Guess the identity of the Faceless Consulting Company

I'm always intrigued to find faceless consulting companies popping up to service the Notes market. You know the sort... "We're experienced in Notes yada yada and you can email us at 'support@newconsultingcompany.com' to talk to our expert technicians"..., but there's no names, no IBM certifications and certainly no 'feel-good' factor about who you might be dealing with. Sure, they may have a cool web-site but you can check here to see what I think of consulting companies who have cool web-sites. They say they are 'certified for IBM Lotus software', but there is no information about their certified software package.

Hey, it's a free internet and people can build whatever sites they like (subject to IBM's permission to use the IBM + Lotus logo), but would you as a customer ever contact such a site? Even if they had the most skilled Notes people in the world I wouldn't use them. I find there is something disturbing about people who won't back up their claims of competency with their own name.

So go and check out our new competitors in the Sydney market and add your two cents about their identity. My guess is that it's a full time employee of another consulting company who's about to jump ship and is putting their stake in the ground. When the day comes in a month or three then they'll add the face and name. I could be wrong, but it's fun to guess.

If you are currently managing a Notes consulting company in the Sydney market then perhaps ask yourself if any of your employees who live in Randwick and have worked for Qantas, Accenture, HSBC Australia, Lumley General Insurance, MasterFoods, Lloyds of London, Ernst & Young and Star City Casino (as claimed on the web site) have been a bit twitchy lately. It may be time to call them into your office for a quiet conversation.
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Lotus software - The Other Sister.

eWeeks article entitled "30 Reasons Why Software Rules at IBM" didn't mention Lotus until slide 25. Even then, the slide focused on Vulcan, with the rider that Vulcan's features "...would appear in upcoming versions of LotusLive, Lotus Notes and Domino, Lotus Connections, Quickr and Websphere portal." Websphere had the lions share of the slides while Tivoli and Rational had cameo appearances.

'Lotus Knows' has a long way to go to win the hearts and minds of the media.
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Why does the Microsoft Pot call the Lotus Kettle 'Black'?

The ZDNet Q&A with Alistair Rennie was good, but an interesting marketing point was buried in the interviewer's summary:

"For many of us, Lotus is viewed as an older brand that was popular in the 1990s. For the foreseeable future, you’ll see enterprises with Microsoft Office as well as various alternatives. IBM’s task is to make sure Lotus is always in the conversation as the Google Apps and Docs and Microsoft scrum intensifies."

I know the Redmond Mafia has done an enormous amount of work over the years to paint Lotus Notes as a 'legacy' product, and a lot of the Microsoft Mud has stuck. But if Notes (first released in 1989) is legacy software then what about...

• Microsoft Word first released in 1983 – six years before Notes
• Microsoft Windows and Excel first released in 1985 – four years before Notes
• Unix was created in 1969 – twenty years before Notes
• Microsoft Exchange 4.0 released in 1996 – fourteen years ago (I well remember the Microsoft verbal gymnastics of that era regarding the 'completely new' Exchange product which somehow was entitled to inherit its version number from the recently superseded Microsoft Mail 3...)
  

I'm not suggesting that IBM/Lotus get into 'tit-for-tat' negative marketing, but surely Microsoft's own product history allows IBM/Lotus an ethical and accurate advertising counterpunch to show that Longevity is not equivalent to Legacy.
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HP & Microsoft: So what exactly are they selling here?

"The enemy of my enemy is my friend" is a proverb that does much to explain the periodic rejuvenation of the HP/Microsoft alliance. Although IBM pulled out of the PC market a while ago they are still a fearsome competitor to HP for services, and Microsoft has never really forgiven IBM for continuing to sell Lotus Notes/Domino.

Every couple of years the Microsoft/HP alliance comes up with a new joint offering to push into the marketplace. That's fine by me since the competition from HPM keeps Big Blue from getting too complacent about its own offerings. However I must admit I'm a little dubious about one part of the latest HP&M offering.

