Over the coming months, IBM intends to turn the Lotus Workplace platform into its flagship product suite for workgroup computing. As part of that effort, the computer giant will make Workplace available on its iSeries and pSeries servers and rapidly expand the platform's capabilities. This will make Workplace a migration path for Domino users and a rival to Microsoft's Office 2003 and SharePoint Portal Server.
As I explained in my article last week, IBM unveiled four Workplace modules earlier this month. All four modules are designed for access via Web sites created with WebSphere Portal Server, though customers can use other clients as well. Here is a brief description of what each module offers.
• Lotus Workplace Messaging 1.1 provides basic messaging, contact management, and personal calendar services to what IBM calls "deskless" workers such as production line workers and retail clerks. Since employees can access the solution through a Web portal, it is ideal for environments where multiple workers share a single workstation. Workplace Messaging costs $29 per user.
• Lotus Workplace Team Collaboration 1.1 takes the functions found in Lotus' Sametime and QuickPlace products and integrates them into a single solution for instant messaging, Web conferencing, and discussion forums. It provides these functions as portlets within IBM's WebSphere Portal Server 5.0, which comes with the product. Workplace Team Collaboration costs $89 per user.
• Lotus Workplace Web Content Management 1.1 uses technologies that IBM gained from its recent acquisition of Aptrix. It enables users to create and customize Web sites and then manage and publish content to those sites with little technical training. While the other Workplace modules run only on WebSphere Application Server (WAS), Workplace Web Content Management can run on either the WebSphere or the Domino application server. Either way, the product costs $49,999 per CPU.
• Lotus Workplace Collaborative Learning 1.1 takes the Lotus Learning Management System, adds some new functions, then redeploys it within a WebSphere Portal environment. It automates both classroom-based and e-learning programs at a cost of $35 per user.
Customers can deploy Workplace modules individually or in whatever "mix and match" combinations they choose. In multiple-module configurations, each module automatically integrates with the others and activates new features in them. For instance, if you add Workplace Team Collaboration to Workplace Messaging, the contact list in the latter module starts to notify you whether your contacts are available for an instant messaging session or Web conference.
The Future of Workplace
At this time, the Workplace 1.1 modules are supported only on Windows, Linux on Intel, and AIX on pSeries servers. However, IBM plans to expand Workplace to cover more of the operating systems that Domino and Notes support. As part of those plans, IBM intends to support OS/400 as well as Linux partitions on the iSeries and pSeries when it announces its Workplace 2.0 modules during the second quarter of next year. Once that happens, iSeries users will be able to access Workplace modules along with their existing Domino/Notes applications within a WebSphere Portal Server environment.
While IBM will continue to support and enhance the Domino/Notes platform for years to come, it will make the migration to Workplace increasingly easier for customers. To do that, the computer giant intends to bring Workplace to full functional parity with Domino during 2005. It is also developing a standalone "rich client" for Workplace that will offer users the functionality levels that they currently get from their Notes clients. The first version of the rich client should debut with Workplace 2.0 in the second quarter of next year. In addition, IBM will improve integration levels between the two platforms by enabling Domino to support DB2--the native store facility for Workplace--as a second, alternative database. Support for DB2 will likely come with Domino 7.0, which IBM intends to announce in the fourth quarter of 2004.
As IBM works to ramp up Workplace adoption among Domino customers, it will also court Microsoft customers who are considering Office 2003 as a workgroup computing solution. As I explained in my Office 2003 articles a few weeks ago, Microsoft's new desktop suite works closely with Windows server software to automate the flow of information across workgroups. While Office 2003 has plenty of potential as a workgroup platform, it faces stiff competition from Workplace. Compared to Office 2003, Workplace offers a more integrated environment, where users can access all functions through a single consistent interface. In addition, IBM has a potential advantage in the thousands of developers who write Domino applications. If Big Blue can convince those developers to port their solutions to Workplace, the new platform will likely offer a broader and more robust portfolio of workgroup applications than any of its competitors.
Of course, I put an "if" in the last sentence for a very important reason. As IBM seeks support for Workplace from the Domino community, it will face resistance from many members. After all, Workplace will involve migrations to new databases, application servers, and development tools. While IBM is doing much to make those migrations as effortless as possible, it cannot make them painless. No matter what IBM does, many Domino customers and developers will stick with their current platform for years to come. If the computer giant makes any significant missteps in its migration strategy, it could increase the number of "no confidence" votes in Workplace and face an uphill battle to build momentum for the platform.
In short, as I stated in last week's article, Workplace represents a transition for the Domino community that is very similar to the one that faces iSeries customers. As IBM infuses new technologies into these platforms, it faces the challenging task of migrating customers to those technologies without losing them in the process. In future articles, I'll focus on what IBM is doing to tackle this challenge and tell you how successful I think it will be.
Lee Kroon is a Senior Industry Analyst for Andrews Consulting Group, a firm that helps mid-sized companies manage business transformation through technology. You can reach him at
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