IBM announces expanded social software tools

IBM today announced an expanded set of social software tools and capabilities for enterprise collaboration that brings features such as micro-blogging from the home into the business environment.

The new release of Lotus Connections expands on IBM's commitment to bringing a business-grade social software platform to the market, the company said in a statement.

"With Lotus Connections, we have merged document sharing and social networking capabilities to create a comprehensive collaboration platform for business," said Karthik Padmanabhan, country manager - Lotus-Software Group - IBM India/South Asia.

Source : http://www.business-standard.com/

IBM Targets SMBs with New Software

Information technology giant IBM has teamed up with finance management software vendor Intuit Inc to launch an appliance in the United States that eases the business operation of small and medium-sized enterprises.

The appliance, the “Smart Cube,” is in fact designed to capitalize on the growing need for technology in the small and medium business sector. Moreover, the launch came at a time when the U.S. stimulus bill is set to offer financial support and subsidy for smaller enterprises investing in technology.

The Smart Cube is bundled with applications like email, calendaring, security, accounting tools and finance management software.

IBM says it has been inspired to launch such a package in the United States following the success of similar offerings in India.

There is another reason to launch such a package, according to IBM. The IT major has cited a recent study report from IDC (News - Alert), which estimated that the global market for small-business technology will be worth $675 billion by 2013.

IDC had even suggested that combining hardware, software and services in a single product could be an ideal way to attract the attention of small enterprises.

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IBM and Sun: Is it about the hardware or the software?

The Wall Street Journal reports IBM is in acquisition talks with Sun Micro systems. At this point, the companies are refusing to comment on the rumor. If it comes to pass, the acquisition would give IBM a larger share of the high-end server and storage markets and enhanced access to certain customers, especially in the financial services and telecommunications industries. However, the software aspect of the deal might have a larger impact on IBM and the industry as a whole.

Today, IBM is best thought of as a services and software company with a computer hardware division. In 2008, services and software represented 79% of IBM’s revenue and 82% of its pre-tax income. In contrast, hardware represented only 19% of revenue and 9% of pre-tax income. The Sun acquisition would undoubtedly boost IBM hardware revenue and might improve hardware profitability, but the positive impact to IBM’s services and software businesses could easily dwarf these benefits.

Java makes Sun shine for IBM

In addition to its sizeable hardware business, Sun has some strategic software assets, including the Java programming language, the Solaris operating system, and several open source technologies, including the MySQL database management suite. Solaris and the open source technologies are unlikely to make significant contributions to IBM’s software or services revenue, but by owning and guiding Java, the company could create a sustainable competitive advantage over some of its largest services and software competitors.

Java has flourished while Sun hasn’t. Nearly every major middle ware and enterprise application vendor (with Microsoft the exception) has built key applications using Java and has plans to build more. By extension, nearly every major corporation relies on Java for some part of its core business processes.

Sun has realized little revenue from all this love for Java. In 2008, the company recognized only $200M from its Java software, an increase of only 0.5% from the year before. As a hardware company, Sun struggled to turn Java into revenue and profit. Unlike Sun, IBM is in a prime position to monetize that asset.

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IBM Updates Lotus Foundations for Small Businesses

At IBM's Lotusphere Conference the company announced an update of its Lotus Foundations line of Linux-based software for midmarket companies, as well as new Web 2.0 tools.

IBM wants small to medium-size businesses to know they are invested in providing midmarket companies with cost-effective solutions by offering a growing portfolio of low or no-cost software.

This week at Lotusphere, IBM announced an update of its Lotus Foundations line of small business software, built on IBM's Express Advantage program. The Lotus Foundations hardware and software system helps businesses from five to 500 employees collaborate with tools like email, office applications, file sharing, back up and recovery.

The company also announced the opening of the Lotus Foundations Branch Office. IBM says many large organizations running Lotus Domino, like banks, professional services firms and insurance agencies have significant portions of their businesses in branch offices without on-site IT.

With Lotus Foundations Branch Office, large enterprise Lotus Domino customers will be able to extend existing skills and data to remote offices quickly and efficiently. IBM says it will help large organizations reduce costs and better manage operations by supporting the often complex technology needs of the branch and satellite offices with a fully integrated appliance. The company is touting evaluations of Lotus Foundations' functionality and ease-of-use by Research In Motion (RIM) and ShoreTel, who say they believe it is a good platform to reach the SMB market.

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