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WELCOME to those of you following the link from infoBOOM!

Lotus technologies are the “secret sauce” to the IT dishes our company serves up. And NO, Lotus Notes isn’t just email, there’s so much more! Here are some real-world examples of how and why it is such a powerful component of how we deliver outstanding IT systems…

Mobility & Flexibility
The entire Lotus Notes client can run off a USB memory stick! Simply plug in the USB stick into any computer and an icon appears on the desktop allowing the user to access the full Lotus Notes client experience without installing any software to that computer! Our users can now access Lotus Notes at home or from another computer if they ever have a hardware failure on their primary machine. For users who simply need email access, each email file includes an “iNotes” version which can be accessed via the web. The web interface is nearly identical to their Notes client, so there’s no learning curve!

Operating system agnostic
We have a mix of Windows XP, Vista, 7, Linux and even Mac users in our organization. ALL of these users are able to have the exact same email and application experience by using the Lotus Notes client. The only differences between these operating systems are found in core components (title bars, scroll bars, etc.).

iPhone
Apple’s wonder-phone is closing in quickly on RIM’s BlackBerry devices. With Lotus’ Traveler utility running on your Lotus Domino server your users can use a variety of mobile devices (Windows Mobile, Symbian and many more) including the iPhone! Traveler integrates directly into the iPhone’s mail, calendar and contacts applications and the result is a fast, easy and secure way to access your information … when you’re not playing games, of course.

Getting business done!
Have an ERP or legacy system you need to connect Notes to? No problem. The Lotus Enterprise Integrator (LEI)  is a low-cost solution that is easy to use. Simply point it to your data, establish the type of data link and BOOM your systems are integrated giving Notes a powerful connection to your other key business systems.

Application Development – Easy and Free
Development in Lotus Notes is easy and free with the recent announcement of no additional cost for the Lotus Designer client. Just about anyone can easily design a Notes application in a short period of time – its that easy. However, don’t think that means its “limited” – its not. With support for JavaScript, Java, Lotuscript, XML and much more, Lotus Notes is as powerful as you need it to be!

Cost Cutting
There are many different types of Lotus licensing available making it a cost-effective product for just about anyone. Small/Medium organizations might want to look into Lotus Foundations an all-in-one server solution that is an integrated email, VPN, firewall and file/print solution that’s self-healing, easy to setup and even backed-up all within the one device. Think of it as an “IT department in a box!”

Powerful Web Tools
Notes has progressively become a better web-friendly system. The addition of Xpages allows developers to build powerful, web 2.0 applications within the Notes Designer. There’s even built-in Ajax functionality alongside tools that support CSS, XML, etc. (etc. is not a web standard – didn’t want you to think you had something new to learn).

What’s more, the developer community for Notes is building their own cool applications – many of which you can download for free. The ext.nd project is based on ExtJS and gives you an easy jump-start to web enabling databases with a very contemporary, intuitive user interface that instantly gives users lots of dynamic functionality on the web. There’s also plenty of applications to download from OpenNTF.org, a community of web developers who produce fantastic Notes apps (many web-enabled) for free download.

Project Management & Collaboration
Lotus Quickr offers a web based project management & collaboration system. The result is an easy-to-use, highly configurable utility for managing project teams. Quickr “places” (project sites in Quickr) allow users to control access/security, store files in a library, create/manage gantt charts, calendars and even write their own custom forms.

Quickr also includes “Connectors” – software integration that works with Windows Explorer, Microsoft Office, Lotus Notes and many more. Connectors allow you to check in/out documents from a Quickr place without having to leave the software you’ll use to view/edit the document.

Like much of the Lotus software there’s a strong community around Quickr – and that community is so passionate about the power of the software that they provide free stuff! Quickrtemplates.com offers a number of free Quickr place types (customized Quickr site types for specific uses, like wiki’s, contact management and corporate communications) that will let you quickly download, install and launch great Quickr functionality in your organization.

Lotus software offers so much more than I’m able to type out – or you’re willing to read. The bottom line is this: people who hear “Lotus” and think “Lotus Notes – that old email system” are missing out. Lotus software offers some amazing software and has a community around it that makes the software even more powerful. With systems like Notes, Quickr, etc. you’ll be able to easily, quickly, and cost-effectively make a dramatic change in your IT application landscape. Before you know it, you’ll suddenly realize why its the secret sauce behind powerful applications.

