Lotus Notes: An Overview
Lotus Notes: An Overview
The system then sends an e-mail message to Karen, informing her of the inquiry. Karen clicks on a link in the e-mail message to open up the Apex form in the inquiry database. Karen reads the inquiry, and then opens a discussion database used to track equipment problems, where she finds a possible resolution to Apex's equipment malfunction. She posts a new entry for other members of the customer service team to see, asking if anyone has come across similar circumstances, and adding her own suggestions for how to prevent the same problem from recurring. The team is using the system to collaborate.
Because of the urgency of the inquiry and the importance of this large client, the system also sends two additional e-mails: one to Karen's supervisor to alert him of the status of Apex's inquiry, and another to the Apex account manager, to alert her of this new customer activity. If the inquiry had remained unresolved after three and a half hours, the system would have sent another set of e-mails, alerting them to a potential client problem. The organization is using the system to coordinate the customer service business process.
Meanwhile, the account manager keeps this information about Apex's inquiry together with other pertinent account information, such as current purchase orders outstanding (from an order entry application on a host-based system), correspondence to and from Apex (from a document database), news about Apex (from the World Wide Web) and news about Apex's competitors (from a news feed service). The account manager regularly connects to the Apex customer tracking database from the road by replicating a copy of it to his laptop. The system acts as a central access point for all the information the account manager needs.
The customer service system described above is a common example of an application created with Lotus Notes®. Notes enables you to communicate with colleagues, collaborate in teams and coordinate strategic business processes. What's more, Notes acts as a central access point to find and share information, whether it's located in e-mail messages, relational databases, in documents created with desktop tools, or on the World Wide Web.
Lotus Notes has already helped more than 3 million users in almost 7,000 companies achieve their business goals in strategic areas such as customer service, product development, sales force automation and account management. By reducing the time required to perform these processes and by improving the quality of their results, Notes customers have achieved an average return on investment of 179%, according to a independent study published by International Data Corp.
This paper provides an overview of Lotus Notes, and describes how Notes technology has been designed to build strategic systems. It discusses the Notes document database; replication, security and messaging services; the Notes application development facilities; the relationship between Notes and the Internet; the use of Notes in mobile computing; Notes support for multiple platforms; and the variety of Notes implementation options for customers.
Lotus Notes is a document database: the basic element in a Notes database is an individual document. The structure of a Notes document is defined by a form, which contains a number of fields. For example, a policies and procedures document might include fields such as date, policy name, policy summary and the full text of the policy; a customer service document might include date, customer name, customer ID number, operator name, a text field for free-form description of the customer inquiry, and an inquiry status field.
Users browse Notes views. When Notes presents a view to the user, it lists field names as columns. For example, if the user wishes to look through documents by date, Notes presents a view of the documents sorted by the values entered into the "date" field. Other field information (customer number, policy name, etc.) is listed in columns to the right. Notes views are flexible, employing an outline-like, expand-and-collapse metaphor. For example, if a parent document has multiple child documents, the user can elect to view just the parent, or the parent and all next-generation documents, or all the generations of documents related to the original parent.
Because the basic element of a Notes database is the document itself, and because Notes documents can contain both structured and unstructured content, Notes is able to store and manage collections of data that do not readily lend themselves to relational or other database systems. Moreover, because it uses a document model, Notes is able to provide users with a variety of useful facilities.
* Full Text Search. Lotus Notes incorporates a full text search engine to allow users to index and search Notes documents based on user queries. Notes displays those documents fitting the search criteria, sorted by relevance, or sorted in a user specified order.
* Version Control. Lotus Notes provides document versioning capabilities in order to track multiple changes made to a single Notes document by different users. Automatic versioning can be implemented in a form, whereby each edit is posted as either a main document or a response to the original. In this way, changes made to a Notes document by one user are not overwritten when another user saves changes to the document. Notes versioning is flexible enough to customize document version control to meet the needs of any workgroup. Also, users can make additional comments on an original document as response documents without re-saving the original.
* Document Links. Notes is a hypertext-based system, so that one document can contain a "link" to another document in any Notes database or to documents stored on the World Wide Web. Individual users can easily create links from one page to another using a single mouse click.
