IBM to Seduce, Not Compel, Notes Users ...

By Mark Hall

September 27, 2004 12:00 PM ET

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Computerworld - ... to adopt DB2 as the primary data store in Domino/Notes 7 when it's released in next year's second quarter. Ken Bisconti, vice president of Lotus and software portal products at IBM, acknowledges that the document-centric object store built into Domino and Notes "has not been readily compatible with relational databases." That's putting it mildly, according to some Notes experts . Getting Notes information into a relational database has been something of a pain, but Bisconti says that pain goes away with Release 7. An optional DB2 data store can be fully integrated with Notes, including e-mail and calendaring applications. Bisconti emphasizes, though, that no user is going to be force-marched to DB2 land. "The additional capability is an option, not a requirement," he states - repeatedly. But you can almost hear the wooing in Bisconti's voice when he touts the advantages that Domino and Notes users will get from a fully integrated database. It's easier for DBAs to administer a single-data-store architecture, he says. Plus, you can perform Notes replication functions on your DB2 database. And you'll get the cool things a real database offers, such as stored procedures, relational joins and improved performance on ad hoc queries. Bisconti acknowledges that Release 7's DB2 integration will lack some of the responsiveness and storage capacity of a Notes data store because IBM is focusing on getting the integration right. Release 8 will address those shortcomings, when it ships in 2007 or so, he says.


Premier Inc. CIO Joseph Pleasant

"You say 'tomato' ...
... I say 'a spherical red fruit loaded with small seeds.' " With apologies to Fred Astaire, you can't call off the need for a complex naming system, especially if you're running an online catalog that takes product descriptions from hundreds of health care suppliers and presents the ordering data to 1,700 not-for-profit hospitals nationwide. That's the dilemma Premier Inc. CIO Joseph Pleasant confronted earlier this year when he loaded into his "item master" 1.5 million product descriptions that needed to be understandable to suppliers as well as potential buyers. "They're not always speaking the same language," observes Pleasant from Premier's Charlotte, N.C., headquarters. "Suppliers use unique branding terms that they need to refer to, yet it must make sense for hospital buyers, too." To bridge the definition chasm, Pleasant uses Perfect Product Suite from FullTilt Solutions Inc. in Wayne, Pa. With it, he can put data into a standard format, cleanse it and automatically present the information to various constituencies. He says the FullTilt tool has saved

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