Lotus confirms support for Notes and Domino R4.6

As previously stated in January of this year, IBM subsidiary Lotus Development Corp. has confirmed IT support for its Notes, Domino and Domino Designer R4.6 products will continue through January 2003. Engineering support will continue through January, 2002 and phone support will continue through January, 2003. Lotus will evaluate the need to continue support based on customer input in January, 2003. The company remains committed to providing support for its Notes and Domino 4.6 users while offering an evolutionary path for moving customers to the R5 product set with little disruption of daily business processes.

Many of Lotus` customers have already successfully upgraded to the Notes and Domino R5 products and are realizing significant productivity, scalability and usability improvements. Lotus understands customers should move forward at their own pace while building upon existing infrastructure investments, and not be forced into any upgrade path for any reason. Through Notes and Domino, Lotus customers and Business Partners can leverage flexible, low-touch, built-in upgrade tools and programs to help them move from existing 4.6 or competing implementations to the R5 product set.

Feedback from our customers indicates that by 2002, much of the Lotus installed base will have moved to the R5 products.Lotus will continue to work closely with customers in driving the migration process forward while remaining sensitive to each organization`s business and upgrade requirements.

Lotus pioneered online enterprise collaboration and as a result of its Notes and Domino products, remains the industry leader by allowing organizations to communicate, share information and cost effectively design Web applications that improve employee productivity and administration. Domino is platform independent and does not rely on just one network operating system or directory solution to provide maximum value, so, unlike competitive messaging products, organizations need not "rip and replace" existing application investments in order to upgrade for added functionality.

In addition, Lotus Notes and Domino have traditionally provided e-mail security features including execution and access control lists, password-protected access and e-mail filters that provide an unsurpassed, secure collaboration infrastructure.