Whatever we call it, part 2
November 26 2012
Up early as I am about to embark on what potentially could be my second round-the-world trip of the year, in equally short time. First stop, New York City. Then Copenhagen and the DanNotes event. Then, perhaps, Seoul. All great stuff and worth the trip.
Two weeks ago, I hosted a webcast to unveil the public beta of IBM Notes and Domino Social Edition. Viewed live by 2000 people, and thousands since, the feedback on the upcoming release and its key messages was nearly 100% positive. Over 1000 companies signed up for the public beta in the five days after the broadcast. In short, the event was a success, and those of you who make your living using Notes and Domino have told me that you are ready to start working with 9.0 Social Edition beta.
The blog entry I wrote to go along with the webcast received several thousand hits more than normal, in part due to the interest in the announcements. However, in a bit of a surprise, much of the traffic was generated by an inaccurate meme making its way through the industry press. It seems to have started with this unfortunately-headlined Computerworld story, which -- even though neither their story itself nor my blog entry said so, linked to my blog and claimed that IBM was killing the Lotus brand. I suppose if I hadn't written that blog, they would have just linked to the webcast itself to tell the story they wanted to tell
This may be a subtle point, but it is important to state it clearly: the Lotus brand of IBM software will continue to be in-market for many years to come. IBM Lotus Notes and Domino 8.5.x, for example, will be supported through at least 2016. There are several other Lotus-branded software products still available.
Nobody is killing anything, surely not me in a blog entry or webcast or anywhere else. The branding move for the next release of Notes/Domino, Social Edition, is an evolution being done with the needs and wants of clients and business partners in mind. Similar evolution has already taken place in moving LotusLive to SmartCloud for Social Business to align with the broader IBM Cloud Portfolio. All of the smart industry analysts who Darryl Taft interviewed in the eWeek story about the brand evolution confirmed this need for the product to align with the higher-value requirements of the market, including Judith Hurwitz:
"If you look at IBM's software strategy, it is clear that collaboration services are no longer standalone services," Hurwitz said. "In fact, we are seeing that collaborative and social business services are embedded in everything from data services to converged infrastructure. ... It is a good move and will definitely help IBM."And it's important to recognize that those collaboration and social business services are a market where IBM has been recognized as the market leader, three years running, by IDC.
In my forthcoming book Opting In (book, 39% off at present | ebook, use discount code BRILL) , I speak to the role of social media in product management, and the sometimes unintended results of speaking broadly to the market. There is no way to "slimcast" a message in social business today. While those of you in the "Lotus community" clearly understood the message, the evolution, and provided positive feedback on the name of the forthcoming beta release, the mainstream press went for headlines and obituaries. Those of you working with Notes and Domino have indicated, as we discussed many moons ago, that your work continues "whatever we call it." In the next couple of weeks, we have a lot of "it" coming out of the labs: IBM Docs on SmartCloud, IBM Mobile Connect 6.1.5, Lotus Notes Traveler 8.5.3 Upgrade Pack 2, updated IBM Connections Mail, and IBM SmartCloud Notes GA7. All of this will be punctuated by the IBM Notes and Domino 9 Social Edition Beta.
The new Notes/Domino beta has given us all a chance to reflect, with some very good memories and history. As we head into IBM Connect 2013, I've never been more excited about the future of Lotus Notes, and of the community around IBM collaboration solutions. Our collective mission and carries a lot of opportunity and innovation in the months ahead, whatever name(s) appear on the label.
Post a Comment
- 2
Ranjit | 11/26/2012 5:42:14 AM
Ed,
1 more important question which I had is - for existing customers, who are running older versions of LN like 5.0/6.0/6.5/7.0, are we suggesting that IBM will help them move to the latest version with an upgrade? If yes, what would be the cost involved? Do they need to upgrade only their servers or clients as well since the licensing cost plays a major role in making a differentiating factor between Notes/Domino & other products of other software vendors?
- 3
Carl Tyler http://Www.epilio.com | 11/26/2012 6:14:20 AM
So I'm confused, are IBM going to spend marketing dollars on products that are still supported? Will there be new products (not mainetenance releases) that have the Lotus moniker?
I don't see the big deal about people thinking Lotus is dead, it's a brand not a product. People have asked for a while for IBM to rip the band aid off and kill the Lotus brand, this post tries to turn what appears inevitable into a slow bleed?
- 5
Carl Tyler http://Www.epilio.com | 11/26/2012 6:25:31 AM
Sorry this "marketing dollars on products that are still supported?" should have been "marketing dollars on Lotus branded products that are still supported? "
- 6
Ben Rose http://www.jaffacake.net | 11/26/2012 6:39:17 AM
Ah, the good old IT press jumping on another "Lotus is dead" story. They published similar back in 2001 when Lotus staff started being issued ibm.com email addresses.
Unfortunately journalists in many publications are no longer targetted on quality but, instead, quantity of articles. Publishing content frequently is essential to stay high in the Google News rankings and any story, no matter how weak, is better than no news. Why your last blog was linked from these is beyond me, you weren't carrying the claimed message at all - at least not from where I'm sat.
It's been an IBM product for a long time now, even installs into an "IBM" sub-folder by default, so there really is no news here. From this career long customer's perspective, it makes no difference at all what badge is on it.
- 7
Stuart McIntyre http://collaborationmatters.com | 11/26/2012 12:49:26 PM
OK, I'm with Carl. I'm a bit confused by this post Ed.
