Monday, January 7, 2002		Article

Bountiful career with Lotus Notes
Sumesh Raizada

EVER since the 3W gained popularity, several software and hardware firms have mushroomed all over the world, with their products and services suitable for numerous applications and requirements. However, very few could sustain the market due to intense competition in terms of quality, technology and price. IBM is one of those few firms that is maintaining its status among top ranking IT firms, primarily because of its focus on improvisation of existing products, intensive R&D and providing comprehensive training on its products.

Apart from a range of successful hardware products, IBM is also maintaining some highly popular software for Internet and intranet applications. One such product is Lotus Notes, software for groupware applications. This software helps persons, attached to a local area network or through the Web, to organise their commercial and other activities. Lotus Notes provides applications like scheduling meetings and allocating resources, e-mails, password protection for documents, telephone and fax services, electronic newsletters and distribution of database. Notes is also referred to as workgroup productivity software and its replication feature helps users to work with copies of documents or their modification on a network. Lotus notes is robust and flexible software adept to Internet application with the continuously changing technology and market trends. Among users, it is equally popular compared to other products like Microsoft exchange or Outlook, etc.

Apart form being successful in US and other countries, Lotus Notes are applied in several organisations in India too, for e-mail, database scheduling, etc. Their popularity can be gauged from the fact these software are available in almost all major languages throughout the world, including few Indian languages.

The Domino Servers support Lotus Notes for Web and other applications. Lotus Notes as well as Domino Servers are installed in a number of organisations, both private and government, hence qualified and trained professionals are required for developing and managing them. This offers a wide range of employment prospects for Lotus Notes Professionals. They are employed as application developer, programmer or server administrators. Professionals who are certified in Lotus Notes and Domino server applications command a better position and emoluments in an organisation. The certification includes CLP or Certified Lotus Professionals, CLS or Certified Lotus Specialist, CLA Certified Lotus Administrators, etc.

The earnings of certified Lotus Notes specialists are handsome considering their enormous demand and scarce availability in the market. The average annual earning is Rs 2 to 3 lakh per annum for beginners while those with a few years of experience command a higher emolument. Notes professionals in US command a pay package of about Rs 70 to 80,000 annually, which is higher than industry average.

Those interested in a career as Notes Application Developer and want to begin their career should make themselves proficient in fundamentals of Lotus Notes, client server applications and design aspects. They also have to be aware of Lotus script and Web enabled Lotus Notes. Prior programming experience or exposure to Visual Basic, Java can help a beginner to immediately begin with Lotus script and take up the Lotus notes designing. A person having interest in hardware is more suitable for taking up a career as Notes administrators. Proficiency in Domino servers and additional experience of NT or Unix environment helps in commanding higher price in the market.

One must be regularly updated with the latest versions of Lotus Notes as well as trends in the market. Among them is R5 or Release 5, which has components like Notes client, Domino Designer and Domino Server. For designing Web-based Lotus Notes, proficiency in Lotus script, Java script, HTML, etc. is must. There are number of Lotus authorised training centers, which are providing certification as per Lotus approved curriculum. Some of these are Pentaflour, IBM Ace, Cybernet, SRM Software, etc. One can also browse through a number of Websites for detailed information on notes or domino servers. Some of these are www.Lotus. com, www.notes.net, www.searchdomino.com and www.lotusnotes.com, etc. The LAEC or Lotus-authorised education centres provide education for Lotus Notes and Domino, Lotus Desktop, and Lotus cc:Mail. LAECs are located all over the world and teach in seven different languages. Other option available for learners is to purchase CD ROM for training on Lotus Notes. These courses are meant for end users, application development, and systems administration.

The IBM Ace curriculum has been jointly framed by IIT, Kanpur, and IBM and is highly relevant for users, developers and system administrators in India as well as abroad. The course contents include basic core, advanced core and project specialisation.

The various levels of certification available for Lotus professionals are certified Lotus specialist, certified Lotus professional, principal certified Lotus professional, certified Lotus instructor, and certified Lotus end-user instructor. Beginners start with the Certified Lotus Specialist (CLS) program, which provides basic level of technical expertise on Domino, Notes, cc:Mail, and SmartSuite. After CLS, next option is of Certified Lotus Professional (CLP) program. The CLP certification includes specializations like CLP Notes Application Developer, CLP Notes System Administrator, CLP Domino Messaging Administrator, and CLP cc:Mail System Administrator. Principal Certified Lotus Professional is certification that requires a candidate to qualify additional elective examinations.

The Certified Lotus Instructor (CLI) program is for those who provide training to end-users and have expertise in Lotus courseware. One has to successfully clear CLS certification in order to certify as CLI or CLEI. The CATGlobal and Sylvan Prometric are the independent agencies that conduct certification examinations for Lotus professionals. For application developer certification course, curriculum includes basic application development techniques for Notes, utilization of LotusScript to write database applications, etc. System administrators course includes training on planning, installing, maintaining on Notes System. Curriculum also covers training on Domino utilities.

Lotus Notes Administrator in an organisation assists in the conversions of various packages to Lotus Notes Domino. Lotus Notes Administrator are also responsible for operating and administering Lotus Notes environment; Planning upgrading to Lotus Notes 5.0.,etc. This position requires experience in Lotus Notes administration, designing and managing technical projects and ability to work in a team environment. Lotus Notes consultants are responsible for designing and implementing groupware and Intranet solutions based on Lotus Domino. Position requires experience in application programming with Lotus Notes / Domino, Administration of Lotus Notes/Domino Script, programming languages such as Java, C++, HTML, Databases such as MS SQL, Oracle.

Lotus Notes/Domino Developer position requires strong Lotus Notes 4.6 development knowledge and experience. Other skills required are HTML, Java Script. Lotus Notes / Domino Systems Administrator position requires experience in Domino Server. Besides, one should have understanding of the Notes databases and the database architecture. As a System Administrator a professional is involved in design, configuration and implementation of Lotus Notes / Domino Messaging. The responsibilities include Configuring, Disaster Recovery, Data Replication and Domino partition, Creation and implementation of connection documents, scheduled replication, Monitoring and Tuning of Domino server performance and notes databases. They also implement backup and recovery strategies and e-mail policies.

For a person having an interest in respective fields of programming or hardware administration and having proper training and certification in Notes and Domino, success in this specialised field is definite.