IBM Notes

IBM Notes (formerly Lotus Notes; see branding, below) and IBM Domino (formerly Lotus Domino) are the client and server, respectively, of a collaborative client-server software platform sold by IBM.

IBM Notes provides business collaboration functions, such as email, calendars, to-do lists, contacts management, teamrooms, discussion forums, file sharing, microblogging, instant messaging, blogs, and user directories. IBM Notes can also be used with other IBM Domino applications and databases. IBM Notes 9 Social Edition removed integration with the office software package IBM Lotus Symphony, which had been integrated with the IBM Lotus Notes client in versions 8.x.

Lotus Development Corporation originally developed "Lotus Notes" in 1989. IBM bought the Lotus corporation in 1995 and it became known as the Lotus Development division of IBM. As of 2015 it forms part of the IBM Software and Systems Group under the name "IBM Collaboration Solutions".

IBM Notes is a desktop workflow application, commonly used in corporate environments for email but can also be used to access databases such as document libraries and custom applications.

Lotus Software

Lotus Software (called Lotus Development Corporation before its acquisition by IBM) was an American software company based in Massachusetts. Lotus is most commonly known for the Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet application, the first feature-heavy, user-friendly, reliable and WYSIWYG-enabled product to become widely available in the early days of the IBM PC, when there was no graphical user interface. Much later, in conjunction with Ray Ozzie's Iris Associates, Lotus also released a groupware and email system, Lotus Notes. IBM purchased the company in 1995 for US$3.5 billion, primarily to acquire Lotus Notes and to establish a presence in the increasingly important client–server computing segment, which was rapidly making host-based products such as IBM's OfficeVision obsolete.

History

Lotus was founded in 1982 by partners Mitch Kapor and Jonathan Sachs with backing from Ben Rosen. Lotus' first product was presentation software for the Apple II known as Lotus Executive Briefing System. Kapor founded Lotus after leaving his post as head of development at VisiCorp, the distributors of the Visicalc spreadsheet, and selling all his rights to Visi-Plot and Visi-Trend to Visi-Corp.