David: How does using your product work for someone who uses Outlook as a client?

Scott: It's actually very easy. With one click, ProcessIt! allows you to define whether you want your emails to use DocLinks, URLs or both. We have several clients who use Exchange for email and use ProcessIt! for managing their workflow processes. But what we're targeting next is to make our tools platform-transparent. They'll continue to take advantage of the unique advantages of the Notes/Domino platform, but we'll extend capabilities and cost savings to a much wider group of people when our products can be delivered from a hosted environment.

David: Let's end our workflow discussion with this question. What's the most important thing people need to know about workflow?

Scott: Building a successful workflow application is first and foremost about solving the business problem at hand. When we build workflow applications for clients, we invest a lot of time on process, making sure we nail the solution before lifting a finger on development. Let's face it, if you don't satisfy the need, a slick application doesn't do much good. And, using a tool like ProcessIt!, the actual building of the app is the easy part anyway.

David: As an active Notes developer, I'd like to get some other insights from you. First, what do you think of the future Notes roadmap? What do you think about Hannover? How do you like the strategy?

Scott: There are some incredible things coming down the road for those of us working in this space and I'd like to see the awareness of that grow -- not just in the development community, but in the user base, too. Having a shared vision of what the future holds is going to be increasingly important moving forward.

Hannover is very cool. Their investment in the new UI is going to turn a lot of heads. And the integration tools are going to enable us to exploit more mission critical content than ever. I'm looking forward to it.

Like the roadmap, the strategy would benefit from some more daylight. As we head into the next couple of years, a new cycle of corporate belt-tightening is going to coincide with several major software releases. This will cause a lot of decision makers to take a closer look at their TCOs (total cost of ownership). Applications relying heavily on desktop management for distribution are going to be put under a microscope, so any capitalization of Web and mobile/PDA-deployable capabilities surely won't hurt.

David: How do you choose a good Lotus Business Partner? What's the best criteria to use for finding excellent developers?

Scott: You choose a good Lotus Business Partner by calling Teamwork Solutions, of course! Sorry, I'm hopeless when it comes to shameless self-promotion... Anyway, what I'd look for is ideas, enthusiasm and a commitment to the platform. We're living in an increasingly commoditized world and the differences in choices too often come down to nothing more than dollars and cents. But in this business, partnering with enthusiastic, innovative folks whose sole focus is your solution is what will ultimately create the results businesses demand.