After all the promises we told you RIM made at Lotusphere we have one more followup from RIM. RIM previewed a BlackBerry Client for IBM Lotus Connections yesterday. The client runs natively on BlackBerry smartphones to provide users with access to Lotus Connections social software for business. According to RIM the client will be free when it is released “Later This Year.” (I hate when they use those terms)
You can read up more about the client here. Or sign up to be contacted when it is released at this link.
From the Press Release:
Users can enjoy many of the same benefits and functionality found on the desktop version of Lotus Connections directly from their BlackBerry smartphone, including the ability to collaborate on projects with teammates, locate internal subject matter experts by name or topic, as well as effortlessly share information and research to improve decision making.
“Organizations are embracing social networking tools to improve productivity and enable workers to find the experts and information within their organizations that can help them get their jobs done more effectively,” said Mike Lazaridis, President and Co-CEO at RIM. “Lotus Connections, which facilitates the gathering and exchange of information through professional networks, is a natural fit with the BlackBerry platform. We are very pleased to introduce the first mobile software application to leverage this exciting new social software for business.”
“The challenges of globalization are forcing companies to become more nimble, using an increasingly geographically-dispersed and virtual workforce to remain competitive,” said Jeff Schick, vice president of social software, IBM Lotus. “Together with RIM we are excited to be delivering the industry’s business-ready social software on the BlackBerry platform.”
The new BlackBerry Client for Lotus Connections features:
- Mobile access to Profiles: Users can find internal subject matter experts with an intuitive and flexible search. Users can consider details about current role, background, and areas of interest to identify internal subject matter experts, and contact them instantly.
- Mobile access to Dogear: Users can save precious time on research by accessing their colleagues’ “pre-vetted” bookmarks, searching them by tags and adding new bookmarks directly from a BlackBerry smartphone.
- Easy set up: With its intuitive user interface customers can be up and running quickly and using Lotus Connections from their BlackBerry smartphones.
- Proven wireless architecture: The BlackBerry Client for Lotus Connections leverages the proven architecture and security model of BlackBerry Enterprise Server, allowing IT groups to centrally manage and control mobile access to IBM Lotus Connections.
The BlackBerry Client for Lotus Connections will be previewed this week at Lotusphere 2008 (BlackBerry booth #516) and is expected to be available as a free download later this year. For more information please visit: www.blackberry.com/go/lotusconnections.