One of the essential characteristics of a groupware platform is its ability to share information with all members of a workgroup, regardless of time or location. Workgroups often include members from various company sites in a region, across a nation or around the world. Each of these sites maintains its own server to which local staff can easily and inexpensively connect.
A groupware platform makes use of replication technology to allow a remote site in, say, Toronto to make a "copy" of a database in Atlanta and store it on a local server. Rather than requiring users in Toronto to connect to the database server in Atlanta, replication allows workgroups to keep their information synchronized across geographically dispersed sites. Notes replication is unmatched in its functionality and granularity. Attributes of Notes replication include:
* Efficient. When synchronizing databases, only those fields within documents that are new or which have been changed on either side of the replication process need to be replicated. This field-level replication ensures the optimal use of resources and the shortest synchronization cycles.
* Client replication. Occasionally connected workgroup members, such as mobile users working at a remote site or home office, need the same level of access to information as connected users. Notes replication is not limited to server-to-server connectivity, but also includes client-to-server connectivity.
* Selective replication. With only a few mouse clicks, a Notes user can replicate a subset of information contained in a Notes database. Notes allows users to define the profile of documents that they need to replicate to their client workstations. Using selective replication, users can replicate only those documents that have changed in, say, the last 30 days, or those authored by a particular workgroup member.
* Background replication. For a mobile user, conducting the replication process should not mean that all other work on a laptop or home computer must cease. Notes replication can run in background mode, allowing the user to continue to work on other tasks.
Organizations worldwide have begun to build groupware applications that extend throughout the enterprise and beyond to customers and suppliers. Although information once was jealously guarded by individuals, departments and companies, today's competitive business environment demands that organizations break down traditional barriers within and between enterprises. This is necessary in order to share information when and where it is needed to reduce the time required to complete a process and to foster innovation and creativity. Yet much of the information shared in a groupware application still must remain confidential, protected from accidental or malevolent misuse. Therefore, a groupware platform requires security that is both rigorous enough to protect business-critical information from sabotage and flexible enough so that authorized end users can assign varying levels of access to individual documents.
The key to security in a distributed system is encryption. The de facto industry standard for access to X.500 directories is the X.509 certificate, which is based on RSA public key encryption technology, recognized as the only encryption system without an exposed point of compromise.
Using cryptography and other security facilities, Lotus Notes provides four levels of security: authentication, access control, field-level privacy and digital signatures.
Authentication. Authentication is the means by which a user is reliably identified. Authentication in Notes is bi-directional. That is, servers authenticate the identity of users and users authenticate the identity of servers. Authentication is used whenever a user or a server, or two servers, are communicating with each other.
Access Control. An access control list (ACL) regulates who has access to which resources, and what sorts of access are allowed (e.g., compose, read, write, delete). Resources under ACL control include servers, individual databases, documents and fields within documents. Notes ACLs include the following levels:
* Reader. A reader can, as the name implies, only read documents in a database.
* Author. Authors can create new documents and read others but cannot modify documents already in the database.
* Editor. Editors can read, write and update documents in the database.
* Designer. This person can update or modify the design and layout of the database.
* Manager. This person "owns" the database, and can add and delete other users from the access control list.
Field-level Encryption. At times a user may need to share field-level information in a document with another user while ensuring that no other users can view it. Encryption involves ciphering or scrambling information so that even if it were accessed by the wrong individuals, it could not be understood. Encryption is available at four levels in Notes.
* Network level. Encryption prevents someone from promiscuously "sniffing" or tapping into traffic on a LAN or dial-in line, since the content is unintelligible to the intruder.
* Field level. Databases can be designed to encrypt document fields so that only specified users can read them.
* Database level. Encryption protects databases stored on a local hard drive from being accessed by anyone other than the person who holds the ID and password that was used to encrypt the database.
Digital Signatures. Users frequently have to verify that the information they receive actually was sent to them by the sender listed on the document. Digital signatures provide users the guarantee that a given message is from the sender it says it is from. It is a user-to-user form of authentication. In addition, this technology enables the computer to notarize the message, ensuring the recipient that the message has not been forged or tampered with in transit.
Notes messaging is used at its most basic level for interpersonal communication as well as for collaborative work among team members, as a critical component of workflow applications, and as a platform for group calendaring and scheduling.
