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Lotus Notes and Domino 8 Offer Bold New Features

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The new version Lotus Notes and Domino software, V8, will be released Friday, IBM announced. With the release of V8, Lotus is embracing Eclipse technology, modernizing the Lotus Notes user interface, and providing the ability to build composite Notes applications. IBM is introducing activity-centric computing, productivity tools, and enhanced portal integration.

Lotus Notes and Domino software, in previous releases embraced Web services, improved server performance, created seamless SAP software integration, offered 64-bit OS compatibility, and delivered on a new Linux client.

V8 continues to extend IBM Lotus software leadership in messaging and collaboration with an intuitive user interface, powerful new functionality, and new tools for getting things done.

Built on a new Eclipse-based architecture, Lotus Notes and Domino 8 offer a modern, Web-like look and feel in a familiar Lotus Notes format, which presents the tools users need, when and where they need them. That's because Lotus Notes and Domino 8 include integrated office productivity tools for word processing, spreadsheet, and presentations. Organizations can also use Notes and Domino to quickly assemble components into customized, integrated applicationsùalso called composite applicationsùwithout writing extensive code.

With increased ease of deploying, upgrading, and administering the product, Lotus shows once again the investment and continued innovation they are making with their flagship product, all with a focus on addressing the total cost of ownership.

New features that make this the most powerful release of Lotus Notes and Domino ever:

  • "Open" button for fast access to most-often used applications.
  • Conversation mode that lets users gather and review email threads based on subject headers.
  • Sidebar that displays critical information and alerts including IBM Lotus Sametime 7.5.1-contacts, day-at-a-glance, RSS, and ATOM feeds.
  • Context sensitive toolbars and customizable view preferences.
  • Omnipresent search center for email, calendar, the Web, and the desktop.
  • Support for activity-centric computing.
  • Word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation applications, which support OpenDocument Format (ODF), Microsoft Office, and IBM Lotus SmartSuite file formats.
  • Ability to export documents to PDF.
  • Collaboration history that lets you search and view your collaboration history with specific people.
  • Server-managed provisioning
  • Cross-platform support for both client and server.
  • Multi-directory integration improvements provided through limited entitlement to IBM Tivoli Directory Integrator that accompanies Lotus Domino 8 software.
  • Mail-recall and new cluster-replication technology that help improve replication performance and can reduce network usage.

Users will benefit from interface changes that make their experience more consistent and thus can help make them more effective and productive. Feature enhancements such as in-line spell checking, type-ahead addressing, e-mail "conversation threading," and numerous other changes to mail, calendaring, and contact management, will result in enhanced user benefits.

With the new client-side architecture based on the Eclipse framework, Notes has the capability to run Eclipse-based code within the Notes rich client. Eclipse plug-ins can be used in the Notes sidebar or can be wired together with Lotus Notes applications as a composite application, to provide quick access to business information in one view. Users can also extend the client program, for example, adding search engines to the current list and customizing the user interface (UI).

With a myriad product enhancements, Lotus Notes and Domino 8 software delivers an industry-leading user experience, breakthrough applications delivery capabilities, and significantly expanded product capabilities, reports IBM.

Planned availability dates include:

  • Electronic software delivery:
    • August 17, (English)
    • September 10 (Japanese)
    • September 19 (French, Spanish, Italian, German, Portuguese-Brazilian, Korean, Chinese - traditional and simplified, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Dutch, Finnish)
    • January 23, 2008 (Portuguese, Russian, Hebrew, Arabic, Hungarian, Greek, Turkish, Czech, Polish)
    • April 2, 2008 (Catalan, Slovenian, Slovakian, and Thai)

    Physical media and documentation:

    • September 21 (English)
    • October 26 (French, Spanish, Italian, German, Portuguese-Brazilian, Japanese, Korean, Chinese - Traditional and Simplified, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Dutch, Finnish)
    • February 29, 2008 (Portuguese, Russian, Hebrew, Arabic, Hungarian, Greek, Turkish, Czech, Polish)
    • May 2, 2008 (Catalan, Slovenian, Slovakian, Thai

    Specific national language version details for physical media are listed in the availability of national languages section of the IBM announcement letter (see IBM Web site).

    With Lotus Notes 8, users will also receive a set of IBM productivity tools. These tools allow for creation of word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation graphics files that are compatible with Open Document Format (ODF) and other commonly used formats. IBM Lotus Domino 8, the next installment of the security-rich messaging and collaboration platform, includes improvements in performance, administration, serviceability, and, in most cases, total cost of ownership (TCO).

