IBM's Workplace Collaboration Suite Is Almost Ready

by Dan Burger

When Workplace Collaboration Services 2.5 is released in the coming weeks, IBM will have its full suite of collaboration capabilities built on top of a portal-based user interface. Note that this product is branded with the IBM name, not the Lotus brand, which has traditionally been the collaboration products home base. The WCS 2.5 suite of five applications includes messaging and calendaring, team collaboration, document management, eLearning, and Web content management.

Many of these products were originally designed and marketed as separate applications under the Lotus banner. And many of their capabilities--such as team collaboration and document management--are part of Domino. But as new technology has been rolled in, primarily using Java, WebSphere, and Eclipse as the foundation of the products, there is a corresponding rebranding since this is a new product, distinct from Lotus/Domino. While this creates two groupware brands with a degree of overlapping products, IBM says it will continue to support Domino as it builds up steam for the Workplace brand. It is not pulling the plug on Domino--at least not for a long time.

WCS 2.5 has two different ways of presenting itself to end users. The first is through a browser, which is no big deal since groupware has done this for a while. But the second choice is through something IBM is calling Workplace client technology. Jelan Heidelberg, who is business development manager for the Lotus line within IBM's Systems and Technology Group and also its marketing manager for Lotus products, described Workplace client technology as the opportunity to bridge that gap between inexpensive, low-function browsers and expensive, high-function "alpha" clients such as the Notes client.

"Technically, it is a runtime on the desktop built on the Eclipse framework," Heidelberg said. "And, because it has its own runtime, it can run on both Windows and Linux desktop. It has additional features such as a secure data store on the desktop, and there are plug-ins for some of the applications, such as the email, document management, and Activity Explorer. It feels like you are in a portal, except that it is richer and it is local."

Activity Explorer is a feature that allows users to link documents, emails, and calendar entries in one file rather than keeping each in separate locations on the desktop. It also can create shared activities (shared files) and allow other team members to link in to it.

Workplace client technology, however, will not be released with the general availability of WCS 2.5. Heidelberg said it is still in product preview. You can get a beta version of the product, however, on this IBM Web page.

Also nearing its release date is Workplace Services Express. Heidelberg said its release date will come several weeks after WCS 2.5, probably in late May or early June. Like the other IBM Express products, this one is targeted at small to mid-size businesses or as a starter set for departments in larger organizations. The aim is to increase collaboration capabilities with an out-of-the-box collaboration and portal suite that includes server hardware.

Workplace Services Express will be available on the iSeries (as well as on IBM's pSeries Unix servers and xSeries Windows and Linux servers) and it will include a license for Portal Express, a tool for creating business portals and additional collaboration capabilities. The full version of WCS 2.5 has portal capabilities that can only be used within WCS. Any use beyond that requires the purchase of portal.

Workplace Services Express includes team collaboration features, although not eMeeting. It has presence awareness, instant messaging, and team spaces. It has document management. It does not have learning or Web content management. It does not have email, but integrates with email.

Organizations that would later consider moving from Express to WCS 2.5 should realize the two products use the same code base and the same data formats, so the transition should be smooth in those regards.

Along with Workplace products is a vertical industry focused tool called Workplace industry and role-based solutions, which provides deployment option scenarios and collaboration how-to strategies tailored to solve industry-specific business problems.

"Workplace provides the end user with a portal with various collaboration components in portlets," Heidelberg said. "Take that a step farther and apply it to specific businesses. These are 'architectural drawings' or design guidelines for what certain collaborative roles may be. It is designed to provide examples or starting points for how certain organizations may want to use Workplace." IBM currently has 18 Workplace solutions for vertical industries, covering areas such as manufacturing, finance, telecommunications, government, and automotive. More vertical offerings are promised.

IBM Workplace Collaboration Services 2.5 will only run on i5/OS V5R3, and while not getting specific in terms of capacity planning, Heidelberg said that no midrange shop would want to run WCS on an iSeries or i5 server with less than 500 CPWs of raw computing power and said further that most customers would want to run it on a two-way machine (by which we presume she meant a 520 Express with 1,000 CPWs, not the regular 520 machine with 59,000 CPWs). By the way, that 500 CPW performance level is the minimum IBM has quoted in the past for running WebSphere. WCS is a heavy-duty set of applications and under the covers WCS is running DB2, LDAP, the WebSphere application server, WebSphere Portal, and Workplace. It's going to require at least 2 GB of main memory on the server.

IBM has not set prices on WCS yet, but the company is expected to use a processor-based pricing scheme for the product, and it is further expected to charge the same price across the iSeries, pSeries, and xSeries servers.