What is Lotus Sametime

Lotus Sametime 

 Nowadays, individuals and organizations produce and replicate content and information, increasing significantly the amount of information spreads over the World. The IBM Lotus Sametime helps companies to communication in a efficient way, reducing traveling costs, time response and deliver a better service to the clients. Sametime is much more than just chat and Web conferences. It is an open-standards-based platform for real-time collaboration. Businesses and IBM Business Partners use Sametime 8.5 APIs and toolkits to build innovative new real-time customized collaboration applications, and to improve any application, business process, or third-party application. IBM® Lotus® Sametime® provides instant, anytime access to people and information through integrated presence awareness, conversation and object-sharing capabilities. Sametime improves individual and team productivity by broadening communications choices beyond the phone, e-mail and in-person meetings; enabling faster more informed decision making by bringing people together spontaneously or in a structured fashion.
Sametime offers real-time communication and collaboration via:

• Presence 
• Instant Messaging 
• Web Conferencing

 Sametime consists of client and server applications that enable a community of users to collaborate through instant messaging and online meetings over an intranet or the Internet. Millions of people worldwide use IBM Lotus Sametime facilities every day to gain instant access to people and information, bring together geographically dispersed teams, and improve individual and team productivity.

 What's New in Lotus Sametime 8.5 

•  A new online meeting experience that is integrated into the IBM Lotus Sametime Connect client. Join a meeting with a single click. Easily invite others by dragging their names from the contact list. Accept meeting invitations with a single click. Upload meeting materials in a simple way using drag and drop.
• New zero-download, browser-based chat and meeting clients who extend the desktop experience to wherever the user is working.
•  A new Sametime Media Manager with SIP-based interfaces and APIs inter operates with third-party video and audio conferencing systems. It also offers new video (H.264) and audio (G.722.1) codecs that deliver a better user experience at a fraction of the  bandwidth and provides administrative controls over the video experience (size, bitrate, and so on).
• New Web 2.0 APIs let developers embed Sametime capabilities into Web sites and applications so users do not have to switch context as often
• A new, browser-based Apple iPhone chat client, support for the Blackberry Storm, and an improved mobile client for Microsoft® Windows® Mobile devices. The figure below shows what would be shown in a blackberry mobile phone running sametime client 8.5:
• New social views that make it easier to find the people you collaborate with the most.
• Integrated Installation Manager that simplifies install of Sametime and all required components such as a Domino, Websphere and DB2. Installations can be managed across
• A new System Console that centralizes infrastructure configuration, deployment, management, and policy management for all Sametime services.
• Lotus Office Integration - Improved usability of Meeting Integrator with Lotus Sametime Standard Meetings Connect client.
• A new online meeting infrastructure no longer requires add-on servers for high availability and improves firewall friendliness through the use of HTTP/S to connect users.
•  Add persistent cache for Lotus Notes embedded (performance).
• Lotus Gateway - Context Logging (serviceability) Community server.
• Community Server - Chat logging support for announcements.
•  Meetings Client: Meeting join-time performance / Performance of web client appshare views.
• Integration 

– Release number synchronization for Lotus Sametime Entry, Lotus Sametime Standard, and Lotus Sametime Unified Telephony – Lotus Sametime 8.5.1 upgrade pack for Lotus Notes 8.5.1 and Lotus Notes 8.5.2

• New platforms:

– Lotus Domino 8.5.1 and 8.5.2 – Mac, Linux - Lotus Sametime 8.5.1 client support (Lotus Sametime Standard and Lotus Notes embedded clients) – Microsoft Windows 7, MacOS 10.6, RHEL 5.4, Ubuntu support, SLED 11 clients (Lotus Sametime Standard and Lotus Notes embedded clients)

 More Information:

 What is new in Lotus Sametime 8.5 software

 What is new in Lotus Sametime 8.5.1 

Benefits we can achieve with Lotus Sametime 8.5.x

Cost savings

 Reduce telephony costs by eliminating long distance phone calls by using Sametime for voice & video chats

 Reduce cell phone charges by using Sametime for voice

 Reduce travel costs by using on premise web conferences

 Reduce external web conferencing costs by using on premise web conferences

 Reduce calling (and Voice Mail) costs with alternative communication modes (Instant Messaging)

Everyday Productivity Improvements

 Better and faster collaboration on projects / work efforts

 Improved collaboration in R&D, Sales, Support team

Accelerate business processes

 Faster response in support centers and help desks

 Improved collaboration in R&D and with business partners

 Faster problem resolution in manufacturing

 Integrate with other user applications to speed business cycles

Leverage communications investments

 Telephony, Audio, Video and Mobile integration with leading vendors allowing the company uses the existing technologies.

IBM Lotus Sametime products Family

There are three Lotus Sametime offerings:

• Sametime Entry
• Sametime Standard
• Sametime Advanced
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  Sametime Entry

  Lotus Sametime Entry is a limited offering, providing a core set of awareness and instant messaging capabilities either from stand-alone Lotus Sametime clients or from within Lotus Notes. Lotus Sametime Entry does not support meeting rooms. In addition, Lotus Sametime Entry is sometimes packaged with other IBM products. Sametime Entry includes online presence awareness, basic text chat capabilities and integration with Microsoft products - Microsoft Office, Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft SharePoint.

