IBM has finally unveiled the fruits of two years of development and testing by announcing that, from today, all users can get their hands on Lotus Notes 8 and Lotus Domino 8.
Big Blue's latest innovation, which focuses on collaboration, has been in the offing for some time, with trials being conducted by more than 25,000 businesses around the globe to ensure the finishing touches before announcing general availability of the new product.
Collaborative capabilities have overtaken email as the key feature of business users' desktop experience, according to research gleaned from IBM's labs. As a result, the company has positioned Lotus Notes 8 as something that can morph users' inboxes into an integrated workspace encompassing calendaring, custom applications, email, instant messaging and office productivity tools.
"Our customers are calling Lotus Notes 8 the 'desktop of the future' because it consolidates all their collaboration tools into one screen" said Michael Rhodin, general manager of IBM Lotus Software. "Collaboration is eclipsing email as the killer app we use daily, whether your virtual desktop is on your desk, in your car, your hand, or your ear. Notes and Domino 8 is your personal portal to the Web 2.0 world."
The latest addition to the Lotus family includes a number of new and enhanced features, such an innovative search tool message grouping, and is the first solution of its kind to have been created with such a very high degree of customer input, according to IBM.
Big Blue is hoping the product will take off in the same way as its predecessors, claiming that more than 90 per cent of Notes customers are already making use of the two most recent releases of the software.
Some customers have already voiced their welcomes for the new solution's arrival.
"The best addition to Lotus Notes 8 is the RSS Reader, I can't remember what I ever did without it," said Darren Creely of Prudential UK. "We are also really excited about the improved search capabilities in Lotus Notes and Domino 8, they really help us save time and add value to our desktop."
Robert Spaltenstein of Allianz-Suisse added: "We see a lot of value in the ability to build composite applications within Lotus Notes. With the sidebar in Lotus Notes and Domino 8 I have one-click access to the applications and information I need to get the my work done."
Lotus Notes 8 and Lotus Domino 8 also supports the Open Document Format (ODF), so that users can import or export supported Microsoft Office file formats and then save them in their original format or in ODF.
The new solution, which is prices at $101 per client for Lotus Notes 8 and $14.75 per value unit for IBM Lotus Domino server software, also supports multiple platforms including desktop Linux and Windows and server-based AIX, IBM System I, Linux, Sun Solaris and Windows.
