Results of Foundations Poll #2

Last month I asked "What resource is most needed by Lotus Business Partners to sell Foundations (pick any two)". The thirtyseven respondants threw their darts into three rough groups of two. Top of the pops with over 50% each was:

• Plenty of IBM dollars pumped into marketing LFS (21)
• An updated LFS web site with lots of technical info (20)

The second wave was:

• Support for product demos in retail stores and trade show (15)
• Deep Dive hands-on technical training (13)

Bringing up the rear was:

• A counterpart to Ed Brill for LFS (5)
• Technical Bake-Offs between LFS and SBS/EBS (4)

I doubt we'll have much influence on IBM's marketing budget, but the newly launched Foundations Wiki should go a long way to answering the second request.
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The Lotus Foundations Wiki

Lotus Foundations Server now has its own Wiki hosted by IBM/Lotus. You can anonymously browse the Wiki content but you need a Lotus Registration user name if you want to add articles or comments. Unfortunately Lotus uses a separate registration system from the rest of IBM so you may need to generate another username/password combination if you haven't previously been involved in Lotus public discussion forums, Lotus private beta programs or Lotus and WebSphere Portal wikis.
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The Worldwide Foundations Training Tour!!!

The Mountain has come to Mohammed!!! Two days of classroom training on Foundations in Sydney!

I am one happy blogger :)

This is the Virtual workshop that I blogged about earlier, but now the Show is hitting the Road. Check out the schedule for the worldwide tour and click here to register

• 09 Sep 2008 - 10 Sep 2008, Virtual workshop (09:00 a.m. - 05:00 p.m. central time)
• 29 Sep 2008 - 30 Sep 2008, Waltham, Massachusetts
• 07 Oct 2008 - 08 Oct 2008, Toronto, Canada
• 22 Oct 2008 - 23 Oct 2008, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
• 04 Nov 2008 - 05 Nov 2008, Virtual workshop (09:00 a.m. - 05:00 p.m. central time)
• 11 Nov 2008 - 12 Nov 2008, Sydney, Australia
• 18 Nov 2008 - 19 Nov 2008, Hursley, United Kingdom
• 19 Nov 2008 - 20 Nov 2008, Paris, France

IBM Lotus Foundations Start technical workshop

IBM Lotus Foundations Start is a complete software appliance that provides the essential software you need to focus on running the business, not managing computer systems. It allows a small business to use e-mail; create, share and centrally manage documents; and ensure information is backed up and protected. If you need to know how to install, configure and use the new Lotus Foundations Start, this workshop is for you.

After attending the workshop, you will be able to do the following:

• Install and configure Lotus Foundations Start applications such as IBM Lotus Notes and IBM Lotus Domino, Lotus Domino Access for Microsoft Office, and anti-spam
• Restore and recover from a failed main drive
• Describe product features in terms of capabilities, such as autonomic behavior, backup, and fault tolerance
• Perform administrative tasks such as importing multiple users and optimizing Lotus Notes clients
• Describe the key security features in Lotus Foundations, such as Web-based administration, firewall, VPN, router support, backup, restore, disaster recovery, anti-virus, and anti-spam
• Install Domino Access for Microsoft Office and set up users
• Describe the messaging and e-mail environment of Lotus Foundations, including mail capabilities, protocols, and third-party integration with Microsoft Office
• Provide examples of the servers that are part of Lotus Foundations, such as POP, IMAP, SMTP, IP-based printing, Web, and FTP servers
• Explain the high-level architecture of Lotus Foundations Start
• Discuss integrated applications available for Lotus Foundations, such as Samba, Apache, PPTP and intelligent database backup
• Explain the hardware and software requirements for Lotus Foundations Start

Highlights

• Knowledge of product installation and operation
• Live instructor-led lectures
• Hands-on lab exercises that will:

o Install the core product on a third-party hardware platform
o Conduct package installations and configuration of server applications
o Install and configure client applications
o Administer the Lotus Foundations server including account setup, disk configuration, integrated services facilitation, and user account creation and removal from the Web
o Perform system recovery

Prerequisites
This workshop is for people who will install, configure, and maintain Lotus Foundations. Suggested skills and knowledge are:

• Basic familiarity with Lotus Foundations
• Computer application and installation
• Familiarity with Internet terminology
• Experience with Lotus Domino and Lotus Notes (optional)

This is a technical class and does not include a product introduction. For introductory materials, you may access the following references:

• Lotus Foundations documentation
• Lotus Foundations Start

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Foundations: Is IBM in for the long haul?

One of the advantages of being part of the IBM/Lotus Business Partner is the ability to get market feedback from other partners. I had a chat with another BP yesterday and during the conversation I asked if they were getting into Foundations. I could understand if they were too busy or didn't click with the concept or even if they didn't think that the SMB market was where they wanted to be. Their response was a bit different to that.

They told me they were avoiding Foundations because:

1. the potential revenue for that product didn't make financial sense for their business (that's OK, everyone works on a different set of numbers and only time will tell who guessed right).
2. they didn't expect that IBM would support them in that market.

