I have a good feeling about Bob Picciano’s stewardship of the Lotus brand. It seems others feel the same way.
Jim Lundy of Gartner blogs:
There is a new General (Manager) at the Lotus Division of IBM. IBM Lotus Software General Manager Bob Picciano has been in place since April 2008, which is long enough to get established and clients are beginning to notice.
I use the term General because leading the troops into battle is all about leadership and Bob appears to have the right stuff to lead. The Collaboration wars have been going on for so long it makes it feel like the ebb and flow that went on in the Star Wars Movie series. Gartner clients continue to seek advice in this area and Gartner Fellow Tom Austin recently published a Q&A Research Note about Collaboration.
Bob is not afraid to go in and fight and it appears he has been doing just that in some major accounts. With a new version of Lotus Notes that is more efficient than ever, Bob has plenty of ammunition with which to do battle with the likes of Microsoft and up-and-comer Google.
I can’t wait to meet Bob at Lotusphere this week – everyone else I’ve spoken to that has been in his company has had nothing but good feedback.
Even better, Jim goes on to complement Notes 8.5:
I’ve been using the Notes 8.5 beta client on my Mac and found it easy to install and so far, it runs flawlessly. Bob will get to tell everyone all about that and all the other Lotus developments at his coming out party at Lotusphere 2009.
A headline – “Gartner say Lotus Notes 8.5 runs flawlessly on the Mac!” – maybe not, it is only a blog post after all, but good news all the same…
