Microsoft Partners Flock to Lotus Notes
June 7, 2009
Here’s the headline that brought a smile to my face: “200+ Microsoft Partners Per Month Flocking to Sell IBM Lotus Foundations Appliance”. You can read the scoop on the KLKN TV Web site here. Take a close look. The “story” is a news release. The author of the “story” / news release (!) is IBM. The document reports some “facts” and “ideas” that I find at odds with my experience. Keep in mind that I am an addled goose and lack the sophistication of the IBM PR team, but consider these points:
- “According to Microsoft business partners, sales of Microsoft’s Small Business Server (SBS) software bundle have slowed due to lack of innovation and partner dissatisfaction with their inability to add solutions. In challenging economic times, Microsoft partners are looking for an alternative that provides SMB customers with more collaboration computing power for less money and more reliability.”
- “…Some Microsoft partners have expressed disenchantment with Microsoft’s new strategy of battling Linux encroachment in the SMB market by offering a skeletal version of Windows Server. Named “Microsoft Foundation Windows Server,” it can be positioned as a loss leader to up-sell customers a variety of other Microsoft products. Seeing rising customer demand for lower cost, more secure, and open source alternatives, many Microsoft partners are looking to sell Linux-based solutions.”
- “We chose Lotus Foundations from IBM for its high availability and ease of maintainability,” said Jim Abraham, Managing Partner of Line Fifty Software. “Lotus Foundations also helps companies keep costs down due to its reliability, all-in-one office software suite, ease of use and maintainability. Additionally, since our solution is Windows-based, the ability to run Windows applications alongside Linux applications makes the Foundations environment a complete SMB solution.”
Strong stuff and I didn’t even mention the pat on the head for Linux and the implicit sideswipe of the Microsoft limo. My thoughts about this type of “story” are that [a] someone needs to run the IBM news releases by an individual with some experience in the real world of partner management. Partners invest time and money and risk losing the support of the mothership for getting out of bounds. I think some of the folks quoted in this news story may have an opportunity for a heart to heart chat with an interested party; [b] the Lotus Appliance does not work like bread crumbs thrown to pigeons. “Flock” does not strike the right chord with me. The number 200 sounds odd to me when I consider the companies cited in the “news story”. I wonder if digging around would reveal that these are firms who represent a range of different products and signed up to resell the Lotus Appliance because fees were waived or some inducement offered; and [c] what the heck is a puff piece like this one doing on a TV station’s Web site. Where’s the New York Times’s coverage? Where’s the story in Network World? Not too many Microsoft resellers will be checking out the KLKN Web site for Lotus news I surmise. I wonder if I can find the original release by searching the IBM Web site? Doing that now. Answer: Nope. IBM is as adept at Lotus Appliance PR as it is at search it seems.
Stephen Arnold,
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The release is posted on ibm.com at
http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/27655.wss