Smartsuite cuts threaten margins

Dealers will face increasing pressure on margins as price cuts of up to 25 per cent loom on Lotus Smartsuite 97.

At a business applications strategy briefing last week, Larry Rushfeld, Lotus general manager for product development and strategy, said Lotus was ready to shake up the applications market through aggressive pricing.

He said this was the only difference between Smartsuite and MS Office.

'I would love to say Smartsuite was much better than Office, but the reason why people are changing from Office to Smartsuite is price.'

Lotus' bid to grow market share by undercutting rivals may find it tough going against Corel. Upgrades to Corel Wordperfect Office cost #69, and have cost as little as #49 with hardware. Smartsuite upgrades cost about #149.

Steve Dunbar, Lotus EMEA Smartsuite product marketing manager, confirmed that there would be price cuts, but claimed Lotus would protect the channel.

'Resellers can be profitable with extra services around Smartsuite and we are developing marketing programmes to safeguard the channel from margin erosion,' he said.