Mark Hicks, a Domino Developer with Kenda Systems suggested that, "the Lotus professional should be familiar with the entire IBM software offering--DB2, WebSphere, MQ Series, Tivoli products, etc. And he/she should be technically competent in back-end integration with relational databases, especially DB2."

When asked what would be hot in system administration, the number one response was Web security. Michael R. O'Brien, Jr., Manager of Information Systems at CREW Technical Services seems to sum up the attitudes regarding system security. "Prior to September 11, we were seeing more monies spent on backing up current systems versus on-going development. Now we're seeing a shift in developing redundant systems."

Hot training
Most respondents said that overall certification would be about as important as last year, so we'll concentrate on the CLP for Collaborative Solutions, which focuses on products in collaborative solutions. Those products include Sametime, Domino.Doc, Discovery Server, and Lotus Workflow. We've already learned that some of these products will be increasingly important in 2002.

Mike Walton finds these technologies very crucial, telling us that his federal clients see this as a direction that has a lot of interest. Michael O'Brien sees this certification as, "a great selling point with a customer."

Whether you're a consultant or you work in-house, these technologies can enhance your worth to your employer or client. This is especially important when IT budgets, and the employment market, are tight.

What's the outlook for Lotus?
Overall I don't think the outlook for Lotus is too bad. Half of the firms responding said they would be adding administrators or developers in 2002. Only one said they would have less. However, I did receive mixed results in my sampling, and the comments seem to reflect what I'm hearing as I talk with Domino professionals as a whole. I asked, "Do you see more or less opportunity for the Lotus professional in 2002 than in previous years? Why?"

Rnext may be part of the solution and part of the problem, as you will see in the next responses.

One Application Development Manager of a large manufacturer told me that he sees more opportunity. Lotus is continuing to improve on its mail template. Lotus may be losing potential customers because some shops are looking only at the email solution. Since Lotus is a complete groupware solution and doesn't do email alone particularly well as compared to Microsoft, it may come up short for those customers. So, by improving on the mail template in Rnext, Lotus may gain some market share, therefore creating more opportunity for Lotus professionals.

Michael O'Brien, Jr. responded, "Truly we see less opportunities because Lotus is dragging its feet in releasing Rnext, yet our customers keep getting updates about it. We have heard many times, "We would like to hold off on this project until Rnext comes out."

WebSphere may also be pushing Domino out of the way. Phil Barker said the following: