The inside scoop on Lotus Sametime from the product management team

    The Sametime Blog

    Tech Web TV -- The Evolution of Communication with Bruce Morse

    Adam Gartenberg  May 13 2008 07:37:25 AM
    Check out Lotus Unified Communications and Communication Vice President Bruce Morse's appearance on Tech Web TV.

    Bruce has an in depth discussion on UC2, IBM's strategy  and what the future holds in this space. UC Strategies analyst Marty Parker is also included in the discussion.



    Link:  The Evolution of Communication

    Welcome to the new Sametime Blog

    Robert Ingram  May 7 2008 10:15:01 AM
    Welcome to the official blog of the Lotus Sametime Product Management team. If you followed Adam Gartenberg's blog,  you will know that Adam has recently moved on to a new role at IBM, but we will try to retain his services as a contributing guest author. If you are want to know what's happening in the world of Lotus Sametime products and IBM Unified Communications and Collaboration, this is your blog. We will do our best to maintain the traditions and high standards that Adam started for Sametime. Adam has even kindly copied all his prior postings related to Sametime for any newcomers to refer back to.

    The new blog name was carefully selected after months of trial and market research and we came up with the very creative title - 'The Sametime Blog' !!! We  will now have multiple authors from the Sametime team as we simply cannot replace Adam with one person. You can read our team bios here.

    Tell your friends and colleagues about our new blog URL.

    www.thesametimeblog.com

    Lotus Sametime 8.0.1 Fix List now available

    Adam Gartenberg  May 5 2008 01:17:32 PM
    As Jennifer and Carl have noted, the Lotus Sametime 8.0.1 fix list has now been posted.

    As I've seen feedback in the past that our fix list isn't always as robust as, say, the one for Notes/Domino, I'd be interested in feedback if you have any suggestions for improving it.

    Link:  Lotus Sametime 8.0.1 fix list.

    Take the new Lotus Sametime Personality Test

    Adam Gartenberg  April 21 2008 08:34:07 PM
    Take the new Lotus Sametime personality test to see what kind of "Sametimer" you are (or should that be "Sametimr?"  Hmmm).

    See below to take the quiz.  And, as if this should be any surprise, here's where I came in.

    What kind of Lotus Sametimer are you?
    My Result: Super Sametimer
    Quibblo user avatar
    Wow, you really live in "real time!" Don't forget to step outside and get some fresh air every once in a while!

    Take What kind of Lotus Sametimer are you?
    Find more quizzes at Quibblo.com
    Quibblo

    Action needed if you use Lotus Sametime Gateway to connect to Yahoo! Messenger Network

    Adam Gartenberg  April 21 2008 07:13:19 PM
    Yahoo! is going to be moving the location of their federation gateways, so if you're using Lotus Sametime Gateway to connect to the Yahoo! Messenger network, you're going to need to update your firewalls for the following hosts before April 24 or risk losing connectivity.

    Full details

    Abstract
    Lotus Sametime Gateway will be unable to connect to the Yahoo! Messenger network, beginning April 24, 2008.


    Content Yahoo is in the process of moving the location of their federation gateways. This change will prevent all Sametime Gateway deployments from establishing connectivity with the Yahoo! Messenger network.

    To avoid possible service interruptions, firewalls protecting the Sametime Gateway must be updated or modified to accept incoming and outgoing traffic for the following hosts on port 5061:

    sgw.ibm.msg.vip.ac4.yahoo.com 98.136.112.84
    sgw.ibm.msg.vip.sp1.yahoo.com 98.136.56.113
    sgw101.ibm.msg.ac4.yahoo.com 98.136.113.23
    sgw102.ibm.msg.ac4.yahoo.com 98.136.113.24
    sgw103.ibm.msg.ac4.yahoo.com 98.136.113.25
    sgw104.ibm.msg.ac4.yahoo.com 98.136.113.26
    sgw105.ibm.msg.ac4.yahoo.com 98.136.113.27
    sgw106.ibm.msg.ac4.yahoo.com 98.136.113.28
    sgw107.ibm.msg.ac4.yahoo.com 98.136.113.29
    sgw108.ibm.msg.ac4.yahoo.com 98.136.113.30
    sgw101.ibm.msg.sp1.yahoo.com 98.136.43.128
    sgw102.ibm.msg.sp1.yahoo.com 98.136.43.129
    sgw103.ibm.msg.sp1.yahoo.com 98.136.43.130
    sgw104.ibm.msg.sp1.yahoo.com 98.136.43.131
    sgw105.ibm.msg.sp1.yahoo.com 98.136.43.132
    sgw106.ibm.msg.sp1.yahoo.com 98.136.43.133
    sgw107.ibm.msg.sp1.yahoo.com 98.136.43.134
    sgw108.ibm.msg.sp1.yahoo.com 98.136.43.135

    This migration will be effective on April 24, 2008; therefore it is imperative that this change be made prior to that date to avoid any service interruption.

    Aside from these firewall rules, there are no other application-related configuration changes required on the Sametime Gateway.


    IBM CIO Office Case Study on the usage of Lotus Sametime

    Adam Gartenberg  April 21 2008 01:13:47 PM

    A new case study focusing on the usage and savings IBM sees from the use of Lotus Sametime is now available.

    In addition to all of the productivity benefits that make Sametime a way of life here at IBM, there are hard-dollar cost savings, too, such as an estimated savings of $16.5M USD from reduced phone usage and $97M USD in savings on travel costs from the use of Web conferencing.

