In the previous article, "Opinions vary on growth for Domino market," at http://www.dominopower.com/issues/issue200304/00001015001.html, we posed the question: "Do you see growth in the Domino market?" This time, we asked where, specifically, the respondents saw the most opportunity, whether it be in services, products, or some other category.

Robert Baum at TechFlow, Inc. (at http://www.techflow.com) sees the most opportunity in services, saying "Products continue to change and evolve, growing in overall complexity. There is a lot of confusion in the market place as to what product does what, what will be around, and how to tie everything all together. We align our value proposition in services, helping the customer through this complexity."

Jamie Magee of MartinScott Consulting LLC (at http://MartinScott.com) also believes services are going to offer a lot of opportunities. "Even if the economy doesn't turn around this year, companies will realize that they still need to continue to innovate. Money properly invested in the right applications will reduce operating costs."

Steven Birchfield of Automation Centre (at http://www.acentre.com) responded with an enthusiastic cry of "Services!" He explained, "At the end of the day we believe that even software companies like Automation Centre deliver a service. The initial service is delivered through research, testing, and training. In the collaboration space most of this work has been done. Future service opportunities will likely be maintenance (break-fix stuff) and upgrades that make a difference in the day-to-day life of customers. There may be a growing outsourcing opportunity for hosting or maintaining Domino infrastructure as our market matures. The good news for Domino and Domino partners is that very few customers today make great use of the capabilities of Domino, and for a variety of reasons, it generally costs too much to maintain so there are still great early opportunities to pursue."

John Carini of iEnterprises, Inc. (at http://www.CRMMadeSimple.com), on the other hand, believes products that produce a Return On Investment, such as CRM (Customer Relationship Management) tools, are more likely to be successful in these tough economic times. "By leveraging the Domino infrastructure, products typically have a lower TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) and implementation time, so they are much more attractive." Carini continues, "For example, implementing a Notes based CRM solution like iExtensions CRM is orders of magnitude less expensive and time consuming than implementing Siebel. Therefore, I see Domino products as very attractive, given the current economic conditions."