As Ed Brill points out, today Lotus Notes turns 20! I didn’t start using Notes until it was on version 3.something but I feel like I’ve been in on the sort of “ground floor” of Notes for some time now. I’ve used it at several different companies including an IBM business partner consulting firm.

The things I’ve been able to do with Notes over the course of my professional career have been quite amazing. The best part is that MANY (read: nearly all) of the applications I personally developed (back when I wasn’t “management” and actually knew how to develop well) are still in use today. That’s impressive when you consider they were developed in 4.5, 4.6, R5, etc. and running (in most cases) under Notes 8.5.1 today!

I firmly believe that Lotus Notes has been the secret sauce to many of the successes I’ve been a part of in a wide range of IT projects. I also get just as frustrated today as I did “back in the day” when people who don’t use Notes ask if its still around.

So this week’s birthday makes an article that I wrote for theinfoBOOM.com (posting Dec. 8, 2009) perfect timing to help explain why Lotus Notes is still stronger than ever as it turns into its 20’s.

Tags: happy_birthday, notes

Dear GM,

I recently purchased a new Buick Enclave from you and LOVE it! I’ve owned many (MANY!) cars and this one easily makes it into my “top 3″ favorite cars of all time. You really did an outstanding job on the vehicle. Oh, and you’ll be happy to note that this vehicle replaced a Lexus RX, which we opted to not re-purchase in lieu of getting the Enclave. So your ad campaign targeting the Buick brand against Lexus is working (and in my estimation, accurate).

I have only two complaints about the vehicle:
1. The side-view mirrors are far too small for a vehicle that big
2. The range of the auto-start (even the “enhanced” one with the key fab larger than a Motorola Razr cell phone) sucks. A lot.

I’m not sure if you know this or not, but Viper has built a great iPhone app that allows people to start up their cars (among other things) by using their iPhone. Its a great app and I’m quite confident its translating into some nice sales.

That got me to thinking… why don’t YOU do it? You already have the infrastructure in place in the form of the OnStar system which can remotely do all sorts of stuff to a GM vehicle. Why not build an iPhone app that allows us, the owners of those cars, to remotely start/stop the vehicles? You could charge for the app (I suggest “free” but if you’d like to make some money, I’d pay as much as $29.99 for the app) and require an OnStar service contract to be in place (of which, I’m on the fence about anyway – this would throw me over that fence).

Beyond being a forward thinking product, this would also solve the problem of how poorly the range is on your key fabs, including the advanced one which I have purchased for the $200+ price and yet seen only a 3 foot range improvement (exaggeration – but not by a whole lot).

If you’re looking for someone to help test it, I humbly offer my services.

Sincerely,

Me.

Tags: buick, cars, gm, great ideas, iphone

Earlier tonight I finally got around to completing a survey from IBM on user interface. I found it funny that I marked this as a favorite on my iPhone’s Twitter app (EchoFon) a couple of weeks ago because it was easy to mark it as a favorite, but forgot about going back to Twitter to DO the survey because “favorites” aren’t called out clearly on Twitter – thus proving that yes, user interface does have a significant impact on use of an application.

I then went into my home email account to find two emails from people who tried to comment on my last post and had problems doing so – both later said the blog design didn’t clearly show where/how to comment (again proving, interface is important — and prompting the design change you see now).

So yes, interface matters.

I was on a conference call today with other IT executives when I heard one say (summarizing) “… the name ‘Lotus’ needs to go – its a tarnished brand that conjures up images of ‘1-2-3′ and ‘Lotus Notes’…” he went on to suggest that Lotus software isn’t relevant or even worth talking about in IT departments.

OUCH!!!

First – I don’t agree with him at all! Second – it still bugs me that I didn’t speak up to defend Lotus, however it wasn’t the purpose of the call and would have gotten us way off track; so out of respect for the meeting chairperson, I shut my mouth.

But it got me thinking about how many other IT professionals are out there who think the same thing. And that inspired me with the topic I had been searching for on an upcoming piece I’m doing for infoBOOM! all about why this comment is not at all true! Stay tuned (until about Dec. 8th).

Tags: infoboom, lotus, ouch

It is with a most humble attitude that I need to make this announcement: I just ordered a new laptop – and its not a Mac.

(Dominokeys.com would like to take this moment to remind you that for all medical emergencies we recommend using 911 or your cities local emergency services phone number.)

Yes. I’ve been a Mac fan for years. I’ve harped on the lack of Lotus support for the Mac. I’ve praised Lotus for a solid Mac Notes client. And now, I’ve gone back to a PC.

