Slate

The Lotus world is full of them. :) At any slight Lotus v/s MS centric discussion, you would find them raising their respective banners/flags. And why not, this is a very competitive area and the stakes are high for many; Product Vendors, ISV, Partners, Developers and definitely the Customers or end-users.

Two interesting blog entries @ edbrill.com where ultimately sentiments will prevail :)

Microsoft "de-emphasizing" all existing Exchange developer APIs

Steve Ballmer on blogging

 

A simple but real way to know whats people talking and working about.

M$ has never understood Collaboration or Workflow. For years it has been trying to build these capabilities in its various flagship products. In past we had heard about Exchange enabled Workflow, but this was a mess. Then came Sharepoint but they are not nothing more than IBM QuickPlace-like document sharing.

Today we had an M$ Consultant who was every eager to show a POC of Sharepoint-based Workflow (we are in midst of migration (: And being gung-ho, he asked for the most complex one. I gave him a 4-sheet printout of our Lotus Workflow based process which has some 60+ activities. I would be exagarating if I say "He fainted" but thats best I can describe his state then.

Though he admitted this cannot be done in Sharepoint, but still describing it as the best collaborative platform, with check-in/check-out and document routing. (wow, now dats definitely collaboration...LOL)

Now it looks like M$ is beefing up BizTalk's "Human Workflow Services" which remindes me of Lotus "Super Human Software" campaign for R5. The planned release of BizTalk is code named V-Next, i guess a pun on RNext, the beta for Lotus Notes Release 6.

And the words are out that the same BizTalk team is building Windows Workflow Services, and you bet it would definitely provide Check-in/Check-out collaboration.

So the CEO now proclaims...

"We have Lotus Notes opportunities coming out the yin-yang. I've never seen [such] a customer base waiting to be plucked."

But I say they should focus more on Exchange 5 installations (there are still pretty many). Plus the migration success rate is much higher here than moving LN bases.

Though the CEO can get away with a laugh for all the incorrect details/rumors.

The Register: Microsoft's Ballmer tells lurvely partners to stick it to IBM

At a recent partner conference Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has announced the new Forms capabilities in its next version of MS Office.

After having tried to come up with a Notes Killer App by buffing up Exchange/Outlook with workflow and collab features, MS is now trying to embed these features in its flagship Office software.

But the underlying architecture is still very primitive using Email services to route these so called Workflow Forms either to User mail-box or a mail-in database application. So you cannot have two-way updates available to the Application Form Submitter; unless you notify him with an email. So still for MS collaboration is only & all about Emails :)

CNET -> Microsoft to demo forms' abilities in next Office

Last week announcement of Hannover - the version 8 of Lotus Notes, @ Edbrill.com has been widely appreciated by the bloggers.
This release would be a major revamp of the software to provide a paradigm shift in Collaboration & Messaging Software domain. Hannover is intended to push IBM's Activity centric collaboration model. Which is quite different from the current email/inbox and related but unconnected documents that resides in multiple Lotus NSF Databases.
IBM has also taken this opportunity to provide a highly modern look for the Software which is something the Lotus community has been missing for long.

This step from IBM for one is to halt any migration away from Lotus for usability reasons. In many such migration cases, Users have cited Lotus Notes as begin a non-standard client, primarily due to its decade old-look.

The underling platform for Lotus Notes client software is also changed with this release, and it will be based on Eclipse RPC code base. But right from version 6.5 IBM has introduce API enhancements to support prior version applications in eclipse based Hannover. This is what IBM calls as composite applications.

Though its a very encouraging move from IBM, there is a huge community of Lotus Developers and Partners, who are providing consultancy and application based on Lotus technology. So what this new interface means to them?

There are many questions that would be answered as more material is available from IBM on Hannover, but these are my understanding on Hannover release.

1. The Lotus Notes Mail/Calendaring features will be only eclipse based initially. These same interface components as we see for the email views/perspectives will not be available for Developers to use in their Notes Application.
2. Hannover is only a Client enhancement release, and Lotus Designer will continue to provide the existing interface for Views/Outlines/Forms and other Notes application components
3. Customizing of Mail/Calendaring features as possible in current Mail Templates will not be possible; or atleast they will require high understanding of eclipse classes.
4. The Hannover Mail features will be based on POP3 architecture by default like MS Outlook, connecting to Domino Server for POP3 services and will use Derby database engine for local storage of Email/Calendaring documents.

Inshort, it is a Workplace rich-client for messaging rebranded as Lotus Notes which will continue to support Lotus Notes databases as composite applications, but will not support for long the Notes programming model (Formula, LS, RAD, etc).

These are my understanding of how things are or might be, and need not be taken as something Official from the Vendor.

It was pleasant to read @ Ed Brill on IBM's plan for Lotus Notes 8 code named "Hannover".
The planned design for the version ahead are great, fabulous. It also demonstrates IBM’s strategy for Eclipse based rich client Workplace.

Can’t wait for this launch. Hats-off for Ed and the team. :)

Got this info from Ed Brill. Someone happend to come across an M$ Site.

The fact that this web page seamlessly merge with ASP shows the Domino Advantage, and more over its done well with Release 4.6. But someone have to tell M$ to move to R6.

Follow up this post@EDBrill.com

I always had doubts on Groove's P2P architecture and its good to read IBM not going that way for Collaboration.

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Wow!! so Skype is in News again...and for good. It has achieved a great milestone. And 100 million downloads is no little achievement.

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