Lotus Notes software can be deployed specifically for e-mail, calendar and scheduling as well as integrated personal and team productivity tools (IBM Lotus Notes for Messaging). Or it can be deployed as a customizable desktop platform to access and run collaborative applications in addition to using messaging capabilities (IBM Lotus Notes for Collaboration).

Lotus Notes offers robust security features that can help minimize or eliminate the impact of computer viruses. Execution control features can help keep unauthorized scripts, code and formulas from running on your workstation. Multi-tier security options allow control of access rights from the server level all the way down to an individual field on a form.

Lotus Notes incorporates advanced replication technology that allows users to be productive and efficient even when they are disconnected from the network. Replication enables users to save a local copy of a Lotus Domino application and its data, and to periodically synchronize the data that has changed. Network compression and streaming replication features can help reduce the amount of data transmitted over the network, and thus help minimize use of precious bandwidth resources.

With Version 7, IBM extends the reach of Lotus Notes messaging and collaboration solutions while continuing to leverage your IT and application investments. Integration with IBM^® Workplace^™ products allows organizations to extend and leverage their existing infrastructure investments. Enhanced integration with instant messaging and Web conferencing enables users to have immediate access to the people and tools they need to do their jobs more effectively and make better, more-informed business decisions. And productivity enhancements in e-mail and calendar functions enable users to better manage daily information and resources.

New feature Enhancements

The enhancements listed below represent just some of the many productivity and integration enhancements in IBM Lotus Notes 7.

New productivity features for mail

• Mail threads – while a mail message is open, you can select show mail threads to view all the associated threads in the discussion (such as replies from various people). This enables users to quickly and easily view the most recent information about a particular topic from a single location.
• Attention indicators – visual indicators that specify recipient status and help users prioritize their mail messages. Attention indicators, represented by three types of circles, appear in a designated, sortable column of your Inbox view, indicating your recipient status for a mail message. This visual cue helps you quickly determine which mail messages are directed to your attention and are likely to require a response, versus those that may have been sent for your information only.
• Sorts e-mail – by subject or attention indicators.
• Discover folders feature – helps you organize your documents or messages more effectively by displaying all the folders in which a document is stored.
• Warning message – if you try to send an e-mail with a blank subject line. The warning provides you with the opportunity to enter the information prior to sending.
• Easier ways to flag messages for follow-up – You can quickly flag messages for follow-up by using the quickflag feature or by dragging and dropping the message to the follow upview. This option is also available using the right mouse menu.

• Calendar filters – To decrease the amount of clutter in your calendar, calendar filters let you choose to selectively display information by meeting chairperson, by type (meeting, appointment, etc.), by status (accepted, tentatively accepted), by private (private entries only).
• Auto Processing option – enables the posting of invitations to your calendar even if there is a conflict. You can later view your calendar and make determinations as to which meetings you will or will not attend. This saves time by not requiring users to manually process invitations and by enabling them to manage their day at a glance.
• Enhanced calendar cleanup capability – the option to delete items that occurred before or during a specified period of time is easily accessible from within the calendar view.
• User enhancements for rooms and resources – users can send reminder notices to chairpersons, so that a room or resource can be released in the event a meeting is canceled. They can also transfer rooms to another person without involving an administrator or requiring multiple steps.

• See who is online with expanded presence awareness – extended beyond the inbox to be available in calendar, rooms and resources database, address book and applications such as teamrooms and discussions.
• Paste Lotus Notes links into text messages.
• Save online conversations to your mail file.
• Multi-task with multi-threaded support – instant messaging windows are contained in a separate thread, allowing users to communicate in real time while other Lotus Notes tasks run, such as background replication or printing.

