Lotus Embraces Web Services, But Will Customers?Lotus Embraces Web Services, But Will Customers?

Collaboration and Web services are a natural fit. That's why Lotus Software plans to move its messaging and collaboration applications to an architecture that supports standards such as XML, Soap, and UDDI, for distributing and assembling software components over the Web. Related to that, Lotus will rebuild its Notes groupware and Domino development environment using the latest version of Java--something most other IBM software units have already done.

The moves will give developers the ability to more easily integrate Lotus messaging and collaboration functionality into third-party and custom applications. For example, a developer working in the environment would be able to link the calendaring capabilities of Domino with a corporate portal. The shift should also make it easier to integrate Notes and Domino with other IBM platforms, such as the company's popular WebSphere E-commerce server. Such a combination would create a compelling collaboration and development package because of the products' synergies, Yankee Group analyst Dana Gardner says.

Converting Domino programmers to Java will take time, Gardner adds. Lotus itself will take 18 months to transition to Java 2 Enterprise Edition. Once done, customers should have more flexibility in how they introduce or upgrade Lotus technology.

Thomas Wagenhauser, director of IT for Harlan Bakeries Inc. in Avon, Ind., says he's undecided whether it makes more sense to piece together functionality using the Web-services approach or simply to deploy Lotus Notes R6, a full-blown update that will appear in beta version this month. He wonders whether Lotus can continue its high level of quality under the nascent Web-services model.

Law firm Beckman & Hirsch in Burlington, Iowa, plans to embrace Web services to embed Lotus Sametime instant messaging into the E-lawyer application on its Web site, partner David Beckman says. Clients who request legal consultations will be able to communicate in real time to schedule appointments.

Lotus' Web-services road map is an attempt to keep ahead of Microsoft's .Net and Sun Microsystems' SunOne initiatives. Gardner says developers will spend the next year or two determining which is most effective.