Lotus Now Shipping Notes, Groupware for Certain Style of Group
 
Copyright (c) 1989, McGraw-Hill, Inc.
CAMBRIDGE, MA (Microbytes Daily News Service) --- Lotus
Development Corp. yesterday said it has started shipping Notes,
the "group communications software" the company first divulged in
early 1988. Notes, described simplistically, is a combination of
database and teleconferencing software that allows people who
work together to collect and access information on a local-area
network. "It's a system designed to harness the knowledge and
expertise that already exist in a workgroup," said Lotus
president Jim Manzi.
 
But this groupware isn't just for any group of workers; it's for
well-heeled groups of workers. Notes, which runs under Novell,
3Com, and IBM LAN operating systems, is priced at $62,500,
requires its own server, and does not work with low-end PCs.
 
The Notes database, the well of information to be compiled,
sorted, and shared, can consist of text and graphics, which can
come from external word processors, spreadsheets, graphics
packages, or be produced with Notes' basic text editor. The
program arranges the data according to categories the group sets
up and then presents it according to different views or criteria.
The information can be stored in a freestyle way or in structured
forms. The "fully integrated" e-mail capabilities let users send
messages to each other. Lotus says it worked with the National
Security Agency to develop the system's security capabilities.
 
The OS/2-based server software requires its own dedicated
machine, with either a 286, 386, or 486 CPU and 5 megabytes of
memory. ("The server must be OS/2-based because of the
multithreading," said Frank King, vice president of Lotus'
Software Products Group.) The client part of Notes runs on 286-
or 386-based systems with hard disks and at least 4M bytes of RAM
to use the OS/2 version or 640K to use the DOS version. Lotus
demonstrated the software using a Compaq Systempro as the server
and two 386 machines as workstations. The DOS version runs under
Microsoft Windows, making Notes the first Windows product for
Lotus. ("We're pragmatic and recognize what customers want," King
said.) The server software is the first program Lotus has shipped
that uses the Presentation Manager interface.
 
The $62,500 price licenses use of Notes on 200 machines, in any
mix of servers and workstations. Lotus is "in discussion with
VARs to bring Notes to smaller companies," Moore said.
 
 
Workgroups Limited to OS/2 and DOS Users -- For Now
Although Lotus officials say Notes provides for "many-to-many in-
teraction" among groups of geographically and personally diverse
people -- Jim Manzi said it can "reach across space and time" --
the Notes vision of collaboration does not yet include people who
use computers not based on Intel processors. Macintosh or Sun or
Amiga users, for example, can't be a part of a Notes workgroup.
Lotus is considering plans for bringing Notes to non-DOS or OS/2
systems, "but we're making no announcements," said Larry Moore,
general manager of the Lotus division that brought Notes to
market.
 
Ray Ozzie, president of Iris Associates, the company that
invented and started work on Notes in 1984, told Microbytes Daily
that it's technically feasible to adapt the software to Macs or
Unix systems and that Lotus will "make those decisions in order
of which will produce the most revenue."
 
Contact: Lotus Development Corp., 55 Cambridge Pkwy, Cambridge,
MA 02142; (617) 577-8500.
 
                              --- D. Barker
 
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