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My recent customers have been the State of New Jersey, who are migrating to Exchange, several SMB's (1,000 - 5,000 users)who are migrating, educational institutions, and non-profits.
I have been a Notes believer for 14 years, and truly love the product. The new interface and features are the best thing to hit the market in all that time.
However, in dealing with things at the "C" level, the perception is that Notes has not changed with the times. The templates are old, the user interface is getting its first makeover in a decade with R8, and while the new release is fantastic, many CIO's already have their minds made up. First impressiions have already been made.
The effort that IBM has put into design, integration, development, and support has been outstanding, and certainly outpaces the competition by a long shot.
However, the CIO's are already planning their exit strategy. It would be a positive step for IBM to use the collaboration tools that we all know and love to develop a "Sales and Marketing Retention Group". Such a group could gather feedback from the Notes community about customers that are planning an migration to Exchange. The rumor mill at customers always knows when a migration is in the works.
A sales team such as this could bring in simple yet professional demos of what Notes can be within an organization. In most of my conversations at customers, I inevitably hear "I did not know Notes could do that!"
The relationship of IBM and SNAPPS has generated an outstanding set of templates for Quickr, and I would like to see that effort expanded to the entire Notes family. It is sorely needed.
However, CIO's are all too jaded by vaporware and FUD. The sales team has to be able to show real applications that are core building blocks, that are updated for todays UI standards, and that require little customization to implement. These potential templates are already out there in the Developer Community, and the developers that I work with would get in line to help out. They have a vested interest in this.
At this time, I am hearing runors of another 30,000 seats going to Exchange from a major banking institution and an educational institute. These decisions are not made at the user level - users traditionally love Notes. The calls are being made at the "C" level, and that level is the target market.
Notes is my busines - all day, every day. I really want it to grow to its full potential.
Feedback response number WEBB7APMQD created by ~Chris Chukroetsi on 01/09/2008
IBM / Lotus Sales Effort
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. . . . . . . . . . . . . . IBM / Lotus Sales Effort (~Chris Chukroet... 9.Jan.08) 
