Re: Should we stick with Domino?

Nathan,

First off, if all you plan to do now or any time in the future is e-mail
then it does not make a huge difference on what system you select.  E-mail
is e-mail.

However, if you are a corporate system (ERP) user (which most AS/400 shops
are) then you either have, or at some point in the future will have,
requests/needs for additional applications that have integration to both
your backend system as well as your e-mail.  Once you get to this point I
believe that you will find the same thing that everyone else that uses
Domino knows, there is nothing on the market better for workflow
applications and integration then Domino.

Disclaimer:  I have been working with Domino and using it for ERP
integration for many years and I am now a partner in a software company
that develops and sells Domino based applications for ERP systems.  So I am
just a bit partial to Domino!  However, I have several clients who have
moved to Domino from MS based platforms in order to have better
integration, workflow and support.  As a first step, you can have e-mail,
ERP integration and multiple reporting or workflow applications running on
a single server (NT or AS/400) as opposed to the 4-6 servers (all separate
boxes) that are required in an MS based solution.

Even though you appear to be making this decision based only on a need for
e-mail you may want to look at the capabilities of the platform a bit
closer.  In an ERP environment the ability to have integration between your
backend system, your e-mail and  workflow or data collection applications
will have a HUGE impact your ability to improve process and communication
in your organization.

Let me give an example:

     Picture having customer contact, orders and sales history
automatically pulled from your ERP system into Domino  db's each night.
Users can now enter a Domino based app and create customer related
documents (visit reports, sample request, complaint, invoice copy request,
etc, etc) directly from the customer record.  This request is automatically
sent to the appropriate user via the e-mail engine.  The person that
receives the request can click on a doc link within the e-mail and open the
request document.  They can then enter the sales history db, pull up the
invoice and e-mail it out to the customer.  They can then create an
activity report which documents what they did and also sends another e-mail
to the original requestor to let them know that the request is completed.
You can also add escalation so that the request does not go un-answered if
the original recipient is out of the office.

Now, think about the fact that you have allowed your users to do all of
this from a single workspace with a standard look and feel interface and
with it all running on a single platform, all on one server!  All of this
functionality is available in the market now!  There are 100s of other
situations in most every company that can be used as examples.

I will get off of my soap box now :)  I hope this helps, good luck with
your decision.


Brian Mangels
Account Executive
X1 Solutions
229.249.0921