IBM launched its Lotus Notes/Domino 7 messaging platform
today, with new features to make it easier for administrators to
manage the software.
Instant messaging (IM) and collaboration are also core features
of the suite, as well as predictive tools which can fix problems
before they happen, according to IBM.
Version 7 replaces 6.5.4, and Darren Adams, IBM technical
specialist for Lotus Messaging & Collaboration Solutions said
the user interface has been updated, but there are few radical
changes. “We are evolving it, not revolutionising it,” he
said.
There are more Lotus Sametime tools, so users can switch an IM
session over to video or audio real-time collaboration.
In addition, the ‘buddy list’ has been improved, so workers can
bring up a list of the people they commonly work with from within
applications, to see who is ‘online’.
Employees are ‘online’ if they are logged into the Sametime IM
client, Websphere Portal Server, Quickplace, or a web application,
or even if they are using a mobile device connected to the
network.
Lotus Notes is also evolving a ‘universal inbox” – where the
email client can receive and store emails, voicemails, faxes and IM
threads. “Being able to save IM chat transcripts in your inbox
really allows you to capture your corporate knowledge, which
traditionally tends to be discarded,” said Adams.
One feature that has been postponed probably until the first
maintenance release later this year is the ability to use IBM’s DB2
database as an optional data store. This is because not enough
customers tested it, said Adams.
Alan Bell, member of Lotus user group the Collaboration User
Group, said DB2 integration “will make it easier and faster for
programmers to create some pretty powerful applications, which
merge the collaboration and offline features of Domino with core
business transaction processing systems. Other vendors seem to be
compartmentalising their email solutions, so that they just do
messaging, whereas Domino is developing into a flexible application
platform covering all business processes.”
Jim Moffat, another member of Collaboration, said rival platform
Microsoft Exchange has a big advantage over Domino because more
people are trained in Exchange administration.
But he added, “Domino's other goal in life - and this is an area
where organisations achieve real productivity gain, is as an
application server, hosting applications built in its own rapid
development environment. The consequences for workflow management,
development capability and support capability are enormous.”