    IBM Lotus Domino server software combines reliable, security-rich e-mail, calendar, and scheduling capabilities with a powerful platform for business collaboration. It offers solutions for messaging, customized business applicationsùor bothùon a wide variety of operating systems. Lotus Domino, in combination with the rich Lotus Notes client, can enhance employee productivity, streamline business processes, and improve overall business responsiveness, the company says.

    IBM Lotus Domino 8 supports an open application infrastructure. This new version will enable users to deploy composite applications in Lotus Notes 8 and extend Web services support, including:

    • The ability to provision composite applications
    • Consumer support, which allows Lotus Domino applications to call other Web services.

    Other highlights are:

    • Numerous improvements in Lotus Domino domain monitoring, including additional event probes and corrective actions
    • Integration with Tivoli Enterprise Console software
    • Improved AdminP performance and management to increase rename speed
    • Policy management of inbox cleanup to help manage inbox sizes
    • Ability to prevent access to Internet password fields in the Lotus Domino directory
    • Internet account lockout due to password entry failure
    • Support for Red Hat Linux 5
    • Use of IBM DB2 data store on selected server platforms as an alternative to traditional .NSF, enabling relational database access and queries

    There is also improved performance and scalability, such as:

    • Brand new cluster replication implementation that can significantly improve performance and reduce I/O requirements and latency
    • "Build on first use" sort order feature that can significantly improve server performance, and help reduce storage costs and I/O requirements
    • Numerous additional performance and I/O reduction improvements

    New features of IBM Lotus Enterprise Integrator 8 include:

    • Virtual fields key synchronization: Virtual fields activity keys can now be automatically synchronized on a periodic basis based on a background process.
    • Virtual documents update event synchronization: Virtual Documents activities that are synchronizing update events in an external system can now do this when using external keys. With this functionality, all external events, (create, update, and delete) can now use either the internal or external key approach for virtual documents.
    • Lotus Connector: Connector automatically detects the external systems codepage where the RDBMS client supports it. This allows users to have a single Lotus Enterprise Integrator server talking to the different back-end using different codepages for each connection. The RDBMS clients that support this are Oracle and SAP applications.

    IBM Lotus Domino Designer 8

    Lotus Notes and Domino provide a high productivity application development environment that supports the rapid creation, modification, and deployment of security-rich business applications. Domino applications can be accessed using numerous methods, including Web service consumers, Lotus Notes, and Web browsers. Lotus Domino Designer 8 includes multiple new features and functions that enable developers to provide more value through Lotus Notes and Domino applications, and support services oriented architecture.

    Lotus Notes and Domino 8 introduce native Web service consumer support, allowing developers to reuse functions from other IT systems and even from publicly available Web services. Lotus Domino 8 and Lotus Domino Designer 8 also refine the native Web service provider support first introduced in Domino 7, providing developers with more options for custom coded Web service providers that allow other systems to make use of Domino data and business logic.

    Developers have new relational data options when Lotus Domino 8 is configured to use IBM DB2 as an alternative data store to NSF. Lotus Domino Designer 8 supports this new feature allowing developers to expose selected Lotus Domino data as relational data and to use Structured Query Language (SQL) to build a Lotus Domino view that can combine Lotus Domino data, DB2 data, and DB2 federated data.

    Lotus Domino Designer 8 also provides entitlement to Lotus Component Designer, allowing developers to use their skills to build components and applications for IBM WebSphere Portal. Lotus Domino Enterprise server provides a limited entitlement to WebSphere Portal, allowing you new options to exploit assets running on different platforms and servers, with access through Web browsers or Lotus Notes 8 clients.

    IBM Lotus Domino Web Access 8.0

    IBM Lotus Domino Web Access 8.0 introduces an improved user interface that better aligns with the increased intuitive experience of IBM Lotus Notes 8. Some of the new features are:

    • Greater synergy with Lotus Notes client experience.
    • Integration with WebSphere Portal enhancements.
    • Dynamic view column updates.
    • Feed-enabled mail files (RSS/ATOM).
    • Calendar filtering.
    • Lotus Notes and Internet password management improvements.
    • Default location for resources.
    • Calendar delegation improvements.
    • Preview Pane.

    IBM is a leading global hybrid cloud and AI, and business services provider, helping clients in more than 175 countries capitalize on insights from their data, streamline business processes, reduce costs and gain the competitive edge in their industries. Nearly 3,000 government and corporate entities in critical infrastructure areas such as financial services, telecommunications and healthcare rely on IBM's hybrid cloud platform and Red Hat OpenShift to affect their digital transformations quickly, efficiently, and securely. IBM's breakthrough innovations in AI, quantum computing, industry-specific cloud solutions and business services deliver open and flexible options to our clients. All of this is backed by IBM's legendary commitment to trust, transparency, responsibility, inclusivity, and service.

    For more information, visit: www.ibm.com.

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