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As business accelerates, the need for employees to communicate and collabo-rate with one another becomes increasingly important. A single day, even an hour, can make the difference between winning a deal and losing ground to competi-tors. Customers expect answers fast, or they’ll simply go elsewhere to get them. And since innovation, which begins with a single idea, can make or break an organization’s future, companies are looking for ways to tap into the collective mindshare and knowledge of employees and outside experts.
Building an effective, collaborative work environment has been on the forefront of business leaders’ minds for years. In a study conducted by IBM in 2006, more than 750 CEOs from around the world identified collaboration as a key tenet to fostering innovation and growth. Yet, according to The Global Human Capital Study 2008 conducted by IBM, only 8 percent of companies interviewed believe they are effective at fostering collaboration across the enterprise. In fact, one study participant stated, “Better collaboration would enable us to help global customers more effectively and increase the level of product/service innovation.” Clearly, leading organizations recognize that in order to excel, they must give their employees the ability to communicate with anyone, anytime, in realtime, within and outside the business.
IBM is a recognized leader in the collaboration marketplace, providing innovative solutions that help address the many issues faced by organizations today. A central part of the IBM Lotus® portfolio is the award-winning IBM Lotus Sametime® software. This solution provides a platform for delivering robust unified commu-nications and collaboration capabilities, making it easier for people to find, reach and collaborate with one another, no matter where they are. Security features, broad platform support, investment protection and ease of integration are also hallmarks of Lotus Sametime software, and are designed to help you address IT and line-of-business challenges.
The expanded IBM Lotus Sametime family of solutions
In 2007, IBM announced and delivered new releases of IBM Lotus Sametime software, designed to deliver more functionality and enable you to choose the features best suited for your particular organizational and user needs. IBM Lotus Sametime Standard 8 software is the follow-on release to IBM Lotus Sametime 7.5.1 software and is the upgrade path for entitled Lotus Sametime customers. Lotus Sametime Standard software is ideally suited for companies needing a rich, encrypted, full-feature instant messaging (IM) and Web conferencing solution, as well as a platform for integrating communications, collaboration and business applications in realtime. Lotus Sametime Standard software includes Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), supports many mobile devices and can be federated with supported public IM networks with no additional cost. Plug-in capabilities can help you extend the software even further.
IBM Lotus Sametime Advanced software
IBM Lotus Sametime Advanced software, a new offering, builds on the capabilities found in Lotus Sametime Standard software to include groundbreaking function-ality for realtime community collaboration such as persistent group chat, a suite of broadcast tools, instant screen sharing and geographic location services. The solu-tion is designed for organizations that require advanced collaboration capabilities within specific departments or across the entire global enterprise. With Lotus Sametime Advanced software, employees and teams can:
Search for experts and get the answers they need, even when they don’t know who to ask.
Share, capture and reuse knowledge in realtime, potentially reducing the burden on a company’s help desk.
Maintain ongoing conversations and share information in dedicated forums.
Instantly share screens, desktops and applications with co-workers, helping to speed communication and understanding.
Know where other colleagues are at any given time by using the software’s geographic location awareness feature.
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