Lotus and Hewlett-Packard Co. announce strategic alliance; Broad relationship to feature product integration, system management, joint sales, marketing, consulting and support services

Business Wire, Nov 8, 1994

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 8, 1994--Lotus Development Corp. and Hewlett-Packard Co. Tuesday announced a strategic alliance under which the two companies will work together in four key areas: integrating electronic messaging, groupware and network and system management products; sales and marketing; consulting/systems integration services; and support.

This broad alliance is expected to result in the delivery of feature-rich, manageable, enterprise-wide messaging and groupware solutions, featuring a series of products and services beginning next month with the anticipated shipment of a Lotus Notes/HP server bundle.

Beginning in December 1994, the two companies plan to deliver a bundle of the recently shipped Lotus Notes Release 3.2 with each HP 9000 Series 800 HP-UX system for a six-month promotion.

In addition, Lotus is developing Lotus NotesView, an HP OpenView-based monitoring facility for use in the Lotus Notes Release 3.x server domain, and has selected HP's OpenView integrated network and system management software as its exclusive development platform. HP also announced that it has selected Lotus Notes as its strategic platform for developing and deploying groupware applications.

HP and Lotus also announced that their respective consulting organizations plan to team together and provide consulting, education, and systems integration services to help companies develop and implement strategic, enterprise-wide groupware applications. In addition, within these enterprise implementations, HP plans to resell Lotus Notes.

HP announced that it has committed to the Lotus Communications Server (LCS)/Notes as its exclusive, future integrated groupware and messaging standard. HP and Lotus additionally announced they will develop an interoperable solution for Lotus Notes and HP OpenMail, called the OpenMail Exchange Facility for Lotus Notes.

This solution, which HP plans to make available during the first quarter of 1995, is a first step toward improved interoperability between the Lotus Notes and HP OpenMail environments. HP and Lotus will continue to collaborate to incorporate, over time, the key functionality and features of OpenMail in the future LCS/Notes solution. Both Lotus and HP plan to sell and support the current and evolving LCS/Notes products.

"Today HP and Lotus are combining their expertise in messaging, groupware, and network management to provide the best solutions from both companies," said Willem P. (Wim) Roelandts, senior vice president and general manager of the Computer Systems Organization, Hewlett-Packard. "It is expected that customers will benefit from our combined worldwide sales, marketing, consulting, and systems integration efforts.

"This alliance also recognizes the industry leading roles we each play -- HP in messaging, enterprise client/server computing and systems/network management, and Lotus in messaging and groupware. Together, we share a common vision that the long-term future of messaging is an integrated groupware and messaging solution.

"To this end, Lotus and HP are committed to protecting customers' investments in both the long and short term, first with technology that provides better interoperability between the OpenMail and Notes environments, and over the long term, with a common integrated messaging and groupware solution based on LCS/Notes."

According to Jim Manzi, Lotus president and chief executive officer, "HP has shown leadership in network and systems management with HP OpenView. HP is also uniquely positioned to provide worldwide service, support, and systems integration to organizations deploying Notes on an enterprise-wide scale. We believe our mutual customers will benefit tremendously from this relationship."

NotesView to Bring OpenView Technology to Notes Networks

Lotus NotesView is an SNMP-based extension of HP OpenView that enables customers to better manage and monitor Lotus Notes replication and mail routing facilities, as well as make changes to LAN-based or remote configurations or environmental variables from a management station.

Blane Woodard, manager of technical systems at Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co., said, "I regard HP OpenView as an industry standard for managing distributed environments. As OpenMail and Notes users, we are excited about this announcement because of the opportunity it presents to integrate OpenMail, HP OpenView and Lotus Notes."

Lotus Notes for HP-UX

Lotus began shipments this month of its best selling Lotus Notes for HP-UX. "This product provides mutual HP/Lotus customers with the industry's most scalable UNIX platform to meet the requirements of enterprise, client/server solutions," added HP's Roelandts. Additionally, HP shipped earlier this year an HP OpenMail client extension of Lotus' best-selling cc:Mail electronic mail program.

Notes/800 Series Bundle

The Lotus Notes Version 3.2 for HP-UX bundle with HP 9000/800 Series Systems is planned to begin shipping in the United States, Canada, and Europe in December 1994, and will continue for six months through May 1995. It includes Notes software and licenses for one HP-UX server, one HP-UX client and one Windows client, 30 days free support, and other tools, such as a working model and an on-line catalogue of Notes Business Partners. In the United States, a toll-free number will provide additional offerings, as well as match Notes customers to qualified HP resellers.