    See the full PDF for more details and additional explanations and benefits on how this technology has changed the way IBMers work.

    Link:      IBM reaps business benefits and major cost savings from unified communications and collaboration

    New Lotus Sametime VIC Course available for IBM Business Partners

    Adam Gartenberg  April 21 2008 08:55:56 AM
    A new Lotus Sametime course is available for IBM Business Partners in the Virtual Innovation Center (VIC).  If you're a Business Partner and are not yet enabled or selling Lotus Sametime, I suggest you go check it out!

    Course Abstract:
    IBM Lotus Sametime software is the critical component of the IBM UC2 strategy. An open, extensible platform, IBM Lotus Sametime offers in-the-box capabilities that can be used on their own or integrated with a large ecosystem of third-party and custom applications.


    Link:      Lotus Sametime Enablement for IBM Business Partners

    bMighty.com - UC for SMB

    Adam Gartenberg  April 16 2008 11:01:38 AM
    bMighty.com recently published a great article on the value that SMBs can get from Unified Communications.

    One of the companies they spoke to, Celina Insurance, provides some insight into the value they see and how they got their workforce - with a median age of 56, no less - to adopt instant messaging and UC capabilities.

    At first, there was some resistance over things like interruptions.  I think Robert Schoenfelt, Celina's CIO, did a great job of responding:  "The CIO quashed their annoyance. 'When you can tell me when the phone is going to ring, I'll tell you when you're going to get a message,' he told them."

    The article continues to explain other ways they helped spread adoption of IM inside the company.

    Then there was the top-down acceptance at Celina when employees realized that the company CEO had learned the technology. "There was a picture of him in his leather jacket and sunglasses [with his identity on the site]. People said, 'If he's going to use it, I guess I'm going to do it, too,'" Shoenfelt laughs.

    Ultimately, acceptance came once incoming requests were handled more easily, eliminating backlog, and people could suddenly work at home as efficiently as at the office. "Everybody latched on," Shoenfelt says, adding that Sametime changed the culture of the company.


    Akiba Saeedi also brought up an essential point about seeing adoption and value of UC - integrating it into your business applications and processes:

    Akiba Saeedi, IBM's program director of unified communications and collaboration, calls it the "stickiness factor." UC is more likely to be accepted when you "inject it into the [existing] business process" to simplify employees' lives.


    If you're not familiar with Celina's story, head on over here to read the full case study.  They've seen some really remarkable benefits from the use of this technology, including:
    • 50 percent reduction in phone calls and costs due to instant messaging
    • 40 percent reduction in head count while maintaining the same volume of business due to streamlined processes
    • Policy turnaround times reduced from weeks to days by integrating and automating business processes that span Celina and its agents

    Links:

    Tell me what Sametime documentation we’re missing

    Adam Gartenberg  April 15 2008 02:26:58 PM
    Well, I'm glad that got your attention :)

    Before I get to the question in the title, though, there's some documentation that I missed posting on.

    IBM and VMware have produced a reference architecture on running Sametime in a VMWare Infrastructure 3 environment.  (Thanks Jennifer and Carl).  If you are already or are considering rolling out Sametime on VMWare, I suggest taking a look.

    So, now back to the question in the title....

    While writing about the reference architecture, Carl brought up some additional material he'd like to have seen as part of this work:

    This workload is fine for IM load but to me it's incomplete. This is the workload that ships with server.load, and it's all about IM, it's missing some key areas where customers feel load.  How does the Sametime Meeting Center scale, Audio/Video scaling in meeting, VoIP scaling, P2P video, P2P screenshare, TCSPI scaling , how well does the environment handle resolve requests from thousands of Notes clients etc.


    Similarly, there was a request a little while back through the Sametime Forum for a list of the variables that can be defined in the sametime.ini file on a Sametime server.

    So my question of the day is:  What other documentation would it be helpful for you to have?

    Link:     IBM Lotus Sametime Reference Architecture in a VMware Infrastructure 3 Environment

    Lotus Sametime Unyte now available for purchase through Passport Advantage

    Adam Gartenberg  April 15 2008 01:00:26 PM
    The Lotus Sametime Unyte team announced today that you can now purchase (and for those of you who are IBM Business Partners, sell) access to use the Lotus Sametime Unyte service through IBM Passport Advantage just like other IBM software (well, there are some differences - as it is still a service and not a perpetual license).

    When you purchase access to Sametime Unyte this way, you only need to purchase a subscription license for the meeting host.  There are three levels of licensing depending on how many participants you would like to be able to attend the meeting for that host - 14 participants, 24 participants, or 99 participants.

    And, as always, you can try out a free trial of the Sametime Unyte service, too.

    IBM Lotus Sametime Unyte Meeting, an Internet-delivered Web conferencing service, is especially useful outside the boundaries of a corporate firewall. It offers a full-function Web conference capability without the management of on-site software deployment and support. With integrated voice conferencing features, the Lotus Sametime Unyte Meeting service is perfect for any meeting where you want to enhance the dialog by sharing a document, presentation, or application. Lotus Sametime Unyte Meeting Web conferencing provides key features such as presentation and application sharing, annotation, and hand-raising. The Lotus Sametime Unyte Meeting service also goes beyond basic Web conferencing and provides advanced features such as recording, polling, question, and answer session management.


    Additional details: