Introduction
With Lotus Sametime Advanced, IBM has extended the
capabilities of Lotus Sametime Standard (instant messaging, VoIP, video chats,
and Web conferencing) to include persistent group chat, broadcast tools, and
screen sharing.
Instant Technologies, specialists in developing innovative,
enterprise-class compliance and productivity solutions for IBM Lotus Sametime,
has long offered comparable capabilities in Instant Team Sessions (encrypted
and secure browser-based persistent chat rooms) and Instant Queue Manager
(real-time, presence-aware access to subject matter experts).
This document compares the features of Lotus Sametime
Advanced with those of Instant Team Sessions and Instant Queue Manager, along
with the complexity of deploying and managing the two options, to help you
decide which option meets your requirements for the lowest total cost of
ownership.
Functionality Overview
Persistent Chat
Think of persistent chat as managed, multi-user ‘places’ in
which cross-organizational teams can collaborate on specific topics in the
atmosphere of an open forum where both the chat room and the
content—conversations, documents, files, bookmarks—persist over time.
Persistent chat combines the presence awareness and
real-time communication benefits of instant messaging with the interactive
dynamics of live, in-person team meetings.
Both Lotus Sametime Advanced and Instant Team Sessions share
a common definition of persistent chat’s features and benefits.
Broadcast Tools vs Real-time Presence-Aware Queue Management
Lotus Sametime Advanced includes ‘broadcast tools’ intended
to connect internal users with information and experts which would otherwise
have been difficult to find. The main
component of these broadcast tools is ‘Skilltap’, which enables internal Lotus
Sametime users to request information or ask questions of a broad
community.
Instant Queue Manager also connects users with information
and subject matter experts, but it takes the concept several steps
further:
- Requests can be initiated by both internal and external
users via the Sametime client and/or STLinks embedded in a web page, thereby
making Instant Queue Manager a valuable tool for both internal knowledge
sharing (eg, help desk support) and external services such as sales and
customer support;
- Requests are intelligently routed to relevant subject matter
experts according to the nature of the inquiry;
- Issues can be escalated to 2nd– and 3rd-level support to
improve first call resolution rates; and
- Instant Queue Manager automatically captures metrics for
management oversight on performance—average wait time for assistance, time
taken to resolve requests, names of agents who accept or decline requests, and
more.
Screen Sharing
Screen sharing allows users to share an application, a
portion of their screens, or their entire desktop with other users in
real-time—without having to stop to schedule a Web conference.
Both Lotus Sametime Advanced and Instant Queue Manager offer
instant screen sharing capabilities between users. Lotus Sametime Advanced allows users to
launch screen sharing within the Lotus Sametime Connect client, while Instant
Queue Manager allows users to launch screen sharing via their preferred
third-party web conferencing service.
Deployment Comparison: Infrastructure Requirements for IBM Lotus Sametime Advanced
The diagram below illustrates the infrastructure required to
run Lotus Sametime Advanced:
As illustrated in figure 1 above, Lotus Sametime Advanced
requires a minimum of five separate servers (and more likely ten servers, if
you require redundancy for availability and failover). This also means, of course, that your support
staff require expertise in Websphere, Websphere Message Queue, Websphere Event
Broker, DB2 Enterprise Server, and DB2 Net Search Extender. You need to consider very carefully the
impact on total cost of ownership of all this hardware and requisite technical
expertise.
Deployment Comparison: Infrastructure Requirements for Instant Team Sessions and Instant Queue
Manager
The diagram below illustrates the infrastructure required to
run and the products from Instant Technologies that combine to deliver
capabilities comparable to those found in Lotus Sametime Advanced:
As illustrated in figure 2 above, Instant Team Sessions and
Instant Queue Manager run on your existing Lotus Sametime infrastructure. You can easily add value to your investment
in Lotus Sametime Standard without incurring additional costs for hardware,
training, and the ongoing maintenance and support of a complex Lotus Sametime
Advanced Environment.
Note: For optimal
performance, Instant Queue Manager should be deployed on any machine on your
network that can connect to your Lotus Sametime server. Instant Queue Manager effectively functions
like a user logging in to your Lotus Sametime server.
Conclusion
As with any product comparison, the preceding pages
illustrate an overlap of features common to both options as well as features
unique to each option.
Lotus Sametime Advanced’s main advantages are its enhanced
broadcast capabilities and its support for screensharing within the Lotus
Sametime Connect client. Those
advantages, however, result in a significant increase in deployment complexity,
which in turn creates IT overhead for the additional technical expertise
required to manage and maintain the environment.
Your analysis must therefore extend beyond the relatively
low initial buy-in for Lotus Sametime Advanced and take into consideration the
total cost of ownership over the long run. Instant Team Sessions and Instant Queue Manager, deployed separately or
in combination according to your requirements, deliver comparable (and in many
areas superior) functionality—utilizing your existing hardware and your
existing technical capabilities.
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