IBM India has announced the availability of IBM Lotus Workplace Messaging, a Web-based messaging offering that can help pharmaceutical companies to cost-effectively extend enterprise messaging to workers without a dedicated workspace or current e-mail access. Lotus Workplace Messaging provides a scalable, reliable solution at a fraction of the cost of a traditional enterprise messaging systems.

Lotus Workplace Messaging is designed for "deskless" workers within an organization, such as factory floor workers in a production plant of a pharmaceutical company that typically do not have access to e-mail. This set of users tend to send and receive a lower volume of messages compared to traditional office and knowledge workers, and they require an intuitive solution that is easy to use and needs little or no training. Lotus Workplace Messaging can help deliver on all of these end-user needs while helping to maintain the high level of reliability, availability and scalability.

Lotus Workplace Messaging also provides companies with a cost-effective method to extend and tailor their overall messaging solution to help maximize communication and employee productivity. Using shared workstations or kiosks, deskless workers can now use e-mail to send and receive company information, such as human resources updates, schedules, security bulletins and payroll information, that was normally exchanged via paper-based communications. This can contribute to greater employee productivity and efficiency and help inspire collaboration.

Built on open standards, Lotus Workplace Messaging can be easily integrated with a customers' existing messaging infrastructure while leveraging current IT investments. Specifically designed to fit efficiently alongside standards-based directory and high-function messaging environments, Lotus Workplace Messaging runs on the IBM WebSphere Internet infrastructure software and uses IBM's DB2 Universal Database to help deliver high scalability and overall performance. With support of standards such as LDAP v3, Lotus Workplace Messaging can integrate with IBM Lotus Domino and other standards-based messaging infrastructures to give customers the ability to quickly respond and adapt to evolving business needs.

"Nearly half of the companies we've surveyed have told us that a significant percentage of their employees have no access to email, either because of job function, location or other factors. But as e-mail becomes more and more critical to productivity and business results, companies need a cost-effective way to extend e-mail to their entire employee base," said Tapan Mehta, Country Manager, Lotus Software, IBM India.

The Lotus Workplace Messaging Solution gives companies a cost-effective, secure method of extending e-mail to the large population of deskless workers, while reaffirming IBM's position as a leading provider of messaging solutions for the corporate world.

In addition to reaching a completely new market of users, Lotus Workplace Messaging is the first product from Lotus software to embrace the new strategy to deliver flexible solutions that help organizations rapidly respond to business change.

IBM Lotus Workplace Messaging is available now for $US29 (Rs. 1450). Pricing and packaging includes IBM WebSphere Application Server, IBM DB2 Universal Database, and IBM LDAP directory. Currently available on Windows 2000 and IBM AIX platforms with language support for English and 7 other international languages. IBM Software Services for Lotus provides additional support, including technical services for installation configuration, knowledge transfer and capacity and network bandwidth planning around the new offering. Customers can also engage technical services to integrate this new solution into existing messaging environments.