The Computerworld headline said 'IBM kills Lotus brand, readies beta of Notes/Domino Social Edition'. Surely that's exactly what IBM's done. Killed the brand. Big deal, it has had it's day. But hey, the products go on, moving forward, new betas etc. I think this is a great story. If we never saw the name 'Lotus' associated with a software product again, that's fine.
Do you really think existing customers will be confused and think IBM would rip away support for existing IBM (formerly Lotus) Notes/Domino releases?
I personally think the messaging has been handled really well, and the press has done a good job of understanding and communicating this. Don't muddy the waters - there's no need... ;-)
- 8
Jeff Eisen | 11/26/2012 1:05:24 PM
I'm more concerned that people might misinterpet the message on cursory read. One of my Thanksgiving guests (she is in IT) told me she read that IBM is killing Notes. I assured her nothing could be further from the truth.
- 10
Alex | 11/26/2012 1:44:56 PM
The other issue is with "partner" products. For example by next year Salesforce.com will withdraw their Notes client support.
You can't get their Notes client anymore, unless you were a client before Oct 2011.
{ Link }
This means that Social Edition couldn't even be considered.
It is hard to advocate for the Notes when another of your critical vendors are removing support.
IBM needs to pressure other vendors to at least maintain support for the client.
- 11
Carl Tyler http://www.epilio.com | 11/26/2012 3:45:04 PM
Thanks for your explanation.
- 12
Mike Robinson | 11/26/2012 3:47:00 PM
Your die hard "till the wheels fall off" customers"get it, they know how to categorize the terms dead/dying/killed as urban myth and have fact-checked it long ago. You're average non-Loti IT pro is repeatedly amazed/surprised that the product is developed. I'd say out of the last 30 people I've talked to in a variety of work scenarios 25 of them thought Notes didn't exist anymore and was surprised to hear it's actively developed.
Anyway it is what is and it's one of those things that those who derive any sort of income from the Notes/Domino eco-system has to deal with.
The salesforce.com EOL is either a massive loss or an opportunity for a biz partner to step in a develop an integration product to fill this space. Salesforce for reasons known to most of the world has decided it's not worth the investment in manpower. It sucks because there are TONS of Notes client that integrate with it, and I can't count how many migrations I've been a part of where the reason was some 3rd party product wasn't available for Notes. Anyway like I said could be an opportunity (read as hopeful thinking) for some biz partner to fill the gap.
- 14
Alex | 11/26/2012 6:06:17 PM
@ed.
We tried linkpoint in the past, but users weren't satisfied. I will take a look to see if it has improved.
I think the key difference is the implementation.
Linkpoint required a different mail template, but the Salesforce was directly integrated into the client via eclipse, very nicely I might add..
- 15
Hogne B. Pettersen http://www.elfworld.org | 11/27/2012 11:48:56 AM
Salesforce is not the only third part company leaving Notes and Domino behind. I've been desperately trying to find OCR-scanning software for Lotus Notes for our accounting department. I ended up having to install Outlook on the computer of the sales secretary, so that she could scan invoices into the emails. Thankfully Outlook can connect to Domino.
And this isn't the only time I've spent a lot of time trying to find third party plugins for systems that have plenty of options for Outlook or gmail.
Yesterday even LinkedIn discontinued their Lotus Notes plugin.
I'm glad Notes Social Edition is soon out, and I was actually happy to hear of "the killing of the Lotus name" so I'm a bit befuddled right now. I'm also glad to hear that several thousand companies are still using Notes. However, the ones I'm in contact with have either replaced Notes, or are still running v5 or v6 while waiting for all their applications to be replaced.
Still, I'm a Notes evangelist and I'm happy to say that I've increased user satisfaction with the Notes client measurably by teaching my fellow employees on how to use it.
We are currently implementing IBM Connections at work and I think the social edition will be a great combo.
- 16
Frédéric Fanchamps | 11/28/2012 8:26:15 AM
I've read the article, and I don't see anything in contradiction with your post (or negative for Notes).
I don't understand the problem.
- 17
David Hablewitz http://thenotesguyinseattle.com | 11/30/2012 3:05:24 PM
I have discovered an unintended consequence of dropping Lotus from the brand name. Internet search results will become increasingly less relevant. Until now, it was easy to narrow search results by including the term "Lotus Notes" or even just "Lotus" in your search. That is no more. In particular, it made job searches on websites like Monster.com very easy.
But as IBM moves to Social Edition, it appears other long-standing systems are being abandoned along with it. For instance, the fix list website that includes the estimated release date of the upcoming release: { Link }
Notice that there are no versions listed beyond 8.5.4. That also goes for listing the SPRs that have been fixed: { Link }
I have been relying on this website for oh-so-many-years. (Actually, I'm one of those old school guys that uses Notes and connects to Notes1/NotesWeb at notes1.notes.net) So is there a replacement site?
- 18
David Hablewitz http://thenotesguyinseattle.com | 11/30/2012 3:32:21 PM
Regarding the fixlist db, I briefly forgot that "dot zero" releases don't show here.
Ed,
Thanks a lot for your insight into the re-launch of Notes/Domino. As an architect, I feel that the opportunities for me have dwindled over the past few years since many organisations have moved to other technologies. Lets say, that other software vendors have capitalized on this & have gone to existing Lotus users/organizations and told them that IBM doesn't have a road map for Domino/Notes and hence convinced them to move out.
I would be particularly interested in knowing how IBM plans to re-market Domino/Notes 9.0 in a big way and take out the competition. Also, I am not sure if people who have moved away will return or not, but, can we stop many more customers to move away from Notes/Domino.