Sanity Check

We're all familiar with the concept of GRAND OPENINGS. This is what those smart retailers do that understand Murphy's law. Think of a brand new store that opens its doors and runs quietly for a few weeks without much fanfare while the new staff get up to speed, the kinks in their systems get worked out, and the owners make adjustments to those things that are not quite working out in reality as were anticipated in theory. Everyone can go to the store, not just an elite few, but its generally just the locals who drive by and see the Open light is on that go in. This is known in market-speak as the soft-launch phase. Everybody knows what's coming next. Once the owners are satisfied they are ready for the big time, a GRAND OPENING takes place. Balloons, baboons, celebrities, fanfare and ribbon cutting, never to be repeated door crashers, you name it. The event is marketed far and wide with intensity.

Now apply this to Notes Domino releases. Most of us that are in the yellow bubble know that version 8.5 was code-complete a week or so before Christmas and is just sitting there waiting for the right time. Nobody will dispute the wisdom in waiting till after Christmas and New Years for the "GRAND OPENING". You want to have a clear voice in the market and there's just too many other competing messages out there during the holiday season, not to mention that many of the decision-makers are absent from the office and will not likely return until this coming Monday.

However, does it not occur to IBM that approved code sitting on the shelf is lost opportunity to allow the "locals", those who are the most evangelistic Lotus followers, to get up to speed and excited about the technology. Then when the GRAND OPENING (aka Official Release date) kicks off, complete with press releases, viral videos (sorry, I know its not viral till it is), and other such marketing splashes, those of us who are the most excited about the release can jump on board with our voices via blogs and other expressions. As well, during a soft launch phase, IBM can monitor the general chatter and evaluate their GRAND OPENING messages that are in the can for any last minute adjustments they might want to make. For example, perhaps there is a particular feature they didn't expect to be so well received, and one that they made a major plank in their communication needs to be deephasized. While some of this can be assessed by the responses to the betas, there is nothing like reading the responses to the final code.

Just thinking...sorry. Taking marketing hat off now.

RWR