Leadership By Numbers :: No "Bull," Lotus Rocks

On the eve of Lotusphere, eWeek has published the first review (I believe) of Domino V7. You'll want to read it, of course, but here are a few choice quotes:

With Version 7 of the Lotus Domino server and Notes client, IBM continues to provide the richest integrated collaborative environment available today.

For companies looking for a messaging solution, Notes and Domino is the most flexible one available. Not only does Domino run on a wide range of operating systems and server hardware, but it also provides a platform for delivering database-driven applications, e-mail and group calendaring, scheduling, and instant messaging.

Furthermore, the integration between the Notes client and IBM's IM and Web conferencing application, Lotus Sametime 7, is very well done.

Domino is now less costly to manage. . . .

Domino's ability to manage Notes client updates and policies makes it unique in the way the entire client/server architecture can be managed without the need for third-party tools.

While most Web mail interfaces are still progressing from a tool of convenience to something that could be used all the time, Domino Web Access includes the kind of core functionality and convenience features that make it a very usable client. For example, we could import holiday lists, create stationery, and bring e-mail and calendar information offline.

IBM has done a good job of putting the necessary tools at hand for integrating Domino and DB2. We liked the DB2 Access Views tools within Domino Designer, and the Domino Administrator client has the necessary form for managing a user's credentials that the Domino server will pass to the DB2 server.

Besides the eWeek review, there is more good news regarding Lotus: IBM has released their 4th quarter financial numbers and analysts are very upbeat about IBM's shift into more software. Scott M. Fulton, III, of TG Daily has summarized the report, and was surprised to find that software sales have generated the largest segment of profit. Here is Scott's perspective on IBM's software sales, including some comments from IBM's CFO, Mark Loughridge:

Which brings us to the stars of the day: Middleware, of all segments, was the stellar performer for IBM. Revenues from the company's WebSphere product line increased 4% for the quarter, year-over-year, with Tivoli's revenues up 3% and Lotus (can you believe we're talking about Lotus?) perking up by 2%. "Lotus continues to enjoy strong customer response to the Domino Version 7 product line, as well as very high interest in Workplace software," Loughridge said, referring to his company's collaboration software platform. "Workplace more than doubled both year-over-year and sequentially," he added.

Comments

3 - If you talk about something like it's a fact long enough, people start to believe it even if there is evidence to the contrary. Politicians and lobbyists know this and so does the MS PR department. What makes it worse is that occasionally they speak a nugget of real truth which enforces the validity of the lies they have spoken in the past.

It's good to see that the numbers for Domino continue to climb, but I wish that IBM would be more public with them.

Sean---

Posted by Sean Burgess At 01:30:40 AM On 01/19/2006 | - Website - |

2 - Sean, I find it's just so transparent to see "studies" published and migration tools updated which decry a declining platform. . . right before an International conference that has rising enrollment for the last two years.

Here's another example, have you noticed how many ads MS has placed concerning Linux? It's very clear that the prominence given to Linux is an announcement of its status.

eWeek and the financials report are straightalk.

Posted by jack dausman At 11:45:00 PM On 01/18/2006 | - Website - |

1 - Jack, you are going to have to recheck IBM's numbers cause they just don't jive with the ones from the Radicati Oracle!!! :)

Sean---

Posted by Sean Burgess At 09:46:43 PM On 01/18/2006 | - Website - |