As with the to-do Gantt chart, there doesn't seem to be any way to print more than one screen of information from the contact list. Heavy contact management users probably wish to extend the functionality of the contact management sub-system by looking at third party business partner applications.

What about remote support?
People within Lotus have often referred to replication as "the crown jewel" of Lotus' technology. With iNotes Web Access, most of the features of replication using the Lotus Notes client are available to browser-based users. If you've not worked with DOLS before, this product is a great way to get started. For this review, I downloaded the required components simply by clicking on the "Go Offline" link on the Welcome Page. After confirming a few downloads, I had them installed within ten minutes. The Sync Manager installation resulted in an icon being added to my task bar labeled, "Lotus iNotes Sync Manager." When double-clicked, the iNotes Sync Manager allowed me to choose between working with my email off-line or online. I could also schedule synchronization to occur automatically in the background. The Sync Manager had options available to limit the amount of data that was replicated--I'm sorry--synchronized, my password settings, and optional notification settings.

Overall impressions
The Web interface is clean and uncluttered, yet fully featured. Installation can probably be accomplished by most end-users with little or no IT department supervision. Using Internet Explorer version 5, you'll be able to send and receive full, rich text email to and from the Internet and other Lotus Notes users, manage to-do items, manage your calendar, and maintain a contact database and the usual Notes to-do list. Netscape 4.7 will also be supported in some fashion in the final version of the product.

Still some problems with the beta
There still seem to be some troubling issues with the product. The most notable problem was the inability to save either calendar documents or to-do documents without receiving an error message regarding the format of dates. The release notes state that there are issues associated with using Internet Explorer 5.5, my current browser. It would have been helpful to know what those issues are. As such, I can't determine whether or not the calendar problems that I experienced were a result of using the wrong browser or not. Implementing the current version of the beta into production environments will be difficult due to the requirement for new server and client installations. I've been in touch with Lotus, however, and they've confirmed this problem has been dealt with.

The vital statistics
According to Lotus, Lotus iNotes Web Access is scheduled to be available in Q1, 2001. Pricing is to be announced, but it should be free with the purchase of Lotus Notes, and the stand-alone pricing should be less than Lotus Notes. The Disk Footprint is 33MB without data. The system requirements include Internet Explorer version 5.0 or greater or Netscape 4.7 and any Windows 32 platform (Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT or Windows 2000). These are client side requirements. The server side platform support is obviously greater than Windows 32.

Richard Echeandia has been working with Lotus Notes for over seven years and is a management consultant with Tactica Technology Group, a Lotus premium business partner headquartered in Dallas, TX. He is a frequent speaker at Lotus and industry conferences and is looking forward to this year's gathering of the faithful in Orlando. He can be reached online at recheandia@dominopower.com.