Plumtree Software is bringing corporate instant
messaging to its enterprise web suite through a partnership with
Yahoo.
The partnership enables Plumtree customers to add presence
awareness and application alerts in addition to IM capabilities
into their Plumtree Enterprise Web deployments.
Enterprise Web is Plumtree's flagship offering, which consists
of integration products for bringing resources from traditional
systems together on the web.
The platform also enables shared services such as collaboration,
content management and search functions for building web
applications, as well as a portal platform for delivering these web
applications to broad audiences.
Product manager of collaboration Noam Lovinsky said the company
interviewed 70 customers to gauge areas of interest for its next
version release of its Collaboration Suite product - an element of
Enterprise Web - due out at the end of the second quarter.
He added that while some customers reported that they had no use
for IM capabilities, others said IM was rampant throughout their
corporations and controlling and securing IM was a major
priority.
"Instant messaging is really out there in the industry and
people are using it whether businesses like it or not,
unfortunately," Lovinsky said.
"There was no reason for Plumtree to build another proprietary
technology. Rather, we decided we would build an architecture that
allows people to plug in whatever IM system they want."
While Plumtree knew it would not be able to integrate with 10 or
even three IM providers, Lovinsky said the company planned to
integrate with one to start, and Yahoo Messenger fitted the
profile.
Yahoo Messenger for the Enterprise Web Suite includes 128-bit
encryption, spam control, virus scanning of incoming files and
enables peer-to-peer messaging. The hosted service allows
organisations to have the encryption and control of a locally
deployed IM solution without the hardware, deployment and
administration costs typically expected.
The integrated Yahoo Messenger in Plumtree's Enterprise Web
suite also offers unified user management, integrated activity
rights management, embedded online presence and user availability
features, as well as event-driven alerts on documents, tasks and
discussions within projects.
Yahoo Messenger for Plumtree Enterprise Web Suite will be sold
as a services engagement, which includes one to two days of
installation assistance from Plumtree Consulting Services for a
one-time installation fee of $5,000.
The Yahoo Messenger service is priced at a yearly subscription,
which ranges from $10 to $30 depending on the number of seats
purchased.
Carly Suppa writes for ITWorld Canada.com