Domino vs SQL platform

HCL Domino Domino Forum
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I have a Notes/Domino CRM application used by financial planning firms. A new prospect for the application is concerned about going to Notes/Domino because its not “a standard platform.” He has to justify his decision to his IT types, who have a strong MS perspective. The firm is a MS house and uses a number of other applications that all use an SQL server. I need to present some comfort food to him to give him what he needs to go with Notes/Domino. He’s concerned that it is not SQL based and not a SQL platform. I am looking for your kind advice and maybe some URLs to articles by IBM/Lotus or others that I can use to respond to him. Since he is not technical, I have to compose something that is easily understood.

<<2/28/05 4:30PM I have looked at responses to date and have added the following. I was not clear enough above. See if this helps>>

Sorry this is long winded…

The problem is that these firms use many applications in their business. These other applications are built for SQL Servers. So they think an SQL Server is the “standard.” Although my application is well received, they worry about Notes/Domino not being there in the future and all their work pored into the Notes/Domino CRM will have to be moved to yet another CRM. Notes/Domino not being around is easy to dispel because of IBMs commitment to Notes/Domino per Lotusphere 2005 etc.

I am getting more familiar with the upcoming release of R7 and its DB2 option. So the argument I need to advance is that Notes/Domino is “compatible” with the SQL Server mindset. In particular that my Notes/Domino application can access other vendor SQL Server based applications data. And I have to do this all in plain speak and in an assuring tone.

In the Financial Planning industry we are talking about small business 5 - 20 people, tops 100. They relay on outside vendors for much of their IT support. Most of these businesses are MS shops in that they use MS Office and run desktop PCs on XP. There are thousands of these independent firms.

They use a variety of sophisticated software systems for portfolio management, financial planning, tax preparation and others. These vendor products are moving or have moved from proprietary DBMS to SQL Server. So the client is concerned about using SQL Server for many applications and also having Domino as a platform.

The long range is that my Notes/Domino application will be accessing some of these other packages. For example, a portfolio management system running on SQL Server gets updated from daily downloads from companies like TD Waterhouse and Schwab. The downloads update the portfolio’s of the firm’s clients. It is these systems that are used to report to a client about the performance of their assets being managed. In my Notes/Domino application we will be accessing the portfolio management system to get certain data. So we have a Domino application accessing one or more other vendor applications that run on SQL Servers. The concern is, how hard is that? What will it cost? Can a non-SQL Server based application (running on Domino) do the job?

So I have to present a user-friendly response that gives the decision makers the confidence they are making the right decision and they will not regret it later. They have to be comfortable pushing back on the non-Notes/Domino IT voices. I have to arm them.

So the bottom line is that I am looking for sources and content that will help me formulate a response that will get the client past this issue. Since I am selling to these firms all the time, it will help me with about every sell moving forward. My sells mean more installed Notes/Domino firms. I just knocked off an Exchange server this way. I just need some help here and maybe you/IBM can point me to what I need. I am a technical type, not a sales type.

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Subject: Domino vs SQL platform

to say somerthing like Domino is “not an SQL platform” is as intelligent as saying “Ferrari is not an airplane”

You need to take the tool that’s most suited for the job. Anyone who says he is using a “standard platform” doesn’t know what orifice he’s talking out of (fairly typical of MS shops, BTW).

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Subject: RE: Domino vs SQL platform

I agree with your sentiment. This is the situation. The individual I am talking to is not a tech type. He hears however from those in his firm about issues like I have stated. My challenge is to arm him with enough user friendly understanding that he feel confident to make the decision to go with Notes/Domino. This is more of a marketing and sales problem and very common when trying to get a MS house to be comfortable with going ‘non-standard’, meaning anything other than SQL Server in this case. I’m looking for ideas or arguments or URLs where I can find the material that I can use or reference to help this client to go with Notes/Domino.

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Subject: RE: Domino vs SQL platform

Coming from an MS shop, I suspect that the concerns that they have are probably not on the app side – they are on the sysadmin side:

Most MS shops have database admins that handle the backups of SQL databases, running jobs, etc. Throwing a Notes DB into this mix is usually a headache on the admin side because it does not relate to anything that they know. Their backups software won’t work, they won’t know where to look for any kind of scheduled agent, the security model is different, they can’t write stored procedures, etc, etc. Which technology is better is almost a moot point – Domino is different than what they are used to, and they do not have the skills to admin the systems.

Most of the time, when I hear questions like the ones you are hearing, what they mean is that Domino is not ‘standard’ for their working environment. It would require new servers, new skillsets, new policies and new procedures.

So if you really want them to go with Domino, you need to consult with them on these infrastructure issues and give them answers that assure them that the value of your product is worth the infrastructure headache of incorporating a new technology into their environment.

You will get plenty of feedback from others as to why Domino is a great product. Use that information – but show them how to integrate it with their MS infrastructure as well.

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Subject: Domino vs SQL platform

Hi,

if there is a discussion wheter to develop an application with Lotus Notes/Domino or a relational-database it usually gets to only one most important point:

Do you want/need the application to run in an distributed environment (several locations/branches/offices) ?

And do you want your users to be able to use the application offline ?

Because this requirement is in reality only doable with Notes.

If you choose a different development environment the you will usually end up with import/export functionality or all users will have to be connected “on-line” if they want to access the application.

All other advantages of Notes like Security, Rapid-Application-Developement, Stability can in fact be achieved with many other developement tools as well.

The biggest advantage of Notes is still replication …

Bye

Hynek