IBM boosts group working for Notes, WebSphere and Workplace

To coincide with its annual LotusWorld conference in Florida, IBM has announced new software and services for its range of collaborative solutions. The highlights are increased interoperability which, IBM says, are based on open standards and better performance as well as a host of new features.

IBM offers three product families for group working: – the tried and trusty Notes and Domino, the e-commerce solution WebSphere Portal and finally Workplace. All three have received overhauls announced at the show.

IBM says it has radically upgraded the server performance of the forthcoming Notes and Domino 7. It claims that internal testing has shown up to a 70 percent improvement. The company is also offering a better integration of the groupware product with Workplace, and new Domino Domain Monitoring tools will help manage and maintain Lotus Domino servers. IBM expects to ship Notes and Domino 7 this summer.

Workplace Collaboration Services, is said by Big Blue to offer an easy to deploy, integrated environment that bundles together a range of business services such as email, calendaring, instant messaging, electronic learning, Web conferencing, document and Web content management. Built on a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), IBM Workplace Collaboration Services also allow companies to customise the suite to suit their own needs.

IBM has also upgraded the capabilities of WebSphere. The company announced the availability of the IBM Web Services for Remote Portlets (WSRP) Self-Service Validation Site intended to allow customers to validate, test, and ensure their WSRP services are easily integrated with IBM’s WebSphere Portal. In addition, WebSphere Portal will include single sign in, and better support for industry standards such as WSRP and JSR 168, and improved collaborative capabilities via Workplace client support.