Goodbye IBM Notes: Victoria’s Department of Health and Human Services

One of the largest and most loyal customers of IBM Notes/Domino in Australia is moving to Microsoft Office365 and Exchange.

The move sounds the death knell for the one of the last and largest known hold-out enclaves of the once mighty and celebrated fax-era platform.

A post by Victorian DHHS CIO Steve Hodginkson revealed that the department started the move a few weeks ago, with around 400 users moved to the Microsoft platform already but another 12,000 plus waiting to migrate “over the next year.”

iTnews understands that Notes has been present at the Department since 1998 after it was adopted across much of the Victorian public service. That gives it three decades on the clock.

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They recognize that some Domino applications may be hanging around for a while.

The article isn’t all doom and gloom for IBM Notes/Domino, though. The author writes about the IBM/HCL partnership, what’s coming in Domino 10, and more.

And then there are the comments. It’s exactly what I expected from the Microsoft and the Notes/Domino users.

I really don’t think that the Notes/Domino camp understands that the argument isn’t about the technical superiority of one product over another. If that was the case, you’d be reading about the plethora of IBM Notes/Domino wins. It is about the perception of one stack versus another. Perception makes companies move more than any other trigger. The perception of IBM is that it is not the best messaging/application development platform for current business users. And for the past 10 years, what has been done to change that perception? IBM Verse? Please.

Maybe the article will pique the interest of other Australian/New Zealand companies that are on the fence with their decision and will wait and see what IBM/HCL delivers this year. Maybe not. However, at least the article makes mention of the changes coming in Notes/Domino.

#domino2025 Webcast

I, along with a reported 1,500+ others, attended the IBM/HCL #domino2025 webcast today. I was happy to hear the excitement in the voices, the number of questions being answered, and the overall positive reviews from the faithful. But then, the skeptic in me kicked in, and I wasn’t that surprised at all; IBM/HCL was preaching to the one group of people that would be overjoyed to hear about the future of IBM Notes/Domino.

After some introductions, IBM/HCL launched into their presentation. The first slide that caught my attention was titled “Experience in Domino V10:”

I sure hope, that after my last post, the highlighted area is well and truly delivered when the product is released, sometime in late 2018.

Then, there is this slide:

I suppose that “Rocks JavaScript” is a fun little phrase. However, it is the “future proof” and “abundant skills” that caught my eye. I’ve heard a similar take on “future proof” as it dealt with earlier releases, hell, I can probably find something like it from the R5 days. But if you don’t keep pushing forward, you find yourself at the back of the pack. And then there is the “abundant skills.” I don’t know a damn thing about Node.js, however if you tell a prospective developer that he will be working on Node.js in Domino or with Domino, is that a guarantee that the developer will be happy to sign on? Or, do you play it safe and not even mention Domino?

Keeping an eye on the Q&A chat, there was a lot of “yes, we are looking into that,” but there was also this question and answer:

This really pleased me, as it appears that IBM/HCL actually listened to us. What gets delivered this year will probably be a “bit” different, but at least they were reading IdeaJam. Mr. Skeptic wonders, though, “What took you so damn long?” Years of adding ideas, voting on them, IBM had a gold mine of improvements from the people that actually use the product, in the real world. Your customers were telling you exactly what you needed to know to make the product better. But then, some other things probably got in the way. Hopefully, this is the one area that HCL will leverage to their advantage.

Time for a poll question.

That looks pretty good. And, based on the reactions from the presenters, exactly what they were expecting.

Finally, their “Go to Market” slide.

So, they’ll be presenting their vision and slides to more of the faithful this year. Good, get them all happy to see the new version. However, what’s the plan for those that aren’t attending THINK or any of the user group events? And by that, I mean, those that may already have Notes/Domino but never attend any of those events? Shouldn’t you be contacting them in some manner, letting them know what is on the horizon? Allowing them to realize that they aren’t running “legacy” software? That is a pretty tall order, I know, but there is only so much THINK and user group attendees can do for Domino 10. You are basically rebooting Domino, how about rebooting how you communicate with your customers, from the little shops to the large corporations?