"Today when a customer buys hardware and software and marry it up in their IT centers, they go about the integration process themselves. [Instead,] software will be installed and optimized for throughput and performance and matched to the infrastructure underneath it and have management solutions ready to go," said Scott Farrand, vice president, enterprise storage and server software, technology solutions group, HP.

That might work if all of the customer organizations run on the 'standard' HP architecture and is tuned according to Microsoft 'Best Practice', but what if they run a mixed vendor environment or have good reason to adopt other architectures? My bet is that 100% of organizations investing in these HPM products will need to go through a reconfiguration phase for these new products to slot them into their own multi-vendor vision of the future.

So what is the benefit of HPM selling an 'optimized' hardware/software package if it all has to be re-optimized once it arrives on the customer's premises? That brings the highly profitable Services portfolio into the mix and while I certainly don't have a problem with anything that builds the services market, it does cancel out the perceived value in what HPM are selling as a pre-optimized package.

Still, I suppose it will do for another few years until the HPM machine decide to reinvigorate their alliance with a new set of offerings.
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Google, Apple and Microsoft are mentioned... where's IBM?

An article headed "How to get a job at Google, Apple, or Microsoft" means that IBM (who weren't mentioned at all in the main text) either:

• hasn't yet recovered from the GFC and isn't hiring, or
• is recovering, but doesn't think they need more staff, or
• is recovering and hiring, but hasn't taken that journalist out to lunch recently.

Regardless of the reason, I see this (and similar articles) as evidence that IBM software group is still struggling for mind share with the Fourth Estate.

C'mon 'Lotus Knows' ... start revving that PR engine!
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How to succeed in selling Lotus services ...

I added this comment to a Linked-In group earlier this morning but I figured it was a valid blog post in it's own right... Merry Christmas to all my readers.

Comments about Lotus lack of marketing and mistakes with IBM Workplace and losing market share etc are soooooo last year. Get over it and get into the future! If you are going to stay with Notes (like me) then get your finger out and DO something about expanding the market for Domino. There are managers at IBM/Lotus in Australia who can and do help Lotus Business Partners. If you go to them with a great idea then they'll help you. All you have to do is show them a Win-Win scenario and they'll come to the Party. I have two ZERO-COST (apart from phone calls) marketing programs running with IBM right now and the results are fantastic - two new paying clients this month and two similar client appointments lined up for January plus a public marketing event scheduled for February.

If you are not based in Sydney then I'm happy to give you some ideas that have worked for me with IBM/Lotus. Contact me on 0435 094 694 or via email on 'gdodge - bcd - net - au'. I presume you can fill in the blanks :)

Microsoft Business Partners need not apply. Nothing personal, but I want to work with people who don't take a bet on every horse in the race. If you've got the cojones to stay Yellow then I'll show you the money.

BTW... I guess the same marketing techniques would work in other geographies so I'm happy to pass these tips onto non-Australian Business Partners. I can't promise that your Lotus sales office will respond as positively as Lotus Australia has done.
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Is Symphony losing the 'hearts and minds' battle?

I use either Notes or Symphony for all of my business doc needs and I'm a firm believer that Symphony is a good investment for IBM and for users. The big problem I see for the product is that it seems to be marginalized by the reviewers. Look at this review by Infoworld which looks at the ongoing battle between Microsoft Office and Google Apps - not a mention of Symphony anywhere in the article.

I know that the current Google/Microsoft war for Apps and OS is sexier than the (yawn) ongoing IBM/Microsoft 100 Years War over email but use awareness is the name of today's game and IBM marketing needs to work harder and smarter to stay in the battle. Maybe if IBM followed Google's lead and provided a competitor to Windows and then put some marketing dollars behind it...
COUGHLotusFoundationsServerCOUGH...

No, I'm just dreaming...

Yes... I know about the 'Lotus Knows' campaign. That's a different type of marketing investment compared to getting the Symphony name into these product-specific reviews done by industry analysts.
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I will prostitute myself for one day only...

