IBM Revs Cloud-Based Social Business Suite
September 10, 2013 Alex Woodie
|
IBM has issued a new release of SmartCloud for Social Business (SC4SB), a collection of cloud-based utilities that allow users to collaborate online via email, instant messaging, file sharing, and more. SC4SB is an IBM-hosted offering that provides users with email, calendar, instant messaging file sharing, forums, and Web meeting functionality from the comfort of a Web browser or an IBM Notes client. IBM rolled out the SC4SB offerings (which previously went by the name LotusLive) in January 2012. IBM sells various bundles and stand-alone services as part of the SC4SB suite. These bundles include: the entry-level SmartCloud Connections offering, which includes basic collaboration tools (such as file sharing, wikis and blogs, and instant messaging) along with a mobile app; the mid-grade SmartCloud Engage Standard offering, which adds Web meeting functionality to SC Connections; the high-end SmartCloud Engage Advanced offering, which adds email, calendar, and Web-based documents editors for creating, sharing, and collaboratively authoring word processor, spreadsheet, and presentations; and stand-alone Notes Meetings, and iNotes offerings. You can see the full description of bundles at www.ibm.com/cloud-computing/social/us/en/planspricing. In August, IBM rolled out enhancements to the three core SC4SB bundles and stand-alone offerings that are part of the suite. SmartCloud Engage Standard and Connections get a new dashboard that gives users the capability to share and view status updates across their social networks, as well as the capability to act directly on comments and content, IBM says. The forums, wikis, and blogs capabilities in the SC Engage Standard and Connections offerings have also been enhanced to enable more community discussions. IBM has also added the capability to synchronize files from the cloud to mobile devices, as well as the capability to edit in real time on an iPad, and picture and video upload capabilities. Finally, IBM says SC4SB users can now monitor and work on content in a single view, regardless of whether other participants are tuning in via the cloud or are using on-premise Notes clients. SmartCloud Notes, which includes email, IM, and calendar functionality and is available either through a Web browser or as a full Windows client, has been bolstered with several enhancements. This includes a new UI for Web browser-based email and calendar components; support for the “to do” app for IBM’s Notes traveler subscribers; new options for journaling the mail delivery logging functionality; improvements to spam and junk email routing; support for a customized Web browser experience; better administrator interfaces; and the option to have Web password updates automatically synchronize the full Notes client password, too. The updates are available now. SC Connections starts at $6 per month. SC Engage Standard starts $8 per user per month. SC Engage Advanced starts at $10 per user per month. SC Meetings and SC Notes starts at $5 per user per month. RELATED STORY IBM Unveils New Social Media Solutions at Lotusphere
|
