| Lotus
Notes FAQ |
 |
| What
was the idea behind Lotus Notes ? |
|
| Although Lotus
1-2-3 and Lotus Notes are completely different
types of software, the latter owes its existence
to market research made for the former. More
than a decade ago, Lotus asked the spreadsheet
users if Lotus 1-2-3 served them well. The
spreadsheet users made two important complaints:
|
|
 |
| Only 10% of the information
required for administrative decisions
is in numeric format, the remaining
90% cannot be handled by spreadsheets.
|
|
| Information is only useful when people
share it with others. |
|
| |
|
|
| Lotus decided to solve the problem
by developing an entirely new office application:
Lotus Notes. Lotus Notes is the most versatile,
most sophisticated, best-integrated groupware
software on the market today. |
|
| What
can it do for my business ? |
|
| Some Lotus Notes applications
are ready-made and come off the shelf. These
include e-mail and an electronic organiser
and they can be easily integrated with custom
applications: |
|
|
e-mail server/client |
|
|
web browser/server |
|
|
personal organiser |
|
|
| In addition to these applications
for which no extra charge will be made, it
is possible to write custom applications.
Most Lotus Notes applications are custom applications
developed for specific company requirements.
Typical applications include customer tracking,
help desk, project management, company bulletin
board and human resource management. Most
Lotus Notes applications fall under one of
the following categories: |
|
|
Workflow |
|
|
Broadcasting |
|
|
Reference |
|
|
Discussion |
|
|
Tracking |
|
|
| Is
it user-friendly ? |
|
| Lotus Notes provides a standard
user interface for all applications ranging
from e-mail to custom applications tailor-made
for the company. This standardisation makes
life easy for both ordinary users and the
IT department that supports them. Apart from
the obvious advantages associated with standardisation,
Lotus Notes comes with several facilities
that makes it easy to learn and use. |
|
| Can
you use Lotus Notes to fax documents? |
|
| Indeed you can. The Lotus Fax
Server is an add-on to Lotus Notes that must
be installed on a PC equipped with fax modem.
It is tightly integrated with Lotus Notes
mail. It faxes Lotus Notes documents and distributes
incoming faxes. |
|
| Is
it possible to use Lotus Notes and SAP together
? |
|
| Yes, SAP and Lotus Notes can
be used together. |
|
| There are several tools will
enable Lotus Notes to access information from
other software. One of these is the ODBC database
standard. If mail transfer between the two
is a requirement, the other package must support
one of the three e-mail protocols that Lotus
Notes supports. Additionally, under Windows
and OS/2, Lotus Notes behaves as a DDE client.
DDE, which stands for Dynamic Data Exchange
is the Windows standard for messaging between
programs. DDE comes free on every Windows
computer but it has many limitations. |
|
| A much more sophisticated tool
for message transfer is IBM's MQSeries. It
works on practically all operating systems,
on LAN and WAN environments, is SAP-compatible
and guarantees message delivery. This must
be purchased separately. |
|
| Often it is better to develop
a Notes application than buy a different package
and try to use it with Notes. Lotus Notes
itself is a custom application platform par
excellence and suits most business needs.
The use of Lotus Notes as the company's standard
software makes training and support easier
and cheaper. It also permits the development
of custom applications so that the application
adapts to the way your company works. With
most packages, your company would have to
adapt to the software. |
|
| What
is replication ? |
|
| In order for a database to
be accessible from different cities, it is
necessary to keep identical copies of a database
on more than one server. These copies must
be updated regularly, often over telephone
lines, so that changes made on one copy are
propagated to all the other copies. This process
is called replication. |
|
| Replication can occur between
a workstation and a server as well as between
two servers. Sales representatives can keep
a copy of the database on their laptops. If
the database is too large to fit in a laptop,
the sales rep can prevent the replication
of documents that he deems irrelevant to his
own work. This strategy also saves time and
money on phone calls. Another Lotus Notes
feature is field-based replication. When this
feature is enabled, Lotus Notes does not transmit
entire documents, only the fields that were
changed. |
|
| What
makes Lotus Notes better than the competition
? |
|
| Lotus Notes is an ideal platform
for all kinds of groupware applications. Here
is why: |
|
| Rapid
development: |
|
| Lotus Notes is the quickest
platform for groupware application development.
Lotus Notes applications take less time to
develop than applications developed by alternative
programming tools such as C++ and Visual Basic.
|
|
| Tailor
made to customer requirements: |
|
| Lotus Notes applications are
more adaptable than ready-made packages. Lotus
Notes caters for company specific needs while
the others force everybody to work the same
way. |
|
| One
platform for all applications: |
|
| Both ordinary users and the
IT department will be happier to use one platform
for all applications as opposed to using different
platforms. Above all, this will curb training
costs. |
|
| Excellent
Integration: |
|
| Lotus Notes has many functions
including e-mail, workflow, database, web
server and it integrates all of them so that
very sophisticated applications can be developed.
Additionally, Lotus Notes is compatible with
all major architectures and standards. |
|
| Can
it access other databases ? |
|
| Lotus Notes supports the ODBC
(Open Database Connectivity) standard. ODBC
can be installed on Windows, OS/2 and UNIX
platforms and allows Lotus Notes to access,
read from and write to other databases. However,
Lotus Notes should not be used as a front-end
for writing to relational databases, it is
too slow for that. |
| |
| |
©
1999-
Digital Mesh Softech India (P) Limited, Kochi.