Lotus Introduces Lotus Organizer 2.0 for Windows Group Scheduling for Lotus Notes & Lotus cc:Mail; 100+ New Features Highlight Release 2.0 of Industry's Most Popular PIM ATLANTA, Sept. 12, 1994 -- Lotus Development Corp. today announced a major upgrade to the company's award-winning personal information manager (PIM), Lotus Organizer 2.0 for Windows, at Networld+Interop in Atlanta. Lotus Organizer 2.0 expands upon the original product's personal and workgroup productivity benefits with more than 100 new customer-driven features and new group scheduling functionality for Lotus Notes and Lotus cc:Mail users. Organizer 2.0 works with cc:Mail 2.X and all 3.X versions of Lotus Notes, including Notes Express, also announced today at Networld+Interop. Lotus Organizer 2.0 is a networked PIM that allows easy integration of LAN-based group scheduling and daily task management features that include calendaring, address keeping, notepad filing, tracking to-dos, and a new call logging section. "Organizer 2.0's support for Notes and cc:Mail group scheduling provides a strategic competitive advantage for these customers by leveraging their communications infrastructure with a workgroup-productivity solution that is easy for individuals to use and for MIS departments to administer," said Larry Crume, Lotus' vice president, Electronic Messaging. "Organizer supports Lotus' messaging strategy by providing group scheduling capability to organizations that use both Notes and cc:Mail, in addition to supporting Lotus' desktop strategy of developing products that are designed for the way people work. Organizer 2.0 truly extends personal productivity at the desktop through to group productivity in today's networked environments." "The new version of Organizer maintains its interface integrity and allows you to overlap both yearly planner events and calendar appointments -- a big help for managing big projects," said Col. Phil Block, program analyst with USAF Eglin Air Force Base, Florida. "And the new Calls section enhances the product's primary function as a computerized day planner." "Lotus understands that the success of group scheduling is dependent upon a strong foundation of personal scheduling," said Karl Wong, principal analyst, Dataquest, San Jose, Calif. "This product's support for Notes and cc:Mail will go a long way towards popularizing group scheduling across the enterprise. Organizer offers a group scheduling solution that's ideal for small firms and large organizations alike." Customer-Requested Enhancements Organizer 2.0 offers major enhancements, reflecting suggestions made by Organizer PIM and scheduling customers. Many of these new features make Organizer 2.0 a more customizable and flexible PIM, while maintaining the product's intuitiveness and familiar notebook-style user interface. One new feature is the User Control List, whereby a user can grant different levels of access to the same Organizer file. For example, an assistant can schedule personal appointments as well as group meetings for an executive while the executive is editing the same file. Some of the most requested customer suggestions in Release 2.0 include: * 30-day calendar view; * Ability to book conflicting and overlapping appointments; * Ability to attach files when scheduling a meeting with others; * New "Calls" section added for management of incoming and outgoing phone calls; * On-the-fly views across all Organizer sections; * Ability to categorize all entries; * Over two dozen new print layouts. Highlights of product features listed by Organizer sections include: * Calendar -- shared calendar for multiple users, simultaneous access to the same file; * To Do -- repeating tasks; specify completion dates on screen; display tasks by priority, status, date or category; * Address -- home and business address records for each contact; customizable fields; * Calls -- display call entries by name, date, company, category, or status; linked to Address; * Planner -- yearly and quarterly views, overlapping events; * Notepad -- view pages by page number, creation date, alphabetically by title, or by category; * Anniversary -- display by year, month, category or by zodiac sign; set alarms, create links. Mail-based Group Scheduling When scheduling a meeting, Organizer retrieves individual names from the workgroup or organization's cc:Mail directory or Lotus Notes' Name & Address Book, eliminating the need for MIS to manage a separate directory for scheduling. When the invitee receives a meeting request, the recipient has the option to accept, decline, or delegate the meeting request. All invitees can send a reply to the meeting requester with details on why they might be late or miss a scheduled meeting. The advanced Organizer 2.0 scheduling engine also permits repeating group meetings to be scheduled, not only on a regular daily, weekly or monthly schedule, but also according to a user-defined, customized repeating schedule (e.g., the third Thursday of every month). If an Organizer user schedules a meeting with a "non-Organizer" user, the meeting request will still be received by the recipient as a standard