J.P. Morgan & Co. announced it would be greatly expanding its use of Lotus Development Corp.'s Notes software.
Over the next year, the New York-based money-center will more than double its usage of the popular "groupware."
Team Spirit
Like other groupware systems, Notes allows many PC users to share and access the same data. The program acts like a library and a bulletin board for customer files and internal data.
"Notes supports J.P. Morgan's team-oriented culture, whether it's collaborating on a financial opportunity or providing better client service," said Cheryl Carlucci, who heads the Electronic Mail and Information Sharing group at Morgan.
J.P. Morgan, a Notes user since 1992, currently has the software installed on nearly 6,000 of its terminals. The bank plans to bump that user base up to 13,000 by early 1995.
This expansion will make J.P. Morgan a leading Notes site. Other banks like Chase Manhattan Corp. and Bankers Trust New York Corp. also use Notes. The client server-based software can run on Intel-, Macintosh- or Unix-based computers.
In March, Lotus and AT&T Co. announced a plan to make Notes software available to clients via an online system. Many bankers said this would increase the number of Notes applications and make the program more accessible to banks and users in remote locations.
However, this alliance did not effect J.P. Morgan's decision to expand their own usage, according to George Shakespear, a bank spokesman.
To Improve Productivity
J.P. Morgan plans to use Notes to improve the productivity of the client service teams in corporate finance and other commercial, investment, and merchant banking businesses. The bank can also use Notes to support internal information flow, including human resource systems, call reporting and tracking, and meeting minutes.
Using mixed computing platforms, Notes can also share 'compound document' information, such as spreadsheets and word-processing documents.
"We're still in the early stages of exploring what is possible with Notes," Ms. Carlucci said. "But we've found that as with voice mail and electronic mail, people are already wondering how they ever lived without it."
