Once the finalists were chosen, each was given 45 minutes to present their application to the judges via an online meeting. The finalists were able to walk each of the judges through the application in person and explain the details about the way the product works, the technical underpinnings and what made it special.

After each of the finalists completed their demos, the judges had the weekend to deliberate and choose the winners. I was thinking that the demos would be the tipping point, but afterwards, the demos ended up just adding more evidence that each of these applications, coupled with Notes, was a perfect fit for the task.

Determining placement was an exceedingly difficult task, as demonstrated by the caliber of our two non-prize-winning finalists. The Notes/Blackberry workflow processor entry by Andy Lieberenz was remarkable in its ability to take the singular job of managing approvals remotely and execute this task superbly with Notes! This lightweight workflow application combines the power of the Blackberry Java development environment with Lotus Notes workflow and email functionality-enormously enhancing an organization's ability to efficiently run a business.

Our second finalist application, Knowledge Online by Fluor, was remarkable in its ability to provide an enterprise-wide solution for knowledge sharing and collaboration activities that could be accessed by all employees regardless of location. This portal supports various tools and techniques for enterprise collaboration including content management for items such as practices and procedures, go-bys and templates, discussion forums, email links, personal profiles, and much more. The single enterprise-wide approach serves over 24,000 users to provide a "one-stop shop"!

The three winning applications
And our three winning applications? These were extraordinary! So finally, here they are:

Third place - Quipp Systems - Notes/AutoCAD integration
What makes this application so remarkable is its incredible integration and automation. Integration with 3D CAD allows the creation of proposals and project releases directly from a 3D model via LotusScript.

ERP and Microsoft Integration is then used to create cost analyses, financial tracking data, forecasting integration, product scheduling, and several other additional functions. We were very impressed!

"This app demonstrates the level of integration that you can do with Notes that even IBM would be impressed with." -- Craig Schumann

"I give props for creative integration with AutoCAD." -- Joe Litton

Second place - DKSH - Centric CRM
What makes this Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system remarkable is its ability to keep track of a complete work history and greatly help in teamwork and knowledge transfer within an organization.

Statistics, key performance data, and graphics can be generated for forecasting and evaluation purposes. It also makes marketing easy with a mass mailing tool. A tight integration with LN mailbox provides a work-from-mailbox option, making it very convenient to organize activities via the calendar.

"They have thought of all the ways the USER works and tries to accommodate them, while still making sure they get the job done right. Usually it's the other way around in that management just dictates what to do and people just better learn it. Very rarely do internal systems like that get that sort of attention." -- Craig Schumann

"Very, very large and complex CRM. Uses SVG for graphics with no reliance on external components, etc." -- Bill Buchan

And the winner of the inaugural Teamstudio Spotlight Awards...