  Sametime Standard

  This is the traditional Sametime that includes Meetings, VoIP/Video, Sametime Gateway (connectivity to public Instant Messaging networks), Mobile clients, plugins, and others:
  
  
     Instant Messaging, Voice and Video Chat
  
  
   Third party telephony and video Integration (with Business Partner solutions)
  
  
   File transfer, screen capture tool
  
  
   Web conferences
  
  
   Mobile device support
  
  
   External Communities (Public Instant Messaging Federation)
  
  
   Flexible and extendable System
  
  
   Meeting system (new)
  
  

  Sametime Advanced

  Sametime Advanced includes all of the capabilities of Sametime Standard, along with the following additional features: Persistent group chat, broadcast community tools, instant screen share and server based geographic location services:
  
  
  Persistent Chat Rooms
  
  
  Real-time community
  
  
  Collaboration Tools
  
  
  Instant Screen Share
  
  
  Location Services 
  
  
  
  

  Lotus Sametime server architecture

  
  
  

  Sametime services fall into three areas:

  
  Community services: These services contain awareness, instant messaging, and chat. A buddy list makes Sametime users aware of who is available (and who is online but unavailable) to communicate thru an instant message or participate in a chat with one or more people. The instant messaging traffic is encrypted.
  Online Meeting services: These services include a shared whiteboard and the ability to share programs and documents online. Sametime also offers a server-based Meeting Center where users can schedule online meetings in advance and store agendas and other meeting materials.
  Customization and Integration services: Sametime also provides a comprehensive API that enables customers to easily integrate real-time collaborative capabilities into other applications, such as e-commerce sites, help desks, and training/information delivery applications like Sales Force Automation.
  
  

A typical Sametime server contains:

 Lotus Sametime System Console

Lotus Sametime Community Server

 Lotus Sametime Proxy Server

 Lotus Sametime Media Server

 Lotus Sametime Meeting Server

 Lotus Sametime Gateway

 Lotus Sametime clients

Lotus Sametime System Console

The Lotus Sametime System Console is a web based application that provides a central location for installing, configuring, administering, and monitoring the Sametime environment. This console allows the Sametime administrator consolidate in one unique console the information about the hole environment. This console should be installed on a dedicated machine in an enterprise deployment.

Lotus Sametime Community Server

The Lotus Sametime Community Server runs on Lotus Domino. It supports all presence (or awareness), and text chat activity in a Lotus Sametime community. All Sametime clients who contains a presence list have to connect to the Sametime Community Server.

Lotus Sametime Proxy Server

The Lotus Sametime Proxy Server communicates with the Lotus Sametime Community Server, Lotus Sametime Meeting server, Lotus Connections Server, and Lotus Sametime Unified Telephony Server or other TCSPI-enabled server. The IBM Lotus Sametime Proxy Server runs on IBM WebSphere® Application Server and requires a Lotus Sametime Community Server.

Lotus Sametime Media Manager

The Sametime Media Manager is a new component in the Sametime Architecture. It provides a single audio / video architecture that supports both the Community and Meetings Servers. Beyond high quality audio and video codecs (up to high definition), the Media Manager includes also a SIP Proxy to enable integration with key audio and video conferencing partners. This enables Sametime users to leverage existing video conferencing investments with little new training. The Sametime Media Manager is also WebSphere based.

Lotus Sametime Meeting Server

The Lotus Sametime Meeting Server provides a central meeting place for members of the community. Combined with the Lotus Sametime Media Manager, meeting rooms can be enhanced with audio-visual features. The Sametime Meeting Server runs over a WebSphere Application Server and it requires an IBM DB2 database and an LDAP server.

Lotus Sametime Gateway

Running over a WebSphere Application Server, Lotus Sametime Gateway is a platform for sharing presence and real-time collaboration with external instant messaging communities. Lotus Sametime Gateway is used to connect with the following gateways or communities:

 Lotus Sametime communities deployed outside of your firewall

 AOL Instant Messenger

 Google Talk

 Jabber

 Microsoft Office Communications Server communities

 Yahoo Messenger

Lotus Sametime clients

To collaborate in instant messaging and online meetings, people in your organization use IBM Lotus Sametime clients that interact with services on Lotus Sametime servers.

 Sametime Connect - desktop instant messaging client that can be stand-alone or embedded in Lotus Notes

 Sametime browser client - instant messaging client in a browser

 Sametime mobile client - instant messaging features in a mobile device

 Sametime iPhone client - optimized browser client for iPhone

 Sametime Meetings - meeting room plugin for Sametime Connect or Lotus Notes

 Sametime Meeting Room Center in a browser - online access to Sametime meeting rooms

 Sametime Classic Meetings client - Java-based meeting room client interacts with the Sametime Classic Meeting