One of the many powerful features of IBM Lotus Notes has always been
its ability to change or increase functionality by applying templates
to the design of a Notes application. In the case of Lotus Notes Mail, a 3rd Party mail template can be used to extend the functionality of standard Lotus Notes Mail experience by adding features not available in the standard Notes Mail template.
It is understandable that Notes Administrators may have some concerns
about allowing the use of 3rd party Mail templates with Lotus Notes.
At the same time, there are valid arguments for why users
should be permitted to extend their use of Lotus Notes with third party
(non IBM) templates for Lotus Notes.
The purpose of this Wiki page is to collect this information in one place so
that it may be considered when evaluating the use of a 3rd Party Mail template.
Business justification for the use of a 3rd Party Mail Template:
- Increased end-user productivity
- Support better business decision making
- Improved interaction with colleagues, partners, and customers
- Makes users more productive, responsive, and proactive
- Helps to show the strength and adaptability of IBM Lotus Software
- Increases user's like for Lotus Notes
- May not want to support more than one Mail template
- Concerns about potential impact on server performance
- If I allow my users to use a 3rd party template, who do I call for support?
Responses to the above business justifications and administrator concerns:
(Please comment here. If you have new justifications or concerns, please add them above.)
Domno admin's use third party tools for monitoring/reporting all the time. Consider the mail design as another third party tool, don't get stuck in the "its the mail file" paradigm. Most admins see any mail template updates as "load convert, compact,
updall,", and have been burned in the past with the folder mishigas. Its sort of like holy ground, mess up a mail file and the customer gets interrupted. eProductivity is quite automated and able to perform some update tasks automatically, without getting the admin involved. Some admins are not using good template managment techniques and have been hurt in the past.
I think if you had a video demo of the steps to put the template on the server, sign, analyze existing template usage and update one user, admins could see its not a big deal to implement. Server performance and Security, ie how many extra views for server based mail files compared to the OEM, For security, does the application communicate to a home server, or can the updates be controlled from within the organization. just a few thoughts.....