Aimed at providing business users with more ways of communicating over the Internet wherever they are, IBM today unveiled expanded features in its latest versions of Lotus Notes and other collaboration applications.
In an announcement today, IBM said the new software will provide increased collaboration opportunities as well as distance learning capabilities and other improvements for users and systems administrators.
"Today's working environment is a dynamic workplace that enables employees to collaborate in real time, no matter what application they are working in," Al Zollar, general manager of IBM Lotus Software, said in a statement. "The enhanced collaboration capabilities will benefit both organizations and their employees, as they will be empowered to achieve more with less, helping to enhance the ultimate return on investment."
Announced today are new versions of the e-mail and messaging products IBM Lotus Notes and IBM Lotus Domino 6, as well as a new version of the virtual meeting application IBM Lotus Sametime 3. Also debuting are the latest version of team workspace application IBM Lotus QuickPlace 3 and the new IBM Lotus LearningSpace-Virtual Classroom application, which will allow distance learning in a secure, controlled environment.
The latest version of Notes 6 includes antispam features to help fight unwanted e-mail, while Sametime 3 includes support for the Session Initiation Protocol gateway to help users communicate across supported instant messaging communities with higher security.
The new Notes and Domino applications also include features that help consolidate server hardware, reduce disk space use and minimize network traffic.
QuickPlace 3 features enhanced collaboration features, while LearningSpace-Virtual Classroom enables the use of real-time communication between instructors and students to improve learning experiences.
Domino 6 also includes a limited-use license for IBM WebSphere Application Server to enable the reuse of Domino objects in Java 2 Enterprise Edition applications.
Pricing for the Notes and Domino applications starts at $70 per client, with Domino Mail Server starting at $894 per server. Domino Application Server starts at $2,308 per server and will require an iNotes or Notes client license for users. The Domino Utility Server is available at $11,750 per CPU and doesn't require iNotes or Notes client license for users.
Lotus Domino 6 is available for Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 2000, IBM AIX Versions 4.3.3x and 5.1, Sun Solaris 2.8/SPARC, Red Hat Linux 7.2 and SuSE Linux 8.0.
Lotus Notes is available for Windows 32-bit operating systems and Macintosh clients, including Mac OS 9 and OS X.