The Messaging is The Medium: survey results are in - IBM is down, but not out
Category IBM/Lotus
From The Register: The Messaging is The Medium: survey results are in - IBM is down, but not out
Messaging is a thread that runs through IT from top to bottom, from humans exchanging information with each other, down to software and even hardware exchanging status messages and information packets. This report, which is based on feedback from readers of The Register provided during our last annual Barometer Survey, concentrates on asynchronous information exchanges where at least one human is involved. This enables us to rule out synchronous activities such as IP telephony and videoconferencing and the more technical message exchanges which are hidden from human view.
The survey itself looked at messaging in a number of guises, primarily as a platform but also in the context of mobility, collaboration and Web 2.0. These nuances are less important than the underlying story which is that of large software vendors such as IBM and Microsoft holding substantial sway over the present and future messaging habits of their customers and prospects. Waiting in the wings, of course, are companies like Google and Yahoo! and various other bit-part players who would like their own slice of the action.
The research examined preferences and activities by organisation size: corporate (over 5,000 employees); mid-market (250-5,000 employees) and SMB (up to 249 employees). Each segment has its characteristics but while the corporate and mid-market are closely aligned, the SMB sector marches to a slightly different drummer.
As with most surveys of this type, it should be no surprise that Microsoft scores highest, while the Lotus brand does not fare nearly as well, with terms like "legacy" coming up far too often. On the other hand, the writer does acknowledge that IBM has attempted a number of changes, and that the current offerings do bear examination, even if you're already a Microsoft shop.
To me, the most revealing fact is that the farther down the corporate size ladder you go, the less chance you have of seeing either Lotus *or* Microsoft:
Microsoft Exchange, at 57 per cent is still in the lead but, among SMBs, it's clearly far from the 'de facto' choice. This could be for a number of reasons, but the most likely is that a high percentage are not really ‘platform aware’ in the same way that larger organisations are. Only 56 percent claimed to be using an email/messaging platform. Many of the remainder will have their email and their web presence hosted by their ISP and they are unlikely to be aware of the underpinning architecture.
To an SMB, email truly *is* a commodity item, and the easiest/cheapest supplier of said commodity stands a good chance of winning out. Joe the dentist is just as likely to trust Comcast/Google as they are to trust a Foundation server.
And a side note to the product naming group... I know you're in a bit of a snit over Microsoft using Foundations Server after you went and launched the Lotus Foundation server. On the other hand, this line in the story shows there's not much room to throw stones:
However, the Google and Yahoo! figures suggest that smaller organisations are increasingly willing to move to hosted solutions, which is good news for both IBM and Microsoft and their recently-announced ‘Live’-branded SaaS offerings.
Windows Live... LotusLive... You'd almost think from this quote that Lotus and Microsoft had collaborated on something... :)
From The Register: The Messaging is The Medium: survey results are in - IBM is down, but not out
Messaging is a thread that runs through IT from top to bottom, from humans exchanging information with each other, down to software and even hardware exchanging status messages and information packets. This report, which is based on feedback from readers of The Register provided during our last annual Barometer Survey, concentrates on asynchronous information exchanges where at least one human is involved. This enables us to rule out synchronous activities such as IP telephony and videoconferencing and the more technical message exchanges which are hidden from human view.
The survey itself looked at messaging in a number of guises, primarily as a platform but also in the context of mobility, collaboration and Web 2.0. These nuances are less important than the underlying story which is that of large software vendors such as IBM and Microsoft holding substantial sway over the present and future messaging habits of their customers and prospects. Waiting in the wings, of course, are companies like Google and Yahoo! and various other bit-part players who would like their own slice of the action.
The research examined preferences and activities by organisation size: corporate (over 5,000 employees); mid-market (250-5,000 employees) and SMB (up to 249 employees). Each segment has its characteristics but while the corporate and mid-market are closely aligned, the SMB sector marches to a slightly different drummer.
As with most surveys of this type, it should be no surprise that Microsoft scores highest, while the Lotus brand does not fare nearly as well, with terms like "legacy" coming up far too often. On the other hand, the writer does acknowledge that IBM has attempted a number of changes, and that the current offerings do bear examination, even if you're already a Microsoft shop.
