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Lotus eNews - 2 February 1998

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Rupert Brennan Brown

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Feb 2, 1998, 3:00:00 AM2/2/98

Lotus eNews - 2 February 1998
A weekly email update of developments in the Lotus mail, groupware and
messaging markets.
Produced by Rupert Brown, eValue, <mailto:rupe...@virign.net> for Domino
Club

Contents:
1. Leader
2. Lotus Previews R5
3. Other Lotus Product Announcements
4. Domino on S390
5. Domino on AS400
6. Business Partners - Beacon Awards
7. Business Partners - NetInfo Domino Training
9. Business Partners - NetInfo offers Domino Design Tips
9. Business Partners - eValue Partner Search & Selection
10. Business Partners - NIPs Wide Area Workflow Solutions
11. User Groups - Domino Club Goes West
12. Lotus - New Appointments
13. In Brief
14. Classified Adverts

Leader - Now where's the meat ?

Last week saw Orlando host the most successful Lotusphere ever. Lotus used
the event to record some major milestones (20 million users of Lotus mail
products) and announce some significant new products (Domino Release 5,
Domino for AS400, further services for Domino on S390 and the first
commercial Java Applet for business - eSuite).

Lotus have done well, only two years ago the pundits were saying that
Exchange and the intranet would kill the company and its products off.
However, as anyone who has experience of Lotus Domino point releases over
the past two years knows, the delivered product seldom matches the
marketing promise. This is perhaps okay if you are a company producing mere
desktop products like word processors, spread sheets, etc... (I bet current
users of SmartSuite can't wait for eSuite) but if you are promising to
deliver eBusiness solutions (email, groupware & the web) then plainly this
will not do. As a CIO in a multinational company recently put it when we
were discussing Domino for AS400 "I am not going to put unreliable software
on my reliable server".

So as users we need to continue to put pressure on both Lotus and IBM to
deliver products that really enable our businesses to do eBusiness. To that
end eValue is providing this newsletter as a service to the business user
community so that you can keep upto date on developments and, more
importantly, so that Lotus/IBM keep their ears open to the needs of their
customers. I would therefore welcome any comments from readers on any of
the announcements detailed below..

Rupert Brown, Lotus eNews Webitor. <mailto:rupe...@virgin.net>

Lotus Previews Domino 5.0 (server)

Domino 5.0 completes the convergence of cc:Mail and Domino, and will play a
key role in moves by Lotus to migrate users of other messaging systems to
Domino. Both Domino 5.0 and Domino Mail Server 5.0 will feature the best of
cc:Mail-based administration functions, such as full user moves and
in-place, online mailbox compacting. In addition, administrators will be
able to centrally store and manage user identity, allowing roaming users to
access their mailboxes and desktops from any location and any client or
workstation.

Further ease-of-administration features include online backup and recovery
for 24x7 availability, advanced message tracking, and a higher level of
operating system integration on supported platforms, including Windows NT,
AS/400, UNIX and S/390. Domino 5.0 will also allow an increase in the
number of users supported by a single server.

The following enhancements have been announced:
support for LDAP v3 and S/MIME,
push services for centralised client updates,
new graphical planning and administration tools,
support for mobile workers by enabling users of wireless and handheld
devices, such as PalmPilot, Windows CE devices, pagers and SmartPhones, to
efficiently access Domino e-mail, calendar and other applications.

Application development & deployment platform -- The Domino 5.0 application
development environment will see additions to current support for Java, C,
C++, Visual Basic and LotusScript, Release 5.0 will support ECMA-compliant
JavaScript, HTML 4.0 and XML. Beginning with the next release, Domino will
scale beyond eight processors, and Lotus will enhance its clustering
technologies to provide greater server load balancing offering enhanced
availability and reliability of both Notes clients and browsers.

Other new products announced at Lotusphere:

Notes 5.0, an integrated Internet client for calendaring and scheduling,
discussion and news groups and Web publishing that allows users to manage
all their daily information in one environment while having access to other
applications on their desktop.

Domino Designer 5.0, an application development environment enabling Web
developers to build high-impact, dynamic applications with an increased
range of tools for each design task.

Domino Intranet Starter Pack 2.0, a solution that allows small and
medium-size businesses to quickly and cost-effectively achieve, and grow
e-mail, calendaring, information sharing and collaboration applications
across intranets and over the Internet.