That second point floored me. Now this BP is certainly pro-IBM but this was the first feedback I had heard where someone didn't think that IBM was into SMB to stay. I think they're dead wrong but hey, it was a friendly conversation and everyone is certainly entitled to their opinion.

Does anyone out there agree with this BP? Has your opinion about IBM and SMB changed in the last six months? Am I sitting here wearing rose-colored glasses?

You can tell me guys... I can take it...
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The SMB server market in Australia - Hardware

About a month ago ARN published an article about the size and shape of the SMB server market in Australia. It's good background material for when your customer is ready to go with Foundations but isn't sure whether they should get a new server at the same time.

That is, presuming they're not going to buy the Foundations appliance...
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Reverse-engineering Foundations?

If Lotus Foundations Server is based on a Linux kernel (which it is), then how come its inner workings are as inaccessible as the insides of a Windows executable? Consider that Foundations doesn't provide a desktop client interface - it only shows you the server screen with bits of information about DHCP and port addressing. Sure you can access the server using the Web-config screen but that interface is sealed tighter than a gnat's nostril and doesn't have a menu option to run command line Linux. It will only let you do the regular office management tasks like adding users and reconfiguring the schedule for automatic backup.

What happened to all of the Linux and Open Source ethos about Showing Unto Others what you have Figured Out For Yourselves? Why doesn't someone ring Linus Torvalds and register a complaint?

The answer is that Lotus Foundations Server provides a range of services and only some of these technologies are based on Open Source components. IBM/Lotus also provides its own proprietary code (such as Lotus Domino) within the Foundations package and there's certainly no requirement on them to expose the source code for those components.

Remember that Foundations is not aimed at the experienced Linux geeks of the world - it is a business solution aimed at the average SMB owner who really doesn't want access to the server command line and would probably prefer that their IT staff didn't use that access either. They just want their server to keep saving files and handling emails and doing automated backups the way it has always done it.

Lotus Foundations Server is an excellent investment for those customers.

On the other hand, if an experienced Linux admin is really serious about bypassing the standard Foundations interface then they will find the way to run command line Linux on Foundations. The Nitix Virtual Server (NVS) layer is a full-featured, standard Linux system running over the top of the Nitix core, and Linux experts can customize that NVS and add additional Linux applications just as they can for other Linux systems. Underneath the NVS is the Nitix core, which is essentially an embedded system with few configuration options, designed for easy configuration and highly reliable operation. If you want to get into rearranging those nuts and bolts then all of that is possible.

It's the Best of both Worlds.
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Foundations: Selling Domino consulting to SMB

One of the biggest challenges in selling consulting services to SMB is helping customers to catch the vision of how Domino applications can help their business. For many of these people, their previous computer experience has been limited to reading their Hotmail, typing their invoices in Word and balancing their accounts in Excel. After they have bought Foundations and installed Symphony, the idea of spending an additional 'x' thousand dollars to develop a software solution for their business may well be the last thing on their mind.

Here's a way to expand their vision...

Back in the dim distant past Lotus (before they were IBM/Lotus) bundled up a set of basic Domino applications as a free download. Those R3/R4 applications are still available and, unlike Microsoft's 'rip-and-replace' application roadmap, Domino applications are backward compatible which means that these databases will run in the Domino version 8.x environment provided with Foundations.

Now don't think that I'm suggesting these databases will fit the bill for today's business environment - for a start, none of them are web enabled. What these applications will do is provide a discussion point for you and your SMB client to talk about what they could achieve with Domino, and since you were the nice guy who gave these databases to the customer for free then its only natural that they will turn to you when they want them tweaked. Then once you have engaged them in that conversation it's up to you to show the business benefit of a full system analysis and application development lifecycle.

These files shouldn't be mentioned in your first approach to your customer. I'd say they are best used after you've installed and configured Foundations and you're running out of excuses to call the guy. Ring him up one last time and tell him you've got a freebie. Send him the list of files and offer to install the ones he wants onto his server for free then call him up a fortnight later and ask him how he liked it.


Here's the list of applications:

1. Things to Do,
2. Requisition Approvals,
3. Application Tracking,
4. Book Reviews,
5. Budget Planning,
6. Call Tracking,
7. Clip Art Gallery,
8. Contract Library,
9. Correspondence,
10. Customer Service (five databases -- Product Design Problems, Customer Suggestions, Knowledge Base, Data Dictionary, Call Tracking -- as well as a sixth database with documentation),
11. Demo Room Reservation,
12. Employee Records,
13. Event Calendar,
14. Executive Briefings,
15. Expenses Reports,
16. Formula Catalog,
17. Forms Routing,
18. Electronic Library,
19. Icon Catalog,
20. Job Candidates,
21. Job Postings,
22. Sales Management,
23. Library Tracking & Training,
24. Purchasing Item Tracking,
25. Litigation,
26. Lookup Keyword Library,
27. Meeting Tracking,
28. Monthly Financials,
29. Engineering Notebook,
30. Patient Treatment Signoff,
31. People and Facilities,
32. Phone Book and Yellow Pages,
33. Presentations,
34. Race Results,
35. Real Estate Management,
36. Recipes,
37. Relocation Expenses,
38. Routing Tracking,
39. Reservation Scheduler,
40. Sell-through Sales Reports,
41. Shotgun E-Mail Communications,
42. Conference Suggestions,
43. Support Conference,
44. Support Center Call Tracking,
45. System Equipment Inventory,
46. Team Consolidate,
47. Team Room,
48. Tech Services Call Tracking,
49. Technotes and Tips,
50. Telemarketing,
51. Travel Authorization,
52. Values and Goals,
53. Wholesale Customer Tracking.

