Collaborative Thinking

What Difference A Year Doesn't Make: Lotus Connections & SharePoint

One of the items I was hoping to hear at Lotusphere 2009 was outlined in a recent post by Guy Creese, Research Director of our Collaboration And Content Strategies group here at Burton. In his post, "Lotusphere 2009: What Might Have Been", Guy articulates how IBM should have outlined a "surround and integrate" strategy for SharePoint. This is obvious and is something which IBM absolutely must execute on prior to Microsoft's O14 release. In fact, during Lotusphere 2008, I laid out such a scenario as part of the ongoing battle between IBM and Microsoft:

Lotusphere 2008: Social Computing Chess Match

• So why is this important? IBM can use Connections to compete with Microsoft by changing the focus to social computing rather than collaboration and content. If IBM can achieve that position (social computing as the strategic direction vs. traditional collaboration and content platforms), then it can then work over time to erode a SharePoint collaboration/content commitment by introducing Quickr and Sametime for instance.
• But - that means that IBM needs to let Connections "do its own thing" and not worry about slowing down or try to cross-sell other Lotus products. The build out of a partner ecosystem that is more viral will distinguish Connections from SharePoint (which seems to pick partners more selectively in my opinion). IBM also needs to deliver updates to Connections quickly - remember, IBM has a two year window approx. before the next release of SharePoint.
• IBM has to do superior and native integration between Connections and Microsoft productivity tools and integrate with SharePoint as well.
• If Connections is allowed to run fast and not be overly concerned with bootstrapping other Lotus products - it has the opportunity to get IBM into "Microsoft shops" and go on the offensive rather than merely trying to protect the install base.
• How? First, IBM needs to convince a shop not to not turn on MySite by showing how much better its profile capability is within Connections - that's a critical first step.  Then, it needs to sell the enterprise on its blog and wiki tools which SharePoint does offer but they are not all that great - to show that point IBM needs to push best of breed options perhaps more aggressively than its own tools (Atlassian and Socialtext for wikis, hopefully we will see blog partners as well emerge). It needs to also sell the tagging piece which Microsoft does not have right now. IBM does not have a feed syndication platform but can point out deficiencies with SharePoint (e.g., no Atom support) but obviously getting Attensa, KnowNow and NewsGator on board would help a lot.
• If Connections and its extended environment can surround SharePoint (a.k.a. social computing as a solution that augments traditional collaboration and content tools0 - then IBM has a disruptive leverage point to exploit. It can gain a foothold and work on introducing other products in its portfolio (namely Quickr) over time - hoping for some 2010 buyer's remorse on the part of SharePoint shops.

This isn't rocket science. If Atlassian, Newsgator, Awareness, Telligent and others can integrate with SharePoint the way Microsoft customers would prefer, so can IBM. Right now, I still see Connections primarily in Lotus Notes or WebSphere shops - SharePoint shops generally first consider one of the "SharePoint partners" or move on to someone like Jive before IBM enters the conversation (not in all cases but many). Connections is still commonly viewed as (1) expensive and (2) a "trojan horse" by IBM to persuade strategists to revisit e-mail or other product debates (e.g., SharePoint vs. Quickr, Office vs. Symphony). Which is unfortunate because the Connections platform does clearly have unique advantages.

How might this be done? Microsoft announced a flurry of partnerships last summer around the time of the Enterprise 2.0 conference. The partnerships illustrated three ways that vendors could integrate with SharePoint

Microsoft's Maturing Social Computing "EGO"

Enhancement

The Enhancement integration model augments SharePoint's basic social computing capabilities but the solution's benefits and capabilities are centric to SharePoint and are not likely to be easily duplicated to work with other vendors. That is, a vendor's Enhancement integration model makes many fundamental assumptions that bind it to SharePoint. There is little chance of the solution acting as a means to mediate interoperability needs between SharePoint and other social computing platforms (e.g., IBM, Jive, Oracle) that might also be deployed within the enterprise.

Gateway

A Gateway integration model also extends SharePoint's social computing capabilities. The primary difference between a Gateway and Enhancement approach is that the Gateway's focus is primarily on attaining some level of interoperability with SharePoint. That is, the vendor's Gateway solution offers value in both a stand-alone situation as well as with SharePoint if Microsoft's social computing platform is deployed.

Overlay

The Overlay integration model represents the deepest level of integration to extend SharePoint's social computing capabilities. In essence, a vendor pursuing this approach begins to use SharePoint itself as its base infrastructure platform. That is, the solution essentially "lives within" SharePoint. This integration model differs significantly from the Enhancement and Gateway model since the vendor becomes almost entirely dependent on SharePoint. There may be some distinct functions kept outside SharePoint (e.g., database) to enable the vendor to deliver functions not possible within SharePoint's current set of services.

There is already an example of how IBM might approach such integration in the wild:

lbenitez . Luis Benitez . Socialize Me: Sharepoint iWidget for Lotus Connections

Recently, I started working with the CorasWorks team to develop an iWidget for Lotus Connections that would display data from a Microsoft Sharepoint server. If the name CorasWorks sounds familiar, is because I blogged about them a couple months back. They are a Microsoft Gold Certified Business Partner and have created a solution to bring some of the Lotus Connections components into Sharepoint.

What we wanted to do was develop an iWidget for Lotus Connections so that we could surface SharePoint data within Lotus Connections. More specifically, we wanted to show all the sites that a user has access to. Since CorasWorks provides a very nice API on top of Sharepoint this was very easily done.