E-mail. Notes messaging presents novice users a simple-to-use mailbox while giving power users quick access to the message management tools they need to process and organize large volumes of mail. For users, the Notes user interface adopts the award-winning cc:Mail user interface. Notes includes a powerful editor for rich text, multiple fonts, colors, and a wide variety of formatting options. Notes R4 also includes agents that perform client tasks such as looking through files attached to incoming message attachments for keywords and filing them in the appropriate folder and server-based tasks, such as monitoring Web sites for new or specified information. In addition, Notes includes file viewers for the most popular desktop applications, so users do not need to have an application on their desktop to read or print data.
Workgroup Collaboration. Notes' integrated messaging and groupware combines "push" and "pull" methods of information sharing to give users an intuitive and efficient means of collaborating. For example, when creating a document for review, a user can send an e-mail message that contains a doclink to all reviewers. Each reviewer receives the message and simply clicks on the doclink to launch the document, so that each user has access to the same, most recent version. Mail messages can contain links to any document in a Notes database, including discussions, customer profiles, and documentation (e.g., policies and procedures, troubleshooting manuals), Web pages and newsfeeds.
Workflow. In most workflow applications there is a need to notify a person or update a document based upon the value of a field or the state of a process. Consider a customer service workflow application. A customer service inquiry is received via a form that was filled out by a customer on the World Wide Web. The inquiry is entered into the Notes customer service database. Once it has been saved, Notes automatically sends an e-mail to the appropriate customer service representative. The representative opens the mail message and clicks on the doclink to launch the inquiry form in the shared database, where notes and comments can be made. Notes workflow applications also monitor this process, so that if the process stalls (e.g., the representative has not acted upon the inquiry in 12 hours), Notes sends another set of e-mail messages, this time not only to the representative, but also to the account manager and to the customer service supervisor to alert them of a potential problem before it escalates into a real problem.
Group Calendaring and Scheduling. The Notes message transport can be used with third-party calendaring and scheduling products. Lotus Organizer® uses the Notes directory and message transport to provide robust group scheduling.
Notes contains a single directory, the Notes Name & Address Book. The Name & Address Book manages all resource directory information, from individual user addresses for mail to connection records defining how and when replication occurs throughout the network. Inheriting the benefits of Notes' document database architecture, the Notes Name & Address Book allows Notes administrators to manage user information, database information, and server information such as replication schedules through a single, integrated directory. There is no additional administrative overhead, or directory maintenance and synchronization infrastructure to manage separately.
The Notes directory the Name & Address Book is simply another Notes database. This makes the directory extensible beyond its traditional role as the "white pages" and "yellow pages" of employee names and locations. As the hub of the enterprise network that binds all corporate assets: people, places, documents and applications, the Notes directory is a critical service. Notes as a messaging system exploits the Name & Address Book to manage the following resources:
Systems. For some applications, the destination for a message is not a person but rather a server, a fax machine, a telephone or other electronic "endpoints." The addresses of these resources can be maintained in a directory.
Distribution Lists. Electronic mailing lists can be held in the Name & Address book, to be expanded for distribution by e-mail or fax.
Mail Routing Information. The route that a message takes across hubs and routers is often determined by availability and expense, which changes depending on time of day, urgency of the message and other criteria. An entry in the Notes Name & Address Book can include descriptive information regarding routing logic, so that a particular address is always accompanied by routing instructions to ensure timely and efficient transport.
In addition, the Notes directory inherits all the attributes of the Notes' shared object store, making it a richer source of name and address information than traditional messaging system directories.
Rich Text. The Name & Address Book supports rich text so it can contain such objects as user images, embedded objects and tables.
User Defined Fields. The contents of the directory are not limited to conventional directory format. Directory documents can include administrator-definable fields. For example, an administrator may add an "employee ID" field to the "person" form so that the employee ID number is stored alongside other important information such as title, department, phone number, etc.