BTW: Has anyone, anywhere, at any time, ever used the recipe application?

My guess: probably not.
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Foundations documentation still needs work

Lotus has updated the minimum server requirements required to run Foundations.

• x86 based system
• At least one hard disk. At least two hard drives are needed to backup your data.
• At least one Network Interface Card. Two network cards are needed if this is your network gateway.
• CD-ROM drive
• VGA based video card
• 1GB RAM
• VGA Monitor
• Keyboard

I think there is more work needed. What about customers who don't have an internet gateway at all? This list doesn't tell customers the hard cold fact that they need an internet connection in order to activate Foundations. No internet connection means no software activation.

According to the Sensis E-Business report from August 2007, over five percent of metropolitan SMB (and over 10% of rural SMB) don't have an internet connection. I don't have a problem telling one of these customers that they need to install an internet connection if they want to run Foundations, but IMHO that requirement should be listed up front along with the other obvious items like the keyboard and VGA monitor.

Call me picky if you like, but that's my job :)


Meanwhile, over in Seattle it's starting to look like EBS stands for Enormously Bloated Software. Eric Beehler is blogging about writing a book related to Microsoft Essential Business Server and judging from this post his introductory chapter will be titled "First, assemble your Mainframe". I mean, it's pretty sad when you need to plan for an upgraded CPU cooling fan on a server that already has four other internal 12,500 RPM fans. It's even worse when you realize that the server will only be used to click through some menus and create a few screenshots. Imagine the kind of servers he would need if he wanted EBS to actually do some work.

So what's he going to do when he gets to the chapter about installing the optional fourth box to run SQL Server?

However it might all be in vain - Eric could only squeeze 12 gigabytes of memory into the server and he has some doubt whether all of the core applications will run effectively in that limited address space.
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Foundations University now accepting enrollments

IBM (bless their little cotton socks) are running some free Foundations training in a virtual university format on 9th and 10th September. Unfortunately it'll be running from 9am to 5pm US Central Time which means from somewhere round midnight till 8am for those of us living Down Under. That unfortunate fact by itself wouldn't stop me, but since I've already promised to run a R8 System Admin course on those two days plus my sister is in town on her once-in-a-blue-moon holiday from her day job in Kabul (yes... Kabul in Afghanistan... don't ask... it's a long story) it means that I would be burning the candle at both ends plus in the middle if I tried to do the Foundations course as well. I'll take a rain check and sign up for the November intake.

Enrollment priority is given to ISVs who are members of IBM partnerworld and are looking to Foundationize their products. I don't see anywhere that says your product needs to be based on Lotus Domino, so this could be your chance to be first to market with the Foundations Games Pack :)

Here's what you get:

****************************************************************************
IBM Lotus Foundations Start technical workshop
IBM Lotus Foundations Start is a complete software appliance that provides the essential software you need to focus on running the business, not managing computer systems. It allows a small business to use e-mail; create, share and centrally manage documents; and ensure information is backed up and protected. If you need to know how to install, configure and use the new Lotus Foundations Start, this workshop is for you.

What you will discover by attending: After attending the workshop, you will be able to do the following:

• Install and configure Lotus Foundations Start applications such as IBM Lotus Notes and IBM Lotus Domino, Lotus Domino Access for Microsoft Office, and anti-spam
• Restore and recover from a failed main drive
• Describe product features in terms of capabilities, such as autonomic behavior, backup, and fault tolerance
• Perform administrative tasks such as importing multiple users and optimizing Lotus Notes clients
• Describe the key security features in Lotus Foundations, such as Web-based administration, firewall, VPN, router support, backup, restore, disaster recovery, anti-virus, and anti-spam
• Install Domino Access for Microsoft Office and set up users
• Describe the messaging and e-mail environment of Lotus Foundations, including mail capabilities, protocols, and third-party integration with Microsoft Office
• Provide examples of the servers that are part of Lotus Foundations, such as POP, IMAP, SMTP, IP-based printing, Web, and FTP servers
• Explain the high-level architecture of Lotus Foundations Start
• Discuss integrated applications available for Lotus Foundations, such as Samba, Apache, PPTP and intelligent database backup
• Explain the hardware and software requirements for Lotus Foundations Start

