White Paper -- Lotus's Internet Applications Bringing Extensible Business Solutions to the 'Net ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lotus Notes commands a unique position as an environment for rapidly building and deploying powerful business solutions. And the growth path of its development has expanded Notes far beyond its beginnings as an intra-organizational communications tool -- the application that defined "groupware" for the enterprise. Today the communications needs of business have grown beyond the traditional corporate limits: companies are rushing to broaden internal channels of communication and to build public information systems that reach the important audiences in their marketplace. And Lotus Notes is growing to provide the applications that let businesses take advantage of new intranet and the Internet technologies. The 'Net is remaking the computing landscape for organizations. It has brought demands for standards-based solutions and set new standards for simplifying the end-user experience. As the standards of the 'Net -- TCP/IP, TTP servers and HTML documents -- move to the center of the enterprise computing vision, Lotus is adopting them. The Domino integrated Notes/HTTP server delivers the contents of a Notes application database to both Notes clients and Web browsers. And Domino provides the platform for Lotus's Internet applications, business solutions enabling the deployment of Internet and Intranet technology in the organization. These applications build on the strengths of the Domino environment -- its client-server architecture, robust security, easily administered replication of data, and support for multiple operating systems -- to efficiently integrate legacy systems, provide the platform for authoring and approval workflows required to create content, and manage the interactive communications -- the discussions, the surveys, the transaction-processing applications -- that make this new world of standards-based communicating so exciting. The first group of Internet Applications will provide platforms for basic business processes: - Net.Action provides the platform and tools for designing, creating and maintaining an electronic presence, either on the public Internet, or on a private intranet. Net.Action provides templates for creating a 'Net presence quickly and effectively: For the Internet, this might mean a home page, information about the company, job postings, databases of product specs and press releases; for an intranet, the templates would quickly yield graphically appealing job postings, policies-and-procedures manuals, and suggestion-box discussions. Net.Action provides the management tools that let an organization grow its site from dozens of pages to thousands. The other Lotus Internet Applications are built on the foundation of Net.Action. - Net.Marketing supports marketing and sales on the 'Net, from activities as simple as registering prospects and distributing product literature all the way to accepting a credit card, processing a payment, and delivering a digital product. Net.Marketing provides the facilities for collecting information about that audience, its interests, and its use of the content. In the Internet space, this begins with templates for catalogs and support for on-line selling activities -- selecting items, placing orders, processing approvals and authorizing payments. In the intranet space this means surveys and questionnaires, and processes for purchase requisitions and order approval. With its links to IBM's Net.Commerce merchant system, Net.Marketing can grow as the transaction volume grows. - Indigo is an information delivery system based on Lotus' Domino technology, the Lotus Notes application engine and the 'Net broadcast technologies developed by PointCast Incorporated. Indigo is an authoring, communication and information delivery platform for corporate intranets that combines external news with internal communications. - Net.Service leverages the universal availability of the Internet to keep you in touch with your most important market, your existing customers. Net.Service will be built around Internet phone and allows you to extend your 800 number to the Internet. Build the relationship by downloading software, getting the word out about product updates, and collecting feedback in discussions and e-mail. In the intranet space, Net.Service applications can help take the pressure off internal hotlines and help desks, provide links to backend database reporting processes, knowledgebases, documentation libraries, and automate departmental approval processes. For organizations that use Notes Lotus's Internet Applications have important benefits: - Companies that use Notes for central business processes can implement these processes on the 'Net to reach new users. Customers and suppliers can be brought into discussions and decision-making processes. Prospects can tap applications that deliver customized information on demand. - 'Net applications can be developed and managed in the familiar environment of Notes. The learning curve is shortened, and time to market is reduced. - Familiar workflows for production and approval can be used as the basis for managing the site and its contents: The company doesn't have to be reinvented to take advantage of the 'Net Because Domino and the Lotus Internet Applications provide content-creation and site-management capabilities that go beyond existing Web tools, they also have much to offer companies that have no existing