Last month IBM released SmartCloud Docs (formerly called IBM Lotuslive Symphony) at a pricing competitive to other offerings in the market like Google Docs or Microsoft Office 365. It is free for existing SmartCloud Advanced customers and $3 per user per month for SmartCloud Standard customers. It is based on Apache OpenOffice and offers solid collaborative features including real-time coediting. Even though the cost appears to be cheaper than Google Docs, it is expensive when the cost of SmartCloud subscription is added to the cost. However, it offers some mature collaboration features compared to Google Docs.
Having said that it is time for me to revisit the analysis I did two years back on IBM’s SmartCloud Docs (called Lotuslive Symphony then). Many things have changed since then and I would like to take a look at the market landscape again. To begin with, let us look at what has changed. Unlike in 2011, Google is more focussed on enterprises even if their penetration is limited. Microsoft has a solid cloud strategy for their Office productivity suite. Now, let us look at some of the points I raised in that article two years back and see how it compares to today’s reality.
In my previous article, I said
It is tough for a consumer focussed company like Google to convince enterprises to use modern technologies but, if they succeed, it also offers them an opportunity to grab the marketshare before Microsoft wakes up to the new reality.
IBM’s entry into this space changes the market dynamics entirely. Unlike Google, IBM has enormous clout in the enterprise space and they can easily push their web based office suite to the enterprise customers using this clout.
As I told earlier in this post, Microsoft is a serious contender now. However, IBM still has a powerful sales team that could push their cloud office productivity suite to their IBM Connections customers. Legacy software companies make up for the lack of innovation with the muscle power of their sales teams. I think IBM and Microsoft has an advantage here but let us not underestimate Google here.
In my previous article, I said
IBM has a great vision for social business. If they execute this vision well and make Symphony Live an integrated part of this strategy, they could really grab a good marketshare over both Google and Microsoft.
In the past two years, IBM has followed up on their Social Business vision. If you ask me if I am satisfied with their Social Business offering, I will say “not entirely”. However, they are in a much better situation in tackling the social business buzz than they were two years back. It will be interesting to see if they can push IBM Connections and SmartCloud Docs in a big way to enterprise customers who are slowly warming up to cloud based social offerings from younger companies.
In my previous article, I said
Google has an upper hand with the pricing model and mobile strategy. Even though IBM promised me that their offering with be competitive to the other offerings in the market, I don’t think IBM will be willing to enter a price war with Google. Plus, I haven’t got any hint about IBM’s mobile strategy for their office suite. Today’s enterprises are embracing mobile in a big way and if LotusLive Symphony doesn’t offer a compelling mobile experience, they could easily lose out to Google
I will have to reserve my opinion in this case. During last year’s Lotusphere, I discussed with them about their mobile strategy on the Social Business side but I didn’t hear anything about about the SmartCloud Docs mobile offerings. With Microsoft and Google ramping up their Office mobile strategy with native applications, IBM has to offer mobile version of their Office productivity suite. If they don’t, as I told in my previous article, they will lose out. Since I haven’t heard anything from IBM on this, I will leave it here and revisit at a later date.
In short, IBM is trying their best to compete in this social and cloud world. Their success is entirely dependent on the muscle power of their sales teams. We will have to wait and see where they are going in the next two years.
Related articles
- IBM Doesn’t Compete With Google Drive. Really (readwrite.com)
- IBM SmartCloud Enterprise – Features and Functions (clean-clouds.com)
- IBM Expands the Power of Social Media Business with New Cloud, Mobile Advances (hispanicbusiness.com)
- IBM Launches Cloud Docs In Competion With Google (valuewalk.com)
- IBM Launches Cloud Docs; Eyes Google, Microsoft (informationweek.com)
Regarding mobile, have you tried SmartCloud Docs on your iPad yet?
I haven’t and I don’t have a SmartCloud account itself. I am waiting for an opportunity to get a briefing from IBM so that I can see them demo their apps.