Here is what I am seeing

HCL Domino Domino Forum
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Thanks to all of you for taking your time to read through my bit lengthy post. I am pleasantly surprise to see that there is still enthusiasm in Notes community.

Here is what I am seeing that may not be so obvious to some of you if you only deal with Fortune 500 clients:

I go to bookshop, (B&N, Borders) and find dozens of books on Exchange, entire sections on .Net and yet very few books on Domino and WebSphere.

I see shelves dedicated to Microsoft Press books but yet hardly any IBM Red books.

I search on Monster for Domino Developer jobs to get an idea of market demand and see very few matches. I search for .NET or Exchange, and get hundreds of matches, with many in six figures.

I look at Washington Post and see ads for Microsoft Training providers and hardly any ad on WebSphere or Domino training, which tells me what is hot.

I turn on radio driving to work, and at least hear 1-2 ads of Office Live or Live Communication Server ad. I hear .Net ads. Hardly hear any WebSphere ads or Domino ads.

I go home, tun on TV, and again see “Your Potential Our Passion” or “Office Live” ads. Only ads from IBM I see are about on demand/utility computing. No WebSphere or Domino ads.

I see my friends with Domino having hard time finding jobs, and a people with 6 months of .Net experience making six figures.

I looked at MSDN subscription and am very impressed with tons and tons of resources not just developers but for sales and marketing folks too. I see how organized, well written those CDs, Folders, Posters are. Then I see our PartnerWorld for Software subscription and I find it much inferior compare to MSDN in terms of quality, and resources. I would suggest IBM PartnerWorld folks to spend $2K and get MSDN subscription just to see and compare. You will find yourself what I am talking about.

I see Domino Express (for SMB) released now, when it should have been released 3-4 years ago. I have talked with IBM AMs and kept asking for something like this for a long time, but no one listened until now.

I see companies very careful about launching major Domino development projects because some feel it will be merged with WebSphere. I see so many CIOs confused about IBMs vision of Domino as component to WebSphere.

I see a lot more going on. IBM needs to do something. I hate to see Lotus123, NetScape, Novell, Quicken, ColdFusion, and donzens of other stories repeated again.

This is why I am learning .NET.

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Subject: Here is what I am seeing…

Seems like you’re desperate and crying for help… Hang in there dude! I’m sure good old uncle Goyal will be helping you soon!

But! You have a point…

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Subject: RE: Here is what I am seeing…

I sincerely want IBM to drastically improve thier marketing or offer Microsoft folks to switch company and do marketing for IBM. It is heart breaking to see IBM inspite of making a better product has lost marketshare to Microsoft.

http://epromagazine.com/eparchive/index.cfm?fuseaction=viewarticle&ContentID=4300&websiteid=

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Subject: RE: Here is what I am seeing…

I sincerely want IBM to drastically improve their marketing or offer Microsoft folks to switch company and do marketing for IBM. It is heart breaking to see IBM in spite of making a better product has lost market share to Microsoft.

http://epromagazine.com/eparchive/index.cfm?fuseaction=viewarticle&ContentID=4300&websiteid=

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Subject: True but I still prefer Domino

Well I live in south africa and the job market is the same as you described, Java, .Net, C++ jobs are plentiful but the Domino and Websphere jobs are rare.

I can’t understand why as I have worked on Exchange and Domino as well as Groupwise, I’ve develop major apps in Domino and Exchange but the Domino platform its much easier.

I really think that R6 is brilliant, so I cant understand why IBM doesn’t push the product much.

I’ll learn Java as this will obviously increase my chances of getting a job but I think that there is no better collaboration product like Domino and the rest of the lotus product range.

My 2c worth.

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Subject: PLEASE not again

Muhammad this is at least the second time you have posted the same information on this forum. Anyone would think you work for Microsoft! Yes - IBM’s marketing/technical strategy is insanely Websphere-biased but that’s their choice - they own the products. If you are suggesting Exchange/.Net is in some way superior and/or cost-effective then I feel sorry for you (you actually BOUGHT MS Office?). But let’s not keep going round the same loop.Ian

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Subject: RE: PLEASE not again

No, I do not work for Microsoft (I wish). Well I am PCLP R4, and CLP R5, and have been developing application for Domino for last 5 years. Our company is IBM premier partner or it used to be.

I know its a great product but I wanted to express my frustration (and of many CLPs that I know) with IBM’s marketing.

Now about the multiple post. When I created the post and clicked on “Submit” button, the server started to process my post and got hung up. I waited for 1-2 minutes and it was still processing it. I canceled it out and created a new post. Later on I discovered that I had two posts. I tried to delete the newly created post, but again IBM’s great user interface would not let me delete it. Just another example of user experience with IBM. Yes they have great server side products, but they need a lot of work on user experience. Just check out MSDN and you will know yourself.

I think instead of closing our eyes from the problem, we should face it. It starts by acknowledging the problem. Someone needs to accept that they need to do a lot of work on user experience, which is one of the main reasons for Microsoft’s success.

Now let me hope when I will click on Preview and Post buttons it will not hang.