LearningSpace 2.5, a Notes/Domino-based solution for creating and
delivering training and education over the Internet. Enhancements include
course development and multimedia integration tools, a more intuitive Web
interface and the ability to accommodate greater numbers of users.

Lotus eSuite WorkPlace on the IBM Network Station Series 1000, the
industry's first complete Java-based productivity solution on IBM's new
desktop computing device that connects to network servers for simple
software application deployment across organisations. eSuite business
productivity solutions like word processing, e-mail, spreadsheet, calendar,
address book and presentation graphics, have been built specifically for
the network computing environment and designed to reduce the cost of
computing while increasing productivity and speeding deployment of Internet
and Intranet applications.

Domino on IBM S390

Large System Support (LSS) for Domino for S/390 was also announced at
Lotusphere. LSS is a program designed to proactively manage the reliability
and availability of Domino for S/390 enterprise-wide and mission-critical
systems. Customers receive enhanced 24x7 telephone support, electronic
support and large systems support service level guidelines. This new
program follows the shipment of Domino for S/390 in September 1997.
LSS for Domino for S/390 will be available on February 2, 1998 from Lotus.

To coincide with this announcement Domino Club, the professional
association for users of Lotus web technologies, announced a worldwide
special interest group (SIG) for corporates running Lotus Domino on IBM
S390 mainframes. The new grouping will enable corporate users of Domino for
S390 to work together to safeguard their investment in Lotus Internet
technologies.

With one hundred organisations worldwide running Domino for S390 there is a
considerable opportunity for users to share their experiences in
integrating mission-critical data with Domino. Membership of the SIG will
also allow users to keep abreast of the latest developments in the fast
growing Lotus Domino market.

"To ensure that Domino for S390 customers get maximum business benefit for
their organisations we have asked Domino Club to take them under their wing
as a special interest group. S390 customers are used to thinking in global
terms therefore it seemed right that they should be able to tap into the
pool of worldwide expertise available in Domino Club." said Caroline
Moisan, of IBM S390 EMEA High End Systems Marketing.

For further information on Domino Club for S390 Users contact Rupert Brown
on rup...@tug.co.uk or +44 (0) 171 917 2805.

Domino for AS/400

Domino for AS/400 is a full-function Domino server running as a native
OS/400 application and built to exploit AS/400 64-bit RISC technology.
Lotus claim the following benefits for Domino on AS400:
Communication - Coexistence with AS/400 AnyMail framework through
Dominos SMTP MTA connects Notes Mail with OV/400 and Internet mail.
Integration - Direct access to DB2/400 from Lotus Domino and tight
integration with AS/400?s security, directory and other services
protect investments in AS/400 applications.
Consolidation - Domino for AS/400 will leverage AS/400?s high
reliability, availability and scalability, making it possible to
consolidate multiple application and messaging servers, streamlining
systems management.

Several Business Partners announced customised applications and services
for Domino on AS/400 (Unfortunately Lotus seemed unable to provide any
examples in their press release and instead pointed interested people to
the Lotusphere web site at http://www.lotusphere.com.)

Lotus Domino 5.0 is expected to be available in the second half of 1998.
Beta is expected to be available in early Q2. Estimated Pricing: Retail
price of $1,495 for the single processor edition, $3,495 for 2-4 processors
and $16,250 for five or more processors.

Business Partner News from Lotusphere

Lotus Business Partners from around the world announced more than 150
products and solutions based on Lotus technology, including the Domino
Instant! Host platform, to provide solutions in specific markets such as
sales automation, health care, manufacturing and government, as well as
tools for application development and system management. Alliance partners
making announcements included Sun and Digital.

Lotus Beacon Awards: Categories and Winners

Greatest Business Impact -- Solution that significantly and measurably
improved a single customers core business processes. Key measurements
included improved productivity, reduced time to market, measurable ROI
and/or increased revenue. (Industry judges: Jeff Schwartz & John Fontana,
InternetWeek)
Winner: Enterprise Consulting Group, Inc. for developing a Notes and
Domino application to link an automotive customer with a wide range of
suppliers -- reducing operating costs by more than one billion dollars a
year.

