Jon C. Hosford of Innovative Technology Services Corporation (at http://www.itscorp.ws) believes growth in the Domino market is inevitable. "The word on the street is if you have more than 5,000 messaging seats, you just have to use the IBM solution. The alternative doesn't scale and is locked into a failed back-end solution that will disintegrate over time."

According to J|rgen Wege, CEO and founder of GROUP Technologies (at http://www.group-software.com), "While the Domino market is well established, there is great opportunity for growth of new products and services within the established customer base. Competition is a strong motivator as well, and the possibility of new players in this market will fuel Lotus Domino's competitive edge."

Joseph Steinberg, Director of Technical Services at Whale Communications (at http://www.whale-com.com) definitely sees growth. "The Domino market may be transformed by the eventual merger of Domino and Websphere, but the market for IBM and Lotus collaboration tools will continue to grow."

Sherri Taylor of Computer Training & Consulting (at http://www.ctcfl.com) is seeing growth in the collaboration pieces, specifically SameTime integration, adding "We are seeing lots of interest in the Enterprise Integration opportunities with other data sources."

Meanwhile, Cassandra Hernandez of Advanced Systems Group (at http://www.AdvancedSystems.com) believes "There is great opportunity in the segment of MS 5.5 users who have not upgraded to Exchange 2000. There's a great message to be told with respect to going with the Lotus Notes Groupware solution, and now IBM is making this decision much easier for these users." She goes on to say that there are a great deal of Lotus Notes shops looking to increase productivity, and the Domino platform provides an excellent environment to deploy these technologies. "Domino solutions offer a choice between custom development or pre-developed solutions, which these customers can take advantage of. Add the simple integration with WebSphere, and you have a Groupware solution unmatched in the industry."

According to Debbie Clima, Media Relations Specialist, North America, at Sybari Software (at http://www.sybari.com), "whether or not the Domino market itself is growing, we've recognized the opportunity for growth in products and solutions that add value to and serve the Domino market overall."

Naomi Sargeant, Sales Manager for ESNA Ltd. (at http://www.esna.co.uk) doesn't see growth for Domino in its current platform as a solution. "Customers are focusing on problems and looking towards solutions as opposed to the technology platform that is being used. Once the solution concept has been agreed upon, then the technical aspects do come into play." She notes, however, that they do find that mentioning Lotus Notes can be negative in some corporations. This is due to the way past databases were deployed. Also, says Sargeant, it can also be contributed to the "over use of contractors that were not solution advisors but cash tills draining budgets and not delivering correctly architected solutions."