I don't twitter and I don't tweet and I draw strength from a recent study I read (no - I don't have the URL - my bad) that showed 40% of tweets are meaningless drivel a la

# Yawn. Late night playing Warcraft.

# I h@te Microsoft

# I've just had this wonderful bowel movement - let me tell you about it.

However for one day I'm willing to sacrifice the purity of my well-known technology-neutral persona and hop aboard the social bandwagon in order to publicly state:

#Lotusknows

Rock on Lotus!
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OK! OK! Technology neutral I am not, but I still see no redeeming virtues in either Facebook or Twitter from a corporate perspective.
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Lotus Knows... that Australia is asleep at 1:30am

Listening in on the "Lotus Knows" awareness campaign discussion with Kristen Lauria, Sandy Carter and Shaun Jones sounded like a great idea until I realized that 11:30 AM on Monday Eastern Time (US & Canada) is equivalent to 1:30 AM on Tuesday Australian Eastern Standard Time.

Hey, I'm keen on knowing about Lotus, but not quite THAT keen.

However Deborah Cole (Lotus Channel Marketing and Communications and winner of Miss Congeniality 2009) advised me that the call will be replayed at a more sensible hour in the not too distant future. So if you were planning to listen in to the call but were put off by the inconvenient Time Zone, then all is not lost. Register here and wait for the replay.
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The Microsoft Ministry of Truth

When Albert Einstein was confronted by a publication entitled "100 Scientists against Einstein" he replied quite succinctly, "If I had been wrong one scientist would have been enough."

When I am confronted with adjective-laden articles written in the style of Julia White's publication I think to myself, "If she was right, then the facts alone would have been enough"

"... costs and antiquated architecture of Lotus Notes and Domino."
"... complicated, proprietary Notes applications."

Puh-lease!!! Someone find me a bucket to laugh into. Alright, it's from last September and this type of marketing is nothing new from Microsoft but I had to comment on the sheer chutzpah of this comment:

"IBM may even respond with a press release announcing ‘new’ customers, who are, in most cases, simply deciding to keep Notes a bit longer."

I suppose I shouldn't laugh. After all, marketing your product by making kindergarten-logic unsupported statements like this is what got Hitler elected and it's all the rage in Iran where the current dictatorship is currently having a great time demonizing ( + imprisoning + torturing + killing) their opposition.

How can you reason with these people?
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OT: Lotus Small Business Suite

Anyone heard about a new product called "Lotus Small Business Suite" ?
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Lotus Foundations Server featured in the regular Press

After a wait that seemed like a year (but was really only twelve months) the Lotus Foundations Server bandwagon is starting to roll in Australia. "The Australian" is the more business-oriented of the big three daily newspapers in Australia, and today they had an article on how a SMB called EPSI invested in Lotus Foundations server.




The next step is to get a copy of that newspaper into every SMB in Australia.
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Time to drink the Lotus KoolAid!

From tomorrow I'll be joining dozens of other interested people in attending the on-line IBM Top Gun Virtual Learning: Lotus Foundation class. (NB: This course covers the entire Lotus range - the word 'Foundation' in its title is misleading). This is three consecutive half-days of training across the entire Lotus product line. Here's the blurb:

*************************************************************************************
This IBM Top Gun Virtual Learning class provides a look at the Lotus offerings from a non-technical sales standpoint, focusing on what the products deliver and where they fit in the marketplace. An overview of the Lotus product strategy kicks off the class, building a framework for the more detailed product sessions to follow. Product features are explained and the types of customers to target are identified. This class can serve as a prerequisite for attending a face to face IBM Lotus Foundations Top Gun Class.

Topics include:
* Surveying the Overall Lotus Product Strategy
* Building an Understanding of the Lotus Product Family
* Identifying Target Customer Types
* Previewing Competitive Insights

Duration
The class is held on 3 consecutive days for 4 hours each day.

