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SugarCRM and LotusLive – a match made in heaven for small businesses

Posted by on Jan 27th, 2011 in IBM, Lotus Knows, Lotuslive | 0 comments

Cloud is hot this year. Recent research from IDC demonstrates that worldwide spending on cloud services will grow almost threefold by 2013, to some $44.2 billion (U.S.).

Back in my Lotus Foundations days, I always recommended my business partners to try out SugarCRM to manage their day to day sales and customer management. I loved the functionality, price (starting from FREE), and being able to scale it according to the organizations’ needs.

Today, IBM announced partnerships with Ariba and SugarCRM to help clients take advantage of social commerce and CRM in the cloud.  We also announced the widespread adoption of LotusLive with a whole range of new clients benefiting from IBM’s cloud initiatives.

You can read more about both here.

And based on a survey IBM conducted in the mid-market recently, there’s growing adoption of cloud computing among midsize firms, with two-thirds either planning or currently deploying cloud-based technologies to improve IT systems while lowering their overall costs.

Adoption of cloud computing is on the rise. Recent IDC research shows that worldwide spending on cloud services will grow almost threefold, reaching $44.2 billion by 2013. With this increased interest and adoption, businesses across the world are embracing IBM’s public cloud services for easy-to-use collaboration tools to connect with colleagues, partners and suppliers quickly.

Additionally, according to a recent IBM survey of more than 2,000 midsize companies, there’s growing adoption of cloud computing among midsize firms, with two-thirds either planning or currently deploying cloud-based technologies to improve IT systems management while lowering costs.

Check out the video below to learn more about how Lotus and SugarCRM are bringing customer relationship management to the cloud.

If you believe what Microsoft says it’s going to cost you. Therefore … “Don’t believe MS and read on…”

Posted by on Nov 16th, 2010 in IBM, Lotus Knows, Lotuslive, Microsoft, social media | 3 comments

Here’s a guest post by my good friend, Joel Waterman from Lotus. Joel Waterman is a program director, responsible for selling Messaging & Collaboration products for IBM’s South West Europe region. In that capacity he frequently meets with customers to discuss collaboration strategies. He is based in La Gaude, near Nice, in France.

A while back Microsoft posted an entry on their websites comparing Notes with Exchange.  What follows is a response in three parts.  These three blog posts combined will provide every level headed person with the arguments to see through this prime example of MS-FUD.

Part 1: MS-FUD Version 5 Fixpack 8 Service Pack 16 Security Patch 34.7

One of the most irrational debates in IT these days is the inbox to inbox migration battle, aka as Notes vs Exchange. There is no point in migration from one mail system to another. Really. It’s all the same. Migration just cost money – lots of it – effort and the end result is … well … erm … just another inbox. Unfortunately quite a few of our customers find themselves in this situation swayed by clever and well funded Microsoft FUD. FUD means ‘Fear Uncertainty & Doubt’ – a trusted marketing ploy. Granted, IBM does not necessarily do everything it can to dismiss the FUD Microsoft is disseminating. A good example of MS-FUD Version 5 Fixpack 8 Service Pack 16 Security Patch 34.7 can be found here; www.microsoft.com/exchange/2010/en/us/notes.aspx.

Exchange, more features than Notes…?  C’mon MS. You can do better than that!

Their opening salvo is not very original. Exchange has more features than Notes.  C’mon MS. You can do better than that! Plus they try to play the market share game. You know what people say about statistics, right?  Don’t believe Microsoft. Read what market analysts say.  Lotus innovated with Groupware, or what we now call collaborative applications, when MS came to market with only email.

In the early nineties (sic) interviews with Ray Ozzie outlined that he was talking about exploiting the potential of the human network, not email. Hey. This was way pre-Facebook.  We are now seeing MS taking on some of the collaboration messages that Lotus started with in the early nineties. With 145 Million Notes seats sold to 47.000 companies, the market shares between Lotus and MS are basically equal according to Gartner, Forrester and IDC. Gartner: “Microsoft continues to play catch up to IBM/Lotus.“

In their latest Version 2010, they have added features such as support for threaded discussion, support for non Microsoft Browsers, Lotus customers have enjoyed the benefits of these features for a long time.  And there is more…once you are licensed to Notes you have immediate access to Sametime Entry for instant messaging and Quickr Entry for lightweight document management and filesharing. Both seamlessly integrated into the Notes client.  Gartner, not necessarily a hotbed of pro-Lotus sentiments, has a consultant called Matt Cain. He says that “IBM has actually leapt to the head of the e-mail client pack by merging the traditional Notes client with Lotus Expeditor” (Gartner Group, June 2009).

The scale of their lie is impressive. Not the scale of their servers.
This one is rather bold, even by MS standards. They attack Notes on it’s lack of scalability.  The futility of this reminds me of the fighting scene from one of the Monthly Python movies where a knight missing most of his limbs remains upbeat about his chances to win. One of the traditional strengths of the Domino server is it’s scalability. Everyone agrees Exchange is less efficient in this department. Not deterred MS-FUD Inc. goes on full attack.  They even claim we have no Cloud solution. Don’t believe Microsoft.  Click on LotusLive.com – find out for yourself. IBM has a full on-premise hybrid and SaaS solutions for messaging and collaboration. Simply go to LotusLive.com to see the various mail options, including our flagship Lotus Notes product, called LotusLive Notes, and indeed a lighter email client called LotusLive iNotes.  Nowhere does this model merit calling into question IBM’s commitment to Lotus Notes. We provide plenty value for end users. With a Notes enterprise client access license you get a choice to deploy the full client, a webclient, free desktop productivity tools and free VPN tools.

To be continued in Tomorrow’s Post.  Please share your comments.

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Blog by Bilal Jaffery. Copyright © Bilal.ca 2011