Vince's Dominolog  

About Lotus and other stuff

Sad news at Philips

Living near Eindhoven, the birth town of Philips, the company with one of the oldest and largest Lotus Domino infrastructures, this is not exactly new to me, but it still is a shock to read this:

In the year ahead, we’ll be introducing a new, much more cost-effective Microsoft-based communication and collaboration environment, which will replace Lotus Notes and is based on a “pay per use” service model. And it’s not only less expensive, it’s also easier to use – a real win-win situation!

“We want to make our IT systems as easy for employees to operate as their home PCs.”

Daniel Hartert,
Chief Information Officer

I ask you what Microsoft-based communication and collaboration environment is less expensive and easier to use than Lotus Notes? Smells like outlook to me or is there a new product being developed to suit there needs?
And although I can imagine that 'pay-per-use' will save a lot of money on licences, maintaining a Microsoft-based communication and collaboration environment will lengthen their ROI by years if not decades.

Update: They are now discussing out-sourcement of their e-mail to BT and Domino will be in use for several years as application server. So I'm curious what role is reserved for the 'Microsoft-based communication and collaboration environment'