Audience
Any seller who needs to understand the Lotus portfolio, including Sales, Services, Business Partners, and non-software sellers who wish to enhance their sales by including Lotus Software.

Objectives
This class builds foundational skills and knowledge for enabling students to:
* Gain a basic understanding of the Lotus strategy.
* Understand the Lotus product offerings and their functions.
* Identify the target audience for Lotus products and solutions.
* Recognize potential opportunities for Lotus solutions early in the sales cycle.

Agenda
Day 1
* Lotus Software Strategy Overview
* Lotus Notes / Domino
Day 2
* Lotus Sametime / Unified Communications and Collaboration (UC²)
* Lotus Quickr
* Lotus Connections
Day 3
* WebSphere Portal
* Portal Accelerators
* Mashups
* Wrap-up and Final Test
*************************************************************************************

I've been selling and supporting Lotus software for over twenty years - that's no big deal, so have many other people - and the song sheet has changed a fair bit in that time. Time to make sure that I'm up to date with the current Top Ten Hits. If you sell any part of the Lotus portfolio and you want some street cred with IBM then maybe you need to check in for a music lesson also.

The bit that annoys me is that Day Three of the class is scheduled for the morning of Easter Friday. As an IT consultant I normally don't worry about Public Holidays, but Easter and Christmas carry a special significance far beyond the average Labor Day or Bank Holiday. I do think Lotus could have been a bit more sensitive on the timing.
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The Lotus Foundations Server viral video hits town...

After seeing the new viral video I have concluded that Lotus Foundations Server is either some kind of asteroid shield for buildings or a new antiperspirant that makes overweight middle-aged guys irresistible to hot young blondes (where was this product when I needed it?).

The video was OK as a comedy clip but I don't see how it's going to help spread the word about Foundations. I guess that's why I don't get the big bucks as a marketing mogul.
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More marketing for Foundations?

Apparently Lotus is starting to put some marketing ooomph behind Foundations. I caught one blog posting today talking about '...a "brand-new IBM (Lotus Foundations) viral video campaign" that will launch on Monday'.

Anyone seen the videos yet?
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Microsoft = Jack of all Trades and Master of Marketing

Ever driven past one of those ramshackle ancient mechanical workshops with a sign out the front saying "We specialize in everything"? Not really the kind of place that you go to if you have a choice.

The same marketing philosophy seems apparent in a recent job posting for a Marketing Manager at Microsoft which gives one of the responsibilities of the position as "Communicate and generate Partner excitement for Windows Vista Business, Windows 7 for Small Business (future)..."

Windows 7 for Small Business? An operating system specifically designed for Small Business? I've got to keep my eyes on this one.

That's Microsoft for you - they specialize in everything.
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Foundations and Tivoli - A marriage made in Marketing

IBM Thailand has announced a new 'set' of software consisting of IBM Lotus Foundations Start and Tivoli FastBack. When I see announcements like that I get the impression that the only integration between the products is that you get billed for both of them on the same invoice. I know that Lotus Foundations is a great product and I'm sure Tivoli FastBack is a superb piece of coding, but I don't see how the two packages are meant to work together. Let me quote from the IBM announcement:

IBM's new Tivoli FastBack software - the first new product resulting from IBM's recent acquisition of FilesX - provide SMEs with improved business continuity and comprehensive recovery of data and applications, as well as the ability to address compliance across customer data centers and remote offices. Part of IBM's Tivoli Storage Manager line, the new software expands IBM's existing enterprise data protection solutions with new capabilities to help protect data that resides outside managed servers, on remote networks.

From that I read here, FastBack is primarily a Windows-based Enterprise backup solution which can protect data on remote servers - Tivoli Gurus are welcome to correct me on that. So where is the technical integration with the Linux-based Lotus Foundations? Are you supposed to ignore the ground-breaking native Foundations idb backup technology in favor of the Tivoli enterprise solution? Where is the market overlap between the Lotus Foundations SMB consumer and the Tivoli Enterprise purchaser? I don't see it.