Linked Documents. Because the Name & Address Book itself is a document, it is possible to create links from within the directory database that point to other documents in other Notes databases. This allows administrators to "attach" important descriptive or explanatory information to an entry in the directory without incurring additional storage overhead in the Notes Name & Address Book. Linked documents help resolve the need for separate directories maintained by multiple "owners" of directory resources. That is, there are likely to be many groups within any organization that require accurate and up-to-date data regarding all or a portion of an organization's list of employees, suppliers and business partners: human resources, finance, customer support, manufacturing, purchasing, MIS, etc. It is common for each of these departments to have records that are "matched" in other departments but which contain different sets of information. The Notes Name & Address Book serves as a "universal" directory for each of these constituencies. For example, the Human Resources department might maintain a directory that includes such confidential information as salary and home address, which can be linked to the primary directory in the Name & Address Book.
The greatest return on investment from Notes applications is realized when it is used to coordinate strategic business processes. These applications not only manage documents and data, but also manage the flow of work among team members who use and need those documents. The key to these applications is the Notes application development environment.
The Notes platform includes an integrated development environment, providing rich tools to developers of varying expertise. Users with no programming experience can quickly build and deploy a Notes application, and professional developers can build powerful applications using Notes' native programming tools.
One of the advantages of Notes' client/server architecture is that developing an application is tantamount to deploying an application. Once an application has been developed and made available on a Notes server, it can be accessed by and replicated to any client or server that has the appropriate access. From then on, any changes made to forms, fields, views or programming are automatically inherited by all clients, regardless of the server and client platforms on which they were developed and deployed.
Professional developers have a complete set of Notes development facilities with which to create strategic systems. These include the basic design elements of a database, a full set of native programming tools, and complete database integration facilities. Notes also features integration with a variety of popular third-party tools.
Design elements. The basic Notes design elements consist of forms, fields, views, agents and folders.
* Fields. A form is made up of fields, such as author, date, summary and document body. The developer can assign fields a particular data type: text, number, time, rich text. Users can create new fields and edit the attributes and properties of these fields by filling in a series of dialog boxes.
* Views. Fields are critical to managing Notes databases because users view documents as sorted by particular fields. Views are designed by the user to display lists of documents from any variety of perspectives (by date, by author, by customer, by topic, etc.). When Notes presents a view to the user, it lists field names as columns.
* Agents. Agents are Notes application logic that allow developers to automate application tasks on both servers and clients. Such tasks include data handling, replication, and messaging services. Additionally, users may employ agents to help them manage information contained in Notes databases. For example, without writing a single line of code, an end user can create an agent to automatically look for incoming mail with the words "urgent" or "important" in the subject, and copy those memos to a folder called "hot issues." Or, a user could create an agent that would search new documents in a newswire database that contain a key word and then inform the user via an e-mail memo that includes a doclink to the newswire database.
* Folders. Designers and users can create folders, either shared or personal, that are hierarchical "containers" and can be used to organize documents within a particular database. Users can then simply drag and drop documents from views into a folder where they can be conveniently accessed.
Complete Range of Development Tools. Notes application developers have a variety of programming constructs with which to create an application. In addition to the templates described above, Notes includes LotusScript, Agents and the Notes formula language.
* Notes formula language. Notes also includes a native formula language. Formulas are similar to mathematical formulas, consisting of variables, constants and operators, although the outcomes are generally fundamentally different. For example, a developer might write a formula that formats text by capitalizing the first character of a word, or one that combines two or more independent fields to create a single field that is displayed to the user. Notes ships with a set of predefined @functions that perform a variety of calculations with different data types.
* Navigators. While the hierarchical folders/views presented in the Notes navigation pane present users with a modern and intuitive method for accessing information, an application developer may want to customize the Notes interface to provide an even more intuitive method of navigating an application. Navigators, which are new Notes R4 design elements, consist of graphics and "hotspots" which allow the developer to control the Notes application flow. Navigators provide a visual interface though which developers can guide the user of a Notes application. For example, a Navigator that displays a map of a sales territory can be created. When the user clicks with a mouse on a hotspot, such as a city within the map, the developer can display a Notes Document and/or View. With Navigators, developers can create Notes applications that employ an end-user's business terms and visualizations.