Finally, about the presentation itself. It assumed a lot of knowledge from the attendees. There were a lot of jargon and abbreviations thrown around with no explanation of either. Based on the Q&A chat, I wasn’t the only one confused at times by what I was hearing and seeing. If you’re going to use jargon and abbreviations, please allow the speaker to explain them so that nothing is lost during the presentation.

Overall, I was very happy to see and hear the new directions that Domino is taking. There is a lot on HCL’s plate and it will be very interesting to see what is delivered later this year. Hopefully, we’ll continue to see the progress that HCL is making during the year and also learn more about the message that will be delivered to the marketplace.

Goodbye IBM Notes: City of Cornwall

A couple of articles on the same topic, the City of Cornwall has decided to move off of IBM Notes to Microsoft Office365 (emphasis, mine).

Cornwall’s information technology department is asking to spend almost $900,000 on software and equipment to keep up with the times.

The budget is proposing $898,000 for several different projects. There is a three-year phase in for a Microsoft Office upgrade and desktop virtualization.

 

. . . There is also money for moving corporate emails to Microsoft Outlook which will more seamlessly integrate with the other programs the city uses. The migration to Microsoft programs will lead to the city abandoning Lotus Notes, a software suite now owned by IBM, in favour of Microsoft’s shared and remote-computer platforms.

There is also money for a new records management system called for social housing after the province pulled support for implementing such systems recently in favour of producing their own system.

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But the “money quote” comes from a second article:

“Hallelujah!” Coun. Bernadette Clement remarked on word the city would be ditching Lotus.

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That is exactly the problem IBM has long confronted but never addressed.  Now, that same sentiment will spill over to HCL. You can argue the technological advantages of IBM Notes/Domino all you want, but it doesn’t make any difference in the minds of a lot of users and, more importantly, the decision makers with the purse strings.

So, I ask, “IBM, how is Domino 10 going to change those people’s minds?” Because until you can show me that the updated version is positioned to make people think well about their Domino investment, and I don’t mean the faithful that have attended some or all of your #domino2025 webinars and sessions, it won’t matter. Oh, you’ll keep some accounts that were waffling, maybe gain a couple of new ones, but until you can change the minds of the users, all of the work you are doing on Domino 10, and beyond, will only make the faithful happy.

 

Modifying Groups From a Browser: A Problem Since 2004

The browser, I am told, is the future of office productivity tools. From Office365, to Google Apps, to AWS, to IBM SmartCloud. Everything is apparently going to the web. Including, with iNotes, Connections, Docs, and more, the IBM productivity portfolio. The web is the future.

Imagine my surprise, as I attempted to add members to a group in IBM Domino using a web browser, that this functionality is not supported. And there is an SPR out there from 2004 (that would be circa Notes/Domino 6.5/6.0.3) where this functionality has been requested.

Let’s take a quick look at how this manifests itself, using a Domino 9.0.1 FP3 server.

Authenticate and open your Domino Directory using a browser. In my case, that would be Firefox 40.0.2. Click on Groups, click on a group and open it. Using the Action Button to Edit the group, I see this:

groupweb1

The little dropdown arrow, by Members, will allow me to add/remove people from the list. Let’s click on the arrow and see what happens:

groupweb4

Nothing.

However, if you know the user’s hierarchical name, you can simple type it into the “Add name not in list” field. Nothing could possibly go wrong with that, right?

Or, another workaround, is to grant ALL group administrators Edit rights to the Domino Directory with the Group Modifier role. What could go wrong with that option?

SPR PFOI5XLGV9, linked to APAR LO01827, has been open since 31 March 2004. Which, as I’ve noted above, would be in the Notes/Domino 6.5/6.03 time period. We have had a few iterations of the Notes/Domino code since that time and still it is impossible to maintain Domino group membership using a browser.

In IBM’s defense, they have published a TechNote on this topic, Unable to open users dialog list when editing group in names.nsf with a browser, which is from 2008 and includes the 6.5 through 9.0 code stream. But we are no nearer to actually editing groups using a browser in a “browser-centric” world.

