RE: Email packages

Booth,

I used to work with a Domino/iSeries business partner and participated
in a number of installations/implementations.  It was common practice in
some new customers to justify the purchase of Domino because of the ease
of implementing some of the various groupware functions.  This is a good
plan but does have some pitfalls.  If you have no plans for groupware,
then some of the postings about Communigate or Sendmail are very
appropriate.

Domino is very powerful and it is a fairly simple manner to roll out
discussion groups, resource scheduling, and other functionality using
the templates provided.  This will require some training and time.  The
most successful groupware implementations had a dedicated person, with
some development skills, who would manage this process.

Those customers who didn't approach the groupware functions methodically
ended up with an excellent email and calendaring system, but they never
really utilized everything they paid for when they bought the package.

As to the learning curve on development, I think there are really two
plateaus.  You have administration and development rolls in staffing for
this platform.  At a basic level with a week or two of experimentation,
a moderately skilled person could roll out beneficial applications.
These might be enough to justify the purchase of the system.

At a higher level, creating custom applications does require a skilled
and experienced developer.  If you go this route, expect to either hire
an experienced person or to pursue extensive training.

Domino is complex, both in administration and development.  Much of it
is not really intuitive.  You can get away without extensive
development, but ensure that your administrator gets appropriate
training.

I've oversimplified to a great extent above.  I would try to summarize
that if you justify the purchase of the system based upon the
utilization of the groupware functions, then ensure that you have a
person available to shepherd that process.  Otherwise it may not happen.

Regards,
Andy Nolen-Parkhouse

iSeries Certified Specialist - Domino for AS/400 R5
iSeries Solutions Expert - ISeries Technology V5R1

> On Behalf Of Booth Martin
> Subject: Re: Email packages
>
> Questions for you:  Do you use the Groupware functions? If so, how is
it
> received by the users?  Is there a learning curve?