DBMS Integration. By integrating Notes object store with the organization's other databases, Notes enhances the overall value of the organization's information assets. Lotus and its business partners have developed a variety of integration techniques and products that allow application developers to leverage the power of both Lotus Notes and relational databases (RDBMSs). Integration products and technologies that application developers use to leverage Notes and RDBMSs include:
* NotesPump. NotesPump is server-based software that allows administrators to centrally schedule and execute the high bandwidth exchange of data between Lotus Notes and relational database systems including the IBM® DB2® family, Oracle®7, Sybase®10 and ODBC-compatible databases. NotesPump's DB2 link (via ODBC) coupled with IBM's existing suite of replication products gives NotesPump users access to IMS, VSAM and DB2 data on a wide range of platforms.
* Business Partner DBMS-integration products. Notes-DBMS integration products are also available from Lotus Business Partners, including Brainstorm Technologies' DataLink for Lotus Notes, Casahl Technologies' Replic-Action, Granite Software's ZMERGE, Information Builders' EDA/SQL®, Percussion Software's Notrix Composer, Sybase's Replication Server® and Trinzic's InfoPump.
Other Development Tools. For some applications, developers may require direct access to Notes functionality and services using other development languages and tools.
* Third-party tools. A number of third-party application development tool vendors have extended their own products using the Notes API to allow developers to build Notes applications. They include Revelation Technologies (ViP for Lotus Notes), Gupta Technologies (SQLWindows®), Informix® Software (New Era Class Library for Lotus Notes) and PowerSoft (PowerBuilder® Libraries for Notes).
Notes APIs
Customers who require complete access to the Notes platform functionality may use either a C and/or a C++ interface to access both the Notes client and server. Both APIs allow developers to link Notes with any system which also offers a C or C++ interface.
The Internet and the World Wide Web provide intra-enterprise and inter-enterprise connectivity and application hosting on a scale unimaginable just a few years ago. By exploiting the broadly available and deployed standards of the Internet and the Web, companies are able to leverage a single architecture to build client/server applications for internal use or for external use to reach customers, business partners and suppliers in ways never before possible. Like the Web, Lotus Notes is based on the concepts of a rich document-oriented database, fielded forms and document linking. Therefore, Notes is ideally suited as a development and deployment platform for Web applications.
Because Notes provides native support for Internet and Web protocols directly, Web application developers and users enjoy the full power of Notes' application development, client/server messaging and distributed object store technology. This allows Web developers to leverage the mature groupware functionality of Notes to reach non-Notes clients via Internet protocols and formats, providing all users with greater choice and flexibility.
By marrying Notes to the Internet, Lotus adds a new dimension to the value of the Notes server and the Notes client.
By opening Notes fully to Internet and Web standards, Lotus extends the value of the Notes server to support Web browsers as alternative clients. The diagram below depicts the similar architectures of Notes environments and Web environments, and the impact of joining Web protocols with Notes technology.
The level of functionality that can be shared between any set of clients and servers is determined by the protocol over which the two components interact. Therefore, Notes clients will continue to use the native Notes protocol to exploit the Notes compound document object store, and Web browsers will leverage Notes' native HTTP protocol and native HTML document format.
Full support for native Internet and Web standards also extends the value proposition of the Notes client to include end-user and team-oriented Web information management.
Just as Notes clients use the Notes server to provide a central access point for all corporate data (e.g., mail, Notes workflow applications, access to relational data, access to desktop applications) the Notes client extends all of its services to exploit information on Web servers. That is, the Notes client now applies its entire set of functionality disconnected use, client/server messaging, rich text, security, workflow applications, discussion databases and document libraries to information published HTML format on HTTP servers.
So far, this paper has described Notes' essential facilities, services and tools, elements that make it the leading platform for developing and deploying strategic applications. It is important to note that these facilities would be seriously constrained if they were only available on a narrow set of computing platforms. Notes, of course, is characterized by its platform independence.
Every company is concerned with protecting its hardware and software investments. Information Systems managers are charged with building systems that leverage the existing infrastructure. So-called killer applications that require a wholesale change in underlying platforms are viewed with caution. Such an investment entails not only the acquisition, installation and support of yet another platform, but also the eventual porting of applications currently on the old platform to the new platform.
