Stories by: Mike Heck

Fundamentally, Lotus Notes and Domino 8 aren't about new mail and calendar features. Rather, this release is about a change in the desktop client. The inbox is now home base for integrating all types of business applications. A lot has already been said about the programming model, Lotus Expeditor 6.1.1, which employs eclipse.org open standards. So let's spotlight the user experience and collaboration.

I'll admit that in my IBM Lotus Notes 7 review about two years ago, I got Version 8's release date a wee bit off. Hey, the fortune teller I consulted skipped town right after the reading. But my wrap-up hit the mark, saying Notes 8 "should further support composite applications, such as bringing together e-mail, documents, and meetings into a single interface -- a key part of an SOA." Here's my initial impression of how well IBM Lotus engineers met this goal and the way they did it.

Enterprise search is much like air and water: Users expect it to be available without a second thought. Google and ISYS continue to perfect their enterprise offerings to do just that.

Introduced in 1989, IBM Lotus Notes 7 stays true to the original's ideals of efficient collaboration. In this release, Notes email and calendar entries are even easier to manage, and the Domino 7 server embraces more standards, including Web services, so developers can expose Notes databases to external systems. The already outstanding platform support is broadened with desktop Linux for email and calendaring -- as well as systems management.

The old adage "keep it simple" is sometimes lost with enterprise document management products. Instead, vendors layer on non-core functions such as multimedia cataloguing - making the products pricey and difficult to implement and use. There are exceptions, however: Xerox DocuShare 4.0.1 and Xythos Enterprise Document Management Suite 5.0 embrace simplicity and still deliver solid document and file management.