Notes Faces Competition From Novell

International Business Machines Corp.’s acquisition of Lotus Development last week has cast a spotlight on Notes, the software program that by common perception defines collaborative computing. But Notes faces a competitor that already has more than twice as many users: Groupwise from Novell Inc.

Most discussion of Notes competitors has focused on the Microsoft Corp.’s Exchange, which is not even scheduled for release until late this year or early next.

But Novell may be in a better position with Groupwise because its Netware operating system dominates the world of networked computing as thoroughly as Microsoft’s Windows does desktop computers.

And in work-group computing, where individuals share documents and tasks at several sites on multiple computers, the network is the strategic component, not the desktop.

Groupwise claims 3.3 million users, to Notes’ 1.5 million. Customers include McDonnell Douglas, the Environmental Protection Agency; the law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, and the Guggenheim Museum.

That Groupwise does not enjoy the same level of public recognition as Notes owes more to marketing than technology, analysts say. While Groupwise does not do everything Notes does, it does most of the things most Notes users care about - and in a more accessible way.

Like Notes, Groupwise runs on major operating systems while Exchange, at least initially, will be limited to Windows.

“It’s probably the best-kept secret of the industry,” said John Dunkle, president of Workgroup Strategic Inc., a Portsmouth, N.H., consultant.

Groupwise’s low visibility “is not for lack of technology or lack of vision about where the group-ware market is going, it’s for lack of commercial identity,” Dunkle said.