ESCAPE VELOCITY

1 - Nail head, meet the hammer.

I have to wonder if IBM has ever performed a targeted marketing pilot. A small demographic/geographic region, very controlled marketing message/announcement, with measured results of BP and IBM inquiries.

2 - Need door to door marketing like MS

3 - Nathan, I think this is a very good assessment of where the challenge is. And I want to make one thing very, very clear -- we are not stuck doing business as usual. The Microsoft paper is a distraction -- that's what I said initially, and by you and John and Duffbert blogging about it, that actually validates my position. It's a red herring. It's not the problem. I'm not in denial, I'm not clinging to old ways. It truly isn't the problem.

The problem is what message is being heard by the users who influence the decisions and right now it's not much. So we need to change that.

My team has a number of actions underway right now to change the game in the Notes/Domino space. You'll hear some very short term ones in the next three weeks. Longer term, as I've alluded to on my own blog, we want to do more that makes Notes accessible to end users in meaningful ways. Making these changes takes time, and I'm breaking process where possible to accelerate time. The meetings I've attended with the other IBM Lotus brand executives in the last few weeks are making things crystal clear that we will be operating differently.

I also want to make sure that the community does not see the Q1 earnings report as too much without context. I'm going to try to demonstrate that without commenting on IBM financials in the next few days on my own blog, in terms of what is growing right at the moment. I also am encouraged by the large number of business partners who have told me that their businesses are doing well right now.

4 - Somewhere in there is the word "large" missing. As in "Management of large IT departments".

Sometimes I really wondering if IBM is actually interested in small companies switching to or building on notes/domino (like the small startup with 5-10 persons). Somehow neither the adds nor the producs invite such a group to become a notes shop.

The server-out-of-an-envelop or the recent cloud thingies seems to be such a product, but it still misses some things to make it better than a email server.

5 - I'm glad that I ignore the fact that IBM appears to neglect small businesses when marketing Lotus branded product, like Notes. I recommend it anyway.

16 years ago, when I set up David Allen on Notes, he had a 3-person organization. We both concluded that Lotus Notes was a product that could meet his then-current needs as well as his planned growth. 16 years later, the company is still a small organization SMB-Wise but has people and offices located around the world. Lotus Notes is the glue that keeps The David Allen Company running.

I do wish that IBM would address these markets, and I know that Ed's recently blogged about this. I look forward to reading the announcements that Ed mentioned in today's blog post.

I think the SMB and personal market represents a significant opportunity for IBM, not only for short-term sales but for long-term mindshare.

It's been interesting to not how many (non Notes) people have contacted me to inquire about Lotus Notes since we launched { Link } We never intended this as a product to encourage users to move to Notes or switch from Outlook, yet it's happening in small numbers - without much promotion. While we are certainly no threat to Microsoft at this point, I cannot help but wonder what opportunity might exist if IBM were to go after productivity minded individuals and small businesses with Lotus Notes. If they did, I'd be right there beating the drums, and David Allen would probably join in as well.

I think this would be a good thing for all of us in the Notes community.

6 - I'm glad that I ignore the fact that IBM appears to neglect small businesses when marketing Lotus branded product, like Notes. I recommend it anyway.<br /><br />16 years ago, when I set up David Allen on Notes, he had a 3-person organization. We both concluded that Lotus Notes was a product that could meet his then-current needs as well as his planned growth. 16 years later, the company is still a small organization SMB-Wise but has people and offices located around the world. Lotus Notes is the glue that keeps The David Allen Company running.<br /><br />I do wish that IBM would address these markets, and I know that Ed's recently blogged about this. I look forward to reading the announcements that Ed mentioned in today's blog post. <br /><br />I think the SMB and personal market represents a significant opportunity for IBM, not only for short-term sales but for long-term mindshare.<br /><br />It's been interesting to not how many (non Notes) people have contacted me to inquire about Lotus Notes since we launched { <a href="{ Link } rel="nofollow" target ="blank">Link</a> } We never intended this as a product to encourage users to move to Notes or switch from Outlook, yet it's happening in small numbers - without much promotion. While we are certainly no threat to Microsoft at this point, I cannot help but wonder what opportunity might exist if IBM were to go after productivity minded individuals and small businesses with Lotus Notes. If they did, I'd be right there beating the drums, and David Allen would probably join in as well. <br /><br />I think this would be a good thing for all of us in the Notes community.

7 - @3 - "The problem is what message is being heard by the users who influence the decisions and right now it's not much. So we need to change that."

You're almost there, Ed. Really really close.

You said "users who influence the decisions." Good sir, that is EVERY USER. From the Chairman of the Board right down to the custodial staff.

Lotus (and IBM in general) have been breaking their asses for two decades now with one theme in mind: flatten organizations. Every piece of collaborative and social software technology that's been brought to market is about making each individual a more effective contributor to whatever collective they're participating in.

Well guess what? IT WORKED. It worked because IBM and MSFT and Google and a host of others have all done a brilliant job of designing technology that causes good ideas to resonate in everything from 1-man companies communicating with 1000s of customers to large enterprises to entire global communities of volunteers and stakeholders.

Collaborative technology is the great democratizer of the last decade, and IBM has been a leading edge contributor to its success.

Now the market strategy has to match the brilliance of the technology. If every person on the planet is empowered to make their ideas matter through software, they need the right INPUT on those ideas. And right now, there's no input from IBM. That's the missing piece.

I'm not saying "get the message to managers outside IT." I'm saying "get the message to ABSOLUTELY EVERYBODY." Because that's what you've created with the technology: a world where every voice, every idea, every contribution has the power to shape the course of any institution, including the whole of civilization.

And, for the record, I didn't use the word "Lotus" in the title of this piece on purpose.

8 - If you'd like to comment on my post, take it over to edbrill.com { Link }

It's just easier to get the message up the ladder if it's all in one place.