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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that the assessment addressed, Baltimore's spending panel agreed to pay $176,800 to the consultant to help maintain the outdated system.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that the assessment addressed, Baltimore's spending panel agreed to pay $176,800 to the consultant to help maintain the outdated system.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.
suspect calls himself a "consultant"
Remember kids, if you're not paying for the service, YOU ARE THE PRODUCT THAT IS BEING SOLD.
After working 20 years in IT, I can honestly say there is nothing to compare to Lotus Notes and its simplistic and powerful way it works. This is why its still there. The only reason it is not currently top dog, is because exchange came along in the late 90s and outlook was better than the Lotus Mail client. Anyone trying to tell me sharepoint is good has rocks in their head, its bloated and requires way to much training and development to make it anywhere near an out of the box Lotus Notes install.
$176k to keep it working? It will cost them $176 Million to replace it, resulting a similar level of hassles, errors, and inconsistencies as before. Just different ones.
Most or all of the problems in the article have no relationship to the fact that the software helping to support the bureaucracy is Notes. The detectives use of paper case files won't magically go away just because the software is replaced. Also, just perhaps, they Know What They're Doing, and paper has valuable or required chain-of-evidence advantages?
Isn't almost everything else of its ilk "decades old" (never mind still in active development like Notes)
Painful because of Microsoft.
Share point sucks. See, now thatâ(TM)s a technical opinion.
This conclusion makes me think that there are some out there that want to purge anything, people or kit older than 10 years.,,
So you guys are all ready for your taxes to go up significantly to rewrite all of the antiquated systems of all the government agencies that you deal with, right?
You couldn't pay me enough to manage Lotus Notes. It appears there are ways to migrate Notes apps to MS SharePoint, but you can bet it would be a painful, expensive nightmare.
Are you referring to the migration itself, or the fact that afterward you’re stuck using Sharepoint?
#DeleteChrome
That is not a technical opinion, that is an undisputed, unqualified, provable fact.
Baltimore still has a police department?
Microsoft rewrote Sharepoint some time ago. The modern version is viable for delivering and hosting applications and workflows. The Sharepoint name is mired in the past....which was justified.
I object to power without constructive purpose. --Spock
“Viable”. Not great, not even decent, but viable. I don’t think I have ever seen Sharepoint improve upon software it replaced, in terms of features, usability, reliability, maintenance or administration. I’ve been involved in a few migrations where we had to do a token product selection, so we simply drew up some functional requirements along the lines of “let’s look at what we have now, and write down what of that functionality is essential”. Sharepoint wasn’t even able to meet all of even the most basic requirements... but was selected every time because it was Microsoft and “we already have it for other stuff”. It’s not even cheaper than what it replaced. Users and administrators aren’t using it properly. The workflow stuff is mildly useful in small and medium companies, but other than that I’d be hard pressed to come up with something good to say about it. Even the newer version. The architecture is still the stuff of nightmares.
If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
Lotus Domino / Notes works fine and is supported by IBM.
1) Latest version is Domino 9.0.1 (server) and Notes 9.01 (Client) released on 2016 . Now you can use Domino apps on cloud and IBM Collaboration cloud for mail. There is no end of support for Lotus Notes 9.0 listed yet (https://www-01.ibm.com/software/support/lifecycleapp)
2) Notes 9.0.1 Fixpack 10IF3 was released on 2018/05/21
3) The article does not says which version of Lotus Notes are they using.
4) If you don't like using Lotus Notes, the same mail and nsf applications can be turned into web applications.
5) Domino applications are very easy to create and maintain.
6) Lotus Notes was designed by Ray Ozzie. Even Bill Gates said he was one the greatest software architects.
7) Microsoft has done a great job thrashing everybody that uses Lotus Notes, just like they did with OS/2 users.
You couldn't pay me enough to manage Lotus Notes.
I'd take USD$176,800 annually, same as this person.
We still have some Notes databases in use, though they're slowly being replaced. These systems typically have a bunch of group/user based security, workflow and notifications, so getting all that right can be a long process - all the simple stuff was done years ago.
I can totally see a case management system being band-aided across the decades as an entirely new system might still be more than the cost of maintenance and licensing.
My first encounter with Lotus notes went something like this, "what a piece of shit." You could pay me to manage it, but I doubt you could afford me.
I read at +2. If your post doesn't reach that level I will not see or respond to it.
Don't forget Groove. The bastard child of Lotus Notes adopted by MS then euthanized.
Area51 - We are watching...
I worked with Lotus Notes for many years and although its far from perfect it was actually maybe 30 years ahead of it's time. Most of the negative comes from people who don't understand what Lotus Notes is and/or think that the included email client is Lotus Notes. Which I agree was not very good and could have been improved drastically.
Lotus Notes is basically just a non relational database with a lot of build in core support for access control and replication. People are using NoSQL, Mongo and other non relational databasee and think that this is something new. This has been in Lotus Notes from the start. The Lotus Notes client software is basically just like the web browser is today with the app running completely in the browser.
What is great about Lotus Notes are the included features out of the box. It's basiaclly just a rapid application development software for data. The offline synchronizing and replication of data is amazing really. Because although you can implement replication in any system the replication system is built in and can handle replication for everything. So any system you build, automatically has data replication. The security is also built in with fine grained control to individual fields built in.
I could build for example a complete working CRM system in just one hour that had offline editing, replication and synchronization of data, fine grained access control, both fat client and web client enabled with zero code changes, Workflow integration, email integration, and much more. And this could be done without writing little or no code.
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.