Notes infrastructure: - Lotus's Internet Applications create a maximum 'Net presence with minimum effort. The SiteCreator that comes with each Internet Application is designed to provide a "0 to Web site" implementation path quickly and effectively, without extraordinary efforts and cost. Yet the out-of-the-box usefulness of the Internet Applications doesn't imply any reduction in Notes' long-standing emphasis on end-user development. The Internet Applications have been designed to encourage customization, either by the organization, or by the extensive Lotus Business Partner community. - The Domino server and Lotus's Internet Applications allow developers to use whatever 'Net design and content-creation tools they wish: Graphics packages for high-impact, high-effort pages that set a visual identity for a site, HTML editors for one-of-a-kind pages. Domino adds programmable workflow and security, the replication model for supporting distributed authoring, the built-in interactivity of threaded discussion model, and ability to process intelligent forms and store the results as actionable fielded data in a database, rather than just as text. - Because organizations can develop applications that reach both the Notes client and the Web browser they gain the freedom to choose the best delivery solution for the applications and the audiece. Lotus has what the 'Net needs ------------------------------------------- While discussion of standards-based computing has tended to focus on the thick client/thin client debate, far less attention has been paid to the capabilities (or lack thereof) of HTTP servers. The World Wide Web represents a tremendous opportunity for Notes as a server. Domino raises the bar for Web servers by providing interactive communication, structured collaboration, and workflow coordination. The Domino server: - Provides access to legacy data through a mature set of data-exchange tools and drivers. - Eliminates the need to write CGI interfaces and scripts to collect data. - Makes it easy to turn responses and e-mail into fielded data that can be reformatted and reused. - Builds in integrated data indexing and full text search capability. - Supports applications that can automate the workflow necessary to create and manage a serious Web site. - Doesn't require new knowledge sets in your IS organization: You don't have to add PERL programmers or CGI scripting expertise, or take on a new OS platform. The backend capabilities of the Domino server are unmatched by any of its HTTP counterparts -- robust information management, including a multidocument database architecture that has no equal, and rock-solid data replication, server-to-server communication and multiserver management. On top of this has been built a unique toolkit for connecting to legacy systems, an open API, and scripting tools that support a range of application-development options the current generation of Web servers can't begin to match. The advantages of Domino are just what the Web needs: flexible security for controlling access to sites and applications; templates for establishing enforceable presentation standards where HTML provides none; replication to enable distributed authoring of content; workflow modeling to build the review and approval processes that the Web lacks. Domino make it possible to create applications with the Internet Applications that live both in Notes and on the Internet in perfect synchronization, allowing the organization to make its own decisions about the best security architecture and user interface to use for any application. For the first time, business applications can take full advantage of Notes' back-end strengths -- its easy connectivity to legacy data, its unique semi-structured data store -- without having to build the complete Notes infrastructure on the desktop. Domino and the Internet Applications give organizations the tools to leverage their existing information-technology infrastructures. And they bring with them the Lotus and IBM business-partner community, with its development and implementation expertise. What are Lotus's Internet Applications? -------------------------------------------------------- The Internet Applications represent an architecture that allows developers to create vertical-market applications that express the business practices of companies and industries -- as well as horizontal activities that cut across industry boundaries. The first Internet Applications are: * Net.Action: The starting point for any organization is the establishment of an electronic presence. It may be as simple as a single ";home page"; a virtual business card. It will certainly become more complex very quickly, with the addition of information about the company, press releases, job postings, feedback forms, and more. It's the job of Net.Action to make this start as quick and easy as possible -- and to make the growth process an orderly and manageable one. Net.Action and the Domino server will be available with the shipment of Notes Release 4.5, and Net.Action will bundle additional software and tools, including: - SiteCreator, for selecting and configuring the key elements of the site: homepage; about-the-company; press release library; job postings; customer feedback; policies and procedures manuals; discussions; visitor registration. - Editorial production tools: RTF- and ASCII-to-Notes/HTML translation, a version of the tools used by publishers on Notes:Newsstand. Turning Electronic Publishing into a Business