IBM integrates instant messaging tools into new Lotus Notes and Domino, blending two of the industry's most popular collaboration solutions

The latest version of Lotus Notes and Domino integrates IBM Lotus Instant Messaging and Web Conferencing functionality, giving users on- line 'awareness' capabilities and the ability to initiate instant messaging (IM) sessions directly from their in-box or from within a collaborative application. While both Lotus Notes and Domino and Lotus Instant Messaging and Web Conferencing can be purchased separately, IBM also announced a limited-time promotion for Notes and Domino 6.5 customers.

'In today's corporate environment, businesses want their messaging solution to go beyond just e-mail - they want their messaging solution to be part of a larger collaborative platform. Many Middle East organisations are just getting used to email - with this new functionality, they can now build true real-time collaboration into their organisation's culture,' said Bashar Kilani, IBM Software Group Manager Middle East, Egypt and Pakistan. 'Lotus Notes and Domino 6.5 will continue to give customers the security features and performance they have come to expect from IBM, while also providing an exciting entrée to the Lotus Workplace platform and its business benefits.'

IBM has designed the new version of Lotus Notes and Domino with integrated IM capabilities to help end-users manage the increasing volume of electronic information and the increased speed of business. By blending one of the industry's leading messaging and collaboration platforms with one of the industry's leading corporate IM solutions, IBM has created a collaborative solution designed to help maintain employee productivity and help companies more quickly respond to the needs of their customers and market opportunities.

In addition to new collaborative features and functions, IBM is continuing to expand support for open standards as a way to manage the costs associated with messaging and collaboration technology. Expanded support for Linux, including Domino Web Access and Domino for Linux on IBM zSeries eServer, gives Lotus Notes and Domino customers additional flexibility and helps drive down the total cost of ownership. IBM's support for Linux demonstrates a complete end-to-end vision for collaboration on Linux, and extends to both client-side and server-side software. The end-to-end portfolio gives our customers a broad choice of rich-featured Linux-based solutions for their business needs.

Lotus Notes 6.5 is the first release of Lotus Notes to embrace IBM's new Lotus Workplace strategy for integrating people with business processes. The Lotus Notes 6.5 interface provides a unified entry point into various collaborative applications and capabilities. Users can access collaborative tools such as messaging, instant messaging, search and calendaring & scheduling, along with other applications and capabilities right from the Lotus Notes 6.5 client, rather than as separate applications. The Lotus Workplace vision is to help combine employee productivity seamlessly with business processes, and to serve as the 'front end' of IBM's On Demand strategy by arming customers with the collaborative tools they need to help react to market opportunities, customer demands and competitive threats. Lotus Notes and Domino will be an integral part of the Lotus Workplace strategy going forward.