Computer and corporate networking giant IBM has recently launched Lotus Connections. Lotus Connections is "The first business-ready social-networking application.” Mike Rhodin, IBM Lotus General Manager, said. The Connections suite will offer five unique tools, Profiles, Communities, Activities, Bookmarks, and Blogs.
The toolset that Connections offers is going to be a close match and possible competitor to Microsoft SharePoint, which also offers similar services. Microsoft Office SharePoint 2007 has a slight advantage over IBM with an extensive revamp of its development tools for SharePoint Designer. The Lotus Connections launch news did not report on any development or framework features, just the basic tool overview.
Connections Profiles is aimed at a MySpace type of corporate profile, where personal as well as business information can be linked and shared. Connections Communities is similar to the SharePoint forums where groups of people share ideas and post to any number of pre-defined topics. Connections Activities takes social networking to a business level offering a place for project management.
Connection Bookmarks is close to what is already offered in SharePoint, document management and collaboration. The difference here is its aim for not only documents but also websites, and other links. One hopes that this feature in Lotus Connections is easier to manage than it is inside SharePoint. Many IT managers and users often complain that resource and document management in SharePoint is difficult, and tricky on an internal intranet.
Connections Blogs, the heart of the Lotus Connections suite, is where all of the other features come together. Many corporate environments are moving to using blogs and Wikipedia like collaboration tools to increase communications and productivity in the workplace. It was that trend that Microsoft SharePoint gained its foothold in the vertical IT market. With the release from IBM, there may be a shift to move from Microsoft, but only if the price is right. Many companies are already licensed to use SharePoint because of the Partner program or TechNet program for development.
The split will rely on price for the most part; IBM expects the Lotus Connections suite to be released in the second quarter of 2007. They have not released any price plans for the suite or hinted at such cost. Microsoft likewise has not released volume license information for SharePoint Designer or Server, which is released January 30, 2007.
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