Rising Star -- New Lotus Business Partner (one year or less) who
demonstrated dramatic growth, innovative use of Lotus technologies and the
potential to open new markets for Lotus products. (Industry judge: Michael
Pinckney, Gartner Group)
Winner: Team Technologies, Inc. for the depth and breadth of their many
solutions and the broad base of satisfied customers served by those
solutions.

Distinguished Achievement -- Lotus Premium Partner in each of the Lotus
Worldwide regions who has refined the "art of partnering" with Lotus and
IBM, has driven awareness and business for Lotus technology in its
individual markets, and has shown loyalty to Lotus, the technology and its
customers. (Judge: Lotus Worldwide Management Teams)
Winners: AIT Workgroup Technology (Asia Pacific) for consistently
promoting and winning accounts based on Lotus technology over the past two
years and for developing the first publishing Web site in Asia; INFOservice
Srl (Europe, Middle East, Africa) for excelling at partnering at every
level with Lotus and other Partners and for driving banking solutions and
SAP and Notes integration; Soliton Systems K.K. (Japan) for continuous
outstanding performance and growth of Notes sales over three consecutive
years by offering a diverse set of solutions, integration and educational
services; Sisdam (Latin America) for being a loyal Partner to the Lotus
brand and for developing a diverse portfolio of corporate customers in
Argentina and Brazil; InfoImage, Inc. (North America) for consistently
demonstrating an outstanding commitment to Lotus -- one that has
significantly impacted customers, Lotus and the Partner community.

Best in Lotusphere Showcase -- State of the art solution that leverages the
greatest range of Lotus technologies. (Industry judge: David Marshak,
Seybold Group)
Winner: MFJ Internationals OverQuota is a sales automation application that
fully leverages all the capabilities that Lotus and Lotus' Partners
provide.

Solution Awards
Best Web Business Solution -- Dynamic, electronic business solution
developed with Lotus Domino and IBM Internet and Intranet development tools
that extended the reach of the Internet and measurably improved a customers
ability to "Work the Web." (Industry judges: Krista Ostertag, Cassimir
Medford & Robert DeMarzo, VARBusiness)
Winner: Delfin Systems for designing and developing a Domino solution that
works with its customers existing mainframe system and solves a business
need on a global scale.

Best Industry Solution -- Outstanding solutions in vertical and horizontal
industries. (Industry judges: Barb Darrow & Robert Faletra, Computer
Reseller News)
Winner, Vertical: IntraLinks, Inc. for an innovative financial application
that allows banks and institutional investors to manage loan syndication.
Winner, Cross Industry: SkillSet Software, Inc. for fully leveraging the
workflow and Internet technologies of Notes and Domino by creating a
recruiting solution that gives companies a competitive advantage in the
hiring market.

Best Philanthropic Solution -- Solution developed for a not-for-profit,
environmental or humanitarian effort. (Industry judge: Nancy Cox, Network
Computing)
Winner: Cobra Technologies for a developing a patient tracking system that
tracks both patient activity and the value of free services donated by a
variety of health care providers, thereby serving the needs of a large
rural, indigent population.

Best Messaging Solution -- Solution that delivers high business value;
sites where Lotus messaging technologies were chosen over or replaced
competitive products given special consideration. (Industry judge: Jim O
Donnell, Group Computing)
Winner: Integro for designing and implementing an enterprise-wide
messaging solution that vastly improved communications among one companys
eight geographically dispersed offices.

Best Tool/Utility Solution -- Tool or utility used to enhance a business
solution, including Java-based, data integration, application development
and system administration tools. (Industry judge: Gerry Murray,
International Data Corporation)
Winner: BMC Software, Inc. for a knowledge module application that enables
customers to lower the cost of management and administration of
enterprise-scale Domino deployments.

Service Awards
Excellence in Customer Satisfaction -- Partner who consistently received
excellent customer satisfaction marks in areas of technical support,
responsiveness, integrity and expertise, plus value of delivered solution.
(Industry judge: Barb Cole-Gomolski, Computerworld)
Winner: Momentum Business Systems for consistent high ratings from
customers for expertise, dedication and for consistently performing above
customer expectations.

Excellence in Partnering -- Two or more Partners who worked together to
deliver a total customer solution, including partnering with Lotus
Consulting and/or IBM Consulting. (Industry judges: Jeff Bliss, Computer
Reseller News & Dave Gabel, VARBusiness)
Winner: Emerging Technology Solutions & CRS Computers for developing a
virtual corporation approach to successfully deliver and deploy a 10,000
seat comprehensive, global workflow solution for a large pharmaceutical
company with over 60 sites worldwide that wanted to connect their small
field offices to large
administrative facilities.

