agree on the IBM sentiments, if IBM hadn't bought Lotus it would have been gone within a year or so. Did IBM do everything right? Probably not, but it could have been much much worse.

  1. 20  Henry Ferlauto http://www.geniusinside.com | 6/15/2009 9:16:47 AM

    Congratulations on 15 years. May the next 15 years be twice as successful and enjoyable as the first.

  1. 21  Erik Brooks  | 6/15/2009 9:26:32 AM

    Ed, congratulations on your 15, and thanks for sharing. It's interesting to hear about the years from the point of view of somebody who's been inside the company the entire time.

    The day you lose the passion is the day you should leave, but it sounds like that's a long, long time away. In the meantime, keep it rocking - the brand would *NOT* be the same without you!

  1. 22  Jon Raslawski  | 6/15/2009 9:41:21 AM

    Congratulation Ed and thank you for the honorable mention -- I'm all smiles!!! You make me proud. And, like Henry@20 said ... looking forward to the next 15 ...

  1. 23  Stuart Macdonald http://www.linkedin.com/in/stuartmacdonald | 6/15/2009 9:46:20 AM

    Well done Ed, now are you are you really planning to do the full next 15???

  1. 24  Howard Greenberg http://www.tlcc.com | 6/15/2009 9:54:25 AM

    Congratulations Ed!

    It was 15 years ago when I left IBM and started to work with Notes as a consultant and trainer. Hard to believe it has been that long, the time has flown by.

    Howard

  1. 25  Andrejus Chaliapinas http://www.infosana.com | 6/15/2009 9:59:36 AM

    Great introspection Ed! Hope next 15 years will be full release of Java power in Lotus products after all those long talks about various roads ahead.

  1. 26  Roberto Boccadoro  | 6/15/2009 11:25:48 AM

    Welcome to the club Ed :-)

    My memories of the acquisition : The news arrived thru internal channels to the top management, and they decided not to tell anything to us employees, officially not worry us too much. But the rumors spread, and the web was there. WSJ home page and.... :-)

    Hope to see you around for the next 15 years, so you will pay me and Darren a beer for the 30s; after all you are the young boy...

    RoB

  1. 27  JP Liggett  | 6/15/2009 12:15:43 PM

    Congratulations Ed. Your recap and blog continues to inspire and make an impact on the LND world.

  1. 28  Charles Robinson http://www.cubert.net | 6/15/2009 12:21:09 PM

    From administrator to executive in 15 years is pretty impressive. Give you another 15 and you'll be CEO. I wish I could find a company that interested me enough to want to spend 15 years there.

  1. 29  Ferdy Christant http://www.ferdychristant.com | 6/15/2009 12:43:55 PM

    Congrats Ed! I always admired your drive. You're doing a great job for all of us.

  1. 30  Devin Olson http://www.devinolson.net | 6/15/2009 12:45:46 PM

    Hey Ed. Congratulations on 15 dazzling years. Here's to the next 15!

    -Devin.

  1. 31  John Head  | 6/15/2009 1:15:44 PM

    here is to 15 more years :-) been a pleasure to be part of your journey

  1. 32  Mike Gonzalez  | 6/15/2009 1:25:12 PM

    Hi Ed. I'm celebrating 15 years this month in Notes development myself. I worked for Lotus/IBM for 16 months, right at the transition. Wish I was still there but they didn't have work for me. I was in the Cleveland office. Congrats and have a great vacation.

  1. 33  Darren Duke http://blog.darrenduke.net | 6/15/2009 1:43:03 PM

    Admin to executive? Man, you must have sucked at admin ;)

    To the next 15 years and a book. Working title : "The boy who lived in a yellow bubble". They could even make a movie about ir { Link } with John Travolta as Ed. He (John) likes to play inter-galactic super-human types. Would that be type-casting?

  1. 34  Jeff Picco  | 6/15/2009 2:00:28 PM

    Very nice. Congratulations!

  1. 35  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 6/15/2009 3:39:42 PM

    @23 hard to say where the path will lead... when I joined Lotus in 1994, I expected to do a few years and move on to something else. As with technology, planning five years ahead personally has never made much sense to me -- who knows what the future will bring. Carpe diem.

