Lotus pushes Notes-based applications on Web

Lotus is trying to break ahead in the small business market by offering Notes-based applications to rent over the Web.

It plans to open a new channel by signing 50 telcos and ISPs to push the products. It already has BT on board.

Larry Moore, Lotus senior VP of the emerging products group, claimed the channel expansion would not undermine existing partners. ?This rounds out our distribution strategy and is a way of delivering technology to small and medium businesses quickly and easily,? he said.

The vendor is offering The Domina SPA (service provider applications) developer kit, which allows Lotus partners to build and customise Lotus Domino applications to be hosted by telcos and ISPs. The monthly cost of applications will be about $10 a user.

Shaun Frohlich, MD of Lotus dealer Bytes, said: ?They are expanding the channel and giving themselves access to a wider audience, which is fine. Whether that audience is ready for it is questionable, so it?s not really a threat.?