Lotus has to make Notes and Domino the most compelling choice for cc:Mail customers. In my opinion, what Lotus hasn't realized yet is that they are fighting the path of least resistance. Even where price is equal and Lotus offers superior groupware capabilities, Exchange can win cc:Mail migration business because migration to exchange is technically easier for customers who understand messaging much better than groupware. Lotus has resisted competing mainly on price in the past because the Domino messaging and groupware platform offers other advantages over competing products.

Lotus gambles late
Lotus aggressively pushed the cc:Mail to Domino migration message beginning in January of 1998 but Steve Layne, who was behind the strategy, left Lotus in July. From what I can tell, Lotus' aggressive strategy significantly accelerated the rate at which cc:Mail customers left Lotus as a messaging vendor. In 1997, I wrote an article predicting that it was already too late for Lotus to aggressively push cc:Mail to Domino migration. I believe Lotus should have discontinued cc:Mail in 1996 before its competition tooled up and clearly identified the opportunity of preying upon the cc:Mail installed base. Currently, Microsoft, Novell, and Netscape are aggressively targeting cc:Mail customers.

Infrastructure is key
The key issue in cc:Mail to Domino migration is network and server infrastructure. In the larger enterprises, business applications drive hardware and infrastructure requirements. In recent years, however, customers with established hardware infrastructures have looked for ways to leverage their investments. Server products have tended to run on more hardware and OS platforms.

Choice of server platform is good for customers because it enables them to consolidate services not only on a single hardware and OS platform but also reuse existing technical expertise. Domino support of the NLM platform is good for cc:Mail customers because it enables them to provide multiple services through a common Novell infrastructure and through a more closely integrated administrative framework.

Customer size critical
Large enterprise customers are willing to run server platforms that meet the requirements of their business applications. Enterprise messaging customers also have the IT organizations in place to support server platforms such as NT and UNIX. For these customers there is a limited benefit in running Domino on NetWare especially because large systems tend to require infrastructure upgrades to deploy any new messaging system.

In stark contrast, small and medium sized business can benefit significantly from running Domino on the NLM platform. Small and medium sized messaging customers might now find GroupWise and Netscape SuiteSpot on the NLM platform more attractive.

Is Lotus forgetting small customers?
Lotus' latest move is not so much an abandonment of NetWare or of cc:Mail but perhaps a misunderstanding of the needs of small and medium-sized messaging customers. My impression is that Lotus' stated market focus is almost exclusively on large enterprise customers. This comes as no surprise over two years after the acquisition of Lotus by IBM. But the change in focus contradicts Lotus' strategy for its Business Partners which have been systematically targeted towards small and medium-sized companies since 1997.

Ron Herardian is CEO and Chief Technical Consultant at Global System Services (GSS). You can reach him via E-mail at rherardi@gssnet.com. Visit his web page at http://www.gssnet.com.