Activity! Distributing information is an increasingly important business function -- either in support of a line of business or as a product in its own right. For organizations doing electronic publishing to support other lines of business, Net.Action provides the editorial tools to treat the creation of electronic presence as a business activity, leveraging the ease of use and functionality of Notes to provide a platform for an ever-changing, content-rich 'Net site. (And where publishing is the product, Net.Marketing supports traditional publishers moving into the electronic environment, giving them the design and management tools they need to create and deliver salable products in this new medium: See below.) Command and Control for the 'Net! Domino's environment for application development provides a firm but flexible structure for electronic publishing that solves an enormous problem of creating content on the 'Net: At last, the design of an electronic publication or a Web site can be separated from the creation and management of its contents. Net.Action supports the design of content applications that can be displayed in both the Notes client and a Web browser. Documents are saved to the application, and displayed in the proper form when retrieved. This means: - Content-creation privileges can be set within the application, and authorship of the application's content can be distributed via the 'Net. Domino administers security and controls access, and Notes replication can be used at any point in the process, from collecting raw text and images for editing to placing finished documents on the server. - Design standards can be established and enforced. Consistency is an automatic outgrowth of the design process. No longer is the look and feel of the page or the site at the mercy of the last person who edited the HTML code. The authors and editors no longer need to be experts at CGI scripting or Unix administration. Any user who can create e-mail can create content for a 'Net site. Yet a company can maintain control over its appearance on the open networks while granting access to information providers and authors who contribute the regularly updated information that is the lifeblood of a site. - Management of the content can be as simple or as sophisticated as the organization requires. Workflow tools are available for the creation of editing and approval processes, audit trails and sign-offs. And the management inherent in Notes provides the ideal growth path for a Web site: It's not hard to manage a site with a few dozen pages. A site with a few thousand pages is another matter. The database structure provided by Notes, with its full text indexing and categorization, and aging, are the kinds of tools that are required for a large site. Interactivity is built in! Net.Action supports the creation of interactive applications, as well. Its discussion templates bring threaded discussions to the 'Net, allowing users to read and contribute to discussions, as well as send letters to the editor, complete questionnaires and surveys, and participate in two-way information processes. Net.Marketing: Companies that want to do marketing and sales on the Internet will use the Net.Marketing package to add these functions to the Domino Server and Net.Action package: -SiteCreator for creating catalog; request for information; survey/questionnaire; lead capture, collateral library (including page templates for brochure, white paper, press release, spec sheet , price list); event scheduler/signup. -Production/workflow tool. -Marketing tools: -- mailing list manager/lead manager -- catalog builder -- order processing/shopping basket manager -- payment processing Net.Marketing builds on the content-management features of Net.Action to support on-demand delivery of information to prospects and customers. It takes advantage of the server's interactive features as well, providing templates for forms and questionnaires that let an organization gather information about that audience and its stated interests and deposit it in Notes or relational databases for aggregation and analysis. Automated information distribution: The most immediate benefit of Net.Marketing is the improvements it brings to the fulfillment of prospect and customer requests for publications such as product brochures and information, account status updates, technical specifications and documentation. Electronic publishing makes these materials available on demand 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The version delivered is always the current one. The cost of fulfillment can be greatly reduced, and the volume of material available can be increased. Qualifying the audience: Net.Marketing allows publishers to qualify prospects, as well. Forms-based surveys can collect information from prospects, and Notes applications on the server can turn that data into immediately actionable information. Inquiries can be routed to the proper salespeople and electronic dialogs initiated. Statistics can be generated to track interest in particular product lines and feedback can be collected. Completion of screening questionnaires can be used as triggers for granting access to sites and discussions. Proactive marketing and advertising: The Domino server provides a capable platform for sophisticated targeted marketing and advertising applications based on content usage analysis, whether third-party applications or developed in Notes. And where the product is appropriate, Net.Marketing can handle