Lotus delves further into ebusiness

Business-to-business (B2B) services should not merely automate transactions but also enable participants to learn from each other and collaborate on a wide range of projects, according to Lotus' chief executive.

Speaking to developers at the company's DevCon event taking place in San Francisco this week, Al Zollar said the foundation of ecommerce platforms should be built on messaging and collaboration technologies, and that so-called e-learning will enable customers to keep pace with the rapid changes in ebusiness.

Lotus, which originated from the groupware market, is keen to reposition itself in the B2B sector. It is pushing its products at enabling businesses not to just trade goods but also ideas.

Zollar, who took control of the IBM unit in February, said: "Collaboration provides a competitive edge for ebusinesses, but the rate of learning can't keep up with the rate of change. People seem to get lost in the shuffle. The companies that will succeed will be those that use e-learning to decrease that gap for customers and business partners, as well as their employees."

Lotus has repackaged many of its products for ebusinesses. These include Same Time, its instant messaging application that will support real-time audio and video, and Quickplace, its teamware product that enables documents to be shared by virtual work mates.

Analysts praised the company's move to reposition itself in the ebusiness space but have reservations about its strategic vision.

Dan Rasmus, an analyst at Giga Information Group, said Lotus is still suffering the effects of being acquired by IBM in 1995. For example, Lotus has lost a number of key executives, whom Rasmus considered as visionaries, that provided an interface between the company's research engineers and customers. "There doesn't seem to be any real leadership there," he said.

IBM's style of controlled and timed product rollout culture also did not suit some Lotus employees, who preferred the informal way of researching and developing updates and new modules when customers felt a need for them, said Rasmus.

However, Lotus' move to extend its collaboration technologies outside of corporate firewalls and into the internet will enable it to compete with the many startups that are already moving into this market, he added.

Enhancements made to its development environment include extended support for Microsoft and Java languages, and the introduction of XML, the common language for ecommerce platforms, to its Domino server.

Lotus also intends to bundle Domino with WebSphere, IBM's ecommerce development environment, but a fully integrated version that will enable sign-on and support a common object request broker is not expected until the fourth quarter of this year.

See also:

Groupware suffers a crisis of identity

Groupware's image and function have changed dramatically during its life span, but will it survive the growing popularity of web-based applications?  04 Oct 2000

ASP strategy begins to flower at Lotus

Lotus has provoked fears among resellers that they may lose out on vital business opportunities by announcing it intends to invest heavily in application service providers, which it sees as the way forward among small and medium businesses.  04 Oct 2000

Lotus sets up wireless Domino

Lotus has announced the launch of a new suite of tools and services aimed at extending the capabilities of its Domino communications server technology to include wireless and mobile devices.  03 Aug 2000

How to make it big in business-to-business

Whether you want to set up your own exchange or start buying office supplies on the web, we bring you the lowdown on B2B ecommerce.  26 Jul 2000

Suppliers fly high via the internet

British Airways and Rocco Forte Hotels reveal how they fared in the business-to-business world.  25 Jul 2000

Lotus moves to enhance the B2B experience

Lotus has instructed its developers to create tools that will enhance the online buying experience for businesses.  20 Jun 2000

Papows bows out but denies he was pushed

Lotusphere was a particularly trying experience for departing president Jeff Papows, who had been hit by a series of scandals.  22 Feb 2000

Lotus lays out knowledge management strategy

Lotus has announced details of Raven, its knowledge management suite that it claims will save companies money by allowing them to make better use of their internal knowledge resources.  19 Jan 2000

Like this story? Spread the news by clicking below:

 del.icio.us     Digg this     reddit!