BlackBerry and Lotus get closer at Lotusphere 2009
Category Lotusphere
Bookmark :
If there is one thing that I took away from Lotusphere 2009 its the change in the relationship between BlackBerry and Lotus. Its much closer at all levels - and the best example was that this year RIM was literally centre stage at the Lotusphere Opening General Session. Jim Balsillie, Co-CEO of RIM, stood on the stage at Orlando and pledged support for Lotus software - including Quickr, Symphony and Connections.
As I see it a couple of underlying currents emerged at Lotusphere 2009.
The need to mobilise business applications had long been a theme at RIM's own Lotusphere sessions - but now it was a major Lotus theme at the OGS. As Bob Picciano, General Manager at IBM Lotus Software, said 'new Lotus collaboration features and developer tools on the BlackBerry platform will deliver productivity beyond the office extending IBM software and services so that individuals can access all of the resources they need to keep their business moving, anytime, anywhere.' That's very publicly stated proof that Lotus are strongly behind the concept of apps mobilisation - and a public acknowledgement of RIM as a partner to deliver it.
Meanwhile RIM has continued to evolve its strategic view of the BlackBerry as a flexible software platform. This is reflected in their new dedicated software team, their continuing investment in product development (interesting to hear that RIM are hiring despite the current economic climate) and their ongoing work with Lotus. Of course Lotus and RIM have worked together for some time but now its at a whole new level, with the BlackBerry software team talking direct with the Lotus developers.
The fruits of this investment and of closer ties to Lotus were clear at the show. To take some examples - extending X-pages to the BB platform, support for Lotus Symphony docs (from BES 5.0 which is due in March), the new enhanced Lotus Connections Client announced at Lotusphere, a new Quickr Client (due 3rd quarter 2009), new Sametime for the BB (with better address book integration, ability to send chats as email, emoticons and presence on the home screen). And there is more in the pipeline.
So its been good to see RIM and Lotus getting closer, and showing public commitment to their partnership.
Bookmark :
If there is one thing that I took away from Lotusphere 2009 its the change in the relationship between BlackBerry and Lotus. Its much closer at all levels - and the best example was that this year RIM was literally centre stage at the Lotusphere Opening General Session. Jim Balsillie, Co-CEO of RIM, stood on the stage at Orlando and pledged support for Lotus software - including Quickr, Symphony and Connections.
As I see it a couple of underlying currents emerged at Lotusphere 2009.
The need to mobilise business applications had long been a theme at RIM's own Lotusphere sessions - but now it was a major Lotus theme at the OGS. As Bob Picciano, General Manager at IBM Lotus Software, said 'new Lotus collaboration features and developer tools on the BlackBerry platform will deliver productivity beyond the office extending IBM software and services so that individuals can access all of the resources they need to keep their business moving, anytime, anywhere.' That's very publicly stated proof that Lotus are strongly behind the concept of apps mobilisation - and a public acknowledgement of RIM as a partner to deliver it.
Meanwhile RIM has continued to evolve its strategic view of the BlackBerry as a flexible software platform. This is reflected in their new dedicated software team, their continuing investment in product development (interesting to hear that RIM are hiring despite the current economic climate) and their ongoing work with Lotus. Of course Lotus and RIM have worked together for some time but now its at a whole new level, with the BlackBerry software team talking direct with the Lotus developers.
The fruits of this investment and of closer ties to Lotus were clear at the show. To take some examples - extending X-pages to the BB platform, support for Lotus Symphony docs (from BES 5.0 which is due in March), the new enhanced Lotus Connections Client announced at Lotusphere, a new Quickr Client (due 3rd quarter 2009), new Sametime for the BB (with better address book integration, ability to send chats as email, emoticons and presence on the home screen). And there is more in the pipeline.
So its been good to see RIM and Lotus getting closer, and showing public commitment to their partnership.
-
Comments
Posted by Suzanne At 15:07:06 On 04/02/2009 | - Website - |