ordering, payment and delivery, so that the entire marketing and sales cycle can be implemented in the 'Net environment. Building a catalog or "store": Notes databases provide the foundation for creating and managing a selling environment (a catalog or a "store"). Net.Marketing adds tools and templates for the easy creation of widely used applications, such as document libraries, catalogs, and electronic brochures. The catalog can be managed as a distributed application with controlled access and integrated approval workflow. Documents or other electronic products can be published or updated quickly. Controlling the user's access and membership in groups through the server's name-and-address book means that factors such as prices and discount percentages can be treated as variable data. Processing the order: Net.Marketing supports a "shopping cart" metaphor that lets a user browse the available items, accumulating selections for purchase, then place an order for the items and, if appropriate, manage the delivery or route the order through an approval process. Because information may be the payment rendered as well as the product sold (a user might complete a questionnaire on purchase plans in order to receive a product description, for example), Net.Marketing makes use of Notes applications for securely storing and communicating customer information in much the same fashion as Net.Service. Handling payments: Net.Marketing includes all the elements required to accept payment information from the customer and validate the transaction with a clearing agent in a secure environment, and in real time. This means a user can enter a credit card number to "buy a subscription" to an information product and have immediate access to the product. In its first version Net.Marketing will provide access to a payment processing switch. When the Secure Electronic Transaction (SET) protocols sponsored by MasterCard, VISA, IBM, and Netscape, among other companies, are finalized, they will be supported as well. The scalability of Net.Marketing: Net.Marketing is aimed at the needs of organizations that want payment capabilities to close the loop of their on-line marketing activities, such as selling and delivering research reports and technical documents on-line, or accepting payment for a conference registration. But there are no inherent limits on the Net.Marketing tools, and a growth path exists for any catalog built with Net.Marketing from the integrated Notes/HTTP server to other IBM solutions, such as Net.Commerce. Net.Service ----------------- Net.Service builds on the Domino Server and Net.Action with: -SiteCreator for creating: problem reporting; problem routing; knowledgebase with query capability; catalog; documentation library (product updates, FAQs/tips and techniques); digital download. -Link toolkit (to give users with Web browsers views into transaction/order processing systems). -Service tools: Reporting and analysis tools (to generate stats on visitor registrations/unique IDs, how many logged messages, for what products, how long to close, etc.) One of the most critical applications for many organizations is customer service and support. Many companies have devoted extensive resources to building service applications on the workflow and knowledgebase capabilities of Notes, and Net.Service allows them to bring their customers directly into the system via a Web connection. Net.Service supports applications that can collect information in forms and questionnaires, then act on it, directing the users to information sources, and routing problem reports to customer-service providers within the organization. For organizations that don't yet use Notes, doing customer service on the Web may be the killer app they've been waiting for. A sizable installed base of applications exists that use Notes workflow for call tracking, and its document management to control knowledgebases. And a vast amount of expertise exists among the Notes Business Partners who created these applications. As Internet phone software moves telephony onto the Web, Net.Service will be there to provide the management tools to integrate this new technology into a high-quality customer-care system. With these tools, Net.Service can be used to create a managed escalation path that guides the customer toward an answer, and creates a record of the process. The path can begin with databases of FAQs and tech notes, move through product updates and timely information, and, if necessary, generate e-mail requests that bring the customer into direct contact with an employee, with built-in status reporting all along the way until the problem is resolved. The Strategic Direction of Lotus's Internet Applications ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Lotus will continue to build on the Domino platform, using the integrated server model to enhance Notes' ability to address the broadest possible base of clients, and to give those clients maximum access o the server -- including future versions of the Notes client. Other Internet Applications will build on providing access from a Web browser to the Domino server's application-creation functions, which will let ISPs offer point-and-click Web site creation to their customers, as just one example. Domino and Lotus's Internet Applications are the starting point for a development path that will tie the functionality and architectural strengths of Notes to the protocols and implementations of the 'Net as quickly as identifiable standards emerge.