Lotusphere 2011 as an analyst (part 6 of 7) #ls11

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Lotusphere 2011 as an analyst (part 6 of 7) #ls11

Analyst - this is a tough position to be in, mainly if you do not know the industry and company for a long term. How can you compare current announcements and positions if you do not get involved in the past? You make an educated guess on your own personal opinions, backed with some study data, statistics and data collected from previous articles.

There was a new mix of reporters and analysts at this Lotusphere, not found at ones in the past. Lotus management (social team?) reached out to broaden coverage as Lotus launches into social analytics and becoming a social business. I showed up anxious to see what the hype might be.

As I sat in the very first minutes of the Opening General Session, did I just hear that what is considered an enterprise mail and application platform, with some integrated presence/chat/meetings, has taken a turn and chance at being the largest source for bringing businesses to the social landscape and coupling analytics?

Could what we know as a monolith in computing (IBM) and it's long time running mail system (Lotus Notes) come together to bring a platform capable of being conceived as social business? Email is social. Lotus Connections is a leader in the enterprise space as social software. Lotus Sametime holds a large chunk of presence and awareness in large companies. But none of it is conceived as a package. Would renaming this all social business and removing the Lotus name make it possible?

I spent time in labs, with customers, with bloggers, attendees, IBM staff, marketing and even hotel staff that have seen them here at Disney for ten years. What did they think? Without calling out names, it was across the board. Lotus may need to shed the skin of old, leave product names in tact but remove the moniker known as the dinosaur Lotus.

The capability some of their developers have is amazing. I had the chance to visit the Innovation Lab area (no pictures and more but screenshots have been promised). If they could quickly move some of these into portions of the product they would take yet another leap ahead.

To summarize two areas. I was honestly lost in about 50% of the opening session. I got the business message, but the low key droning made it all fleet away. I needed information, strategy and then a boom. Then back again. Walk me along and keep me interested. Luckily the week saved this for me as an analyst.

Also, during the week, the community amazed me in the strength and reach. It also baffles me at the lack of reach from IBM Lotus in marketing. I had no clue some of this existed. Why haven't we been here before? As an analyst I would expect more of this sent to me in a package and to be exposed to much of this before arriving. Using the large, yet confined, community to it's fullest would gain IBM/Lotus much respect and a fresh coat of paint in many CEO eyes,

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