THE WELCH COMPANY
440 Davis Court #1602
San Francisco, CA 94111-2496
415 781 5700
rodwelch@pacbell.net


S U M M A R Y


DIARY: May 4, 1994 09:02 AM Wednesday; Rod Welch

Received call from Ross on IBM's success with Lotus Notes.

1...Summary/Objective
2...IBM Gave Up on LN


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CONTACTS 

SUBJECTS
SDS Marketing, Sales Contacts
Notes, Lotus & IBM, 910625

0404 -
0404 -    ..
0405 - Summary/Objective
0406 -
040601 - Follow up ref SDS 3 0000.
040602 -
040603 - Indications are that Lotus Notes has not been usefully applied.
040604 -
040605 -
040607 -  ..
0407 -
0408 -
0409 - Discussion
0410 -
041001 - Ross said he got a PROFS back from Cindy, ref SDS 3 line 70.  She told
041002 - Ross that their IBM office has installed Lotus Notes, but has not been
041003 - able to create anything useful for their work group.  She understands
041004 - another IBM group in Phoenix, is using Lotus Notes productively.
041005 - ..
041006 - I asked Ross to download that message, and to inquire of the
041007 - Phoenix office about their success.  He will send them a similiar
041008 - message to that sent to Cindy, per ref SDS 3 line 99.
041009 -
041011 -  ..
0411 -
0412 -
0413 - 1705 Ross called back
0414 -
041401 - Left message that the he got a message from the IBM Phoenix office
041402 - that they are using Lotus Notes in a broad based network, and feel it
041403 - is very helpful.  She asked Ross to stop in for a demonstration the
041404 - next time he is in Phoenix.
041405 -
041406 -
041408 -  ..
0415 -
0416 -
0417 - 2121 called Morris
0418 -
041801 - He said he knows of no one who has successfully applied Lotus Notes.
041803 -  ..
041804 - Morris said the Lotus Notes demonstration is brilliant, and so appeals
041805 - to buyers, but it is really just a development tool which requires a
041806 - tremendous effort to create anything useful.  I am curious why
041807 - customers do not or cannot get the application results they see in the
041808 - Lotus Notes' demonstration?  I suspect it is because the demonstration
041809 - has hardwired functions and data, so things work smoothly.
041810 -
041812 -  ..
041813 - IBM Gave Up on LN
041814 -
041815 - Morris said that Lotus bought out IBM's contract to distribute Lotus
041816 - Notes, because IBM was not moving the product.  This indicates the
041817 - original expectations did not work out, ref SDS 1 0000.  There was no
041818 - actual cash exchanged.  IBM's duty to perform was cancelled, and so
041819 - Lotus was no longer obligated to pay IBM for promoting its product,
041820 - and this was reported as a $48M buyout for publicity purposes.
041821 -
041822 -     [On 950628 IBM purchased Lotus Development to get Lotus Notes
041823 -     again. ref SDS 4 0001
041825 -      ..
041826 -     [On 001130 IBM gave up on Lotus Notes again (Raven). ref SDS 5
041827 -     F26K
041828 -
041829 -
041830 -
041832 -  ..
0419 -
0420 -
0421 - 2201 called Ross back
0422 -
042201 - Ross is not sure if the message recieved from the Phoenix office means
042202 - the woman is trying to sell Lotus Notes to Ross' group, or whether she
042203 - genuinely feels they have developed an application that improves
042204 - management productivity and wants to help Ross understand it.
042206 -  ..
042207 - Ross said the name of the woman's department identifies it as a sales
042208 - agent for IBM personal computers and OS2; this inclines him toward the
042209 - first conclusion
042211 -  ..
042212 - Ross does not want to follow this up himself, because he does not want
042213 - the woman to believe there is a chance his office will buy Lotus
042214 - Notes.  Since IBM is now using Profit Center accounting, each element
042215 - within the firm looks upon dialog with other elements as opportunities
042216 - to make a sale.  He will call me in the morning with her phone number
042217 - so I can follow up.
042218 -
042219 -
042220 -
042221 -
042222 -
042223 -
042224 -
042225 -
042226 -
042227 -
0423 -