Highlights

• Knowledge of product installation and operation
• Live instructor-led lectures
• Hands-on lab exercises that will:

• >> Install the core product on a third-party hardware platform
• >> Conduct package installations and configuration of server applications
• >>Install and configure client applications
• >> Administer the Lotus Foundations server including account setup, disk configuration, integrated services facilitation, and user account creation and removal from the Web
• >> Perform system recovery

Prerequisites: This workshop is for people who will install, configure, and maintain Lotus Foundations. Suggested skills and knowledge are:

• Basic familiarity with Lotus Foundations
• Computer application and installation
• Familiarity with Internet terminology
• Experience with Lotus Domino and Lotus Notes (optional)

Virtual workshop participants:

• Must have Internet access using a high speed connection
• Lectures will be via interactive instruction voice over IP (VoIP)
• Noise canceling headset and microphone for improved VoIP interaction
• Should consider having a telephone as backup

This is a technical class and does not include a product introduction. ****************************************************************************

Other news:
Lotus Australia is having their annual Sales conference (sorry... Sales University) this week at a top-secret location somewhere south of the border in the Yarra Valley. These events are a quite excellent opportunity to rub shoulders with assorted Australian Lotii and possibly even pick up some web marketing tips from older and wiser Business Partners.

Belinda and Adam are coming also and while I'm soaking up the technology and industry gossip they'll be checking out wildlife parks and doing all of the things that these Resorts offer but us conference attendees never get around to doing. Adam's pretty good at putt-putt for a three year old, but somehow I couldn't find the link for the putt-putt course on their list of local golf courses. I'll ask at reception when we check in.

All of that means that I won't be blogging for the rest of this week but if all goes well I'll be back next Monday with more Foundations goodies to share.
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Anyone for Websphere Foundations Server?

Laurent Lachal is a Research Director for Ovum and currently in charge of Ovum's open source research practice. He has posed the intriguing idea that IBM should not have branded Lotus Foundation Server as a Lotus product.

His theory is that the SMB market and the mid-market require different product branding from the product lines in vogue at the the Big End of Town and that since IBM already branded Lotus Domino as "...the enterprise collaboration software platform of choice for the majority of the Fortune 500 companies..." it needs a different branding strategy to succeed in the SMB market. When talking about Lotus Domino, Laurent says: "The lower end of the SMB market is a completely different beast to the Fortune 500 market, and trying to embrace them both with the same offering is a big, if rather common, mistake."

I think he's wrong. I would certainly agree that Foundations doesn't belong under (say) the Websphere, Rational, DB2 or Tivoli brands but I see it as a perfect product for Lotus.

Laurent's first problem is that he hasn't differentiated between Lotus (the company) and Domino (the software). By his logic Microsoft should now spawn two new sister companies - MajorSoft and MidRangeSoft if it wants to be successful.

Laurent's next problem is that he is ignoring market history. The Microsoft Windows operating system and the Office productivity suite did quite well across all segments of the market without the need to change the brand. Sure they repackaged the product depending on the user with Windows XP Home etc, but the Windows brand stayed the same.

The third problem and final nail in the coffin for Laurent's theory is the well-known Outlook Effect which shows that people who are accustomed to one system interface automatically want to work with it in their next role. Doesn't matter whether they are a successful SMB owner tapped to lead a major conglomerate or a burned-out corporate executive wanting to start his own cornerstore hardware shop, if they've used Brand 'X' software before then they'll want to use Brand 'X' again.

Lotus is the IBM brand for office productivity software whether the client is a Fortune 500 or a sole trader. The branding of Lotus Domino and Lotus Symphony running on networks powered by Lotus Foundations Servers works well to capture both ends of the market as well as the bits in the middle. Since the Ovum web site lists IBM as a customer I presume Laurent has already had the chance to pass his ideas on to the Powers-That-Be at IBM.

Thanks for your blog post Laurent, but I won't be taking up a subscription to any of your Ovum Weekly Newsletters anytime in the near future.

BTW Ed Brill is running a post which touches on the question of whether people most identify with IBM or with Lotus as a brand. From my reading of the replies it seems most Domino/Notes users want to stay with the Lotus brand and that's fine by me.
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OT: It's easy to write for Sharepoint... (they tell me)

I was meandering through the blogosphere over lunch and came to this priceless post written by Paul Andrew, Microsoft Technical Product Manager for the SharePoint Developer Platform.

