Shared Spaces News, Jun 22
News from Shared Spaces…
Today's highlights: New release of eRoom.net from Documentum; AOL and IMlogic on Enterprise IM; Government use of Secure Mail; Microsoft a 'collaboration lightweight'; Yahoo drops Business Messenger; Standard Life gets 50% process improvement via Enterprise Search; New client for Lois Paul & Partners:
- Documentum released a new version of eRoom.net, its hosted collaborative workspace offering based on the eRoom server. New features: collaborative project and program management, pre-configured business applications, and a new pricing structure for users, among others. Target market is small and medium-sized businesses and departments/divisions of larger enterprises. Available immediately. prnewswire.com
- America Online and IMlogic announced a partnership to migrate customers who purchased the AOL AIM Enterprise Gateway to IMlogic IM Manager, an IM management, policy enforcement and security solution for IM traffic in the enterprise. IM Manager is certified by AOL for use with the AIM network. Comment: When AOL first introduced AIM Enterprise, FaceTime made a big announcement about how its server code was the underlying product for Enterprise Gateway. Is an announcement imminent from them too, or has AOL shunned them? IMlogic. This is a result of AOL exiting the market for offering its own IM management product. eWeek.
- US Government agencies are expressing greater interest in secure mail for collaborative purposes, given the importance email plays in everyday communication flows. This article considers the alternatives: S/MIME, PGP, SSL, and secret key, among others. Comment: For intra-agency and cross-agency collaboration purposes, agencies need to consider collaborative workspace products and services, for which security is an integral component. Even if all agencies were to embrace Secure Mail, email has other weaknesses that mean it no longer provides all of the capabilities needed by government agencies. FCW.com
- One assessment of Microsoft's collaboration plans: “the company has some way to go to convince even this captive market of its neophyte talents” and (via Meta Group) “Throughout its investment in the collaboration market, it does not have a collaborative strategy as such and its [position] has accreted almost by accident.” silicon.com
- Yahoo revised its business IM market strategy, exiting from offering a version of its IM product directly to business customers, and partnering with enterprise-focused players instead. computerweekly.com pcadvisor.co.uk
- On the benefit of search in a call center: 50% reduction in the time taken for call center staff to find information required on the corporate intranet. Client: Standard Life. Product: Verity K2 Enterprise Search. vnunet.com
- Lois Paul & Partners has served IBM Lotus Software for PR needs for many years, and is an avid user of Lotus technology internally. It's just taken on a new client who is attempting to “build the first open-standards alternative to Lotus Notes/Domino”, the Trilog Group. prnewswire.com