A forthcoming version of Lotus Notes with a thorough revamp of its user interface will take centre-stage at the Lotusphere conference in Orlando, Florida next week. The UI and other improvements should help Lotus shore up its user base that stands at about 120 million users.

The look and feel of Notes has long been derided by critics but version 8, which went into beta-testing in December, will show off a new face for the collaboration software thanks to the deployment of the Eclipse-based rich-client UI. Mail and calendar views will also be refreshed with the ability to preview messages via a vertical pane, an indicator for threaded discussions, photos of contacts and the ability to select only critical meeting attendees.

Notes will also be better integrated with Sametime instant messaging and will be presence-aware so users can select the most appropriate means of communication.

Lotus also plans to build in productivity applications to Notes, using the OpenOffice suite that supports the Open Document Format (ODF), designed to protect against interoperability issues. Other improvements will include the ability to build composite applications and improved integration between Notes and SAP and other enterprise applications.

Peter O’Kelly of analyst firm Burton Group said the user interface would be given its “most significant update since Notes 4” and added that the inclusion of the productivity applications would be a boon for companies with desktop estates spanning Windows, Macintosh and Linux.

“Today, users are accustomed to blogs, instant messaging and Wikis and they’re overwhelmed by email so they’re more receptive to new approaches,” O’Kelly said.
Although Microsoft Outlook and Exchange lead in enterprise messaging, O’Kelly said that the Notes upgrade will help Lotus protect its strong position in collaboration.

“I don’t think it’s a foregone conclusion that Microsoft SharePoint will overtake Notes and [competition between Microsoft and Lotus should ensure] a phenomenal year for corporate customers,” he said.