Posted On February 10, 2009 at 19:06 in Uncategorized
Being without a laptop has its advantages, but also some disadvantages. One of them is not being able to keep track over my Google Reader and check what’s happening in the community (Yes, I know GReader is available for mobile – not the same).
Ed already posted about Suntel’s migration ages ago, but since my Google Alert linked to the CIO.com article, thought this story’s worth another mentioning in the blogosphere.
The main reasons Suntel (Sri Lanka) migrated away from Exchange/Outlook were:
- lower licensing cost (50% lower than Microsoft) and lower TCO
- strong value of Lotus Symphony integrated in Lotus Notes
- strong collaboration and web 2.0 technologies
- scalability, poised to grow with Suntel
In addition to Lotus Notes and Domino, Suntel will also deploy Lotus Sametime for instant messaging and UC capabilities, as well as Lotus Symphony for creating, editing and sharing documents, spreadsheets and presentations.
TCO, licensing costs and integration of Symphony are some of the answers for ‘what’s the difference between IBM and Microsoft?’ Every company nowadays, especially SMB (small-medium businesses) are looking into ways to cut expenses, improve productivity and increase revenue – and examining your licensing costs is an excellent first step. Three months ago I spoke to CIOs/CTOs of local hi-tech and start-up companies on IBM’s collaboration portfolio, specifically tailered for SMB. Slide 18 showed the difference in licensing, between IBM and Microsoft, in the collaboration space – Lotus full collaoration suite starts at $151 per user (Linux, no support package). How much do you pay for your Microsoft deployment, per user?
You can download that presentation at my slideshare.net space, or view it below.
Links:
CIO.com – Suntel bids adieu to Microsoft, embraces IBM
Ed Brill
Lotus Notes and Domino at ibm.com
Posted by Dvir Reznik · Tags: customer reference, ibm, lotus notes domino, microsoft, migration, outlook, suntel, מיקרוסופט, מיגרציה, אאוטלוק, לקוחות, לוטוס נוטס דומינו, יבמ · No Comments »
Posted On January 31, 2009 at 13:35 in Uncategorized
One of the many things I love about Google Reader is its Offline mode – which comes in handy especially during flights. I can read (a lot of) feeds and blogs, marking for later the things I want to tag/dogear/post/delicious. This story at Calcalist.co.il caught my eye, talking about Gmail Labs adding offline capability to the popular e-mail service. Wow.
Don’t get me wrong, I do love Gmail (much more than Yahoo! Mail), and the Labs have some cool products, BUT, two things bugs me in this story:
The first, Lotus Notes has been sporting this ‘offline’ mode since its inception, some 16 years ago. It’s called ‘Replication‘, and allows you to take everything (not just emails) offline, including composite applications, calendar, emails with attachments – and syncing with the Domino server when such a connection is available.
The second is the total disregard to Lotus Notes and Domino as a desktop email client/platform. The reporter, Dora Kishinevsky, mentions that such a feature is similar to what desktop email clients do, like Outlook. Israel is a Microsoft country, but there are other vendors, and some journalists know that.
Links:
Gmail Labs adds offline capability – Calcalist.co.il
Google unveils beta of offline Gmail option – NetworkWorld (via Ed Brill)
Gmail Labs adds a decade old Notes feature – Alan Lepofsky
Posted by Dvir Reznik · Tags: calcalist, email, gmail, ibm, lotus notes domino, microsoft, offline, replication, מיקרוסופט, אאוטלוק, גוגל, גימייל, דורה קישינבסקי, כלכליסט, יבמ · 1 Comment »
Posted On December 10, 2008 at 16:49 in Uncategorized
CIO.com has published Thomas Duff’s (aka Duffbert) article, titled ‘7 thing IT manager should know about Lotus Notes‘. In the article, Tom goes over some basic Lotus features, that in my opinion are the differentiators between Lotus Notes/Domino and other messaging solutions. Both Ed and Alan have caught this up early.
Particularly I connected to #5, one of Lotus Notes strongest feature: Replication lets you work both offline and online:
Today’s knowledge workers don’t come to the office at 9:00 am and leave at 5:00 pm. They are “always on,” and they need to access their data whether or not a network connection is available. The Notes client accommodates this requirement by replicating data between server and local versions of your mail files and applications. It’s among Notes oldest and most cherished features—for good reason.
When a network connection exists, Notes synchronizes data between the server and client. The replication occurs at the field level, so two people can update different fields in the same document (such as an invoice or travel request); the server merges the updates so that the document shows both sets of changes. Frankly, this is slick. Nobody else has ever achieved this level of WayCool synchronization sophistication, particularly because it’s so trouble free that the feature is usually invisible.
Notes e-mail users replicate their mail files to local versions on their laptops, so they can be productive offline. When they once again connect to the network, all the changes are replicated with the server and messages are sent to the appropriate people. That applies to Notes databases and applications, not just e-mail.
Head over to CIO.com for the full article.
Posted by Dvir Reznik · Tags: cio.com, ibm, it managers, lotus notes domino, messaging platform, microsoft exchange, מיקרוסופט אאוטלוק, לוטוס נוטס ודומינו, יתרונות, יבמ · No Comments »