Write Your First SharePoint Program

To write SharePoint code you need:

1. SharePoint installed on your local development machine and this means you need to run Windows Server 2003 or Windows Server 2008. VPCs are available here. There is a SharePoint one, or you can get a smaller base and add WSS or MOSS to it.
2. Get Visual Studio 2005 Professional or above, the Visual Studio 2005 extensions for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, v1.1 and the Visual Studio 2005 extensions for Windows Workflow Foundation (Visual Studio 2008 support is planned for June 2008).
3. Get the WSS SDK and the MOSS SDK. They are also available online for WSS and MOSS.
4. Start Visual Studio on your Windows Server machine that has SharePoint installed and create a new Windows Console Application. Yes there are SharePoint project templates, but I'm going for a fast first SharePoint program here and we don't need them yet.
5. If you are on Windows Server 2008 then make sure you started Visual Studio by right click and run as administrator.
6. Add a reference to Microsoft.SharePoint.dll (shown in references as Windows SharePoint Services)
7. Add a using Microsoft.SharePoint
8. Add this code:

static void Main(string[] args)
{
// Update to your server name
using (SPSite siteCollection = new SPSite("http://localhost"))
{
SPWebCollection site = siteCollection.AllWebs;
foreach (SPWeb web in site)
{
try
{
SPListCollection lists = web.Lists;
Console.WriteLine("Site: {0} Lists: {1}",
web.Name, lists.Count.ToString());
foreach (SPList list in lists)
{
Console.WriteLine("List: {0} {1}",
list.Title, list.ID.ToString());
}
}
//catch (Exception)
//{
// // handle
// throw;
//}
finally
{
web.Dispose();
}
}
} // dispose is called on site as a result of using()
Console.WriteLine("Press ENTER to continue");
Console.ReadLine();
}

9. Run it with F5


So maybe I've been spoiled by working with Domino too long but I really don't think it should be that difficult to write your first program for any application. Whatever happened to "Hello World"?

Can some Sharepoint developer tell me if it really is that complicated to get Sharepoint set up and running for the developer environment. Surely there is an easier place to start (not that I intend to be using it).
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Interesting result when googling Foundations

This morning I googled for 'Lotus Foundations' on pages from Australia and found the following result:



Our international colleagues may not have heard of EOS Solutions or ISW. They are two of our local Lotus Business Partners and given the comparatively small size of the Australian market we all find ourselves in friendly competition now and again.

It's amazing how the Foundations product pages on these two sites are now heading the local Google page rankings for Lotus Foundations despite the fact that Foundations has not yet been officially launched in Australia. I'm shocked to realize that despite my daily preoccupation with researching and blogging about Lotus Foundations Server I have missed every reference to these two organisations in the local IT news. I must be looking in the wrong places since their high page rank shows they are doing a far better job of marketing Foundations than anyone else including IBM!

Surely that must be the reason ;)

Tim, you may need to have a $erious talk with your PR agency to see how EOS beat you to the top spot.

It's interesting that Google searches for 'Lotus Domino', 'Lotus SameTime' or 'Lotus Quickr' don't produce the same results, but given the apparently overwhelming market presence of these two consulting powerhouses I'm sure that's only a matter of time.

Go to it guys!


Heh... heh... heh...
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Foundations Applications: <your name here>

I'm not going to sign up for the Lotus Foundations ISV Developer Toolkit program. I did think about it and even went so far as to log in at IBM and check out the signup form.

Two thoughts stopped me. First, the intrepid Daniele Vistalli is already in that program and will doubtless continue to blog about his adventures so there is no need for me to be there from a Foundations reporting perspective. The second thought was that creating shrink-wrapped commercial products doesn't really push my button. There's plenty of career paths in the Yellowverse and I don't need to follow them all.

However what I can do is review software products that come out of the other end of the LFS toolkit process. If you have developed a product using the Lotus Foundations ISV Developer Toolkit then I'm happy to review it for you and give it a plug on this blog like I did yesterday with Baehrware's BusinessPro.


P.S. I know Ed Brill has beaten me to blogging about the new flash-based IBM Marketing Video about Foundations (Curse You Red Baron!) but I figured I should include a link to it on my blog anyway. Check it out in the 'Foundations Links' section on the left of this screen.
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Foundations Applications: BusinessPro

Yesterday I blogged about VIC to create a baseline for evaluating CRM applications. After spending two hours chatting with Jim and Bob Baehr (yes, the "The Unofficial Poster Child For Lotus Notes, Domino, and Lotus Foundations") on a Skype-based 'Show-and-Tell' session I can put their Baehrware products (BusinessPro and DocuPro) up on the chart and measure them against that standard.

Saying that BusinessPro provides CRM is like saying that Domino provides email. The answer is yes in both cases but if you stop at that point you are seriously underestimating the power of the application.

BusinessPro is pitched as “a complete sales management software suite” and that's a pretty good description. As we worked through the demo I tried to imagine that software helping to run my business and I was impressed by how close it came to my ideal. The interface is a lot smoother than VIC and the business process has been clearly thought out. Sales leads become Quotes which become Purchase Orders which become Invoices. There are options to sell both Goods and Services and the DocuPro software includes a Billing & Timesheet module which links in to the Sales process.

On the other side of the balance sheet BusinessPro tracks vendors and their products which allows easy calculation of profit per sale and that's the kind of information dear to the heart of any SMB owner. Where the Baehrware model really takes off is with the addition of DocuPro. This optional module allows storing and searching of supporting documentation (emails, scanned docs etc) by tagging the documents to the relevant client or sales order. That's hardly rocket science in the Domino universe but all of the other systems I've seen work on a much larger scale. DocuPro is designed for small business and I'm thinking that I'll need another blog post further down the track to properly explore that software.

