In this first installment, we posed the question: "Do you see growth in the Domino market?" The responses were surprisingly diverse.

Robert Baum at TechFlow, Inc. (at http://www.techflow.com) doesn't see growth in the Domino market, saying "Established customers who have an investment in Domino and who are seeing a positive ROI in that investment are staying. When and if these customers grow, that is where we are seeing growth or additional opportunities for services or products." He adds, however, that they aren't seeing growth with new customers. Due to the tight economy, the buying decisions of the SMBs( Small to Medium Sized Businesses) that TechFlow focuses on have changed. "Decisions that used to be made at the department level are now being made by committee and driven by the CIO. CIOs are not seeing the value of a new investment in a proprietary environment. More often than not, Web application server solutions are being looked at for integrating their systems. That is where we are now playing."

Denis O. Clark, Senior Vice President, Marketing and Business Development of Stampede Technologies, Inc. (at http://www.stampede.com) agrees. He doesn't expect to see significant growth in Domino itself, given the recent announcements from IBM and Lotus. "However, the existing users of Domino will keep it as a key part of their infrastructure for quite some time. As IBM moves forward with its plans, Domino seems to have a long life ahead for itself."

John Carini of iEnterprises, Inc. (at http://www.CRMMadeSimple.com), on the other hand, has a different point of view. He does see growth, and he attributes it to several factors. "The real growth sector is Small to Medium Businesses." He believes Lotus is well positioned in this key market sector, and IBM has realized this by focusing on Domino in the Small to Medium Sized Businesses. "Additionally," Carini says, "Domino is a low cost alternative that is well suited for this space and the current economic conditions." Therefore, as SMBs grow, so does Domino.

Jamie Magee of MartinScott Consulting LLC (at http://MartinScott.com) also sees growth in the Domino market, saying "Certainly ND6 is proving to be a well received email platform, and some industry analysts have even recommended that Microsoft mail customers consider switching." Magee believes applications are Domino's real strength, though "they have historically had problems getting IT departments to realize this, even some of the customers who already use Domino for email."