Highlights of Lotusphere 2009

by Clint Boulton

Blue Man Group drums out its own tune, getting the Lotusphere audience pumped to discuss serious SAAS (software as a service) collaboration.

Yes, that’s Aykroyd, who came on stage doing his Beldar Conehead impression, which may have been funny on “Saturday Night Live” in 1978. Aykroyd, however, is a fine public speaker and didn’t miss a beat when offering his own thoughts on collaborating on a movie set.

The slide, preceded by Research In Motion co-CEO Jim Balsillie talking up IBM and RIM’s long partnership, says it all. The key difference with this new software is that it supports Lotus Connections’ blogs, activities and communities.

The client integrates presence to help colleagues find each other anywhere, a key function in any enterprise.

BlackBerry can now handle Lotus Symphony documents and Quickr team collaboration software. Support for Lotus presentations and spreadsheet will come later in 2009.

BlackBerry now supports Designer and XPages to enable easier mobile enterprise application development.

LotusLive is the new brand name for IBM’s SAAS collaboration suite, an alternative to Google Apps and Microsoft Windows Live.

Engage is IBM’s “Bluehouse” extranet social networking services renamed. Engage includes e-mail, Web conferencing, file sharing and other collaboration services.

Salesforce.com, Skype and LinkedIn have all agreed to integrate with LotusLive, extending IBM’s tendrils to potentially 400 million users.

Alloy is the IBM and SAP joint software development deal, in which SAP Business Suite reports can be accessed from within Lotus Notes.