To me, the most revealing fact is that the farther down the corporate size ladder you go, the less chance you have of seeing either Lotus *or* Microsoft:
Microsoft Exchange, at 57 per cent is still in the lead but, among SMBs, it's clearly far from the 'de facto' choice. This could be for a number of reasons, but the most likely is that a high percentage are not really ‘platform aware’ in the same way that larger organisations are. Only 56 percent claimed to be using an email/messaging platform. Many of the remainder will have their email and their web presence hosted by their ISP and they are unlikely to be aware of the underpinning architecture.
To an SMB, email truly *is* a commodity item, and the easiest/cheapest supplier of said commodity stands a good chance of winning out. Joe the dentist is just as likely to trust Comcast/Google as they are to trust a Foundation server.
And a side note to the product naming group... I know you're in a bit of a snit over Microsoft using Foundations Server after you went and launched the Lotus Foundation server. On the other hand, this line in the story shows there's not much room to throw stones:
However, the Google and Yahoo! figures suggest that smaller organisations are increasingly willing to move to hosted solutions, which is good news for both IBM and Microsoft and their recently-announced ‘Live’-branded SaaS offerings.
Windows Live... LotusLive... You'd almost think from this quote that Lotus and Microsoft had collaborated on something... :)
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Comments
As for the survey, I'm glad you realized that it's just that - people who clicked on a button on a self-selecting website. There's no validation of the data at all. Not that one would necessarily expect something more statistically accurate from The Register.
Posted by Ed Brill At 13:10:37 On 04/04/2009 | - Website - |
While the writer was very open about the self-selecting nature of the survey, the trends noted here aren't unique. Both IBM and Microsoft can't continue to count on the 6 million SBAs (defined as less than 500 employees and totals from SBA.gov for 2006) spending significant amounts of cash to install on-premise communication infrastructures as there are now cheaper options.
Much as we talk about Symphony having 90%+ of the feature set of Office and is "good enough" for most workers, smaller businesses are going to look at online email offerings as "good enough" for them. It's not a stretch to view email/web access in the same way you view telephone service. It's there nearly all the time, occasionally you may have problems and outages, but the level of service more than meets their needs.
Go back 15 years or so to "mobile phones". Sketchy coverage, few features, and inconvenient packaging. Certainly nice to have, on the bleeding edge of technology, but in no way would they *ever* replace the home phone. You could *rely* on the home phone... We know what cell phones are today, and "land lines" are starting to be dropped in favor of the cell phone being the only form of phone service someone carries.
Might we be at the same point in terms of premise vs. cloud email offerings? The cloud is a bit spotty, leading edge, and doesn't have all the same features of "real" email hosted on-site. There's no way any large or serious business could totally and completely commit to the cloud...
Is there?
Posted by Duffbert At 19:19:20 On 04/04/2009 | - Website - |
Posted by Ed Brill At 10:06:50 On 05/04/2009 | - Website - |
And since this is one of the few articles on TheRegister, and indeed one of the few articles on ANY UK based technology website (Computing, etc) that actually mentions Lotus Notes, I suspect that the culprit here isnt actually theRegister.
The culprit is that there has been no marketing of Lotus Notes here in the UK since superHumanSoftware. And since IBM have taken the stance that it WILL NOT market Lotus, but will rely on 'viral ads' (of which it has to actually create one first - the [lame] ads so far have not 'went viral') and will rely on Business Partners actively marketing Lotus to customers. The self-same business partners such as Triangle - who just went bust - presumably.
And there's the result. Notes is 'Legacy', Notes isnt popular. Notes is dead.
What does Ed and Lotus expect ? Bury a product, don't market it, forget completely that its a consumer led product - and here's where we are.
Everyone thinks its dead.
Its a huge shame. 8.5 is *fantastic*. The technology is *excellent*. But hey - Ed and Lotus - what we're up against is IBM's lack of Marketing. Indeed, its lack of interest (especially here in the UK) in the product and brand itself.
The current customer I'm working with right now (another 'undertaking' job) described the IT departments attitude to Lotus Notes as:
"Half of IT actually go red in the face and start shouting when you talk about Lotus Notes. The other half merely hate it. "
This isnt a small customer. This isnt a customer without Notes. This isnt a bizarre customer. This isnt a customer who isnt connected to IBM. This is just a normal customer.
So. Ed, Lotus, IBM. Go on shooting the messenger as much as you like. Dissemble as usual. Say "Notes isn't Dead" as much as you like.
Without any form of marketing, you position just looks ridiculous.
---* Bill
Posted by Bill At 11:18:39 On 05/04/2009 | - Website - |