It's a fast-changing market, and we've done what we think we've needed to do to maintain our leadership position. Whether it's the right tack is an open question. The company that has long walked with a quirky swagger is now fighting for balance after its most dramatic brain drain. And the company that has collected thousands of business partners is now ready to separate the revenue generators from the rejects. All of this is folded into a restructuring led by Zollar that could firmly plant Lotus in the IBM software portfolio and shake every department from development to sales.
Layoffs are also possible.
On the product side, Lotus is promising to deliver Domino as a set of modular components that plug into other software, most notably IBM's WebSphere, and to sharpen its focus on knowledge management, e-learning, collaborative commerce, application hosting, and mobile and wireless. The benefits of these moves are clear, observers say. It is important for customers who don't want IBM and Lotus doing things separately. Because in another five years, they will be integrated blood brothers. Initially, the transition means customers are left waiting for products they want while being bombarded with others they have yet to be convinced they need.