Lotus Notes is a scalable platform for rapidly developing and deploying applications to support workgroups, including mobile and geographically dispersed users.

Sometimes you just want to publish information and let users do what they want with it. Notes reference databases are useful for distributing information to a large audience.    Reference databases differ from most Notes databases in that information is pushed out to users rather than collected or routed to users.

Unlike typical records, Notes documents can contain any number of data types. These data types are stored in the Notes document as fields. Examples of data that can be stored in a document include:

Graphics Video Tabular data Scanned images

Linked or embedded objects Voice/sound Formatted text

• E-mail is the umbilical cord connecting mobile users to headquarters. Notes enables users to mail any Notes document from any database, not just those stored in mailboxes. This flexibility enhances the ability of mobile users to keep in touch
• Replication is the means by which multiple copies of databases are kept synchronized. Replication enables mobile users and remote offices to have their own copies of a database with minimal impact on Notes administrators and application developers
• Robust security. You can use Notes to encrypt data being sent over public networks and databases stored on laptops. The availability of encryption makes it an easier to support mobile users by giving them the option of storing data on their laptops, and by protecting e-mail
• Pager and fax gateways. Pager and fax gateways add flexibility to your Notes network. Administrators should investigate the use of a pager gateway as a way to have Notes automatically notify them of problems

• Do you have mobile users who need access to their data while out of the office ?
• Do you have departments that need to share data ?
• Do you need to develop applications faster than in the past ?
• Do you want to protect your investment in legacy systems ?
• Do you need a solution that can grow with your business ?

• Reduce product development time
• Enhance relationships with customers
• for Customer Support
  • Use discussion databases to track problems and solutions. Lotus uses a modified discussion database to track problems and issues for Notes
• for Feedback and Opinion
  • Why waste an hour of everyone's time when each person may only contribute one or two sentences? Create a discussion database, post the item of interest, and gather feedback without a meeting
• for Brainstorming
  • Discussion databases let people post their ideas whenever they have them
• Security is important when many Notes users are mobile and geographically separated. Notes provides security at various levels
  • Server level - Notes uses a user ID file to authenticate server-to-server security and client-to-server security
  • Database level - Access control lists (ACLs) are used to determine which user or groups of users have access to a database
  • Document level - Documents support two types of access control lists: ReaderNames fields and AuthorNames fields
  • Field level - Within documents, a field or set of fields can be encrypted so that they can be restricted to only specific users