A post by Ed Brill triggered me to look if there are any new casestudies on the competitive front over on the Microsoft site … and there are so here are some :
- Endsleigh Insurance CRM Solution Supports Insurance Company Growth and Offers Seamless Integration – The IT architecture at Endsleigh Insurance, which was based on Lotus Notes, was stifling the company’s ability to take on new prospects. Employees were frustrated by the time-consuming nature of the system, and the reliance on paper-based processes was impacting security. Working with Microsoft® Gold Partner Ciber, Endsleigh Insurance implemented Microsoft CRM as part of an overall initiative to standardise on Microsoft technology. Having installed the solution, the group then upgraded to Microsoft Dynamics™ CRM 3.0 to give each team access to information relevant to their division, without having to search through an entire database. The upgrade also lets the teams benefit from the seamless integration of Microsoft Dynamics CRM and Microsoft SQL Server™ Reporting Services, improving the efficiency of staff and letting them take on board a wave of new prospects.
- Mercuri International Global Sales Performance Firm Saves €15,000 in Six Months with Web Content Tool – Mercuri International, Europe’s largest sales performance and training consultancy, wanted to revitalise its international communication. Its legacy Web site, which used IBM Lotus Notes, was difficult, time consuming, and costly to update in 40 countries. As Microsoft is recognised as a leading provider of Internet-based marketing communication technologies, Mercuri turned to Microsoft® Gold Certified Partner Satama MST for advice. It recommended deploying Microsoft Content Management Server to give the company a unified content management toolset. Mercuri saved €15,000 (U.S.$18,383) in the first six months alone through server consolidation. Collaboration between Mercuri and its customers has improved. Staff find it easier to update Web pages and are less dependent on e-mail for communication with customers. The company’s Web site now has a much more modern look-and-feel, helping Mercuri bolster brand awareness and win new business
- Craigavon Borough Council Craigavon Borough Council Reduces Risk with Microsoft Security Technology – Craigavon Borough Council wanted to streamline their communications infrastructure and install a platform that would support future developments, such as remote access and the use of mobile devices. The council turned to Microsoft® Gold Certified Partner, 4sol, to install a Dell server running Microsoft Windows Server™ 2003, Exchange Server 2003, and Internet Security and Acceleration Server 2004
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- Sysnet Solution Provider Adopts Microsoft Software, Sees Profit Margin Rise by 30 Percent – Sysnet—a longtime partner of Lotus and IBM—resisted the IBM focus on licenses and wanted a more solutions-based approach to selling. When the IT provider learned more about Microsoft and its partnership philosophy, Sysnet enthusiastically joined the Microsoft® Partner Program. Developing solutions with tools from Microsoft is 35 percent faster than with IBM tools, and the company’s profits have soared since making the switch.
and there’s more ofcourse over on : Microsoft.com
Peter,
Interesting read.
With the Endsleigh example their needs had changed and they actually wanted a CRM product. And the comment that mail sent or received to systems other than Lotus Notes had formatting issues is unbelievable. I have never come across that – something must have been seriously wrong there – its does not say what the problem was. As a result of implementing the MS CRM package, they then implemented Exchange. This is understandable as the integration between Outlook and MS Dynamics is strong. There are plenty of Lotus based CRM packages – it does not say if any of them were assessed. It sounds as though they had not kept on top of things, to be honest.
The Mercuri example is similar to the above in that their needs had changed. It looks like they had started with a reasonably functional web site, but then needed a full blown Content Management System. Notes isn’t a CMS out of the box.
Craigavon Council was running Notes 4.5! Not really on when you yourself posted at Ed’s that it was comparing apples and oranges for the Lotus case study!
The Sysnet case example is interesting, but it does not actually say what IBM technologies it used to use before switching to the MS stack. The thing of interest that I got from this was that the seemed to suggest that the support from MS was better than what they got from IBM. A few people have commented on this aspect of things.
Your title to this blog “Microsoft Platform vs Lotus Notes Domino” is quite telling. You do need several Microsoft products to compete against Domino. The advantage that MS has, I think, is that it looks very nice for the end user, and that’s why many people choose them. I just think that they are packaged better. For overall flexibility and reliability, I still maintain that you cannot beat Notes!
@Gary,
Yes .. the Microsoft and its moving parts discussion …
As you have concluded form the vairous examples its a platform discussion and yes there are several parts that combined form the Microsoft platform. Is it perfect ? no, it still needs work. Is it all moving in the right direction I do think so, and so do all of the major analysts.
http://www.peterdehaas.net/2006/05/forrester_micro.html
http://www.peterdehaas.net/2005/10/a_large_collect.html
http://www.peterdehaas.net/2005/08/iltas_2005_emai_1.html
http://www.peterdehaas.net/2005/08/i_like_this_the_2.html
http://www.peterdehaas.net/2005/06/whats_microsoft.html
Bare in mind that the moving parts on IBM / Lotus side are increasing. Will Hannover have zero impact ?. Look at the various acquisitions such as Filenet and how this will “integrate”.
Bare in mind. I am not talking about “the old” Lotus, a dream that the Lotus side of the IBM shop is still chasing. This is about IBM and its “workplace strategy”. Let’s compare that.
No one has the luxury of one single product in this challenging marketplace;-) This only exists in marketing brochures.
Peter,
It is probably very true that, for an SME, Sharepoint, for example, would be the portal of choice over something like alternative Workplace offering. It’s easier to install, has less hardware requirements (providing its not purely 64 bit) and has good integration with the Office products. Technically, underneath the surface I don’t think things are all that rosey, but then businesses generally leave that side of things for IT to deal with.
I don’t really ‘dig’ the Workplace strategy myself, and I obviously wish that the same level of attention had been given to Notes over the last few years, but we are where we are. Hannover will tackle what I believe is a major stumbling block for businesses to chose Notes, or at lease keep it – the Client. The back end Domino server is already rock solid, so I think it’ll really make some headway. Where we go after that, I guess we’ll wait and see.
@Gary,
You’re absolutely right. We need to wait and see. And please don’t get me wrong; I am not saying IBM’s strategy is wrong or bad and I honoustly think competition between IBM and Microsoft and others is the best that that could happen to both companies.
I merely want to make clear IBM / Lotus has challenges just like Microsoft 😉
Case studies are nice to have for most companies for marketing purposes. What I don’t like about a lot of case studies is remarks like: our Notes server crashed multiple times a day, or our exchange server had to be rebooted every day bla bla bla, the only thing these use cases say is that they had BAD administrators. I think we can agree it’s possible to have a 5 9’s uptime for both Notes and Exchange when administrated correctly.