Leadership By Numbers

Category Management
"Well-built and intuitive." "Easy-to-use interface." Finally, some Microsofties recognize the Lotus 8.5 user interface is streamlined and polished. Redmond Magazine has a review of office suites by Carlos A. Soto that is focused on only those that offer collaboration integration. There isn't a lot of recognition of the Sametime, Symphony and Notes symbiosis that I'd have expected, but overall the tone is clear. Lotus Notes 8.5 is not your Father's Buick.

Rather than grapple with all the varieties of office suites, Soto narrows his scope to those that are integrated into unified communications, which is an easy way to distinguish enterprise platforms from consumer grade.

Anyone who's ever had the pleasure of opening an e-mail window from an instant messaging session understands the benefits of unified communication and collaboration (UCC). Within the last three years, UCC has gathered strength as a movement that could do just what its name promises: unite all forms of communication so that they all have the ability to interact with one another.

. . . the new features and clean interface of Lotus Notes 8.5 merit some recognition. Older versions of Lotus Notes used to be enigmatic and hard to use, let alone understand. But new capabilities such as the ability to right-click documents in any view in order to see a more concise menu of options have made the software a lot more accessible.

. . . similar to what you see in Outlook with e-mails.

. . . well-built and intuitive toolbar with icons for oft-used editing options, such as a text-color icon, highlighter icon, insert-link icon and an underline icon. These changes are subtle but make a big impact on ease of use.

Redmond Magazine is an "independent voice of the Microsoft IT community," so this is not an IBM/Lotus endorsement from Microsoft central. It is, instead, a well-deserved nod from Microsoft professionals that Lotus Notes is looking good. Microsoft Office may have been crowned as the most comprehensive solution, but Lotus is royalty-restored that has rejoined the Windows court.



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