Lotus Exits Consulting

In plans to be disclosed to partners at Lotusphere this week, the IBM subsidiary is even changing the name of its Lotus Professional Services group to Software Services From Lotus, said Steve Robinson, director of the group. "We wanted out of the general consulting space. We thought there was too much direct competition with both IBM Global Services and our larger partners," he said.

\

'The new strategy is to shift from services for the sake of services to services for the sake of product.' --Steve Robinson, Software Services from Lotus

The plan, if implemented well, will alleviate long-standing contention between partners and Lotus consulting personnel, said David Via, vice president of technology for The Wolcott Group, a Fairlawn, Ohio, Lotus business partner.

"There are two classes of Lotus business partners: Those who stand around and whine that Lotus [shouldn't be in services and others who say, 'Fine. Do services. Let's just have some ground rules, and we'll engage.' We're in the latter category," Via said.

The company will also tout at Lotusphere its Domino 6, code-named rNext, due later this year. This next revision, already two years in the making, moves Lotus further down the path to compliance with Java 2 Enterprise Edition and forges tighter links to IBM's WebSphere, DB2 and other offerings.

id
unit-1659132512259
type
Sponsored post

The exit from the consulting business comes on the heels of cutbacks in Lotus Professional Services. Two weeks ago, Lotus laid off an undisclosed number of people from the group, which is about 1,200 people strong.

"[Lotus Professional Services was a general consulting arm, almost an independent company that chased opportunities from the service standpoint, any size of engagement, end to end," Robinson said. "The new strategy is to shift from services for the sake of services to services for the sake of product. We are getting out of general consulting and focusing more on how to close key strategic initiatives," he added.

LOTUSPHERE 2002 HIGHLIGHTS

>> Lotus' rNext is reintroduced under Domino 6 moniker.
>> Lotus Professional Services renamed Software Services For Lotus.>> Tighter links between Domino and IBm WebSphere, DB2.

Lotus personnel will now focus on helping customers with decision criteria, life-cycle planning and pilot programs, Robinson said. That leaves plenty of room for integration partners to do implementation work.

Longtime IBM partners said a similar model has worked extremely well with IBM's software group.

Vendors need to "concentrate on developing and supporting great software and allow partners to implement and integrate that software with other things it has to touch. That's where we fit in," said Sam Fatigato, president of Perficient, an Austin, Texas-based IBM partner specializing in portal work.

Chip Bullock, president of CC Intelligent Solutions, a Raleigh, N.C.-based IBM partner, agreed. IBM incents its partners to train their personnel in the right skills and get certified early "so IBM can call on us to provide meat-and-potato development. With Lotus, typically they've sold the app, [and we help the clients make it work. They architect the system as only they know how, and we do the bulk of the implementation and integration," he added.

IBM Global Services invariably lurks in the back of many partners' minds when it comes to channel conflicts. IBM's huge services arm competes heavily with large integrators such as EDS and Andersen, but many smaller Lotus partners viewed Lotus Professional Services as a bigger threat.

"The real conflict is [Lotus Professional Services and partners," Bullock said. "[IBM Global Services is really mostly traditional outsourcing. If you don't do double-digit millions with them every year, they're not interested in you."