Sorry IBM, but that particular product marriage just doesn't make sense.
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'Microsoft Watch' bloopers

In his latest 'Microsoft Watch' blog post Joe Wilcox led with the line that "it's Linux versus Windows, baby" and I probably shouldn't blame him for that approach - even if you only drink bottled water over there, the fumes from the open kegs of Microsoft Kool-Aid must be overpowering. That is exactly the way that Microsoft want to see the SMB battlefield. When Microsoft defines the SMB market in terms of the base O/S they get an enormous marketing boost by specifying the system deliverables in terms of brand rather than functionality, and the Microsoft Windows brand is one of the strongest on the planet. IMHO "Linux versus Windows" has got nothing to do with the problem. They are both key components in some potential alternative solutions, but let's not muddy the waters by pretending that having Microsoft on the label automatically means a better answer.

Here's a hint Joe - SMB owners generally don't give a proverbial about what's under the hood - they just want to give their users the application services they need to get the job done. Sometimes those applications are from Microsoft and sometimes they are from IBM and sometimes they are from other vendors. The Lotus Foundations value proposition doesn't need the hardware component (or even Lotus Domino) to be an attractive investment for a SMB.

I don't understand why you are suggesting the IBM approach is different to Microsoft because IBM has announced an appliance (software plus hardware) while Microsoft is releasing a software package. Remember that Lotus Foundations Server software was originally released, and is still available, as a software package to install on third party hardware. The appliance offering is an option for those SMB who prefer that integrated model, but you don't need to take it if you don't want it. So at this point IBM is just offering a wider range of solution configurations than Microsoft. I guess Microsoft could eventually start bundling SBS on re-engineered HP hardware that provides the O/S on flash memory and includes intelligent Backup and Restore, but right now I'd say the Boys from Seattle are a looooooooooooooooong way behind on that kind of technology.

Perhaps you missed some key point on a few other issues:

• Office alternative Symphony is bundled along with Lotus Notes. - Yes, but Symphony is also available as a free download. You don't need to buy Foundations in order to install Symphony.
  
  
• IBM cut a virtualization deal with VMware—for businesses needing to run Windows applications. - Look a little deeper Joe. VMWare on Foundations allows a SMB to run Windows servers as well as applications. Are you fed up with your Server 2003 BSOD taking out your entire network and internet access? Does reinstalling or restoring Windows Server take your whole system off line for the whole day? Then run your Windows Server session inside a VMWare session on Lotus Foundations server and the only thing that a Windows Server malfunction can kill is itself. Lotus Foundations Server will keep right on running and apart from the people who need a Windows server application (accounting?) your users won't notice that it's gone.
  
  
• The business model is more subscription-like, which should appeal to channel partners and customers, particularly in these times of economic uncertainty. - Where the heck did this one come from? Sure you pay annual maintenance on the Foundations software and antispam/antivirus modules but that's the same with any server software. IBM has recently announced hosted Notes/Domino but that has nothing to do with Foundations. A SMB can opt for a hosted Foundations and Notes solution but they can do that with any server software if they can find a Business Partner who wants to sell them that service.
  
  
• Domain hosting is one of the service hybrids IBM offers with its Foundations appliance. - That depends how you define Domain Hosting. If you have an existing Domain name (say, www. acme.com) but you don't have a static IP address to nail the Domain Name to, then you can use the Lotus Foundations DynamicDNS service to ensure that your server can always be reached at www.acme.com. First, you instruct your ISP to point your Domain Name record to the Lotus DynamicDNS servers (which have a static IP address). Then when you reboot your Foundations server it takes note of the new IP address that it has been allocated and sends that information along with its Domain Name information to the Lotus DynamicDNS servers. All enquiries for www.acme.com will first go to the Lotus servers and are then automatically redirected to your own server. I don't consider that to be Domain Hosting since all Lotus is providing is a Domain Name redirection service.

