This was asked of me in a blog comment and I decided it needed it's own post.
LAST MINUTE UPDATE: See these slides which are from Lotsuphere 2009 for a detailed overview of how these products complement, differ and will go forward. I found this searching Google, so if IBM wants it not published, let me know.
The simple answer of course is progress. In this case Domino.Doc or IBM's Lotus Domino Document Manager(LDDM) as it is called now, has not been updated in over 2 years, is NOT R8 certified(some do run it under R8 but not advisable unless you know what you are doing) and currently lacks support for Office 2007 with it's ribbon(you can resolve the crashes by swapping the normal.dot template or reinstalling office for Excel and other issues). Some report Vista issues but I run the .Doc enablers fine on my machine, but then I use Lotus Symphony exclusively, which LDDM also doesn't integrate too, naturally as this is a newer program as well.
Quickr is not better than LDDM in one primary way, and this is where most people fall into 2 camps. Document management needs vs. basic group documentation or usage.
For almost all other reasons you use LDDM, you could use Quickr, but you still have the options to use Filenet or ECM as well.
If your company uses LDDM and has heavily customized your LDDM implementation or integrated Lotus Workflow, as an example, you probably are a heavy using document management company. Usual industryies for this are governments, insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, some technical vendors, medical companies, law firms and I worked on a co-op farming group even, as well as many others as well.
You might require rigorous check-in/out options, multiple document tracking, and strong customization for your file cabinets and folders with highly detailed security as well. Quickr is not likely going to meet your needs, although it does provide other practical items that may override your needs as I will discuss in a minute.
What makes Quickr better is the connectors which integrate into anything you use on your PC(Windows usually) from Explorer, to IE to Sametime to Office 2007. There is also the group interaction for notifications of documents and more easily customizable look/feel, simpler user interface which is always welcome especially by your younger employees.
Quickr does include a number of security access levels for your sites and even private areas within your sites that only defined users can work with and see. In LDDM you would have had to create separate folders.
Quickr does have a basic check-in/out option, although not as detailed as LDDM.
Quickr also provides a built-in option to save attachments in a Quickr file and not your email file which allows for better record consolidation and file management as well.
Quickr is a wholly Web based product which means you no longer need to maintain 2 sides of the program for access, like you do in LDDM and everything is done from a browser including 95% of all administration. The other 5% is at a server console level or qpconfig.xml file editing.
Quickr 8.2(ETA Q2 2009) will integrate with Lotus Domino 8.5 and benefit from the DAOS option of saving attachments in one location and providing doclinks to everyone receiving it. Saving you space, time and if you use mail quota's, headaches about this as well.
Lastly, Quickr comes in 2 flavors, Domino and J2EE. A personal edition is also provided which extends its benefits to the individual users which do not require a full server for smaller or more specific group related projects.
You may find yourself wondering about the different versions of Quickr, namely the J2EE or Quickr for Domino version. You can read this post about my discussion with Dave Kajmo, the Quickr Product manager or this more detailed explanation of comparisons or some examples of how our clients use it here.
As of May 12, 2009, the LDDM software will not be available for purchase; end of support will take effect on September 30, 2012. So if you need to make sure you have the software, go download it for what will be the last time.
To be fair though, the DDM connectors are easier for users to get to grips with, and have offline capability etc.
ReplyDeleteDDM with DAOS would be great, and give even morescalability
The connectors and email integration benefits of Quickr are really only a benfit because IBM did not invest in DDM for 2years (much longer really DDM has not had significant investment in features since 3.5)
What I think people really wanted was a blend of the 2 applications.
Quickr is not beter than DDM, it is different, it is more about collaboration nor document management.
Users want both, and they want them on the Domino platform, not having to invest in other solutions.
Anon,
ReplyDeleteLDDM with DAOS is interesting, but not going to happen.
I find the connectors MUCH easier and friendlier for the way I work than the Doc enabler, but then they work differently.
Connectors, enabler, different technologies, different times, but yes, the same benefit just augmented for modern times.
I agree a blend of the 2 would be perfect, but then as I suggest some companies use LDDM in a heavier way than others who use it as a secure file server.
Quickr is indeed about collaboration and is different, which is why I suggested it was not better.
IBM messed this one up by not realizing the love for Domino perhaps for the solution or the true size of the document management business.
I could not tell you which one it was, but IBM bought Filenet and ECM for the high end and that is the path they prefer you go if you need document management more than collaboration.
The connectors don't support custom meta data or setting security for documents. The connectors don't show up in the Open/Close dialog (so applications other than office can't use it) and the different between file-save and save-to-quickr confuses all users.
ReplyDeleteHowever all this should be fixed in a future version of the connectors.
File save and save to Quickr is a training issue in my mind.
ReplyDeletePeople using Quickr have various ways to store files to their sites, perhaps not perfectly as you point out, but again, it all depends on what you are using LDDM for that makes moving to Quickr a good choice.
I am not advocating everyone move to it, it's not yet ready for full document management, just highlighting some basic ideas around it.
Are we not loosing out on the power of the Notes Client? The plug in is not really using the power of notes client, just plain html communication?
ReplyDeleteBasically, in my company we were looking to have Notes Client based Document Management system but finally ended up developing something on our own. And I feel like I'm reinventing the wheel...
And I have not seen what is the road map of QuickR from Lotus. Any ideas you can share about it please?
Srinivas,
ReplyDeleteI understand your concern, yet I also see the future, as I am sure do you and it is not in proprietary clients. I see the future as plug-ins and connectors, but that is just my view.
The Lotus Quickr roadmap was shown at Lotusphere and I could not find it online in a public place. We can discuss via skype or Sametime if you need some quick answers.