Likewise, a single platform application imposes constraints on future systems purchases. Companies occasionally replace an existing OS or NOS in favor of another for a variety of reasons (performance, scalability, cost, etc.). These decisions are generally made outside the context of the groupware system. Indeed, when changing an underlying platform, most companies intend to move existing applications from the old platform to the new one. The applications built on top of a platform-independent groupware system can be leveraged on the new platform as well. For applications that are directly tied to the underlying OS or NOS, such a change would require that the applications be rewritten or completely replaced. Or, if the cost of rewriting or replacing the applications outweighs the benefit of the new platform investment, the company is left with a less than optimal operating environment.
Furthermore, businesses have discovered the potential of inter-enterprise computing. By building applications that use an infrastructure that connects not only all members of an entire enterprise, but also connects the enterprise to key business partners and customers, companies around the world have begun to realize extraordinary returns on their technology investment. A recent study by International Data Corp. revealed that companies using Lotus Notes to build inter-enterprise applications were realizing an average annual after-tax return on investment of 204 percent.
A platform-independent groupware system significantly increases the opportunities for a successful inter-enterprise application. It is difficult even within an organization to standardize on a single application server or network operating system. Attempting to impose that single platform standard on a business partner or customer is more difficult by an order of magnitude, and even greater when more than two companies are involved. Clearly, a messaging and/or groupware system designed to accommodate many organizations' existing server and network operating systems obviates the need to impose a multiple-enterprise computing standard.
A key to the power of Lotus Notes in today's heterogeneous corporate systems environments is its extensive multiple platform support. All Notes clients, regardless of the platform, can access all servers, exchange information, send and receive e-mail, and participate in the full range of Notes services. Notes documents, views and applications are also accessible by standard Web browsers, using Notes native support for Internet and Web protocols. Therefore, a Web browser on any platform is also part of the Notes cross-platform architecture.
Notes supports the full range of major industry client, server and network operating systems. Notes client support includes Microsoft Windows® , Windows 95 and Windows NT, IBM OS/2®, Apple Macintosh® and UNIX®; Notes server support includes Microsoft Windows 95, Windows NT, OS/2, Novell® NetWare® and UNIX versions including IBM AIX®, Sun Solaris®, and HP-UX; and Notes network protocol support includes TCP/IP and HTTP, NetWare, Banyan VINES®, IPX/SPX, AppleTalk®, NetBIOS/NetBEUI, X.PC, X.25 and SNA.
One of the realities of working on the road is that the flow of information mail messages, documents, phone calls does not cease once the worker leaves the office. Mobile computing has changed the nature of work for professionals on the road. Laptop computers that provide remote access to corporate information allow users to "take their desktop" with them as they travel, transforming airports, hotels and cars into workspaces replete with up-to-the-minute data.
Notes' bi-directional replication services make it an ideal platform for mobile work. Notes users can ensure that the work they conduct on the road does not fall out of synchronization with work that colleagues are conducting. Notes users can replicate applications while off-site in order to synchronize their laptop database with the server to obtain up-to-the-minute information.
Notes allows users to get access to that information from the road, that is, to "pull" it from the server to their mobile client computer. In order to pull this information, Notes mobile users simply initiate communication with a Notes server using a telephone line. Replication technology provides mobile users with the ability to pull information to expedite the flow of communication through workgroups when on the road, provide real-time information to customers and business partners, ensure that the proper information needed to complete a contract or purchase order is available, and send messages from anywhere.
Conversely, important messages and events rarely follow a schedule that corresponds
to the mobile worker's manual connections to a server. Mobile workers are still at a disadvantage if they are not able to easily and effortlessly stay on top of timely and urgent news. That is, users need to have relevant information automatically pushed out to them by the server. Notes paging services work to keep mobile users informed of important messages and events.
Lotus offers a variety of Notes implementation options to meet the differing needs of its customers. The Notes Server is available for single processor systems and for symmetric multi-processor systems, which exploit multiprocessor servers, resulting in enhanced scalability. Organizations can deploy, manage and administer Notes servers internally or may choose to use the services of a Notes Public Network service provider, such as AT&T® Network Notes and the IBM Global Network, to host Notes applications on a server.
There are three editions of the Notes client designed to meet the specific requirements of users: Notes Mail®, Notes Desktop and the full Notes client. Users also have the option of using alternative clients as front ends to the Notes server, including cc:Mail and other MAPI-compliant messaging clients, standard Web browsers, and runtimes of Notes applications developed in C, C++, Visual Basic, ViP for Lotus Notes or other third-party products.
