Let’s talk Lotus

ORLANDO, Florida – Buzzwords flooded the hall at the Walt Disney World Dolphin Hotel that brimmed on all corners with think tanks and software geeks.

Ever wondered what it’s like to be thrust into a scientist’s lab full of people that seemed to be fiddling with the future?

Well, Lotusphere was one such experience, and from everyone’s vantage point, it was clear to see that IBM had its sights set on earning its rightful share of that future.

Never mind that the Asian market, including the Philippines, still cuddles up to Outlook Express and Internet Explorer, IBM apparently knows that it will only be a matter of time before the whole world is on Lotus.

Gleaning the roadmap, IBM’s confidence seems well-placed.

Awash from an unheard-of double-digit growth in its Lotus software business in 2005, IBM has been quick on the draw in unveiling a new round of weapons in its vast software arsenal with Lotus Notes and Domino 7, Lotus Sametime 7.5, and a slew of IBM Workplace software.

What sets the latest releases apart is collaboration, a big word in IBM circles that puts a premium on user experience and customer needs.

"While some of our competition are narrowing their focus on just e-mail capabilities, IBM continues to expand and evolve Lotus Notes and Domino to deliver the extended business value of a true collaborative platform," IBM workplace, portal and collaboration software GM Michael Rhodin said.

E-mail, he clarified, is just one among many collaboration tools offered by Lotus, and this is the major difference between the IBM product and Microsoft’s Exchange. The "collaboration" mantra especially benefits Lotus at a time when e-mail is fast becoming passé among a growing number of 20- to 21-year-olds.

IBM’s numbers say it all.

After six months in the market, Lotus Notes 7 has racked up a user base of three million, with some 70,000 users downloading Domino 7 server software in their systems. The latest release integrates some 120 enhancements, not counting a host of exciting features that will be made available to users in 2007 when IBM introduces the next generation of Lotus Notes, code-named "Hannover."

If you ask Rhodin, how Lotus is faring in the challenging software business has a lot to do with IBM’s highly successful open standards strategy.

"One of the values of our approach as an open systems vendor is that our software runs on whatever environment our customer wants it to run on. We don’t make customers change their environment. That’s a fundamental philosophy here at IBM," Rhodin shared.

Macintosh diehards, for one, are bound to applaud news of IBM providing expanded support for Mac OS X users and also providing support for Lotus Notes 7 on Apple’s Mac OS X "Tiger" version, with integrated Lotus Sametime instant messaging. Mac support for Domino Web Access, IBM’s browser-based messaging client, via the Firefox browser, is also forthcoming.

Even the legion of mobile users cannot possibly escape IBM’s attention.

With big names like BlackBerry, Nokia, Good Technology and Intellisync throwing in their hats into the collaboration ring, IBM now offers a choice of multiple computing and browser platforms (including Firefox, Internet Explorer, Windows, Macintosh and Linux) and a wide variety of upcoming support for mobile solutions.

Much to my surprise, a visit to the Nokia booth at the trade show in hopes of powering my phone with an IBM plug-in made me realize that the BlackBerry mobile e-mail service being offered locally for Nokia 9300 users was actually the product of an IBM collaboration.

"Opening up to the outside world, that has been an IBM strategy for 15 years," Rhodin said. He went on to say that as software GM for IBM, it’s not his job to tell people what to use, but to find out what people are currently using, ways they would like to work around their tool, and to create solutions tailored to those needs.

Amid wild cheers among the throng of developers at Lotusphere, IBM announced an exciting collaboration platform that includes a new version of Lotus Sametime, new audio and video conferencing integration, and connectivity with some of the leading consumer IM platforms such as AOL and Yahoo Messenger.

IBM and Google are also into talks to connect Lotus Sametime with Googletalk.

Judging from the reception, the latest incarnation of Lotus Sametime, which has given IBM a commanding leadership in the instant messaging market with some 20 million users worldwide, looks like another gold mine.

Currently, three out of four of the most profitable corporations in the US are on Lotus Sametime, as are 60 percent of the Fortune Global 50 companies, eight out of the top 10 banks and pharmaceutical companies in the world, and 25 companies with 1,000 seats each.

Lotus Sametime version 7.5 has over 100 new features built around major improvements in instant messaging and Web conferencing capabilities; security features, privacy settings and location awareness capabilities; the bells and whistles thrown in for good measure.

"Real-time technology has helped flatten the world by eliminating time and space barriers between people. This has profoundly changed how we all do business," Rhodin said. "At IBM, we view this as an evolution from real-time tools to real-time business."

In fact, even as Rhodin spoke, the business processing and outsourcing industry in the Philippines, as in India and in other parts of Asia, is experiencing explosive growth.

An increasing number of companies are setting up shop, employing workers by the thousands, and – barring serious time and cultural disparities – providing real-time work and services, including technical support, backend operations, and telemarketing initiatives for clients situated in some other part of the globe.

Ready or not, even we have a part in the global economy that runs on computers and software, and we obviously aren’t the only ones treading Thomas Friedman’s flat world.

It could be fiddling with the future, but IBM knows what it takes to survive, and it’s called collaboration.