David: Would you use Workplace Collaboration Services with a Notes and Domino installation, or would you move part of your solution to Workplace Collaboration Services from Notes and Domino?

Akiba: The reality is, customers can and will do both, depending on their specific business requirements. Lotus Notes and Domino have a strong roadmap in place and aren't going anywhere. I honestly don't expect a lot of movement in the next few years to replace what customers are currently using. Where I do see customers thinking about consolidating is areas like team spaces. They want to retire different repositories that have grown up over time, including Quickplaces, and consolidate to one. The same idea is happening with document libraries and folders; companies are looking to consolidate in this area as well.

When it comes to Lotus Notes and Domino, most of our customers run strategic applications on Lotus Domino. There isn't much value in migrating those applications, but there is value in integrating them with new applications like their intranet or Internet sites. Part of our strategy in building both Workplace Collaboration Services, and our IBM Workplace Managed Client, has been to not only deliver on new market demands, but to also make sure we're building in the interoperability to allow Lotus Domino, Workplace Collaboration Services, and our IBM Workplace Managed Client to work together, thus protecting our customers' investments.

David: Can you give us a few short success stories?

Akiba: A great success story is San Francisco State University. They recently announced their purchase and commitment to Workplace Collaboration Services, as well as IBM WebSphere Portal. They're planning to use these two products to transform how their faculty and students work and communicate. Workplace Collaboration Services and Portal will provide a single portal into the critical and daily activities of students and faculty.

Having all of the essential collaboration tools in one place makes life simpler for the University's IT staff and end users, but the benefits don't stop there. Communication among all parties will be simplified; productivity and efficiency will be improved through the reduction and consolidation of legacy systems and working from remote locations will be easier and more efficient. As a result, the university will add tremendous value to the students' and staff's experience inside and outside the classroom.

David: In light of the Groove acquisition, how does Groove differ from Workplace Collaboration Services?

Akiba: Groove fills some holes in Microsoft's collaboration technology, such as offline use and inter-organizational collaboration. These are features that have been available for over a dozen years in IBM Lotus products. From a customer point of view, it adds another product to the many available to purchase and support in order to even approach the capabilities that IBM offers with Workplace Collaboration Services on a far more integrated basis. Customers want simplicity and ease of use--with Groove, Microsoft is continuing to build a big "jigsaw puzzle" for collaboration without an overall integrated story.