Excellence in Education & Training -- Partner who leveraged Lotus
technologies to deliver superior educational programs to customers and
Partners. (Industry judge: Susan Biagi, NetworkVAR)
Winner: United System Solutions for being praised by their customers for
having excellent facilities, staff, class materials and level of
commitment.

TRAINING: NetInfo runs Domino Web Course

NetInfo has launched a two day course entitled "Developing Internet Web
Systems using Lotus Domino".

The course, centred around Domino development for Web browsers, is designed
to take existing Notes professionals to the next stage of Domino
development and is run in-groups of up to four people at the NetInfo
training centre in Maidenhead, UK.

Comprising presentations and hand's on workshops the course covers: Web
servers and Browsers, HTML considerations, customising Notes databases for
Web users, navigation, links and graphic objects as well as handling and
managing on-line input.

The Domino Application Development course last 2 days and costs £995 (UK
Pounds). NetInfo have built domino web applications for companies like the
AA, XEROX, BT, Capital Shopping Centres, Lotus and the PRS. Contact
Jonathon Bradshaw on jo...@netinfo.co.uk or 01628 414292 for further
information.

Domino Design Tips from NetInfo

1. When working with low-memory graphics, which is required when using
images on the web, dealing with 8-bit graphics is essential. The aim is to
control your own dithering of colour and to stop the browser or monitor
display card from applying its own. This can be done by optimising the
colour palette for the type of images that your site uses.

2. Flat colour images or vector images ( anti-aliased) look best without
any dithering. So, to avoid this, make sure that you convert your image
mode to indexed colour, with an adaptive palette and a dither of none.
Then, to reduce the file size, save the file as a GIF; which also
automatically saves it as an 8-bit image.

3. When working with photographs or scans, the individual image always
dithers in 8-bit, whether you try to use a "browser friendly" palette or
not. This is due to the enormous range of colours that this type of image
uses to represent it's graduations and lighting effects. When graphics of
this type are viewed in 8-bit, dithering occurs whether or not and 8-bit
palette has been applied. If you leave the image in 24-bit, the browser
will automatically apply it's own dithering scheme when viewed in 8-bit and
all those people with 24-bit systems will have the luxury of viewing the
graphic at a higher level of quality.

4. When saving a photographic image for the web, it is best to compress it
as a JPEG which gives a much smaller file size than a GIF. But, if the
photographic image needs to be saved as a GIF for the purposes of animation
it is better to create an adaptive palette first and apply that to the
image before compression. The adaptive palette picks a group of colours
that best represents the image that it is being applied to and therefore
reduces the number of colours used before compression, which subsequently
reduces the effects of dithering.

5. Before asigning your graphics to a web application it is advisable to
preview them within a browser. Remember to switch your monitor setting to
256 colours.

These Design Tips are provided by Charlotte Welch, Graphic designer,
NetInfo. eMail: char...@netinfo.co.uk

Business Partner Search & Selection service launched

With the huge growth in the number of companies offering Domino & Notes 3rd
party support and solutions many companies are confused about where to
begin looking for the right business partner to work with.

A new company called eValue claims to be able to solve this problem. "Our
database contains details on over 300 Lotus Business Partners, their
applications and skills; so whether you are looking for an ISO9000
application, Workflow skills, a Domino enabled ISP, network support or
platform specific developers we can help. We want to act as your one stop
solutions shop." says Rupert Brown of eValue. The idea for eValue came from
the experience Rupert gained at Domino Club where member companies would
often call asking for help in finding Lotus Business Partners.

For further information about eValue Business Partner Search & Selection
<mailto:rupe...@virgin.net>

New Information Paradigms announces Wide Area Workflow Solutions

New Information Paradigms (NIP) have developed Notes-enabled technologies
that allow users to dynamically create and maintain their business
processes in software through straightforward form-based interactions.
This means that it is now possible to take Business Process Re-engineering
(BPR) initiatives and put them into an active Notes based workflow system.

Wide Area Workflow is all about encapsulating business processes in Lotus
Notes and then extending workflow capability beyond departmental and
corporate boundaries to include suppliers, customers, partners etc. - the
domain of the extranet.

