Pace 98

This ts the
first of a series
of articles on
the strategic di-
rections that Lo-
tus Development
Corp. is pursu-
ing and the sig-
nificance of
those strategies
to organizations
planning for
the 19905.

'The challenges
to which Lotus,
one of the soft-
ware world's Big Three, is reacting are
the same as those that face many corpo-
rations as they head into the next dec-
ade. The technologies and products be-
ing pursued by Lotus are representative
of the systems that the future will
reguire.

In planning for a dynamic computing
environment in the 1990s, information-
systems (IS) professionals will no doubt
focus on the enterprise information sys-
tem through which an organization's
many machines are seamlessly connect-
ed with applications working coopera-
tively across machine boundaries.

The transition to this new environ-
ment, presents many challenges for IS
professionals, not the least of which is
the eritical need for new eguipment and
products that outweighs the desire to
postpone purchases. Thus it is more im-
portant than ever for IS professionals to
be aware of the technological changes
on the horizon and the products that
can bridge the gap to the enterprise in-
formation system.

Movement to a new operating-system
environment will reguire advanced
hardware, as shown in the figure. The
28(-based machine with at least 1M
byte of RAM has become the base-level
machine: More powerful 386-based ma-
ehines with fast hard disks for LAN
servers are becoming common, but,
mixed environments will exist for years
to come. The 386 provides multitasking
today under DOS, using operating envi-
ronments such as Windows/386 and ex-
tended memory. When it is released by
Microsoft, Windows 3.0 will provide us-
ers of DOS with a graphical, multitask-
ing operatingsystem environment that

is compliant with IBM's Common User
Aecess (CUA) user-interface standards.
"These are growth paths for the future
(hat companies should consider first
when making new purchases,

1 OS/2 and the Presentation Manager
are the target environment for distribut-
ed applications of the 19905, then there
sa wide chasm (in both software and
hardware) between what will exist in
tke future and what is in place today
The best course is to take deliberate.
steps to position the

Cations development, Rather zlega pike

port a variety of non-Cooperai
Products that are dstibca S

PG WEEKNAPPLICATION DEVELOPMENT

|
Lotus' Strategies Set the Example for IS Professionals

multiple computing environments, cor-
porations should look at products that
work well together and can be used to
build integrated applications.

Many of the strategies being pursued
by Lotus and by many other organiza-
tions are driven by the need to support
the current. mixed environment as well
as the advanced environments of the
future.

In its brief existence, Lotus has
evolved from an entrepreneurial, single-
product software vendor to a major cor-
poration known internationally as a
software powerhouse. Instead of re:
sponding to unfulfilled market demands,
Lotus often is able to create and influ-

V ment today and new discipline imposed

on the entire corporation. ;

Market leaders cannot; maintain their
position by neglecting the competition.
Lotus has been able to observe each

»competitive threat and analyze the ef-

fects. The size of the 1-2-3 customer base
provides safety for the company. Rather
than an immediate response to competi-
tive threats, Lotus aims for deliberate
movement that coincides with changes
in the market. Flexibility is essential in
the PC market, especially a market that
is showing signs of maturing and slow-.
ing of growth.

While there are many issues that will
shape the computing environment of the

Trahsition to an Enterprise Information System

ititegtated Computirig Platforms Will Support
Enterprisewide Applicatiri Developient

"Advanced. |
Software |
Environment |

|

Future PC Eriviron ment |
pe

286/386 POS
2M Bytes Memory

Windows 2.1/386
DOS

Current Mixed PC Environment

i

4

In particular, strategies must be formulated to address the
changes associated with the advancement of workstation
technologies, operating systems and applications software.

ence those demands through the setting
of standards and through its market
presence,

When Lotus was a young company
with just one product, it was easy to
comprehend the corporate strategy, To '
some extent, the strategy was defined
by the PC software market and the
enormous success of 1-2-3. Today, as a
mature company among software devel-
opers, Lotus has adopted a more re-
served posture. Longrange predictions
Of future product directions and prom:
ises for delivering specific functionality
lepa particular time are not made pub-

clY. This posture is both an indication

of the complexity of software develop-

sie

H

1990, those with the greatest signifi-
cance to IS managers pose the same
guestions for software vendors such as
Lotus. i

An estimated 18 million PCs world-
wide are being connected in local area
networks to form departmental systems
that share data and applications. Esti-
mates appearing in the technical press
indicate that more than 50 percent of
all office PCs will be networked by
1991, Issues that were once relevant
only in the mainframe environment now
become critically important for
dežna PCs: Security of data, com-
munications, overall throughput, data
integrity and sharing of information

COCTOBER 30, 1989

have now become pertinent to the PC.
Organizations must, implement seam-

less access to data on mainframes and
minicomputers to remain competitive.
Frontrend tools that offer consistent
 functionality and ease of use will be
necessary to take advantage of the
back-end database technology, generat-
ing issues of mainframe security and
data integrity.

Networked environments will facili-
tate the implementation of enterprise-
wide applications, the existence of
which will be mandated by business
conditions. Organizations are realizing
that the gains achieved through the use
of personal-productivity tools are not
sufficient to remain competitive. Future
applications will unite the organization
with the use of common information,
analyses and reporting technigues. The
successful implementation of enterprise-
wide applications will reguire the care-
ful integration of multiple software and
hardware computing platforms—both
by the IS organization and by software
vendors.

Common functions that work the
same regardless of application become
more important as systems and applica-
tions are integrated. The Presentation
Manager interface of OS/2 promises to
provide common funetions via graphical
objects. Graphical interfaces such as X
Window System under Unix have the
same goal.

Short- and Long-Term Solutions

DOS is not: capable of properly sup-
porting the changes reguired by the
computerized corporation of the future.
One short:-term solution employed by Lo-
tus is to use protected-mode technology
such as that found in Rational Systems'
16M-byte DOS Extender. The long-term
solution is to move to a multitasking op-
erating system that can take advantage
of at least 16M bytes of RAM.

'The effective IS manager will recog:
nize these trends and their implications,
and develop viable business plans for
managing future technological changes.
In particular, strategies must be formu-
lated to address the changes associated
with the advancement, of new work-

> station technologies, operating systems

and application software.

Lotus is addressing these concerns by
capitalizing on 1-2-3's strength as the
best-known user interface in the world.
New products such as 1-2-3 release 3,
1-2-3/G and Lotus/DBMS will provide di-
rect access to large corporate databases
through this familiar interface.

Next week, I will discuss Lotus prod-
ucts geared to the spreadsheet, data-
base, text-management, graphics and
word-processing marketa. B

To learn more about the subject of
these articles, please call The James
Martin Report, an information service
updated guarterly, at (800) 242-1240.
For information on seminars, please
contact (in the United States and Can-
ada.) Technology Transfer Institute,
741 10th St, Santa Monica, Calif.
90302 (213) 8394-8305. In Europe, con-
tact Savant, 2 New St., Carnforth,

La: LA5 9BX United Kingdom :
( 0524) 734 505.

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