• Autosave – prevents data loss due to software errors, power outages or workstation crashes. You can specify to have your data saved at regularly scheduled intervals. When Lotus Notes restarts, you can then recover autosaved documents or delete them. This is also a useful feature that application developers can add to their own custom Notes applications.
• Set or save open window state – Two options are available to allow you to choose which windows open automatically when the Lotus Notes client starts up:
  - Set a specific window state to be displayed each time the Lotus Notes client is launched.
  - Save the current window state when exiting the Lotus Notes application, and allow it to return to that state the next time the software is launched.
• Confirmation prompt on close – to avoid accidentally exiting the Lotus Notes client while closing other applications. If users choose not to see this confirmation, they have the option to disable it in the preferences settings.
• Enhanced right mouse support – Many of the options available as keyboard actions, in action bar views or in full menus are also available in right-mouse menus, reducing the amount of time and number of clicks needed to perform recurrent actions.
• Close all open Lotus Notes windows with a single selection from the File menu.

• Create a preaddressed e-mail memo
• Create a preaddressed invitation to a meeting
• Show the details about the person in the Domino Directory or personal name and address book

• New IBM Lotus Domino server task to eliminate over bookings and increase Rooms and Resources efficiency and availability
• Simplified and streamlined templates to enhance the Calendaring and Scheduling user experience
• Enhanced functionality that enables administrators to establish an end date for future reservations
• Customizable reminder notices for weekly and/or daily meetings or events

• Lotus Notes/Domino has been Number 1 in the messaging and/or "integrated collaborative environment" market annually (IDC and/or Gartner)
• Lotus Notes has shipped over 110 million user seats, to over 65000 organizations
• Over 1500 organizations, representing over 1 million seats, have migrated to Notes/Domino from competing messaging systems in 2002 -2003.
• The Notes/Domino business grew 15 percent in the first quarter of 2004, gaining share in a flat/declining market

• Network Computing - 10th Annual Well-Connected Awards - Enterprise Groupware Server (13 May 2004)
  Groupware is a vital part of doing business, as collaborative workspaces, group calendars and instant messaging become necessities, not luxuries. And IBM's Lotus Domino 6.5 is our top choice in this growing -- and increasingly competitive -- market because it makes life easier for users and administrators alike. We liked the instant messaging (IM) support within the main Notes client, and Domino's robust Web client gives users access to mail, calendaring and to-do lists from most anywhere. Admins can develop custom applications tailored to business needs. This standards-based application development is also multiplatform, so enterprisewide administration can be accomplished from a single console. Domino suite just keeps getting better with each revision.
• Network Computing Editors Choice Award (1 April 1 2004)
  "Domino has the easiest user administration interface, and it includes more built-in functionality than its competitors. Domino's application development is standards-based and multiplatform, and the client software is infinitely configurable"
• PC Magazine - Editor's Choice Award (17 February 2004)
  For small and midsize companies looking both for basic e-mail and for group calendaring, the choice comes down to Domino or Exchange. In Domino's favor: better multiplatform support, easier setup, and more features (such as instant messaging) included in the base product. Notes also offers unmatched customizing with a programming language and interface design tool that lets you build collaborative tools, workflows, and databases tailored exactly to your company's needs.
• Linux World - Domino Web Access wins Best In Show (23 January 2004)
  Domino Web Access is the latest version of the rich browser mail client for Domino, and the first to support Mozilla on Linux
• InfoWorld - Best Enterprise Collaboration Platform (5 January 2004)
  For its "greatly improved interface, both for the Web and stand-alone," Lotus Notes and Domino 6.5 was selected the "Best Enterprise Collaborative Platform"
• ZDNet Australia - Editor's Choice Award (22 August 2003)
  IBM's Lotus Domino 6 Enterprise Server and Lotus Notes 6 is an impressive collaboration product that is packed with features

• Lotus Notes/Domino has maintained forward/backward compatibility in every single release. A Notes R2 application from 1992 can run in the beta of Notes 7 (scheduled for first quarter of 2005) with no modification. This protects customer investments
• Lotus is shipping new releases of Notes/Domino approximately every 12-18 months. Customers can count on current technology and ongoing value from the product line
• The majority of Lotus's customers worldwide are in process or completed with upgrading to the current Notes/Domino 6.x release
• Microsoft has made no announcement of a future version of Exchange Server; they recently scrapped the "Kodiak" project which was supposed to ship in 2003
• Microsoft has removed most collaborative capabilities from Exchange, moving them into new (separately licensed) products for team spaces, instant messaging, conferencing, and portal