This is part one of a two-part series on Lotus' Instant Messaging tool
Sametime 2.0. Part two will discuss Lotus' initiatives to deliver
real-time collaboration to wireless devices.
Instant Messaging (IM) is no longer just a tool for teenagers or
college students to chat online with their friends. It has recently
moved from the home to the office, as an efficient way for businesses
to communicate and share information in real time with clients,
business partners, and employees around the globe.
In a recent survey of instant message usage in the U.S., Jupiter
Communications' Media Metrix reported that there were 10.6 million
U.S. users of Yahoo Messenger, 10.3 million of MSN Messenger Service,
and 21.5 million users of AOL's Instant Messenger; in the same period,
AOL's ICQ subsidiary had 9.1 million in the United States.
While instant messaging is still primarily a consumer tool, business-
to-business usage may not lag far behind. Approximately 70% of large
corporations will install IM software during the next twelve months,
according to a recent International Data Corp. (IDC) study of 72
corporations with more than 1,000 employees. Meanwhile, Yahoo has
indicated plans to release a business version of its Yahoo Messenger
product.
In the business environment, real-time collaborative computing
requirements extend beyond instant messaging. These include:
1)Awareness -- Who is immediately available online to provide the
expertise you require? 2)Conversation -- Depending on the complexity
of your problem, do you require text chat, live audio, or a video
conference? 3)Shared Objects -- Do you need to share whiteboards or
applications?
"Companies simply want greater connectivity and ways for people to work
more efficiently," explains Bethann Cregg, director of Instant
Collaborative Solutions at Lotus Development Corporation. "For
SameTime, it is the awareness factor, being able to communicate with
people when they are available to them."
Lotus Sametime 2.0, provides an instant communication experience for
Web-based collaborative applications, supports several clients,
including Lotus Notes, and can be integrated with Domino applications.
Using Notes templates, users can access awareness information on
active Domino databases or documents, initiate conversation through
Notes, and join Sametime online meetings.
This new version of the Lotus real-time collaborative platform
(expected to ship at the end of calendar year 2000) features multi-
media capabilities and a choice of communication options. These
options include interactive audio/video conferencing over IP and the
ability to broadcast audio/video/data presentations throughout a
corporate network and the Internet, which allows thousands of users to
participate in a single online conference. Users can also share
applications or documents, such as spreadsheets or text files, or chat
with AOL AIM members.
Take the case of Liggett-Stashower, a full-service integrated marketing
communications company in Cleveland, Ohio, which moved to a Lotus
Notes e-mail system in 1998 and recently began using Lotus Sametime
for collaborative computing. Last year, using Domino products, the
company built an extranet site for its clients. One feature of the
site is a conference room for online meetings, where Liggett-Stashower
displays the layouts and art concepts that will be discussed with
clients for approval. Instead of typing out messages, conference
participants are able talk over a conference phone while everyone
views the same artwork.
"It's [Sametime] been great because more of the artistic people can be
involved in the meeting and hear the feedback than just the account
team presenting to the client," says Laura Jensen Information Systems
manager at Liggett-Stashower, Inc." This has been used for our out of
town clients. It's saved a lot of time and travel and we're thrilled
with how easy it is to use."
It looks like Liggett-Stashower is part of a growing trend. In its
report, "Finding a Place: Corporate Instant Messaging Market Forecast
and Analysis, 2000-2004," IDC forecasts that 2 trillion instant
messages will be sent per year by 2004 and not just by consumers.
Says Mark Levitt, research director for Collaborative Computing at IDC,
"Instant Messaging is not a disruptive technology for the
collaborative environment. It is a way for users to add instantaneous
communications to e-mail. Companies like Lotus, with their Sametime
product, offer companies the ability to do just that."
Paula Jacobs is a contributing writer and director of The Jacobs Group,
a Massachusetts-based communications company.
