Collaboration on demand solutions To support your IT objectives

Redefining teamwork to help increase your organization’s productivity.

Larger businesses want what smaller companies may already have — simply because of their size. They want a close-knit, shared workplace. Where employees are on similar schedules. And can meet face-to-face. Working together to reach common business objectives. The very expansion that can accompany business success can also dramatically impact the way people in larger organizations communicate. Over time, implementing new systems, software and connection points throughout your organization — added to support a changing workforce — can create a highly complex, often heterogeneous infrastructure. And can leave everyone from individual employees to entire departments feeling disconnected from resources — and isolated from each other.

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“We knew that we needed more than e-mail. We wanted discussion databases, calendaring and scheduling, support for our mobile users, [while keeping what we already had with] Lotus Notes.... We saw Notes ® as a platform with a strong future — and our choice has proven correct.” — Andreas Walter, IT manager, Proximity

IBM offers scalable, flexible solutions to help you improve people productivity, by changing the way For a dispersed workforce to think and act

employees work together — as a team — to support

more like a single team, employees have to

your business objectives. So you can create a more

be able to communicate more efficiently. That means

unified workplace and promote improved communi-

less time waiting for a response to voicemail. Fewer

cation and collaboration between people — across

missed replies to urgent e-mails, lost in clogged

and beyond organizational boundaries.

inboxes. And a faster way to find files buried in

With people productivity solutions from IBM, your

shared folders. To connect distributed employees —

users can have access to appropriate resources

with partners, customers and each other — you need

to help maintain high personal productivity levels

an integrated, collaborative environment. One that

and responsiveness throughout your organization.

combines e-mail, instant messaging, online awareness, calendaring, scheduling, Web conferencing, learning, shared whiteboards and other capabilities virtually in one place — easily accessible to everyone in your value chain.* And that connects people who don’t have access to your e-mail system today.

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“When people saw they could find and talk immediately to team members at other sites, without the frustrations of long-distance phone tag or drawn-out e-mail exchanges, they were hooked.” —Todd Dahlberg, e-collaboration project manager, Ingersoll-Rand

Reduce barriers to workplace communication with integrated messaging capabilities Efficient communication is critical to teamwork. But factors like location, device or business role can directly affect how people throughout your organization interact. It can be especially

space. But geographically and organizationally dispersed

difficult for employees who work away from the office — many

people still need to interact to exchange important business

using only wireless computing devices — to get the information

information and share knowledge. So they can make better

they need quickly. For example, a sales representative might

individual and collective decisions.

have to wait for a hard copy of the latest incentives — information that can be distributed instantly to other employees by

Leveraging collaborative solutions from IBM, employees

e-mail. Printing can add unnecessary cost to routine com-

can work together efficiently to help improve individual and

munication. And manual delivery can impede productivity

team productivity. Instead of meeting in person, they can

and delay decision making. Your infrastructure has to support

schedule a Web-based meeting, or instantly create a virtual

mobile employees who work without PCs, and in some cases,

team space — enabling them to work together on shared

without direct access to the company’s e-mail. So they

tasks. And join colleagues, suppliers and partners in real-time,

can easily and reliably communicate with colleagues and

collaborative discussions. Distributed employees can view a

partners — in real time, any time.

team-specific or organization-wide Web conference — such as an introduction to new technology by the CIO. And down-

Built on open standards, Web-based, collaborative solutions

load documents relevant to the discussion. During meetings,

from IBM give you the flexibility to select platform-independent

participants can use instant messaging capabilities to com-

hardware and software, and to configure access type, accord-

municate with the group as a whole, or privately with other

ing to individual user roles. You can easily deploy security-rich,

participants — without interrupting or leaving the presentation.

scalable messaging solutions that can be integrated across

And presence awareness functions allow users to know at a

existing infrastructures to take advantage of your current IT

glance whether individuals or entire groups are available to

investments. And effectively extend the reach of your current

collaborate or exchange information.

e-mail system. To leverage and extend your existing infrastructure, your adminHelp reduce costs and reduce inefficiencies by holding

istrators can integrate collaboration solutions with other Web

virtual meetings

applications, e-mail and portals. So collaboration becomes

The larger your organization, the less practical it is for people

integral to employees’ workflows and working environments,

to meet face-to-face. Consider the cost of travel. Time lost in

helping to save time and reduce the need for separate applica-

transit. Scheduling challenges. Difficulty reserving enough

tions, as well as associated maintenance and support costs. Employees can respond quickly to customers, partners and suppliers — helping to drive productivity.

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Develop and maintain skills by delivering integrated learning to desktops or wireless devices Keeping employees current with the latest technologies and

You can integrate your learning software with collaboration

company policies is critical to your organization’s success.

solutions from IBM to help enhance real-time communication

But sending staff to conferences, seminars and workshops

within a learning environment and improve overall productivity.

can be costly. And time away from work impacts productivity.

