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Lotus Says Notes Delayed, Enlarges Services Group

Notes/Domino upgrade is still in testing, will ship in January.

By Ted Smalley Bowen, PCWorld   

Lotus revealed plans to add muscle to its professional services corps. The Lotus Worldwide Services and Solutions Group is slated to launch in January.

The Notes/Domino upgrade could slip to the end of January or later, although the company has targeted its mid-month Lotusphere conference in Orlando, Florida, for the launch, said Ken Bisconti, senior director of communications products marketing at Lotus.

One analyst termed the tardiness relatively minor.

"I don't see the delay as being significant. They've got a lot of product with a lot of new features, and it's going to take them a while to get it all sorted out and hammered down," said Tim Sloane, an analyst at the Aberdeen Group, a market research company in Boston.

Some of the delay has been attributed to adjustments of the Notes R5 client upgrade, which introduces a Web browser metaphor and is intended to function as the user's primary work environment.

Testers report the Domino server and Designer development environment to be sound and relatively complete. Lotus claims the Notes/Domino installed base stood at about 29 million by the end of the third quarter, and is expected to surpass 32 million by year's end, Bisconti said.

To support the Notes/Domino upgrade and its other products, Lotus--with the help of parent company IBM--will relaunch its services organization as a single entity. Until now, separate groups have existed for consulting, support, and education, says Tim Dempsey, vice president in charge of Lotus' worldwide business partner program. The enlarged Lotus services group will also increase its coordination with IBM Global Services, according to Lotus company officials.