More than a database, and still being copied.
Full disclosure - Im LATE to this post, and NEW here, but have been spending time mostly techcrunch and toms hardware guide. Today, I thought about checking on Lotus Notes.
Im a Lotus Development ex-employee, tasked with installing and managing Notes across a block of offices at Lotus (and IBM) back in the 90s - when we were using OS/2 and converting to NT. Ive been all over the world helping companies consolidate and right size their Notes infrastructure..
Im a Ray Ozzie fan, especially his early work on Notes, pre commercialization. So yes, I do lean toward Lotus Notes (and the old products.. anyone remember Lotus FM? or Improv?
I was there when IBM purchased us, and it was actually pretty good for both companies as IBM had committed to allowing Lotus to be more or less independent except for our choice of offices and back-end hardware. Cambridge always had its own way of thinking anyway, and in reality that is what lead to the success of Lotus Notes.
In defense of Notes:
The UI - is ugly and I hope that HCL can simplify and consolidate... but the back end is actually beautiful and in the last 20 years, even up to today, I still hear people say that they wish they could go back to Lotus Notes... so it is still a pick your problem situation because they both have flaws.
My point is that companies used to use software to differentiate themselves in the market, allowing them to move faster, track process and people more efficiently, and this is what Notes did. It was a new way to manage data. Now, we all have the same tools, same processes, and it takes much more to differentiate and succeed. There is more pressure on people to be better and we all get that.
I miss Lotus Notes - but mostly because I knew where to find all my data, and it was a great part of the software industry - when software wasnt on the cloud.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
