An insight from Lotusphere (and the Opening General Session) is that the word “Lotus” has been limited or eliminated in many natural spots including the lanyards, bags, conference brochures and mentions during the OGS. Perhaps the biggest insight of all is that all the IBM “Lotus” executives are without “Lotus” in their title, with “IBM Collaborative Solutions” now taking the place of “Lotus”.

Could this 'small detail' be one of the big announcements at the Closing General Session, in that IBM is retiring the Lotus Name and revitalizing the Brand under “IBM Collaborative Solutions”?

There's some logic in that it would be extremely hard to keep the lid on this announcement with hundreds of speakers at Lotusphere, and forcing them to update their charts would be a headache if announced at the OGS.  If IBM does make this "Lotus Retirement" announcement at the CGS, this would be bigger than a simple name change. IBM would attempt to pull the rug from under Microsoft’s feet, and this time, it might actually work. The Shift would be on. IBM would race to cement itself as the market leader in Collaborative and Social Business technology space - one in which it has a huge head start.

Now some context: Microsoft seems to be gaining traction in converting Lotus Notes and Domino customers to Microsoft Exchange. To stop this, IBM is taking a page out of the Intel Corp. playbook.

This makes sense, a lot of sense. If you want to stop Microsoft, declare Lotus retired.. Why?

A thought to consider: If IBM embraces the battle over email, but declares it a commodity, IBM Collaborative Solutions (I mean “Lotus”) will win the War. Moving to Exchange right now is answering the wrong question – why make a switch from on-premise to on-premise when this ‘commodity’ is best served (and costed) from the ‘Cloud’? Why spend hundreds of thousands of dollars (or millions) in migration services on something that will be completely over-priced (and costed) in the next 2-3 years. At that time ‘to save money’, you’ll be migrating again.  That’s not a sound strategic decision. With the pace of technological change, why not wait at least a year to see how things play?  

The one thing that IBM is not declaring a commodity on is the Social Business. Re-branded under the Collaborative and Social banner, now Microsoft suddenly appears to be dated, ie ‘Legacy’. Why would one move their ‘legacy’ Lotus Notes and Domino to ‘Legacy’ Microsoft Exchange? The IBM shift has begun. The discussion has now changed.

Email will now be compared to email – Domino email vs. Exchange. IBM Collaborative Solutions platform vs. Microsoft Sharepoint.  Social Business Framework vs. … Microsoft what? There’s now a gap in the comparison. Break apart the platform, the Brand,  to better compete against Microsoft to truly expose the holes. Piece against Piece – All without what some perceive as a brand that needs a major repair (Lotus). The Lotus brand has an extensive, rich history - but this paradigm shift just might require a shift in IBM Brand Marketing methodology. Oddly, this new brand, "IBM Collaborative Solutions" just might be easier to push forward than the Lotus Brand. Business Partners will be happy (again).

This IBM bet might just accomplish what couldn’t be achieved before:  Stall Lotus Notes and Domino migrations. With the charge of Google, this might actually help. The enemy of my enemy is now my friend.

IBM has given out the new Battle plan: Creating the Collaborative and Social business.

January 31, 2011 is IBM’s Phoenix moment. Better. Stronger. Nimbler. Long live Lotus. ( or do I mean IBM Collaborative Solutions?).