I take it back, Lotus IS Dead
Okay, okay I know. That was an attention seeking headline, but after the Lotus – Not Dead Yet post of a couple weeks ago, I figured I needed to eat some words a bit. That said, truth be told, ‘Lotus’ IS fading.
Not the software mind you, that’s as strong or stronger than it’s ever been, it’s the branding that seems to be changing. Lotusphere saw little mention of the word Lotus, and almost no glimpses of the Lotus logo anywhere. This was obviously by design. Ed Brill has a great post on it, as does Alan Lepofsky.
You see, Alistair Rennie spoke on stage about how this was going to be the most significant Lotusphere yet. We didn’t really see any new products, or radically new agendas, so what exactly did he mean? Well to me, I think it was the simply the shift of IBM’s full support of the Lotus portfolio and the value it brings for Social Business. Like Ed pointed out, you saw people on stage from IBM that had NEVER participated in the past, and to the public’s eyes at least, never threw it’s support behind the Lotus portfolio.
Now, all of IBM gets that Social Business is indeed the next wave, and I believe that IBM looked at that and said. ‘Hell, we HAVE the best social business portfolio with Lotus, let’s leverage that, and do it now!’ I really don’t think I’m off base here. I think IBM truly now believes in these tools, and the best way to sell these tools is to sell them as IBM-branded products.
As much as I LOVE Lotus, and always have, the word ‘Lotus‘ is sometimes met with disdain and words and phrases like ‘legacy’ or ‘outdated’ or my favorite ‘are people still using that?’ How about IBM? People KNOW IBM, they know Smarter Planet, and will know Watson soon. So even though I’ll miss the moniker of Lotus, I fully understand if we start seeing all the branding go to IBM. And quite frankly, I’m okay with it.
IBM Notes and Domino, IBM Connections, IBM Quickr, IBM Sametime. Looking at that actually looks right to me, and quite frankly strengthens the ability of the company to truly market the products going forward.
Last year I was really excited about Lotus Knows. But I’ll be equally excited by IBM Knows, or ‘Social Business for a Smarter Planet. IBM Notes.’ Now wouldn’t THAT be cool? So who knows if they’ll keep calling it Lotusphere, or it will become SocialSphere or SmarterPlanetWorld or whatever. The event will still be awesome by any name, and now we may finally see the kind of push from IBM we’ve always dreamed about. We’ll see if that comes to fruition, but I, for one, am really excited about the possibility.
So congratulations to Forbes and the Radicati group, looks like those decade-old headlines may now become ‘technically’ right. Too bad for those prognosticators that the software is stronger than ever, it just has a new name.
Lotus is dead. Long Live Lotus!
February 8, 2011 @ 1:41 pm
Can you say Socialsphere 10 times in a row?
February 8, 2011 @ 1:50 pm
I agree, it looks right. But after talking it over with my manager today, she agrees. It leads to a lot of confusion. Especially from those above. At least for us.
February 8, 2011 @ 1:57 pm
Yeah Brian, it doesn’t necessarily roll off the tongue, so I hope they keep the naming, but we’ll see I guess.
And Andy, I’m not sure it will cause that much confusion. It’s been IBM Lotus for so long, and if we just drop the Lotus and still use the same products, I don’t think end users will even notice. I imagine people will still call it Lotus Notes forever, and they MAY keep that product as the only one with the branding, who knows.
But quite frankly, I think IBM has an easier time selling IBM software than Lotus software. At least I hope that’s the case going forward.
-Grey
February 8, 2011 @ 2:00 pm
By removing the Lotus brand name it unifies the IBM offerings including the other divisions of IBM like Websphere. I believe it is a good move. The Lotus brand name was tainted and each time I mentioned Lotus people would think of Lotus 123 and legacy solutions.
February 8, 2011 @ 2:53 pm
I’m sure I’ll have to take a cert exam *just* to change the title on my current certification
February 8, 2011 @ 4:13 pm
Success is not a given: { Link }
February 8, 2011 @ 4:35 pm
Great photo on the page Volker
I agree, success is NOT a given, but I bet they have a better chance with IBM branding than they do with Lotus nowadays. No one sees ANY mention of Lotus in the real world, but you’ll see IBM stuff every day. Hopefully the rebranding will help, but only time will tell.
I used to think that keeping the Lotus name was a big deal. Either it just really isn’t anymore, or I grew up a bit. Maybe the perspective comes with the pointy hair, who knows? All I know is that it wont be Lotus Knows anymore
-Grey
February 9, 2011 @ 9:57 am
Gonna play devil’s advocate here…
Do people really think the IBM brand has a better/different perception than the Lotus brand? Honestly, I think many think of IBM as a conservative, ancient, big enterprise entity that is full of middle aged male engineers.
I’m just saying….
February 9, 2011 @ 3:50 pm
Actually Jim, I do think it has a better rep than Lotus at this point. At least it’s recognizable as a brand, people know the business is solid, and you see advertising every day. You get none of that with Lotus anymore to be honest. Not since the Denis Leary commercial days anyway, and those are over a decade old.
So yeah, does IBM seem old compared to Google and Apple, certainly. But does it seem ready to run your BUSINESS then that’s another resounding yes.
Like I said, we’ll see how it plays out, but losing the Lotus is okay in my book.
Just glad I never got the Lotus Logo tattoo
-Grey
February 10, 2011 @ 8:50 am
Grey, fair enough. Truth is, I don’t really care what they call Lotus Notes in the future, I just hope they don’t kill it either on purpose or by accident.
I’ve got to figure out what do with my R5 tattoo now…
February 12, 2011 @ 9:07 am
The name sticks to Orlando, FL. Because, as John Cleese told us:
Lotusphere is the perfect palindrome of “Pluto’s here”. So: in 2015 we all fly to Las Vegas, to some conference called IBM Las Vegas Developer Connection Conference.