Why partners need references, and how to help tell the Notes/Domino application development story

July 29 2009

I've said this before and I'll say it again -- if you are a business partner, you should really have some customer testimonials on your website or in the IBM references database.  Why?

Some of the Notes/Domino product managers are working on a presentation around Notes/Domino 8.5.1 to use with industry analysts and other influencers -- it will eventually become customer-facing material -- on our collaborative application development capabilities.  As most of you know, 8.5.1 marks the next step in the 8.x modernization of the Notes/Domino application development story, which started with Eclipse and composite applications in Notes 8, XPages for web applications in 8.5, and XPages for Notes client usage in 8.5.1, along with the move of Domino Designer to Eclipse and the updated Lotuscript and Java editors.

Image:Why partners need references, and how to help tell the Notes/Domino application development story        Image:Why partners need references, and how to help tell the Notes/Domino application development story

One way to focus on the apps is to tell the story of existing applications and solutions.  We are doing this by going through the IBM references database and through partner websites.  If you don't have any references in either place, we're not giving you any free airtime with influencers and prospects; you're just not going to be on the radar.  You might be the nicest partner in the world, but if we can't show how you are successfully building on Notes and Domino, we won't be able to share that enthusiasm with others.

Our core messages around the Notes/Domino 8.5.1 announcement will be about the application development platform -- and we want to highlight how "it's the apps" when it comes to real value with Notes and Domino. For my presentation (and those of my colleagues) at IamLUG, MWLUG, and UKLUG in the next several weeks, you'll hear much more emphasis on this part of our value proposition.  All of the investment in the application platform has been to help make the entire ecosystem more successful.  Your solutions are the reason customers chose and choose Notes.  The more we all tell that story, the more existing and potential clients will see the benefits o building even more collaborative solutions on Notes and Domino.

Ed Brill | Highland Park, IL USA Category:  Notes and Domino 8.5  Add/View Comments [10]

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  1. 1  Sean Cull http://www.seancull.co.uk | 7/29/2009 5:28:08 PM

    Ed, how does one get case studies into the IBM reference Database ?

  1. 2  Bruce Elgort http://Http://elguji.com/iqjam | 7/29/2009 5:41:41 PM

    Sean I can help you with this. Shoot me an email.

  1. 3  Bruce Elgort http://elguji.com/products | 7/29/2009 8:34:57 PM

    { Link }

    Sean I will catch you on Skype.

  1. 4  David Jeyachandran  | 7/30/2009 2:23:44 AM

    Hi Ed, As a customer it will be helpful to have a central location where we can see what products are used by different organisations. It is also be interesting to have a regularly updated list of companies that are continuing to invest in Notes.

    Hope to meet you when you are in Sydney.

  1. 5  Denny Russell http://www.sherpasoftware.com/blogs/SherpaBlog.nsf/ | 7/30/2009 7:48:16 AM

    You mean like this?

    { Link }

  1. 6  John Carini http://www.ienterprises.com | 7/30/2009 9:33:44 AM

    Ed,

    Do you want us to work with you if we get an 8.5.1 Xpages customer reference?

    John

  1. 7  Pete Janzen  | 7/30/2009 11:58:32 AM

    I am certainly looking for XPage references but welcome any N/D app dev related references. So weather you are a BP who is delivering a solution to market, providing services for a customer solution or a customer building your own, please contact me.

  1. 8  Pete Janzen  | 7/30/2009 11:59:57 AM

    oops, email would help. peter_janzen@us.ibm.com

  1. 9  Andrejus Chaliapinas http://www.infosana.com | 7/30/2009 1:42:16 PM

    Ed,

    For Lotus Notes ecosystem to be successful for next 10+ years sometimes from developer's point of view (yes, I hear your fulfilled promise to announce new 8.5.1 release as especially targeting to apps development and developers themselves) you need to know some common answers, i.e how to combine various pieces together now when they are Java artifacts and not as before (or will not be as such soon) old-known C/C++ pieces. An example of such new artifacts intercommunication in question could be Lotus Notes Java agents and Lotus Notes Java plugins. Seems to be both now from Java world, but still living in different JVMs.

    Please pay attention to that as well, while preparing various 8.5.1 announcement messages.

    As for customer references - sometimes customers don't allow us to publish their names, but we always try to put our repeatable solutions into IBM Global Solutions Directory.