IBM's social push indirectly benefits Lotus Notes

IBM's social business focus will not directly aid its longstanding e-mail client Lotus Notes in regaining market share, but offering a complete package that includes the client in its collaboration software and cloud offerings will help boost adoption, analysts say.

Michael Barnes, vice president and research director at Forrester Research, stated that social initiatives impact a cross-section of IT from collaboration to structured and unstructured data management, analytics, application and process management.

This explains why Big Blue's broader social strategy is to surround, augment, and extend its existing IT infrastructure and services, and not to revive the flagging market standing of its e-mail client Lotus Notes, he added.

As such, he expects the IT vendor to bundle its existing Lotus offerings along with other tools such as IBM SmartCloud for social business, IBM Connections social collaboration software, social analytics, and enterprise content management (ECM), to push its social business vision.

Alan Lepofsky, vice president and principal analyst, collaboration software, Constellation Research, had a similar view. He said Notes on its own will not regain market share, but IBM's overarching social push can bring new prospects for Lotus products.

For instance, when new customers use IBM Connections, there is an opportunity for them to use Lotus Domino as their e-mail platform, he explained.

Both analysts said Lotus Notes' share of the e-mail and messaging pie has been getting smaller over the past decade, although it still maintains a sizeable number of Notes customers.

Barnes elaborated that the decline of Notes was first driven by a strong and steady uptake of Microsoft Outlook as the go-to platform for e-mail and calendaring among enterprises and small and midsize businesses (SMBs), following which Google's Gmail and Apps began encroaching on both Notes and Outlook as a collaboration platform for businesses.

Lepofsky added that the lack of consumer uptake was another reason for Notes not gaining widespread traction.

Market strategy rather than market share
When contacted, IBM stressed that it "continues to hold a global e-mail market share position that puts it clearly within the top two vendors today".

Christopher Blake, collaboration executive at IBM Asean, also told ZDNet Asia that instead of concentrating on market share, the company's focus is on the "strategy and direction" for Lotus Notes and Domino to be part of its collaboration portfolio and not just a standalone e-mail client.

"E-mail will still remain a highly effective means of communication when used in the right context and hence will remain an integral part of our overall social business platform," he said.

"IBM's messaging and collaboration direction is toward the evolution of more social business constructs into our existing portfolio, such as Lotus Notes, to provide organizations more productive and relevant social business collaboration practices."

Blake added that Notes has been given a social makeover because companies are demanding their e-mail systems to be more collaborative. It is also offered via cloud or natively on various mobile devices to meet the needs of mobile workers.

Focusing on social also means generating business confidence and assurance, the IBMer said. According to him, "freedom of choice is an important underlying belief" when it comes to collaboration, so Lotus Notes 8.5.3, the current version, works across more operating systems, mobile devices and Web browsers.

This brings confidence to clients that they can invest in IBM's social business collaboration strategy and begin the move beyond traditional e-mail, based on the understanding that Big Blue follows and supports open, rather than proprietary, standards, he explained.

At the same time, it also means clients can freely upgrade software components without having to upgrade underlying infrastructures, thereby assuring them protection of their investments, he noted.

Lotus still useful brand asset
Asked if rebranding Lotus Notes with a new name could help boost demand, Blake replied: "Calling Lotus Notes legacy simply because it has been around for more than three decades is akin to referring to IBM in the same way because it has been around for over 100 years.

"Like IBM the company, Lotus Notes has been constantly evolving through this period to best address the requirements of the time."

Blake emphasized there are no plans to rebrand what is "effectively a very well-known and respected global brand". Furthermore, because the Lotus brand continues with IBM's direction and current delivery toward social, it is extremely relevant in today's environment, he said.

Lepofsky, too, said he did not think IBM would remove the Lotus name because the brand is core to its Notes product. Rather, integrating its various products to promote the social enterprise vision will be the company's main concern currently, he pointed out.