by Bob Supina
The question of “What is Lotus Notes?” continues to be asked, and everyone tends to scratch their heads, trying to spout an accurate, succinct answer. Actually it is easier to say what it is NOT, than what it IS.
While you CAN create documents, it is NOT a powerful word processor. While you do see rows and columns on the screen, it is NOT a spreadsheet. While it IS a database oriented application, it is NOT a relational database. While it has communication capabil ity, it is NOT like the generic .COM programs.
Actually, it is a little bit of every one of these, plus a calendar function and an extremely powerful security tool. It is a very robust Mail program, and, finally, it has a rock-solid feature called Replication , which allows it to keep databases on different servers synchronized. Also, Notes will function in any of the following environments: OS/2, Windows 3.1, 95, NT, UNIX, and even on a Macintosh.
Notes is the first of the new category called Groupware. It is a tool which allows groups of people to share information in a way they have never before been able to do .
Each database is a collection of documents. You can see the collection by looking at a sorted list of titles, authors, subjects, or whatever topic has been determined by the developer of the database. It’s like having multiple Table of Contents for the d atabase. Let’s look at a few examples of databases.
Perhaps the most common is the Mail Database. Two of the unique features of the mail database are the ability to use electronic signatures (which have been declared valid by the law courts), and its serial distribution list. cc:Mail and other mail systems have always provided the ability to have distribution lists. Notes goes a step farther...you can serialize the list, that is, you can send a document to Mary; when she has finished reading and annotating it, it will then go to Pet e; when he is finished it will go on to Sue. At all times the original sender can keep track of who is sitting on the document.
Another basic type is called a Discussion Database. The University of Texas (Austin) Business School uses Notes. I know that at least one of the courses in the MBA program uses Notes exclusively. All the students are at home, around the state. Joe might dial in at 7 a.m.; Amy might dial in at 8 p.m., bu t they carry on discussions as if they were in a classroom. They have the ability to sort documents on topics, authors, or dates; they have the ability to do keyword searches, and they can respond to other student comments. It is just a much more robust environment than the capabilities presently available on the Internet.
I believe it was Tom Watson, founder of IBM, who once remarked, “Nothing happens until someone sells something”. Sales of products and services is what makes the world go round. Accordingly, every sales organization is bogged down with tracking clients, inventory, and product information. Notes takes the drudgery out of the task.
Call it Client Tracking, or Account Management, Notes is the only show in town when it comes to sharing information about accounts. With this kind of database, users can create a main document for a company, separate documents for contacts at that company, separate documents for activities related t o the company, and separate documents for strategies, deals, news or products. All these documents can be tied to each other so that the user can see whatever combination of information is necessary for his task at hand.
Now, the salesman is on a plane, off to London. On the flight, he is using his laptop to document his activities. When he gets to the hotel, he dials the home server. With the click of a button, all recent changes made on the laptop are transferred to th e server and all changes made to the database on the server are uploaded to his laptop; he is now in sync with the team in the office. This is called Replication.
Notes allows multiple users to edit documents in the collection simultaneously (and one user’s input does not clobber another’s input).
Notes has Security up and down the kazoo...passwords, access levels, electronic signatures, and encryption. Access level security allows only defined users to read/edit/compose documents. This security even goes down to the field level on a form, so that Harry might have the ability to read the boiler-plate wording of a contract, but the sensitive dollar values might not be displayed when he reads the document.
Notes has encryption (scrambling the data so only the person with the ability to unscramble it can read it). It is so secure that the CIA uses it. Passwords can be 63 characters long, can contain embedded spaces, and are case sensitive.
While Notes is a very powerful tool, as we have seen, it is not intended to be all things to all people . There are some types of applications for which it is not designed, such as real time applications (e.g. airline reservations and heavy number crunching - financial, accounting or scientific applications).
Lately, there has been a lot in the press about the Internet blowing away NOTES. I feel confident that this will not happen for several years...if at all. Actually the Internet enhances Notes by providing an increased capability. The Notes servers are now called Domino. A Domino server connected to the Internet provides the unique capability of converting Notes documents to HTML format, so Notes documents can be readily viewed by Internet browsers. The reverse is also true; Domino allows Notes users to view Internet H TML documents in Notes format.
I’m sure some of you are thinking.....no one software package can be THAT good in all those areas! All I can say is, come to the next Lotus Notes SIG on the Second Thursday of the month...see for yourself. You WILL become a believer. The current version is Notes 4.5.2.
Bob Supina, a HAL-PC member, is the Lotus Notes SIG Leader who can be contacted at bsupina@ect.enron.com.
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