A friend of mine (who I didn’t realize was blog-stalking me until she admitted to doing it) recently sent me an email simply saying: “Really?! Just like that, you’re going to ditch Notes for Exchange - all because of the iPhone?!”
Not exactly.
I won’t go on and on again about how I feel that IBM/Lotus is totally missing the boat on the iPhone thing. Instead, let’s focus on the facts. Various statements (from IBM/Lotus employees) have offered the following options/statements regarding Notes-iPhone integration:
- A) DWA-uber-lite
- B) Call APPLE and complain
- C) A 3rd party solution (of which there are many - but all fall short of what was shown in the Apple/Exchange demo, which brings us to…
- D) Quickly pointing out that the Exchange product has only be demoed, not shipped
- E) All of the above
Now, as a senior executive in our organization, my job is to look at trends and plot the course of how our company will deal with emerging technologies and general business developments/directions. While, I can’t (easily) picture our company WITHOUT Lotus Notes, I also CAN (easily) see a wide-spread adoption of the iPhone. I’ve tested many (MANY!) phones and this is the first one to get so many things right and still be so easy to use.
… with one HUGE exception: its ability to integration with Notes.
Normally, that’s a show stopper. We’d exclude the device from consideration and move on to the next one. But in the case of the iPhone, I simply can’t. Its such a powerful device, easy to use and gives people the ability to have so many tools easily at their fingertips. Let’s also not forget: its fun! And that’s a big deal! In a world where we are all available 24/7 by emails, voicemails and text messages; we’re tied to this device anyway - so why not make it at least partially fun for us to carry! When I’m traveling, not only am I still completely in contact with the office, I’m also listening to music, watching videos or catching up on podcasts.
Back to trends and developments… another big one for us is a movement to web-based applications. They’re easier to access, often more powerful and quickly replacing a fleet of locally replicated databases that need to be updated each time we connect before we can start using them.
So… if I already have access to the internet everywhere; if my applications are web-based; if I’m carrying a single device that connects me to those applications and my email/calendar/contacts and, by the way, its fun to use - then why do I need my Notes client? The answer: only for databases we haven’t yet web-enabled.
In this model, Exchange can easily replace Domino for users who don’t require the Notes client for Notes-based applications. In our case, there are many groups or divisions where it wouldn’t be terribly difficult to make this jump; which makes it that much easier to consider when I try to find a way to integrate iPhones into the organization.
Hopefully that helps explain our situation. You can extend this even further by saying that other Lotus products (like Quickr - which we’re also evaluating) aren’t the natural “no brainer” they once might have been simply because we’re already a “Notes shop.” If that’s the case (and it is) then its my duty to more closely evaluate competitive products because the value-add of having tight Notes integration is less today than it was a few years ago.
At the end of the day, I don’t want to move anyone off Notes/Domino; certainly not for Exchange! Ugh! But… the iPhone is the single most important device to hit the market for a long time and its just getting started. I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t see the potential there and look for ways to integrate this powerful (and now reasonably priced) tool into our organization.
Share This