Retirement and Lotus

I just came back from my mom's retirement party. Nearly 25 years with the same organization.
And now she says she wants to illustrate children's books.
Well it's a better answer than golf in my opinion when asked what she will do after she retires.
So what does this have to do with Lotus?
Well, it's been almost 20 years since Notes came out and is it ready to be retired?
Hell no!
Businesses keep buying it, using it, licensing it.
But at the same time, are we making it a mainframe?
Is it becoming legacy or is it about to reincarnate itself?
Perhaps someone in Lotus or IBM should or did write a memo similar to the ones of mythical status from Gates and Ozzie at Microsoft.
What would it say and how would we get there?
The journey has been hard, but we have gotten to the top of the mountain, and when we see the guru, he says: 42.

"Forty-two!" yelled Loonquawl. "Is that all you've got to show for seven and a half million years' work?"
"I checked it very thoroughly," said the computer, "and that quite definitely is the answer. I think the problem, to be quite honest with you, is that you've never actually known what the question is."

So perhaps the question is the problem. It is NOT how do we promote Lotus?
Nor is it a case of this brand for this product.
You could argue it's a maze and we are on the right course, presuming we could see the way out.
No it's more deeper than that even.

In a world where anything is possible, could Lotus find its way to the top of the hill again?
Can it beat Microsoft at it's own game?
Did Lotus miss something by not setting up Domino to be SaaS? Yes it can be, but is rarely done that way.
Lotus was always ahead of the curve from a technical/cultural perspective and is again, but the problem is the world is not quite ready to listen as intently as they used to in the early days.

I see an open jar of honey with a Microsoft logo stuck in it and the IBM bee swirling around stinging it.