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-------------------------------------------------------------- This story was printed from ZDNet Australia. --------------------------------------------------------------
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Collaboration: Lotus Notes/Domino 7 vs SharePoint Portal Server 2003 By David McAmis, ZDNet Australia May 25, 2006 URL: http://www.zdnet.com.au/reviews/software/productivity/soa/Collaboration-Lotus-Notes-Domino-7-vs-SharePoint-Portal-Server-2003/0,139023447,139255186,00.htm
The market for collaborative applications has grown significantly with the introduction of Web-based solutions for gathering and sharing information within organisations. With that change, the collaborative software landscape has shifted as well, with veteran players like Lotus Notes pitted against relative newcomers such as Groove Networks (which has since been acquired by Microsoft). There are also a number of open source collaborative platforms available, including popular Wiki software and open source groupware solutions (like Open Exchange, Open Groupware and Kolab). In this review, we look at two of the most popular commercial collaborative platforms -- Lotus Notes/Domino 7.0 and Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server 2003 (Enterprise edition). Although SharePoint isn't new, when it comes to collaboration software, it has to be considered in the buying cycle.
How we tested We tested how easy it was to create a new collaborative application and what tools and templates were available to help speed development. We also looked at the development tools and skills required to create and maintain these applications, as well as how quickly the required skills could be obtained. From the feature set, we specifically looked at features that aided collaboration among multiple users and how well they aided gathering and disseminating information. We also looked at the collaborative features included in each platform, including but not limited to features to help users communicate, collaborate and manage information.
Lotus Notes/Domino 7.0 Developers can use Lotus Domino Designer to create custom forms and databases from scratch or by using one of the templates provided. There are a number of different ways you can deploy Notes databases and applications, including through Lotus Notes or from the Web. There are some differences between how you actually design applications for the full client vs a thin client, but during the design process you can make sure that whatever you develop can be used in either environment.
Designing collaborative applications using Lotus Domino Designer does require a specialised skill set and you won't be able to proceed very far without some form of training, whether it is investing the time in self-paced learning or instructor-led training. Lotus Notes provides a flexible platform for developing collaborative applications, so you will find the basic functionality of sharing and storing information and documents is catered for, as well as more advanced functionality for workflow, scripting with JavaScript and "LotusScript". For instance, you can create a database and set of forms to capture action items from a meeting and e-mail them to the relevant contacts.
SharePoint Portal Server 2003
Developing sites within SharePoint Portal Server is quick and easy. Within a few minutes, you can create a site for a new project or initiative and start populating it with information imported from Excel spreadsheets and InfoPath forms. There are a number of different templates and tools built into SharePoint that can be used to quickly create a discussion board or document library, for example, and instead of developing an "application" per-se, SharePoint is based on the concept of creating Web sites and Web pages. Within those Web pages, you can drag and drop a number of "Web parts". SharePoint includes some off-the-shelf Web parts you can add to your pages, but there are also other software vendors which have jumped on the bandwagon and created Web parts specifically for SharePoint. You can also develop your own Web part, but this will require using Visual Studio and a solid knowledge of .NET programming.
For workflow applications, there is a bit of a gap when it comes to SharePoint. This is due in part to the availability of a separate Microsoft product, BizTalk Server, that can be used to integrate systems. For anything more than basic workflow, you will need to use BizTalk server to complement your SharePoint development. This means that the two products combined offer a powerful, integrated platform, but SharePoint probably couldn't stand on its own as a true collaborative suite as far as workflow is concerned. That said, there is still a lot you can do with SharePoint that does not require BizTalk, and for the majority of business users, it will be plenty! Tight integration with Microsoft Office and the Microsoft solution stack means that users can leverage the platform without a tremdous amount of additional training, and development of new sites and features can be delivered to users. This makes the platform more flexible and malleable as business requirements change over time.
Verdict On one hand, Lotus Notes is a more mature platform and established itself early as the clear leader in the collaboration and messaging space. With this success, it has clung to the paradigm of developers creating collaborative applications, as opposed to users getting involved. And this is the main weakness at the moment -- it is a powerful platform for collaborative applications, but developing these applications costs time and money. There are a number of templates available to help get things started, but for anything more than basic applications, there is still a component of development that will need to be handled by a trained developer. For the Lotus faithful, the software platform has not veered far from its roots and sometimes this legacy can mean that new features aren't as quick to appear as other collaborative platforms. Given the complexity of the Lotus Notes development tools and framework, there also hasn't been a lot of support from other software vendors for add-ons or integration with the platform. SharePoint on the other hand is the relatively new kid on the block, and while it doesn't have the complete feature set that Lotus Notes offers, it does have a leg up in terms of Microsoft Office integration and ease-of-use. Designed from the ground-up for Web-based collaboration, SharePoint sites can be quickly created by team members for sharing documents, calendars, projects, among others. Microsoft has made this easier by making a number of its templates available to administrators for download. Development of SharePoint portal "parts" is definitely developer territory, but there is tremendous support for SharePoint from software vendors. For example, you may find that your accounting software already has a number of SharePoint Web parts available, allowing you to slot in a Web part to display account balances or customer information. If you are already use Lotus Notes for e-mail or if you are an IBM shop and can invest the time and money into developing collaborative applications, Lotus Notes/Domino 7.0 is a powerful framework on which to do so. However, if you don't have the resources dedicated to developing collaborative applications, don't have complex application or integration requirements or if you are focused on the Microsoft solution stack, SharePoint Portal Server 2003 is going to be hard to beat.
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