Simply put: there are too many business applications I need to run that require me to “live” in Parallels (virtualized Windows environment). If that’s where I’m spending my time, then why not just RUN Windows?! Our VPN, Cisco IP soft-phone, Quickr Connectors, System i emulation – and a list of other tools all require Windows. Yes, I could go around and hunt down Mac counterparts to those tools but it almost always results in more work for my Admins or the purchase of another software package (the System i emulator alone was over $100!).

At the end of the day – I need to get BUSINESS done. I’m not abandoning Mac altogether – I still have an iMac and MacBook at home. And I may even keep my MacBookPro around for presentations, videos and such. But as the primary machine, I’m kind of looking forward to the simplicity of Windows.

How smart of a decision will that be? I’m sure you’ll read about it here over the next few months.

Tags: Apple / Mac, bizness, lotus, mac, pc, windows

I’ve discovered that is all I need to say now after I re-call someone I just got disconnected from when using my iPhone.

Sad.

The best mobile device in the world is quickly becoming the most distrusted piece of technology in my life. I didn’t realize it until today when I stopped to think that I now:

• Schedule conference calls around when I’ll be near a land-line
• Preface important calls with “… I’m on an iPhone, so if we get disconnected, I’ll call back.”
• Interrupt people who call my cell to ask if I can call them back from another line
• Often use the phrase “Sorry, iPhone” to explain I got cut off

Its been YEARS since I did any of those things consistently. Cell phone technology has been pretty dang good for the last few years and call quality and reliability reached a point where it didn’t really matter what phone I was using – the cell phone was nearly as good as a land line. But the iPhone is quickly undoing that.

Now… I’ve been an iPhone user since day one. Literally. It seems that this problem has become much worse in the last 30 days. Which prompted me to wonder: what changed?

1. iPhone software update
2. Enabling push notifications on EchoFon (a Twitter app)
3. Notes Traveler

I disabled #2. I’ll roll back to the previous version to address #1 if #2 doesn’t fix it. And I sure as heck hope that #3 has nothing to do with any of this. Because “I heart Traveler.”

Tags: iphone, traveler, why we got disconnected from that call

A few weeks ago, I missed out on an event in St. Paul that I was looking forward to attending. (We can blame that on a misunderstanding between me, and my car’s navigation – more on that at another time.) However I was happy to see that presentations from the event (all about social media in the enterprise) were made available on-line (and using SlideShare.net, which let’s face it: if they weren’t there – I’d be a bit concerned, given the topic).

One presentation stuck out as particularly interesting to me, thus the re-link below. Yes, its 112 slides, but it goes quickly. I highly recommend checking it out.

I realized that Microsoft was hurting. The Vista launch didn’t do them any favors. Apple’s been a pain in the rear lately. Windows Mobile has some solid competition. Hey, even Office has problems with companies like Lotus giving away the same (essentially) thing for free. But I had no idea it was this bad…

Poor Microsoft has to resort to getting revenue by putting up ads on web pages that are themselves ads. Almost makes me want to buy something from them. Almost.

Tags: ads, microsoft

InvestorPlace.com has a report out about how Apple’s iPhone is closing in on RIM/BlackBerry in a number of categories. While the BlackBerry is the defacto standard for mobile business devices, there is a clear trend that even business users are moving to the iPhone.

With the release of Lotus Notes/Traveler support for the iPhone we have seen an amazing amount of interest. We have limited our deployment of iPhones to ensure we do our due diligence of testing it in our environment but continue to have daily inquiries about the status of that testing. I’ve never seen so many people interested in “beta testing” something for our group. I’ve also NEVER seen people offer to pay for the device out of their own pocket if they can simply get one with their company-issued cell phone number attached. I’ve even had a few people who have asked if they can buy the device AND pay the additional monthly service costs, if any.

Hmmm… perhaps I’m sitting on a profit center and don’t even know it?

This report suggests not only that there continues to be a strong migration to the iPhone (although, not necessarily at the expense moving away from RIM) but that the customer satisfaction for using the iPhone continues to be very strong… an item I find interesting in light of a variety of articles suggesting that as many as 30% of iPhone calls are dropped (I’ve never experienced anything anywhere near that number).

Regardless, I find it interesting that a device which has nominally changed in three generations (face it, it hasn’t changed significantly) still has so much interest that people are still wanting to migrate to it; love it when they have it; and willing to pay out of their own pocket so they can have it. Amazing!

Tags: blackberry, iphone, marketing, mobile, notes, traveler