The things I liked best about BusinessPro are:

• It's built from the ground up as a Release 8 application rather than being R5/R6/R7 code with a facelift. This means that the hooks for integrating Composite Applications are already built into the core code instead of being an afterthought.
• It's already ‘Foundationized’ with the appropriate installer code. In fact this software has the benefit of ongoing development in that department since it was originally designed using the Nitix installer code and later upgraded to work with Foundations.
• The price point is about right at $99 per user for BusinessPro and you can add DocuPro for another $29 per user.
• Baehrware are quite open to implementing changes to assist in localization of the product. They’ve already promised to make some changes to make the software more relevant to the Australian market eg “Australian Business Number” rather than “Tax Number”.

The things I don't like are:

• The design on these applications is hidden. As an innately-curious and ‘ever-willing-to-learn’ Notes developer I find that decision frustrating, unreasonable and a pain in the ass, but as a reseller of Foundations software and appliances I applaud their judgement. An application with hidden design means that end users can’t stick their fingers into the code and make my life miserable with unwarranted support calls.
• There's no single view to show all outstanding invoices over 30/60/90 days but Jim took that issue on board and I'd expect that omission will have been fixed by the time you read this blog post.
• The Baehrware website is slick and high tech but it gives me very little feel for what the applications actually do. There are no screenshots of the products and the product documentation for BusinessPro isn't available yet (although it is available for DocuPro). I'm sure this problem will be corrected over time.

On my personal wishlist for BusinessPro is a browser-based utility to allow data entry by people working full-time on client sites for extended periods (three months?) who need to remotely log their work times into the system for the fortnightly invoice run. They might have a Notes client (and BusinessPro licence) at the office but not on their home PC, or maybe I just don't want short-term contractors replicating my core databases. Nothing wrong in wishing for the moon...

In summary, VIC is a great investment for the serious Domino developer who wants to tweak their own code but as far as producing a Sales Management application to sell into the SMB marketplace Baehrware's BusinessPro leaves it for dead.
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Foundations Applications: VIC CRM

A round of applause for Dave Leigh please! Dave lives in Union, South Carolina, United States of America and you can find his website here. Dave's home-grown Domino-based CRM product (called VIC for 'Vital Information Center') can be downloaded from openntf.

VIC provides:

• Collaborative Customer Relationship Management.
• A 'My Activities' page that gathers all of your scheduled activites and To-Dos in one place.
• Contact Management with multiple contacts per company and multiple divisions and subdivisions per parent company.
• The ability to gather key financial information tailored to customers, vendors, and financial institutions.
• The ability to collect all communications in one place, including incoming and outgoing emails, faxes, and letters
• The ability to annotate correspondence (both incoming and outgoing)
• A Library that stores all manner of persistent information, such as document templates and boilerplate text, worksheets, company newsletters, sales bulletins, or corporate intelligence,
• A Contract Manager allows you to track any sort of contract information, including warranties and service contracts. The notification feature reminds you before contracts are due for renewal
• The ability to Automatically associates incoming emails with organizations and contacts you have on file.
• Product and Service catalogs.
• Letter and Fax writer.

VIC does not require any modification of your existing Lotus Notes templates and is completely customizable by the user. Best of all, VIC is freeware. Dave has done a great service to the Domino user community by sharing the fruits of his labors with us all and I applaud him for his generosity. VIC is a great CRM/Document Management application and I’m busy adapting it to the needs of my own business (Thanks Dave!). I’d recommend it to any serious Domino developer who needs a CRM tool.

However I’ll think twice before recommending VIC to my SMB customers.

Here's why. I know three people who have experienced VIC and all of them agree that it was more than a morning's work to get the software installed and running properly. The problem is not with VIC itself. The application is well thought out, tightly written and superbly documented. It’s just that VIC is quite a few grades above the IT skill level of the average SMB owner - especially one who hasn't used Domino before.

Some Developers might see that situation as a license to print consulting dollar$ and they could be right. I guess it might depend on the nature of the customer with whom you are dealing. If they have a dynamic business model and are looking for continual system enhancement then VIC is probably a good investment for them. OTOH, most Small Business owners don’t want to continually spend money enhancing their systems. They don’t have the spare dollars to keep feeding consultants and they don’t have the spare time (nor probably the inclination) to spend their own weekends boning up on the finer point of software configuration. If they do have any spare time it is probably better spent on mastering the technical intricacies of their own business, be it selling Real Estate, fixing trucks or running a retail store.

So why am I reviewing a Domino application that hasn't been modified for use with Foundations? At this point I'm setting a baseline for Foundations customers who are looking for a CRM product. Later this week I'll review a 'Foundationized' commercial CRM application and explain why I think it is a better deal for SMB.
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Foundations Technology: MySQL

I can understand why Small Business owners find it difficult to get started with SQL databases. There is something reassuring about seeing all of your data immediately accessible and editable in the rows and columns of a Symphony spreadsheet or even in legacy Microsoft products like Excel and Access. Leaving that familiar environment behind and moving to a new data modelling paradigm with SQL (Structured Query Language) is a big step.