Implementing Wide Area Workflow technology will become crucial as companies
"expose" their internal processes to the outside world through embracing
the web / e-commerce etc. The main business drivers will be:

the need to effectively "route" interactions to the right individuals
a requirement for a knowledge base to support coherent messages to the
market
"multiple" electronic entry points into the organisation
disintermediation / reconfiguration of the value chain
inclusion of partners in value adding business processes

For further Information on Wide Area Workflow Solutions
<mailto:si...@nipltd.com>

User Groups - Domino Club opens office in North America

Domino Club this week opened an office in North America to service the
growing number of US & Canadian companies joining the group.

"We now have over 1,000 members worldwide with almost a third of that
number based in North America. To ensure that they are kept up to date with
the latest developments we needed to offer them a local point of contact
above and beyond what we can provide via the internet. Despite being in an
electronic market the human touch still counts!" Says Michael Heidt,
Manager of the Domino Club North American office.

For further information on Domino Club in North America contact Michael
Heidt on m...@tug.co.uk or +1 519 253 1176.

Lotus Announces new appointments

Lotus announced that Nick Shelness has been named Chief Technology Officer
(CTO) at the company and that James Fieger has been named executive vice
president of World Wide Field Operations, a position he has held on an
acting basis since last October.

Nick Shelness, Chief Technology Officer, is responsible for ensuring that
Lotus products and technologies developed in different divisions and
geographic locations work together. He is also charged with working with
IBM Research to identify new technologies that can be incorporated into
existing Lotus products or form the basis of new ones.

Shelness has served as Chief Messaging Architect of Lotus' Communications
Product Division where he has been involved with the integration of
Internet protocols into Notes/Domino, cc:Mail and Organizer. From
1994-1995, he helped architect the Lotus Notes SMTP, cc:Mail and X.400
MTAs, and Lotus Defense Messaging System Notes. Shelness also served as the
external design reviewer of cc:Mail versions 6 and 7.

Shelness joined Lotus Development in 1994 upon the acquisition by Lotus of
SoftSwitch Inc. where he was Chief Scientist and had overall architectural
responsibility for EMX (now the Lotus Messaging Switch) from its creation
in 1990. Prior to joining Soft-Switch, he served for three years as Manager
of Systems Integration at the British National Oil Corporation, and for ten
years as a Lecturer in the Department of Computer Science of the University
of Edinburgh, Scotland.

James Fieger has also been appointed Executive Vice President of Worldwide
Field Operations Fieger will be responsible for all world wide sales
operations both direct and indirect channels, world wide customer support,
consulting, and education programs and organizations. Most recently he
served as vice president, Lotus Worldwide IBM Industry Solution Unit Sales
Support and Enablement, a position in which he built linkages between the
Lotus and IBM sales forces.

Previously, Fieger was Lotus' Vice President of Sales and Marketing for
Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and also spent multiple years as the
vice president, General Manager of Lotus' Asian Pacific Operations, as well
as Latin America.

In brief:

A White House advisor on electronic money claims eBusiness will be the
primary engine of economic growth in the 21st Century.
Meanwhile a survey by Fletcher Research, sponsored by McKinsey, claims most
UK corporates view web sites as mere exercises in electronic publishing,
with only 35% attempting to generate revenue from them.
Perhaps less interesting, because it confirms what most of us have
suspected for some time, is the report from the Institiute of Directors
which claims that one in three directors in large UK companies do not use
personal computers at work.

Classified Section:

Interlaint - Domino Application Hosting, Messaging Services, Global Access:
http://www.interliant.com

MMT Computing - Domino and Notes Consultancy offering enterprise wide
planning and deployment, large scale bespoke application development:
<mailto:sales...@mmt-computing.co.uk>

Domino Club - The worldwide professional Association for Lotus mail,
groupware and web users: http://domino.tug.co.uk

Groupware and Communications - The magazine for business users of Lotus web
products: http://www.group-ware.com

Base IT - Recruitment and Resource Management services for companies using
Lotus Domino: http://www.base-it.com

Lotus eNews - 2 February 1998
A weekly email update of developments in the Lotus mail, groupware and
messaging markets.
Produced by Rupert Brown, eValue, <mailto:rupe...@virign.net>