Collaboration today has come a long way from just being e-mail
or chat. It has become one of the most discussed (if not deployed)
topics in the IT industry next to others such as cloud computing
and virtualization. Vendors too such as Cisco, Microsoft and IBM
are working towards making their collaboration portfolios stronger.
For instance, IBM has introduced a cloud version of its
collaboration offering Lotus Notes as Lotus Live.
“Customers today are looking at collaboration which goes
beyond just mail messaging. Most of them today have deployed mail
messaging and are now looking at how they can reduce the overall
cost of managing a mail messaging infrastructure,” says
Karthik Padmanabhan, Country Manager, Lotus, IBM Software Group
India South Asia.
To further capitalize on these opportunities, IBM is offering
its UC solution with options of deploying it on-premise, using it
via the cloud hosted by IBM or even on the hybrid model.
“While the customer can buy the Lotus Live service through
a partner, it will be hosted by us available to him for use as a
service which can paid for through yearly, quarterly monthly or
other billing options,” informs Padmanabhan.
The company is seeing good uptake for its UC solutions from
sectors such as Insurance where a major part of the workforce is
mobile and wants to communicate effectively. A large portion of
this workforce is current generation youth who is at ease with
using such technologies.
Manufacturing is another sector where the company has seen a
good demand for its UC solutions since companies in this sector
have a large manufacturing and distribution network and they want
to communicate with these networks efficiently. MRF is an example
of a customer that IBM has in this sector.
In India, the company has seen close to 12 percent of Lotus
Notes adoption via the cloud model in the in a year and a half.
According to the company, a pharmaceutical company, a footwear
manufacturer and retailer, and a maritime services company are a
few of the customers using Lotus via the cloud model.