A year ago Lotus finally came off the fence and articulated
a clear vision for the future of the company, its existing software
and, most importantly, a new set of products. The biggest concern
at the time was the ability of Lotus to deliver on the promise of
that vision quickly and effectively.
A year on, Lotus has delivered on its promises. Lotus Workplace has
been set firmly at the centre of the Lotus strategy. The challenge
now is to complete the initial product set (and so maintain
momentum) and then develop the wider vision for Workplace.
The first part of this challenge was met with the announcement
during the LotusSphere 2004 conference of Workplace 2.0, which will
include new rich client capability. It is scheduled for release in
the second quarter of 2004.
The conference also provided an insight into how the broader
strategy for Workplace and Lotus is unfolding.
Workplace 2.0 and the IBM Workplace Client Technology
The most important element of Workplace 2.0 is the Workplace rich
client, based on the new IBM Workplace Client Technology. Rather
than simply building a new client product, the Lotus team has taken
the opportunity to develop a new operating system-independent
client platform based on the Eclipse framework.
In the context of Workplace, the platform enables Lotus to offer
users sophisticated, standards-based client collaboration
capabilities in both online and offline modes.
Lotus is also addressing cost of ownership by enabling flexible
server-based administration of client functionality and updates.
This is an attempt by the company to break the limitations of the
thin/fat client choice by offering the best of both worlds.
The technology is not just aimed at offering a rich client
experience for Workplace. It will also be used as the framework for
user interface development across the IBM Software Group.
IBM also sees it as an important part of its increasingly
aggressive targeting of the ISP market.
The importance of Workplace
It is important to realise that Workplace is much more than a
product. As a standards-based, componentised architecture for
collaboration covering server and client technologies, Workplace is
also setting a new standard for how software will be developed by
IBM in future.
It can be implemented as a series of components, as a complete
collaboration platform, or in conjunction with other elements of
the IBM portfolio as part of its on-demand strategy. This ties in
with the vision IBM senior vice-president Steve Mills has laid out
for software development across the software group.
Workplace is enabling Lotus to redefine itself in terms of its
competency and capability with regard to user interaction and
collaboration, rather than as the developer of Notes/Domino.
As a result, in little more than 12 months Lotus has been
transformed from the weakest link in the IBM Software Group to an
icon for what the group can achieve if it can truly become more
than the sum of its parts.
Eric Woods is research director at Ovum