It's not the reliability of the SQL technology which is the concern. Like Lotus Foundations Server, MySQL has a ten year development history since the first Windows version of MySQL was released on January 8, 1998. MySQL is a core component in the open source LAMP development environment.

The problem is that getting your head around statements like...

SELECT *
FROM mowers WHERE price > 400.00
ORDER BY brand;

... is a big step when all you've been used to doing is a two column Data Sort on your spreadsheet and then scrolling down to find the right price point. I can sympathise with the fear factor but ignoring that challenge will keep your business permanently down at the S end of the SMB market.

Unfortunately I can't teach you SQL in a half-page blog entry. You can read more about MySQL at the MySQL home page or if you want some free on-line training for MySQL then check out a combined PHP-MySQL tutorial or Tizag, or for a more advanced developers try MySQL Tutorial or Tutorials Point.

BTW MySQL is also a good a strategic investment for larger organizations that are trying to wean themselves off the habit of paying annual licence fees to Microsoft for SQL Server. Reminds me of that anti-drug campaign from years ago...

Microsoft.
Just say No!

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Foundations Version 1.0.1#9 Released

While researching today's planned blog post about the CUPS-based Foundations Print service I stumbled across the complete feature information for Version 1.0.1#9. I must plead mea culpa on this one - I had seen the announcement letter a while ago but my eyes went into glaze-over mode when I read the header details about adding multi-language support, migration tools and Symphony. Those may be important announcements for people whose deployment plans are on hold while they are waiting for these components but it's not 'Stop-The-Presses' kind of news.

Note to Self: Always read the fine print.

Leaving the multi-language support to the side for the moment, there are some interesting changes in the upgraded Foundations code:

• A new email queue monitoring functionality.
• A new injection service moves email into Domino faster.
• Printing has been added back into the Lotus Foundations platform for IPP printing. - I'd better put that Printing post on hold while I check this one out.
• Inclusion of all required SLES security patches, as of May 31, 2008.
• Domain members can continue to authenticate when the Domain controller is down.
• Files accessed in the WWW directory through Samba will have 775 permissions.
• Users only see the team/user shares that they have access to when they connect through Samba.

The one about "Domain members can continue to authenticate when the Domain controller is down." got my attention. That can occur on Windows networking with cached passwords but I've never seen it as a positive thing. I must look into this in more detail.
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OT: How to lose a customer

Here's a new ISP moneylosing scam and I can vouch firsthand that it is in use in Australia.

Step 1: Sell a broadband service to a customer then install the connection on their premises and take their money for a couple of years.

Step 2: When the customer calls with a technical question about the connection and/or hardware provided by that ISP then tell them that those kind of calls are considered 'Premium Support' and need to be answered by a Third Party service provider who will regretfully need to charge the customer an additional service fee just to provide information about the work done by that ISP.

Step 3: Respond politely but uselessly to every email from the incredulous customer. Use terms like 'sincerely regret for any inconvenience or frustration that you may have experienced...' and '...We are not a software/hardware support company...' and '...falls outside our support boundaries.'

Step 4: Refuse to engage in any meaningful conversation such as "What do you want to achieve?" or "How can we help you?" that might have convinced the customer to upgrade their service with that ISP.

Step 5: Watch the customer spend ten minutes to download and use a freeware software tool to obtain the information anyway, thus showing how little work was involved in answering the original question.

Step 6: Watch the customer change their ISP.

I did get mad but now I'm getting even.
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Hey Bob... you'd better order that Humble Pie!

What does Yellow Humble Pie taste like? Unripe Pumpkin maybe? One day's Google alerts doesn't make a marketing campaign but today's crop of Google alerts for Lotus Foundations was a darn Good Start:

Google News Alert for: "lotus foundations"

• IBM bundles middleware on Linux systems
  InfoWorld - San Francisco,CA,USA
  IBM said it has reconfigured its Lotus Foundations software -- which includes Lotus Notes, Sametime and Symphony -- to preload on Linux distributions like ...
• IBM's Homeward Bound Linux PC Push
  TechNewsWorld - Sherman Oaks,CA,USA
  ... service-based appliances targeting a business function, and also to preinstall Novell (Nasdaq: NOVL) Suse Linux Enterprise Server in Lotus Foundations. ...
• The Linux World Builds SMB Market Opportunity With Software ...
  CNNMoney.com - USA
  The new developments include a preconfigured version of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 from Novell in Lotus Foundations and a toolkit that opens new ...
• IBM Announces New Products and Initiatives to Enable Next ...
  CNNMoney.com - USA
  The company also announced a preconfigured version of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 in Lotus Foundations and a toolkit that opens new opportunities for ...
• Sowre recibe el Lotus Distinguished Achievement Award 2008 como ...
  CMS-Spain.com (Comunicados de prensa) - Spain
  ... presenta este año una serie de novedades, entre las cuales en anuncio de Lotus Foundations: una solución completa de mensajería, colaboración, ...
  