  1. 36  Dvir Reznik http://dvirreznik.blogspot.com | 6/15/2009 3:46:29 PM

    MAZAL TOV ED!!!!!!!!!!!

    I'm glad we had the chance to work together for a glimpse period of those 15 years of service at Lotus. We started something special, too bad it was cut prematurely. I'm positive that in your next 15 years you'll leave an even bigger mark on the Lotus business, worldwide.

    Next time you're in Israel, drop me a line - beer is on me :-))

  1. 37  Alan Lepofsky http://www.alanlepofsky.net | 6/15/2009 4:44:06 PM

    So what chapter of the book is "I'm Not Alan Lepofsky" going to be?

    Your friendship and guidance both inside IBM and now outside, means a lot to me.

    Keep up the great work.

  1. 38  Philip Storry http://www.not-so-rapid.com | 6/15/2009 5:17:42 PM

    Congratulations, Ed.

    Thank you for everything you've done. And long may you continue to do it. :-)

  1. 39  Bob Balaban http://www.bobzblog.com | 6/15/2009 7:45:31 PM

    15 is a big deal, and no mistake. Congratulations!

    Let me know when you get ready to do the book, I also lived through the whole acquisition thing (July 5, 1995). Would be fun to match memories and details.

    Rock on!

  1. 40  Lakshmi N Daruru  | 6/15/2009 8:51:20 PM

    Congrats Ed. You're doing a great job for all Lotus/IBM community...Ex.IBM'r

  1. 41  Keith Taylor  | 6/15/2009 8:52:00 PM

    Ed, we've got our money on your brother!

  1. 42  Pete McPhedran  | 6/15/2009 9:08:31 PM

    First off, congrats Ed on 15 years at one place, in the old days that was nothing, now-a-days, that's a major milestone.

    The sad part is, the last time I heard this story, your twin brother was on vacation, lamented about his days at IBM, and then announced he was leaving.

    I'm just saying.

    Hope I'm wrong.

    --Pete

  1. 43  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 6/16/2009 7:55:41 AM

    @42 lol. No, I am not going anywhere right now. Too much to do. What is funny though is that when I took my sabbatical in 2000 (an "old Lotus" thing), and moved backto Chicago at the same time, everyone assumed I was leaving. Glad I didn't...

  1. 44  Mac Guidera http://www.macguidera.net | 6/16/2009 9:38:29 AM

    Awesome write-up! Thanks for sharing, it puts my 3 years into a new perspective.

  1. 45  Brian Benz http://www.softwaresoapbox.com | 6/16/2009 11:58:45 AM

    Congrats Ed! You deserve it. Can’t think of a better guy to be manning the ramparts.

    Any books will probably need a rewrite over the next few years….I see interesting things as your career moves from adolescence to adulthood, including potential challenges to the Java strategy from SunOracle, and the (re) opening of calls for a free or open source Notes client when Google Wave hits the streets.

  1. 46  Brian Benz http://www.softwaresoapbox.com | 6/16/2009 11:59:41 AM

    One more thing....

    Note to Deborah – proper form when you see Ed on the laptop on Vacation: Align yourself a few feet behind Ed’s head, bringing the right hand back in line with your right ear. Next, concentrate the physical power from your abdomen through your aligned body to the shoulders, bringing the hand down towards the side of his head just above the ear. Next, follow through with a single smooth motion and close the laptop. :)

  1. 47  Dave Harris http://www.wavysworld.com | 6/16/2009 12:02:10 PM

    @43 Glad to hear it, Ed. I look forward to when you can write the next major retrospective and the Yellow-washing of IBM is further along.

    On a personal note, I had the honour of sharing a podium with you at the first launch of the, now re-launched, Malaysian user group. While the group, in its first guise, may not have lasted, your personal commitment to the community was a great inspiration.

  1. 48  Matthias Wille http://www.flexdomino.net | 6/24/2009 6:03:44 AM

    Congrats Ed! I started developing in Lotus Notes just about a year after you joined Lotus. It was an interesting time and still is. Though I'm now moving a bit away from the Notes Designer as my sole development tool, the Lotus Notes Domino platform is for me still pretty much unchallenged when it comes to collaborative platforms. So I totally agree...there is no climax yet in site.