When might we enjoy this “basic” functionality? What else may be an issue?

Not My Code: Advice on Speeding Up a Domino Application

In preparation to upgrade our Domino environment to Release 9.0.x, we determined it would be a great idea to know how many Notes IDs we were missing from our ID Vault. A little Google searching, I discovered that two people at IBM created an application, ID Vault Database Scanner.

After some fitful starts to getting it to run, this past weekend I scheduled it to start at 1AM and run for 20 hours (I adjusted Agent Manager to allow agents to run for 1200 minutes). I felt that would be more than adequate time to loop through 22,000 Person Documents and the ID Vault.

After 20 hours, the agent stopped and had looped through . . . 1,598 Person Documents.

If my math is good, that is 1.33 Person Documents per minute. And, extrapolating from that data point, it will take, by my estimation, 502 hours (or 21 days) to completely scan both the Domino Directory and the ID Vault.

That is a lot of time for what I see as a “simple” task.

While it could be asked of me to run the application locally, I have tried that to no avail. In fact, within the documentation of the application, it does not allow for the application to be run locally. And, even if it did, I don’t think that tasking one workstation for 20 days on one task is a good use of an asset.

If you are a developer and you take a look at the code on the website, is there anything you see that can be done more efficiently? Something that will allow this application to complete within 20 hours? Yes, I did read the comments where it was mentioned that this application is slow. However, I didn’t think it would be this slow. I was wrong.

If you know of an application that can compare Person Documents with entries in the ID Vault and return a list of missing Notes IDs, I would love to hear about it.

Open Mic Webcast: Troubleshooting Domino Policies – 29 April 2015

IBM has an upcoming webcast on troubleshooting Domino Policies.

We’ll take an in-depth look at the methodology and flow for troubleshooting and resolving issues with Domino policies – all types.

After a presentation, attendees will be given an opportunity to ask our panel of experts questions.

Topic: Troubleshooting Domino Policies
Date: Wednesday, April 29, 2015
Time: 11:00 AM EDT (15:00 UTC/GMT, UTC-4 hours) for 60 minutes

ICS file, call in numbers, and webcast URL can be found here.

 

Beyond Bank: Goodbye IBM Notes

Another one bites the dust. This time, in Australia.

Customer-owned financial institution, Beyond Bank, is dumping Lotus Notes and an ageing, legacy CRM app as its moves to the cloud.

Beyond Bank will soon start deploying Microsoft Office 365 to around 600 users at its head office in Adelaide and other branches across the ACT, NSW, South Australia, and Western Australia. The cloud solution will be used to access SharePoint Online, Lync Online, and Exchange Online

The reporter did not say whether IBM’s cloud services were ever considered, but they will be running a dual environment, Notes/Domino and Office365, for a while.

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Ask the Experts session: Ask us anything about Notes and Domino Install and Upgrade – 07 April 2015

Mark your calendars.

Given all the security updates and Interim Fixes within the past year, we’ll present a short demo on the Notes/Domino JVM. Members of the IBM Notes and Domino teams will be on hand to answer questions via the meeting room chat as well as the phone.

  • Topic: Ask us anything about Notes and Domino Install and Upgrade
  • Date: Tuesday, April 07, 2015
  • Time: 11:00 AM EDT (15:00 UTC/GMT, UTC-4 hours) for 60 minutes

Beyond Bank: Goodbye IBM Notes

Customer-owned financial institution, Beyond Bank, is dumping Lotus Notes and an ageing, legacy CRM app as its moves to the cloud.

Beyond Bank will soon start deploying Microsoft Office 365 to around 600 users at its head office in Adelaide and other branches across the ACT, NSW, South Australia, and Western Australia. The cloud solution will be used to access SharePoint Online, Lync Online, and Exchange Online

The reporter did not say whether IBM’s cloud services were ever considered, but they will be running a dual environment, Notes/Domino and Office365, for a while.

More >