More trouble for NSCP: Company Press Release
Lotus Will Offer Freebies to Keep Its cc:Mail Customers, Reports
CMP's InternetWeek
Move Seen as an Attempt to Keep cc:Mail's 14 Million Users From Using Competing
Products from Microsoft, Novell and Netscape
MANHASSET, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 29, 1998-- In an unprecedented move for IBM's (NYSE: IBM - news)
Lotus unit, the company will announce in two weeks that it will give its forthcoming Notes 5.0 client free of charge to the
majority of organizations running recent versions of cc:Mail, according to an online report posted this afternoon on CMP's
InternetWeek (http://www.internetwk.com).
A widely-used messaging system from that runs on PC LANs, Lotus' cc:Mail is not nearly as robust as Notes -- the
company's flagship groupware product -- which features e-mail, document sharing, workflow, group discussions, calendaring
and databases.
According to InternetWeek, the company will also offer free of charge to the 14 million cc:Mail users that are up for grabs,
software that lets cc:Mail Release 6 clients connect to Domino servers. Many of those cc:Mail shops are threatening to move
to Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT - news) Exchange or some other competitive system in the face of Lotus's de-emphasis on
cc:Mail and/or the need for a more reliable e- mail system. Lotus sees the free Notes client as a way to push users to move to
its Domino platform.
But in a move that lets cc:Mail shops migrate to Domino at their own pace, the Notes 5.0 client, due out later this year, will
connect to the more recent cc:Mail servers.
Conversely, the company will offer free software that lets organizations migrate to the Domino 4.x server while keeping the
cc:Mail client on some or all desktops. As part of the announcement in two weeks, Lotus will unveil client ''middleware,''
called R6D, which allows cc:Mail R6.x clients to connect directly to Domino servers for the first time.
One Lotus official, who requested anonymity, told InternetWeek that the 16-bit R6D client will be free to customers with
maintenance contracts. The bonus, however, is a no cost upgrade to Lotus' new strategic messaging client, Notes 5.0, which
was announced this week at Lotusphere 98 here, and is expected to ship by the end of the year.
The Notes 5.0 client, with its dramatic new browser-centric user interface redesign, has a look that more closely resembles
cc:Mail than former Notes clients.
At Lotusphere, Steve Layne, the newly appointed vice president and general manager of messaging for Lotus, confirmed that a
product called R6D was in the ''investigation'' stage. He would not confirm when the product will be available nor would he
disclose a pricing structure.
One source, however, said the product is finished and is awaiting quality assurance testing.
The move is an attempt to fight off competing messaging vendors such as Microsoft, Novell (Nasdaq: NOVL - news) and
Netscape (Nasdaq: NSCP - news) who are courting cc:Mail customers. Those nearly 14 million users are ripe for takeover
given that Lotus has all but put cc:Mail out to pasture by stating it is no longer a strategic platform. The company has folded
both its cc:Mail and SoftSwitch divisions into a single messaging group headed by Layne.
CMP Media's InternetWeek (http://www.internetwk.com), the networking newspaper, provides news, reviews, case studies
and business analysis to information technology buyers focused on the Internet, corporate networks, intranets and extranets.
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developments, security and management, and business news. InternetWeek is the exclusive networking media sponsor of the
1997, 1998 and 1999 Global Information Infrastructure (GII) Awards (formerly the National Information Infrastructure
Awards).
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