Domino Interface

This hold Lotus Foundation non-announcement has once again have me shaking my head about IBM's understanding and focus on the SMB market. As I said on Christian Tillmanns' blog. "IBM have some of the best solutions for the SMB market, but never seem to understand the importance of this market not just in the revenue perspective, but the impact it has on the enterprise market. Remember that Microsoft’s and Google’s primary focus initially was in the SMB market. And now look where are they. If you have a good foothold on the SMB market you will gain in the enterprise market. What IBM needs to understand is that every individual consumer is a small business and they grow to become enterprises by number. Good example is what Microsoft did with Outlook. Google has done with Google Docs. IBM still does not get it. For example, if you want people to adopt Lotus Symphony DO NOT, DO NOT require people to fill out a super long form or any form at all. I told a customer to try it, b...

Everyone who is a small business owner or runs their own consulting needs to read this article. Big government making small business owners life more miserable. Imagine the paperwork we now have to deal with. http://money.cnn.com/2010/05/21/smallbusiness/1099_deluge/index.htm

At Lotusphere 2009, a number of business partners including myself were discussing how BPs who focus solely on the small business market ( small not medium) can collaborate and discuss our needs which is different from BPs who focus on the mid-market and enterprise. Bernie Leung from Mesa Technologies suggested that we start a LinkedIn group as a starter. I also have many others ideas. The new "Lotus for Small Businesses" LinkedIn group is now online. If you are a BP that focuses on the small business market come join our group. http://www.linkedin.com/groups?home=&gid=1775798

The new refresh of the IBM Lotus Notes/Domino Web site I believe is better and cleaner then before. I glad that IBM is providing a clearer message. They still need to integrate it better with the main IBM web site. The question is when you go to the small business link from the main site where is Lotus Quickr? Shouldn't Quickr be there? http://www-304.ibm.com/jct03004c/businesscenter/smallbusiness/us/en/software Also shouldn't there be a link to this page from the small business site? Also an added notes where is Lotus Foundations?

Unfortunately, I was not able to present my presentation, "SOA, Not Just for the Web" at the June GRANITE Lotus Notes Users Group meeting. Because of all the flooding and weather related problems the attendance was less than normal. And with additional emergencies that came up during the other presentations, it was decided that my presentation will be postponed to the next meeting in August. However after lunch, we had an interesting conversation about how IBM is marketing their products especially to the SMB. Things that came up included improving awareness through better education materials and giving away licenses of Notes and Domino similarity to how Microsoft uses giveaways to get people hooked on their products. I have talked about IBM's marketing to SMB in the past and its lack of coherently. With the Lotus Foundation Start product now shipping with Domino, one needs to ask how small businesses is viewing Domino and Lotus Foundations. Is Domino an application...

Happy Chinese New Years, It is the year of the rat according to the Chinese Zodiac sign starting February 7, 2008. It is the year 4706. But from what I have seen from Lotusphere and from our customers, it is going to also be the Year Of Lotus. With all the new products and services that IBM Lotus is rolling out combined finally with a coherent focus on Lotus and Domino and SMB market, I see that 2008 is going to be a very good year. We currently are talking to customers not only about Lotus Notes, but also on integrating Quickr, Sametime, and Symphomy as part of their business solution. So everyone part of the Lotus community have a properous Chinese New Year. PS. Since I am a rat, this must be a good year.

On Ed Brill's blog link for the past few days that has been a long discussion about Notes and the small business market and whether IBM is addressing this market effectively with the new product offerings that are in the pipeline this summer. The blog has progressed into the discussion about the Notes Basic client which has been a point of long discussion for me in many blogs. If you have seen the Notes 8 Basic beta client, you will find that it is pretty much the Notes 7 client with some improvements. I do not see signficant investment in improving the Notes 8 Basic client in the future. Whether it exist in the future I do not know. I truely understand the direction that IBM is moving forward for Notes 8. It may not address the needs of some small businesses (under 500), but it is a direction that best fits the medium and large businesses that makes up a major of IBM's clients. As a business partner who focuses primarily on the true small business market, I understand th...