Lotus ups workflow area stake

Software Groupware vendor buys German company, strengthening Domino Web server.

Lotus has re-inforced its position in the workflow space followingo Web server. its acquisition of German software applications vendor Onestone.

The groupware vendor plans to build Onestone's Prozessware workflow management system into Domino Web server, claiming it would allow firms to convert paper-based processes automatically to electronically controlled systems.

Brian Bell, senior vice president of the knowledge management division at Lotus, said: 'Organisations are always looking for ways to simplify the many cumbersome, paper-based processes that sap employees' time and energies, distracting them from the work they are paid to accomplish.'

'Giving these businesses, as well as the developers building their applications, the ability to quickly design and deploy automated workflow applications is one answer to that challenge,' he added.

Jim Moffat, product marketing manager for messaging and groupware at Lotus, said the acquisition would help customers model their business more effectively using Domino. 'It has all the workflow capabilities needed, but Prozessware adds a workflow management dimension to Domino,' he said.

Moffat confirmed that authorised Onestone business partners would automatically become Lotus business partners. 'The two companies were very close anyway, so this will not greatly affect Onestone partners,' he stressed.

Onestone sells indirect for all but its largest accounts. Frank Iveson, chief executive of NotesWare, Onestone's biggest channel partner in the UK, said the deal would further its mutually beneficial relationship with Lotus and Onestone. 'We look forward to continuing our long-standing commitment to the workflow market,' he said.

Onestone's R&D takes place in Paderborn, Germany and it has offices in Boston, the UK and the Netherlands. The financial details of the deal were not disclosed.

Lotus told the Lotusphere conference in Orlando earlier this year that its Domino Application Server R5 would be the first Web application server to merge enterprise connectivity with services such as workflow, and would eventually support ERP applications such as SAP, JD Edwards and Oracle (PC Dealer, 27 January).

See Face to Face, page 22.