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Baltimore Police Department Is Still Using Lotus Notes (baltimoresun.com)
swm writes: The Baltimore police department is still using an antiquated (1996) case-management system based on Lotus notes. A recent technology assessment found "millions of records and roughly 150 databases built into the system, each designed to address different unit and personnel needs," reports Baltimore Sun. The report found that the "siloed nature of the Lotus Notes databases made it difficult for officers to match, verify or search for information. [...] Various systems may also contain 'conflicting information' about the same case, or may not reflect the most complete information."
"At the same time, detectives continue compiling and using paper case folders," the report stated. "Depending on the unit and the detective, the appropriate Lotus Notes database and/or hard copy case folder system may or may not be up-to-date, and the systems may or may not match." The consultant who is paid to maintain the system says that it is "working wonderfully for the police." Despite these concerns that the assessment addressed, Baltimore's spending panel agreed to pay $176,800 to the consultant to help maintain the outdated system. The police department's chief spokesperson said in a statement Thursday that the agency will be moving away from Lotus Notes in the future. "However, until such time, we must manage and maintain the product that we currently use which is Lotus Notes," he said.
"At the same time, detectives continue compiling and using paper case folders," the report stated. "Depending on the unit and the detective, the appropriate Lotus Notes database and/or hard copy case folder system may or may not be up-to-date, and the systems may or may not match." The consultant who is paid to maintain the system says that it is "working wonderfully for the police." Despite these concerns that the assessment addressed, Baltimore's spending panel agreed to pay $176,800 to the consultant to help maintain the outdated system. The police department's chief spokesperson said in a statement Thursday that the agency will be moving away from Lotus Notes in the future. "However, until such time, we must manage and maintain the product that we currently use which is Lotus Notes," he said.
"outlook was better than the Lotus Mail client"
ANYTHING would be better than the Lotus mail client. Kids shooting wadded-up paper notes as spitwads through straws would be better. I was forced to use Lotus Notes for about a year and still shudder. The UI was obtuse. It was feature-poor and slow, painfully slow, to deliver messages. It was unstable. It was bad in every way that software can be bad. We ended up using the telephone a lot more than a modern software operation should, because e-mail was so bad. Whoever programmed it should be shot.
I never used Notes for anything other than e-mail, but that experience would make me run screaming from the rest of it. It's very hard to square your "nothing to compare" observation with my experience.
An ancient groupware product maintained and sold by IBM.
It's built on replicating proprietary non-SQL databases, a PKI system for access control, encryption and digital signatures. The servers can translate the content into web pages, or fat clients can access the system using the native format.
It's honestly an amazing bit of software which gets a bad rep due to a clunky UI, predating open standards on many of these things and a very fat, fat client.
IBM's purchase of Lotus and subsequent poor marketing has kept it from competing with MS for decades now. It's been relegated to government use and IBM use. The concept is due for a re-invention, but cloud services like Google Docs and o365 provide the most important bits of functionality and are closest to replacing its capabilities.
IBM is very good at supporting things for a LONG time, so I don't think it's going to disappear very soon.