  

Google Blogs Alert for: "lotus foundations"

• Two IBM Lotus press releases from LinuxWorld: Microsoft-free ...
  By Ed Brill
  The new developments include a preconfigured version of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 from Novell in Lotus Foundations and a toolkit that opens new opportunities for Domino software vendors (ISVs) to deliver their applications on a ...
  Ed Brill - http://www.edbrill.com/ebrill/edbrill.nsf/
• IBM to open source supercomputing code
  By IDG News Service
  The company also introduced a software appliance toolkit and announced it would pre-load Novell SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 in Lotus Foundations to battle Microsoft Small Business Server. IBM also said it would expand its real-time ...
  Industry Standard News and Predictions - http://www.thestandard.com/all/feed
• IBM bundles middleware on Linux systems
  By TechMacro
  IBM said it has reconfigured its Lotus Foundations software — which includes Lotus Notes, Sametime and Symphony — to preload on Linux distributions like Red Hat, Ubuntu and Novell's Suse Linux. The repackaging makes the middleware ...
  TechMacro - http://www.techmacro.com
• IBM Press room - 2008-08-05 The Linux World Builds SMB Marke
  IBM today announced new software appliance initiatives designed to accelerate the adoption of Linux in small and medium businesses (SMBs) and the deployment of Domino applications on Lotus Foundations.
  Digg / upcoming - http://digg.com/
• The Linux World Builds SMB Market Opportunity With Software ...
  By market - Google News
  ... World Builds SMB Market Opportunity With Software ... CNNMoney.com - 2 hours ago From Novell to local software firms, the Linux community is building a broader market around IBM's new computing appliance, Lotus Foundations Start, ...
  Gkvending-To engage in selling - http://www.gkvending.com

Way to go Lotus!!!
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Foundations Technology: Open Source software

Serious students of the English language may question whether non-Lotus software can be properly labeled as Foundations technology. For example, the source code for MySQL is owned by a Swedish company, MySQL AB, which was acquired by Sun Microsystems on 26 February 2008, and the MySQL software that comes with Foundations is provided under the GNU General Public License. I'll leave those philosophical questions for another time when I have been more fully fortified with red wine.

For now, here is the list of the software packages that currently ship with Lotus Foundation Server:

• Apache 2.2.2.0
• Bind 9.3.2
• Busybox 1.1.0
• Cyrus IMAP 2.2.12
• Cups 1.1.23
• E2fsprogs 1.3.8 (ext2/ext3 Utilities)
• Ext3 (version used in Kernel2.6.16.21)
• IP Tables 1.3.5
• Kernel 2.6.16.21
• Lilo 22.7
• MySQL 5.0.18
• Netatalk 2.0.3
• Openswan 2.4.4
• NFS 2.13.3
• Open LDAP 2.3.19
• Perl 5.8.8
• PHP 5.1.2
• Postfix 2.2.9
• ReiserFS 3.6.19
• Rsync 2.6.6
• Samba 3.0.22
• Telnet 1.2

I'll look at some of these packages in more depth in future posts.
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Foundations: What do YOU want from IBM?

The next Poll question will be, "What resource is most needed by Lotus Business Partners to sell Foundations (pick any two)":

• Seeing plenty of IBM dollars into pumped into marketing LFS
• Finding a counterpart to Ed Brill for LFS
• Providing Deep Dive hands-on technical training for Partners
• Promoting technical Bake-Offs between LFS and SBS/EBS
• ... ?
  

What other choices should we put into this Poll? What do you want IBM to do?
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Poll Results - Who will sell Foundations?

For the last few weeks I've been running a poll for Lotus Business Partners with the question "Do you intend to sell Lotus Foundations Server product and services?.

The statistically gifted among you can probably drive a semi-trailer through the holes in my methodology. The 37 responders were drawn from an audience who had individually chose to visit my Foundations-themed blog (indicating some pre-existing interest in the topic) and who then chose to respond to the poll. I didn't validate whether the voters were actually Lotus Business Partners or merely the recently unemployed Bill Gates having a joke at my expense. Can we then extrapolate these 37 responses as a trend for the world-wide Lotus Business community? I don't know. I'll leave those questions to the mathematically minded among us. For what it's worth, here are the results (with rounded percentages):

• 05 votes...(13%): Yes. We're already sold some LFS (or Nitix) licences
• 15 votes...(40%): Yes. We're ramping up technically
• 08 votes...(21%): Maybe. We'll wait and see what happens.
• 03 votes...(08%): Probably not. Only if a customer asks for it.
• 06 votes...(16%): No. Too much of a distraction from our regular business.

The way I read it, about 75% of Lotus Business Partners would be willing to sell and service Foundations if they saw IBM building the market and they were given right tools to do the job.

Over to you Lotus.
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