Groupware - Noteworthy

No-one can deny that Notes has vindicated IBM's $3.5bn (#2.1m) acquisition of Lotus. But the product that helped introduce groupware to the corporate world is re-inventing itself, and today, in the best tradition of Shakespearean drama, Notes has evolved into a play in three acts.

Act one is all about the success of Notes, which boasts 11 million users worldwide. As an application, document database and sophisticated messaging system all rolled into one, it's hard to beat. Indeed, Notes' ability to provide a flexible framework for managing unstructured information, such as text, has made it unique.

Long-time users, such as marketing directors, now edit reports with a browser, and then use Notes' email as a notification system to send any changes automatically to creative directors working on that project.

'They've found that the time it takes to manage projects has been reduced from around three days to just half a day,' says Jim Moffat, Lotus UK's communications products marketing manager.

Unilever's home and personal care group is using Domino and PointCast broadcast technology to send news and corporate information, held in Notes, to its offices across Europe. Developed by London-based Unipower Systems, the new system works as an intranet and uses PointCast to suck relevant information off the Web at pre-arranged times, holding it on the server until it is needed. The system then blends it with personnel data, strategic development plans and best practice tips and delivers it to the desktop.

'We believe this will not only help to raise the quality of decision making, but will also improve our long-term productivity,' says Nick Marazita, Unilever's vice president of business excellence, who pioneered the project.

Notes is also finding favour with the human resources department, supporting an environment which exposes employees to expertise and competencies held elsewhere within their organisation. This means the company can create a common pool of knowledge from discussion and data manipulation that would otherwise be lost in files.

PeopleSoft, a supplier of HR systems, uses an internal Notes database called PeopleTalk to share information between staff. 'It's a basic knowledge-sharing system that will become more sophisticated as time goes on,' says Row Henson, vice president of product strategy.

'Those who claim that person-to-person is the only way you can create team spirit are wrong. I feel really close to people I work with thanks to this system, even though I've never met them. What if you're a global company? You can't fly people around the world every few days just so you can be face-to-face for meetings,' she concludes.

Notes is also now seen as a miracle cure for ailing communications. According to Moffat, three-quarters of the IT managers who have signed up for Notes have done so to roll out email across the company. As a client-server environment, Notes encourages the sharing of information, allowing users to communicate securely over a local-area network or telecoms link with a document residing on a shared computer. 'Even though Notes' Web and application building functionality is important, many IT managers want to consolidate their email systems,' says Moffat.

Act two, then, is about version 4's ability to facilitate this by accommodating Internet and intranet functionality. Over the last year, Lotus has been improving its product's basic services - security, replication, messaging, application development, document store - so they can be accessed, for example, from a browser, not just a Notes client. In version 4.5, released at the end of last year, the Notes server - renamed Domino - contained technology which transformed Notes into a Net applications and messaging server. Applications (Domino.Applications - for example, Domino.Merchant and Domino.Action) sit on top of it as layers.

Version 4.6, now in pre-release for Windows 95 and NT. It is due out later this summer, will take this one step further into the network computer (NC) world with Java integration. This release represents the evolution of the Notes client as a standalone application for managing users' messaging, calendaring, Internet and personal information needs. Other new features include a Portfolio database, enhanced Web browsing, POP3 mail support, and a variety of desktop integration enhancements.

But the real strength of Notes, of course, and the key to its long-term survival, is the third-party industry that supports it. Notes-based application development has spawned thousands of specialist consultancy and development houses worldwide, including database vendors such as Revelation, Centura, Informix and Sybase's PowerSoft. So, not only do you get options to buy add-in utilities, you also get the chance to bring in specialists to develop additions which suit your own organisation.

And this leads to the third, and perhaps most important, act - which IBM was most acutely aware of when it bought Lotus. Instead of replacing existing applications which cost a great deal to create, Notes provides a way of integrating them.

Notes is supplied with a wide range of development tools. They include an object-oriented, Basic-compatible scripting language (with an integrated object browser and debugger); a mathematical function and formula language; document navigation tools; and ODBC-compliant data access tools, including a 'data pump' which allows the exchange of data between Notes and relational database systems such as DB2, Oracle7 and Sybase. Notes also provides Visual Basic tools so developers can improve Notes applications.

Development of a Notes application takes up a fraction of the time and cost required by conventional development tools. The difference between using Notes and a traditional development process is that, if something is not going to work, it soon becomes fairly obvious and the problem can be remedied or the project terminated.

Perhaps most significantly, IBM has been positioning Notes as the ideal partner to MQseries, its middleware environment, providing a direct link between Notes and enterprise back-end applications.

This means that Notes applications and their users can reliably access their transaction systems and data while still employing their current systems' tried-and-tested application business rules and system security interfaces.

The idea is that this simplifies programming and allows you to re-use existing applications. Furthermore, because MQseries can work asynchronously, the Notes application does not rely on the back-end system to be available. MQseries assures that the message gets there once the system is available.

When Notes first burst onto the scene, Lotus executives didn't know what they had on their hands. It was referred to as an 'empty vessel'. Now it appears to provide a window into a world of enterprise integration and secure IT.

Perhaps Lotus Notes has just grown up.

IMPLEMENTATION TIPS REFINE AND EVOLVE

Plan for integration

Interfacing with existing systems and technology must be considered, and necessary changes planned well in advance to reflect the changing business priorities of the company. Keep the system 'open'.

Plan for training and support

Make sure users are trained in the objectives and anticipated benefits of the groupware system, the system functions related to individual tasks and the procedures for using the system, as well as the system itself.

Conduct regular reviews

The system's effectiveness should be reviewed during and after the implementation phase. This should measure the achievement of benefits against those anticipated, identify problems early and take the appropriate corrective action to improve the system or its use. Carry out further reviews regularly to monitor progress.

Prototyping

Get something basic up and running quickly to sustain the users' interest. Don't waste time writing lots of reports. In the initial stages, users are bound to ask for the wrong things. Don't worry, good systems evolve, and are not created overnight. Obtain feedback and continually refine. Proceed in small increments - don't bite off more than you can chew.

Implementing Notes

Delivering what users want To implement Notes successfully you need to roll it out right across the company. Commitment from the top down is more likely to guarantee the success of the project at every level. It also ensures the project's objectives are clearly defined and aligned with the overall business goals of the company.

Closely analyse users' information requirements and administrative routines. This analysis should lead to a requirements plan that will help you deliver precisely what users want from the environment.

Set objectives and monitor whether they are being achieved. One of the dangers of Notes, for example, is that applications are extremely easy and cost-effective to develop, but longer term control over development can become a problem as applications multiply, losing their overall direction and impact.

Identify the main information flows in the company. These, together with the standalone and shared data requirements of individual managers and workgroups, should lend outline to the system.

Technical guidance and direction should also come from groupware specialists, who will invariably be able to offer a comprehensive consultancy/business analysis service to complement your in-house expertise.