Streamline the management of your classroom-based and

You need a simple, cost-effective and comprehensive training

online learning programs, resources and courseware. Deliver

solution. One that leverages your current learning tools. And

a variety of learning experiences to groups of students in any

makes learning convenient for employees. So you can build

location. And keep track of their activities and performance.

a competent workforce. And remain competitive by enabling

Classroom, online or offline classes can be offered to make the

your employees to provide knowledgeable customer service.

best use of their time — and your organization’s IT resources. Remote and mobile employees—and workers with low-bandwidth systems — can benefit from not having to travel to the office to access learning tools, helping to keep training costs down.

“We were maintaining reams and reams of paper that track the design history of every device, and we were constantly hand-delivering documents to five or six locations to obtain signatures. Moving from paper processes [...] provides single-point record acquisition. We have shortened our time to market, increased our efficiency and improved our customer service. The solutions have made our jobs easier.” — Rob Berry, director of quality assurance and regulatory affairs, Fujifilm Medical Systems — USA

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Help improve individual and team productivity with collaborative on demand solutions Collaborative solutions from IBM can address a range of workplace needs to enable instant communication, virtual meetings and online learning. • IBM Lotus® Domino™ and IBM Lotus Notes® – Provide a comprehensive set of advanced, customizable, security-rich, easy-to-use communication and productivity tools, including e-mail, personal calendar, contact management, scheduling and task management. • IBM Lotus Workplace Team Collaboration– Provides instant messaging capabilities with presence awareness, scheduled and instant Web-based meeting capabilities and team spaces for storing and organizing documents; enables Web-based discussion forums and threaded discussions. • IBM Lotus Workplace Messaging™ – Extends the reach of e-mail applications to employees without PCs; works as a standalone application or with existing messaging infrastructures, including Lotus Domino and Microsoft ® Exchange. • IBM Lotus Workplace Collaborative Learning and IBM Lotus Virtual Classroom – Deliver and manage role-based, self-service online learning to every end user in your organization.

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“In selecting IBM Lotus Workplace Messaging, the total cost of ownership on a cost-per-agent basis was less than half that of the nearest competitor, and it also compared favorably against unit costs for conventional e-mail.... Lotus Workplace Messaging met all our e-mail requirements very well — we didn’t have to make a single compromise.” — Guy Mills, assistant vice president, information technology, Manulife

Leverage a flexible solution to reach your business goals As an integral part of people productivity software solutions from IBM — which include collaborative, content management

For more information

and portal solutions — collaborative solutions are designed to

To learn how collaboration solutions from IBM can help

help you create a more collaborative workplace environment.

promote effective teamwork, or to learn how you can develop

And when combined with the integration power of portal solu-

a complete workplace strategy using people productivity

tions, one where employees can gain immediate access to

software solutions from IBM, visit:

collaborative tools alongside virtually any application, business

ibm.com /software/people/itcollaboration

process or information source right in the context of where they are working. One where employees can gain immediate access to information. Interact more effectively with customers, suppliers, partners and colleagues. And connect instantly to meet business needs virtually anytime, anywhere and from almost any device. People productivity solutions include robust business tools to foster a highly responsive, more productive workforce. All while helping to control costs by reducing task redundancies and the complexity of business interactions between people, processes, applications and data. IBM offers a full portfolio of software solutions designed to work with your existing systems to help you create high-performance, security-rich workplace environments. Leverage business knowledge and information more effectively. Bring new levels of connectivity to employees to help increase productivity. And help employees be more responsive to customer needs — and to each other—without putting new strains on your IT organization and infrastructure.

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© Copyright IBM Corporation 2004 IBM Corporation Software Group Route 100 Somers, NY 10589 U.S.A. Produced in the United States of America 05-04 All Rights Reserved Domino, IBM, the IBM logo, Lotus, Lotus Notes, Notes and Workplace Messaging are trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation in the United States, other countries or both. Microsoft is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation in the United States, other countries or both. Other company, product and service names may be trademarks or service marks of others. * The referenced functionality is available to customers deploying all of the IBM collaboration solutions mentioned in this document. The information contained in this documentation is provided for informational purposes only. While efforts were made to verify the completeness and accuracy of the information contained in this documentation, it is provided “as is” without warranty of any kind, express or implied. In addition, this information is based on IBM’s current product plans and strategy, which are subject to change by IBM without notice. IBM shall not be responsible for any damages arising out of the use of, or otherwise related to, this documentation or any other documentation. Nothing contained in this documentation is intended to, nor shall have the effect of, creating any warranties or representations from IBM (or its suppliers or licensors), or altering the terms and conditions of the applicable license agreement governing the use of IBM software.

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