e-mail message, regardless of platform, thus eliminating the need to send a separate e-mail message to non-Organizer users. Common Administration for Notes and cc:Mail Scheduling Shipping with Organizer 2.0 is a new Windows-based administration program that configures and maintains Notes and cc:Mail Organizer users, resources, and conference rooms, as well as Organizer scheduling agents. Group Scheduling Made Easy Via Scheduling Agents Meeting requests and responses are handled by the Lotus Organizer Scheduling Agent, an automated process which delivers meeting information to a user's Meeting Notices inbox in Organizer and manages automatic updating of meeting status and calendars for Organizer users and resources such as conference rooms. When a meeting invitee responds to a meeting invitation by clicking "accept," "decline," "delegate," or proposes an alternate time, the scheduling agent automatically updates the invitee's status, letting the meeting requester promptly know how the individual has handled the meeting request. Leveraging Mail Investments to Make Group Scheduling Enterprise-Wide Lotus Organizer 2.0 is a messaging-reliant group scheduling application that permits users to perform real-time searches of other Organizer users' free time, minimizing schedule conflicts that can occur in other scheduling packages that only periodically refresh "free/busy" calendar times. Organizer 2.0 also makes maximum use of customers' existing cc:Mail and Notes networks to deliver meeting messages to users located in the same workgroup or separate geographical location. Through cc:Mail and Notes e-mail gateways, meeting invitations can reach users on other mail systems. Improved Support for Mobile Laptop PC Users Organizer 2.0 also includes features for increasingly mobile workers. A new "File Merge" feature allows mobile users to merge their Organizer file with the network file for updating Organizer information. Organizer 2.0 also supports alternate keyboard commands that reduce reliance on the mouse pointer. Nearly 2 Million Organized on Award-Winner Since the product's introduction in 1992, Organizer has sold nearly 2 million copies and has earned numerous industry awards. Awards include a two-time selection of a BYTE Reader's Choice award; a 1994 Windows Magazine Reader's Choice award; a 1993 Technical Excellence Award from PC Magazine; a 1993 World Class Award from PC World; a "Best-Buy for 1993" selection from Computer Shopper, and twice the Editors' Pick for 1993 and 1994 by Home Office Computing. Lotus Organizer is integrated with Lotus SmartSuite for Windows. SmartSuite is a suite of five Windows applications for individuals, small offices, home businesses and corporate users. In addition to Organizer, SmartSuite includes Lotus 1-2-3, the AmiPro word processor, Lotus Approach end user relational database and Freelance Graphics presentation graphics software. Pricing, Availability and Distribution Lotus Organizer 2.0 with group scheduling will be available in the fourth quarter from Lotus authorized resellers, with a suggested retail price of $149 in the United States. Upgrade pricing from earlier versions to Organizer 2.0 is $49. Organizer 2.0 Multi-License Packs will be available at volume discounts through the Lotus Passport program, including special pricing when purchased with Lotus Notes, Lotus Notes Express or Lotus cc:Mail. Czech, Danish, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish and Swedish versions of Organizer 2.0 will also be available in Q4, with Finnish, Hungarian, Polish and Russian version to follow in early 1995. System Requirements Lotus Organizer 2.0 supports all popular network operating systems, including Novell Netware 2.x and 3.x, Microsoft LAN Manager 2.0 and higher, and compatibles, including IBM LAN Server, Artisoft LANtastic, and 100 percent compatible MS-Net network operating systems. For cc:Mail systems using the group scheduling features of Organizer 2.0, a cc:Mail post office version 6.0 or above and cc:Mail for Windows version 2.0 or above is required. Organizer is compatible with Lotus Notes 3.1. Organizer for Windows runs on IBM Personal Computers or 100 percent certified compatibles with a hard disk drive. It requires Windows 3.1 and an 80386 microprocessor with 8 MB of hard disk storage on the client and 8 MB on the server, and a VGA monitor. A mouse or other pointing device is optional. For more information on Lotus Organizer, call 1-800-343-5414. Lotus Development Corp. (NASDAQ:LOTS), founded in 1982, provides software products and support services that meet the business needs of individuals, workgroups and enterprises. Lotus' extensive range of products form the foundation for the company's Working Together strategy, which focuses on integrating applications, platforms and people. The company's first product, 1-2-3, is the most popular personal computer software application in the world, with more than 20 million users. Lotus markets its products in more than 80 countries worldwide and provides numerous support services, both from its consulting division and its award-winning 24-hour support center.