Notes Mail is a state-of-the art client server messaging system. Notes Mail includes the cc:Mail user interface, OLE 2.0 support, platform independent viewers, collapsible sections, the InterNotes Web Navigator, task management, document libraries, personal journal, phone messages, and unparalleled mobile user support.
Notes Desktop is a run-time Notes client that has the ability to run any Notes application. Notes Desktop enables you to extend your most strategic applications to everyone in your workgroup and includes Notes Mail functionality and sample application templates. Notes Desktop is an affordable solution, ideal for Notes users who need to access customized applications.
Lotus Notes gives you the full-function power to create custom applications for improving the quality of everyday business processes. Includes all of the power offered in Notes Desktop, plus a rich application development environment and system administration capabilities.
There are a number of alternative clients that can be used as a front end to Notes.
* Other MAPI-enabled clients. MAPI-based clients, such as the mail client that ships with Windows 95, can also exploit Notes as a back-end messaging server. The Notes server includes a MAPI service provider interface.
* Web browsers. Standard Web browsers are able to access Notes directly through Notes native support for HTTP and HTML. Web browsers can read Notes documents and views, can be used to complete and remit Notes forms, and have access to the Notes full text search engine.
* Other clients. The Notes API is published to support the development of Notes applications using C, C++ and Visual Basic, as well as for a variety of specific third-party tools. Clients developed with these tools do not appear as standard Notes clients, although runtime versions of those applications do require a Notes Desktop license.
Notes Public Networks are public network operators around the world that offer Lotus Notes application hosting to business customers on their telecommunications networks. With Notes Public Networks services, customers can deploy Notes applications quickly and easily, taking advantage of the scale and reliability of the public carrier's Notes network. By deploying applications on Notes Public Networks, customers realize the benefit of reduced cost of ownership through the carrier's management of the Notes wide area network infrastructure and applications hosting environment. Notes Public Networks services also provide security, billing, access options and customer support services to enable customers to conduct work electronically with their customers, partners and suppliers.
The carriers are also committed to the goal of interoperability, allowing business customers to offer applications and services that are easily accessible to end users around the world. For example, a customer whose application is hosted on a Notes Public Network will be able to send mail or replicate a database with a user whose application is hosted on another or several other Notes Public Networks.
As of the end of 1995, the following public network operators have announced support for Notes Public Networks: AT&T (International); IBM Global Network (International); British Telecom (Great Britain); CompuServe® (International); Deutsche Telekom (Germany); Nippon Telephone and Telegraph-Data (Japan); Nippon Telephone and Telegraph (Japan); SNET (Connecticut, USA); Telstra (Australia); Telecom Italia (Italy); Telekom Malaysia (Malaysia); Unisource (Switzerland, Sweden, Holland, Spain); and US West (Mountain States, USA).
Lotus Notes continues to set the standard for messaging and groupware. Now in its fourth full release, Notes has established a large and growing base of more than 3.3 million users, and has generated an expanding industry of over 12,000 business partners building Notes solutions.
Lotus Notes gives users the power to communicate within and beyond an organization. It connects users with suppliers, customers and partners at other companies using different e-mail systems or over the Internet.
With the power of Lotus Notes, users can collaborate and share ideas with team members on joint projects, participate in group discussions, and create document libraries. Rather than waiting for an e-mail message to come to you, with Notes you have the power to find the information just when you need it.
The greatest value of Notes is realized when it is used to create custom business applications that coordinate everyday business processes from start to finish to achieve results like improving customer service, making your sales force more effective, and managing your most valuable asset, your people.
All users exploit the power of Notes as a central access point for all corporate information, including desktop documents, group discussions, e-mail messages, relational data, Web pages and news feeds. What's more, mobile Notes users can "take their desktop" with them transforming airports, hotels and cars into workspaces complete with up-to-the-minute information.
Updated: 01/18/96 03:20:53 PM
This page created and managed with Lotus Notes and a pre-release (Beta 2) copy of Lotus InterNotes Web Publisher® Release 4.0.
License expires March 1, 1996.