You compared the pricing of Microsoft's Small Business Server 2008 "standard" edition as $1,089 for five users and the the "premium" version as $1,899 against the cost of a Lotus Foundations applicance as $2,499. That's hardly comparing apples with apples. If you are looking at a software-only sale then the cost of the appliance is irrelevant and Lotus Foundations Server software is cheaper at $849 for five users. If you want to include the the cost of the Lotus appliance hardware then we need to add in the cost of the hardware to run the Microsoft solution and I think 10gb of ram on a 64 bit architecture was the starting point for SBS2008 (times two if you want the Premium edition).

You've done some excellent reviews in the past Joe but you let yourself down with this one. However apart from the creativity in comparing prices, I put most of your mistakes down to your unfamiliarity with Lotus Foundations Server. I'll be watching to see what you have to say with your next product comparison after the Microsoft's SBS 2008 launch.
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Lotus Foundations - where is the IBM marketing?

It didn't take a Nostradamus to predict that IBM would throw in a few spoilers during Microsoft's Launch Week for SBS2008. After all, if Microsoft can repeatedly use the first day of Lotussphere to re-release their plans to take 'x' million Notes customers away from IBM, then why shouldn't IBM return the compliment and try to crash Microsoft's party. It's all good, clean predictable fun. Announcing the inclusion of VMWare Virtualization in Lotus Foundations is one of those spoilers. Stand by for a few others as this week unfolds.

Now the serious bit. The launch of SBS2008 and EBS2008 means that the battle for the hearts and wallets of SMB is well and truly joined. Microsoft is the defending champ but for this round IBM had a ten month head start with their January 2008 acquisition of Nitix and subsequent release of Lotus Foundations Server. So did the IBM Marketing team use that time effectively?

My answer is no.

From what I can see, for most of 2008 IBM SMB Marketing have been flopping around impotently just like the US Army did in Vietnam in the 1960's. (That particular analogy can be stretched a bit further). IBM is a technical and financial powerhouse with a wealth of experience in classical IT marketing. Show them an opportunity to re-architect and replace the core database of a Fortune 500 company and they'll throw in enough marketing and technical firepower to win the battle. Unfortunately dealing with SMB opportunities is more like chasing Vietcong insurgents - they are small, mobile and each local cadre writes their own tactical rulebook. Microsoft has excelled at building a large Business Partner community to track down and nail these SMB opportunities while IBM is still trying to figure out how to adjust their existing marketing ploys to win this new war. To make it worse, IBM/Lotus seems to be treating Foundations like a sideshow product - it would be good to get a few sales but let's concentrate on the Notes/Domino market first.

Prove me wrong IBM. Show me that you have a worldwide marketing plan and that you're going to use it. Show me how my company can work with your marketing plan to build our common client base. It's strategically unwise and financially inappropriate to expect existing Lotus Business Partners to develop and pay for developing their own strategies to create the Foundations market. We need to see IBM leadership in this space.

(At this point I'm not addressing the IBM technical direction for Foundations - that's a much happier story and we'll look at that in another post.)
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Foundations marketshare predictions

The last Poll asked what SMB marketshare Lotus Foundations Server would achieve by December 2009:

• 4 people voted for 50% market share.
• 2 people voted for 33% market share.
• 3 people voted for 20% market share.
• 9 people voted for 10% market share.
• 30 people voted for 5% market share.

I was interested that 4 people see Foundations toppling Microsoft SBS as the King of SMB software by December 2009. I'm pleased that the IBM Marketing managers visit my site from time to time but I don’t really think that result is going to happen. My money is with the 80% of respondents who topped out at 10% of the market. The December 2010 market shares could be a whole different result but I’ll leave that poll for next year.

I agree that Foundations is the better product for SMB (for a whole bunch of reasons) but I don’t see Microsoft giving up this market without a fight. IBM can’t build the worldwide partner channel for Foundations overnight, and even after they have done that there will still be the traditional corporate inertia to overcome.

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