Who has a significant user deployment of Lotus Notes on Macintosh (or would like to)?

August 26 2008

As we move forward towards delivery of Lotus Notes 8.5 -- and the first release of a Notes 8 client for the Macintosh -- Notes product management, marketing and I have been working more closely on our messages for the Apple desktop market.  For example, we'd like to put together specific messages targeted at Mac populations, including spec sheets, demos, and the like.  We're also working more closely with other parts of IBM as well as (ahem) a key partner in this endeavor.

One fundamental question drives the level of effort we're putting in right now.  How many Lotus Notes customers have a significant deployment of Lotus Notes on the Macintosh, or plan to/would do with the 8.5 release?

The challenge in answering that question, much like the perennial "which Domino server platform is the most popular", is that IBM sells licenses that are agnostic as to the deployed operating system.  Buy a Notes license, and you can run it on Windows XP, Vista, Mac, or several Linux flavors.  We don't ask, and we don't care.

Except that sometimes we care.  Thus, part of the work being done internally right now is to pull data on what customers are using Lotus Notes on the Macintosh, in a sizeable deployment.  We're looking at who has downloaded Notes on Mac (which is a surprisingly large percentage of all Notes/Domino customers), who has called support for Macintosh-related issues, and other data sources.  But again, with an agnostic license, we don't really know , or at least haven't looked at every angle on where we could get some data.

Now, I could spend a few weeks requesting the ibm.com machine to throw up a quick survey form for me -- and in fact, we did do so once before, many years ago, as far as Notes on the Mac.  This effort, though, is just to get another input.  Thus, I'm asking you.  If your company has a sizeable deployment of Notes on the Mac -- or would/could do -- please send me an e-mail, which will be kept confidential and used as aggregate data for this exercise alone (please leave the link's subject line intact for my mail rules, thanks!).  I do not want to hear from the one Machead in a company of 10,000 Windows machines, or a business partner which is "100% Mac" (all three of you).  I'm looking at departmental or enterprise deployments, either today or planned/possible.  

In your mail, all I'm looking for is company name, number of Notes on Mac users today, number of Notes on Mac users potential, and what version of Notes on Mac is deployed.

I'm looking forward to yet another data point that validates and substantiates the strength of the Notes+Mac population -- more data always helps with efforts to focus on this market segment.  Thanks!

Ed Brill Highland Park, IL USA Category:  Machead  Add/View Comments [14]

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  1. 1  John Scullen  | 8/27/2008 12:26:47 AM

    Email sent!!

  1. 2  Stuart McIntyre http://collaborationmatters.com | 8/27/2008 2:36:08 AM

    Music to my ears, Ed! I've asked a number of customers with sizable Mac populations to drop you a note.

    So we're one of the three, huh?

  1. 3  Matt White http://11tmr.com | 8/27/2008 2:45:11 AM

    Ed,

    This will obviously be useful information, but also don't under-estimate the importance of the high level individual Mac user. I'm talking about the CEO or CIO who decides that *his* machine should be a Mac even if everyone else has to use Windows. The fact that Notes is supported for him is key when it comes to the inevitable battle with Outlook / Exchange, as any other *real* business decision point.

    Matt

  1. 4  Ben Rose http://www.jaffacake.net | 8/27/2008 4:16:26 AM

    For obvious reasons, I propose you push this at The Guardian newspaper.

  1. 5  Peter LaComb  | 8/27/2008 6:37:36 AM

    I'll echo @3 because we're in that boat (top level and their assistants are all Mac users at home and work).

  1. 6  Stuart McIntyre http://collaborationmatters.com | 8/27/2008 6:39:40 AM

    As an aside, once this piece of research is completed, I'd be interested to see it compared to similar questions asked about Linux desktop deployments, particularly Ubuntu.

  1. 7  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 8/27/2008 6:53:34 AM

    @3 I am aware of the influence of the individual Mac user as key decision-maker. Let me see what kind of other responses I get before I suggest we look at that.

    @4 I will be meeting with the Guardian when I'm in London next month.

    @6 fair, but this particular request is driven by work with a particular vendor, one you've probably heard of...

  1. 8  Peter Wilson  | 8/27/2008 6:54:26 AM

    How about AppleInsider too ? - { Link }

    Pete

  1. 9  Robert Harris  | 8/27/2008 7:52:08 AM

    Email sent here too! More than happy to share about our Mac user experiences for Notes.

  1. 10  Jeff Picco  | 8/27/2008 9:11:28 AM

    We'd love to, but the Mac has given us too many issues to be considered for wide roll out, but we are working with Apple. Pilot continues.... Good news is that Notes has worked great on the Mac.

  1. 11  Mark Hughes  | 8/27/2008 9:39:13 AM

    Our CEO uses one, and it is a test case, using 8.5 beta quite successfully.

    Other issues are problems though including the send to as attachment from Microsoft office does not work with Lotus Notes.

  1. 12  Barry Rosen  | 8/27/2008 10:02:56 AM

    Ed, I work for ISSL and was the Mac PAE (Primary Area Expert) while I was in Lotus support. The companies that come to mind using Lotus Notes on the Mac, are Kodak, National Geographic, Hallmark, The New York Times, CUNY, NASA, Houghton Mifflin, and VF Services. You should send an note out to the PSMs, they would know the customers with Macs and the #'s of clients deployed. Hope this helps

  1. 13  Randy LeTourneau  | 8/27/2008 10:23:18 AM

    email sent from Publicis Groupe as well. We have 3K to 4K Mac users in US & Canada alone and run 30% Macs globally of our 45K employees. We can't get to 8.5 soon enough, so help us make sure development stays on time!!! :-)

  1. 14  Irwin Lazar  | 8/28/2008 1:49:57 PM

    Hi Ed, I'm running 8.5 standard beta 1 on my Macbook Pro. So far it's running pretty well, a few hiccups, but speed and usability is much improved.