I think it's also worth noting how this mashup was created:

• The iWidget is running on my domain: blog.lbenitez.com
• Lotus Connections is running on connections.demoibm.com
• Sharepoint is running on corasworks.net

Hopefully IBM will begin to seriously position Connections as a complimentary platform for those organizations that want to maintain some level of commitment to SharePoint. It's nice to compete fiercely but not when customers lose out. The "either/or" perception IBM struggles with now in organizations that consider themselves "SharePoint shops" creates a win/lose decision that is not going to deliver the type of market penetration IBM needs given incremental improvements to social computing Microsoft should deliver in O14, perhaps by the end of the year.

So Guy is right, I think something along the line of "ConnectPoint" (my preferred name) or "SharePoint Connect" (also not bad) might be something customers should push IBM on...

Why Lotusphere 2009 Is Important

This year's Lotusphere could very well be a make-or-break moment for the Lotus brand and solution portfolio. I know that's pretty dramatic - but if you look at this through the lens of history and into the crystal ball of the future, I think it's a pretty accurate statement. I don't want this post to be a timeline and reflection on what's gone wrong over the past several years with Lotus but I do want to point out the two major themes that have negatively defined IBM's "thought leadership" and competitive positioning vs. Microsoft:   

It started with the "Dual Highway" message...

There's no need to resurrect all the obvious and painful mistakes made by IBM as it attempted to "kill off" Lotus Notes and shift the install base over to a more portal-centric and J2EE-based platform architecture. The important point to remember is that the "strategy" demonstrated that IBM management (1) did not understand its customers, (2) did not understand the competitive advantage Lotus Notes/Domino had in the collaboration market, and (3) did not understand the nature of collaboration (a techno-centric focus).

Which evolved into a more business-centric "Workplace" theme...

Again, there's no need to recount the very heavy process management message around Workplace that may have sounded great to senior leadership teams (and probably was great for IBM consulting). But again, "Workplace" missed the mark when it came to collaboration. This era reflected IBM's portal-centric view to everything which ended up with a shot-gun wedding of sorts between the WebSphere and Lotus "tribes" within IBM. Internally, this "cultural alignment" was actually pretty important in my view. For customers however, getting IBM's internal house in order could matter less because by 2007 they were left with products that were viewed (at the time) as being behind what Microsoft now had to offer (e.g., Office SharePoint Server 2007, Office Communications Server 2007, and so on).

We can debate statistics but most people would generally agree that Microsoft has been on the upswing the last few years while IBM has been on the downswing.

Regardless whose numbers you want to believe, losing market share to Microsoft is one thing - losing mindshare to the world-at-large is far worse. Once you drop out of the conversation between business and IT strategists as they determine which collaboration solutions will carry them forward - it is very, very hard to re-engage ... to get people to "push the reset button" on their assumptions. When I talk to clients nowadays regarding their shift from IBM to Microsoft, or about Lotus in general, it is clear that many of them have developed a poor "mindset" about IBM and its Lotus portfolio. Even years after the "Dual Highway" and "Workplace" disasters - IBM is still battling to overcome those negative perceptions (viewpoints that Microsoft and other competitors are only happy to reinforce).

Is there any reason for optimism?

Lotusphere 2007 and Lotusphere 2008 were the first two events where IBM actually began to act like they had heard that "3:00 in the morning wake-up call" made popular in the U.S. political elections last year. First, it was the Sametime team in 2007. Sametime 7.5 and every release since then demonstrates that IBM understands the Unified Communications market, its role in that market, and how to work with partners to deliver solutions for its customers. It was the Lotus Connections team in 2008 who demonstrated that IBM really "got" social computing and delivered something to the market that was better than what Microsoft had to offer. In 2009, it will be left to the Notes/Domino and Symphony team to carry that torch. Quickr remains the one product that still seems to be a work-in-progress (perhaps it will be ready to be positioned as "the SharePoint alternative" and ready for prime time in 2010).

So what's not to like?

IBM's message remains complex. It comes across as a product manifest ("sure, we've got that..."). There's no compelling narrative that tells people a story where they can see themselves benefiting from the solutions vs. the individual products - and not much that would persuade someone to migrate from Microsoft to Lotus or forestall a migration from IBM to Microsoft. Yes, individual products are improving and individual teams behind those products are more energized (namely the Lotus Sametime and Connections teams) - but having a few products improve is not going to deliver the type of tipping point IBM needs in the market.

What does IBM need to do?

IBM needs a message that resonates beyond the "Notes faithful" that attend Lotusphere each ear. Compelling narratives are important. They can motivate and act as a call-to-action for people (the Obama campaign taught us that). I would hope to see the launch of a persuasive and convincing storyline that IBM can leverage throughout its go-to-market efforts in 2009. So far they are 0-2 though.

Since 2007, IBM has been laying the groundwork for this moment - to disrupt the current market momentum of Microsoft by catching them right before their next cycle of product releases. Lotusphere 2009 comes during a year when Microsoft will once again start up its marketing machine to tell the market about the upcoming "O14" wave of Office, Exchange, SharePoint and OCS. Business and IT strategists will be looking at their current Microsoft investments and once again deciding whether they made the right move - especially concerning SharePoint. IBM shops will be looking at their current Lotus investments and rendering similar judgements.

That's what makes this year's Lotusphere so important - the chance for IBM to stop playing catch-up in terms of mindshare and get out in front of Microsoft with a message that stands on its own merit - to describe how its modernized platform and solutions are forward-looking.

A great story alone is not going to change the world. I don't want to over-simplify IBM's challenges here. But technology alone is not going to cut it either. Having a great Sametime product or a great Connections product in-and-of-itself is not going to disrupt Microsoft. I hope IBM realizes that this year's event can be a much needed catalyst ... not only a catalyst for changing the mindset of people who might never before considered, or be open to re-considering, Lotus as the foundation for their collaboration strategy but a catalyst for its entire go-to-market effort this year. Another Lotusphere where we are presented with a litany of product and SaaS announcements would be a shame.