Lotus set to preview Hannover

IBM’s Lotus Software group later on Tuesday at a conference in Germany will preview the next release of the Notes client, code-named Hannover, which will show off the product’s shift from an e-mail focus to one that is “activities-focused.”

At the IBM Lotus Technical Forum 2005, Ambuj Goyal, Lotus’ General Manager of Workplace, Portal, and Collaboration, will demonstrate a number of new features that will allow Notes desktop users to engage in “activity-centric” computing and “contextual collaboration.”

“Most users’ inboxes these days can be an interesting collection of stuff. It can serve as a document manager, contain discussion threads, and a lot of business processes take place and, oh yes, we also send and receive e-mails. We are trying to change the inbox experience to one that is activity-centric computing,” said Mike Loria, Director of Worldwide Product Marketing at Lotus.

As one example of Hannover’s activity-centric computing, when a user receives an e-mail, the contact list in Notes automatically highlights the contacts contained in that e-mail. Also, the Notes calendar immediately shows any meetings related to topics discussed in that e-mail, Loria said.

“We are trying to create a more compelling user experience but we are also focused on making [users] more productive,” Loria said.

With Hannover, users will also be able to take an e-mail they have received and drag and drop it into their contact list, and from that, trace any and all recent collaborations they may have had with them, Loria said.

All of the activity-centric features of Hannover are designed to complement the upcoming Notes Domino 7 releases, still scheduled to be delivered in the next 60 days.

With Hannover, Lotus is attempting to “open up” Notes, allowing users to better integrate with their business applications. Instead of having to switch from Notes to a business application, users will be able to integrate that business application directly into their Notes client, a company spokesman said.

Lotus will also be incorporating a good measure of Workplace client technology in Hannover, according to Loria, but doing so in the context of what Notes users would expect to see.

“In WorkPlace we are focusing on integrating collaboration with business process. In Notes, to some extent, that is relevant. People have built a lot of applications in Notes specifically because of the product’s integration and collaboration capabilities,” Loria said.

IBM has not determined whether it will officially label Hannover Lotus Notes 7.x or Lotus Notes 8.0.