Paul Mooney : Screenshots of the next Sametime client 7.1
As requested, I have pasted in some screenshots of the Sametime 7.1 client, taken from IBM Presentations….. Is it just me that cant wait for this badly needed upgrade
[Via Paul’s Blog]
Paul Mooney has some screenshots of the new SameTime 7.1 client over on his weblog. Although a huge imprivement over the last 5 or 6 versions of SameTime, it still looks a bit toy-ish I think. I do wonder what will be actully improved functionality wise ..
Public IM Connectivity to MSN, Yahoo, AOL ?, Telephony Integration ?, Enhanced Presence Integration (Calendar Free/Busy Inofrmation for example) ?
Sametime is quite an old product now, and some customers wanted its fairly dated client interface updated. And so it has done.
(Calling it “toy”? Mmm. given the state of play of the various microsoft “standard” UI interfaces, thats very rich.)
MS on the other hand, in both collaboration and corporate instant messaging never allows that to happen.
Because these products are never out long enough for the interface to become dated.
(They ship “confused” of course, as all Redmond products does. Stories such as the Office 12 team finding that *most* of the requested features were actually in previous versions – just the users couldnt find them – are true.)
So again we’re back to:
“Consistent, reliable, patched frequently, market leading corporate IM, been around for 5+ years” – which is Sametime.
And “Newly out, rip+replace, no real idea on scalability, security, flashy new client, no published roadmap” – Microsoft solution de Jour.
Which one does the customer choose ? Which one does the customer stake his career on ?
—* Bill
Bill,
the discussion around roadmaps is getting a bit boring. You clearly have not been brought up to speed around the roadmap for Microsoft’s RTC products (Live Communications Server, LiveMeeting, Office Communicator). In one of your last comments on my blog you confused LiveMeeting with NetMeeting remember ?
The roadmap is there, the productreleases are steady and consistent and the momentum is gaining.
http://www.crn.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=59100049&flatPage=true
http://www.instantmessagingplanet.com/enterprise/article.php/3488601
If you give mail me your mailadres (post that is) I will personally make sure I send you our most recent Enterprise Roadmap. This also includes a nice poster 😉
As I have stated in earlier comments and posts, the current marketleadership of SameTime is not ignored, but let’s be honoust for a moment, IBM hasn’t innovated this part of their platform very heavily have they ? That is also going to influence customers’ decisions. I called it Toy-ish for lack of a better word (not a native English speaker. Compare it to Office Communicator and be honoust what would you prefer (and then you haven’t seen Office Communicator in action).
From my perspective Microsoft’s RTC proposition is hot and selling because it provides instant value to clients in particular through the extensive presence integration throughout the collaboration platform. Features that can not be ingnored in “activity based collaboration”
Ik verwacht inderdaad iets met telefonie-integratie. Dat is in juli aangekondigd voor ‘eind 2005 of begin 2006;. Begin 2006, dat zou mooi samenvallen met de geplande release-datum van Sametime 7.1.
Zie: http://www.domino-weblog.nl/weblogs/domblog.nsf/d6plinks/ibm_avaya_deal voor meer inhoudelijke informatie.
Gerco,
VOlgens mijn informatie heeft IBM inderdaad telefonie integratie aangekondigd, maar slechts met 1 leverancier, namelijk Avaya.
Microsoft’s Live Communications Server 2005 kan integreren met alle grote IP telepfonie omgevingen (Nortel, Avaya, Cisco, Alcatel, etc.) en daarnaast via een gatewayproduct van Genesys (GETS) ook met bestaande (analoge) telefonieomgevingen.
Het verschil is dus geen nuance, maar megagroot op telefonie integratie gebied.
I am going to hold off on any comments on the new ST client image until I see it in operation in beta. Its all personal opinion on “look and feel” but from what I can see, I really like it. As for feature enhancements, it is already a feature rich product (although lacking in a good look at the moment). AIM integration was in the product, although pulled from the client in recent versions. There is an argument on “should a corporate IM product connect to public IM clients”. SIP and standards based integration and gateways has been with Sametime since 3.1 days, but how IBM push this forward in the coming months remains to be seen. Stay tuned to my site for more information.
Peter,
Als je al wist dat IBM integratie met Avaya aangekondigd had, waarom stel je dan in je item de vraag óf IBM zoiets gaat doen?
Ik heb geen enkel idee wat IBM allemaal van plan is in dit opzicht; ‘k zal het eens navragen.
Gerco,
De vraag die ik stel is telefonie integratie algemeen. De wereld is niet gestandaardiseerd op Avaya alleen. Mijn vraag had ik dus specifieker moeten maken, je hebt gelijk : Wanneer komt de overige integratie beschikbaar
Paul,
First of all sorry for putting you in the spotlight 😉
There is no argument as far as I’m concerned on the featurs in SameTime. The product howeevr has seriously been lacking innovation if you ask me.
Whether or not an Enterprise IM product should connect to Public IM maybe a question, the the overall concept of Federation (between corporations / public netwerks, etc) is without a doubt the way forward.
We run Public IM connectivity and also Secure Federation with partners within Microsoft and it provides a very low threshold for connecting with partners, and individuals. ON a user by user basis this can be managed and also archived when required.
I’m hearing of serious problems scaling Live Communications Server in the field. Perhaps this commentary on the UI should be tempered by the relative market acceptance of the products being discussed.
Ed,
You of all people should know that such comments only stick when you mention source / clear examples. Which version of LCS are you referring to ? can you mention specific articles / client situations ?
My arguments were on the UI / Client and not about the current marketshare. I would like to focus on the journey that has begun when Microsoft introduced LCS / Livemeeting / Office Communicator / Telephony integration with all major platforms /Public Internet Connectivity / Mobile Communicator / BlackBerry support for LCS ….
I can’t mention the specific customer, no. You’ve played the same game in public, but trust me that my information is accurate. There was even a comment about it from someone at the customer on my blog last week.
Ed,
Sorry that you can’t mention any specifics, it makes it very hard to respond. Judging from your comment (a person that commented on your blog), I conclude that this just as well could have been an incident rather than a structural problem. I gues we’ll never know.
Nevertheless rest assure that LCS 2005 is a very stable, reliable and overall scalable solution.
Yes I may have played the same game in public, maybe we’re both not perfect 😉
Peter, the Sametime SIP gateway has been used for that for quite a while now, and the IBM SIP gateway will allow for widespread federation for secure communication. I would say the next 6 months will be quite interesting in this arena.
As for LCS and “resting assured”. Its just not proven yet to me compared with Sametime. Again, this release is too new for that to be said outright. But again, time will tell.
On a side note Peter, you may not have seen the posts about the WebStatsforU and their popup advertising but we all get annoying popups when hitting your site. You should get rid of it (IMO).
http://www.pmooney.net/blogsphe.nsf/d6plinks/PMOY-6HDN4Z#comments
Paul,
You are right. Only the future can tell. The uptake is tremendous on all of Microosft’s RTC solutions, so it can’t be that.
Let’s raise the subject again in 6 months or so 🙂
As for Webstats, I have noticed yes. I will remove them asap,but I would like to retain my statistics for historical puposes. Haven’t found the time yes.
LOL – six months I agree we will revisit it. As long as we are we visiting with stats, performance information, scalability information and NO FUD. I try not to accept any spin, from IBM or MS. (But we all know who the masters of spin are 😉 )
Paul,
You’re right. Actual information, actual client cases. There’s a nice challenge.
I really do think you and others overdo the FUD stuff a bit. I have told it time and time again this is not something Microsoft outdoes the competition at all.
O and by the way I totally forgot about this post :
http://www.peterdehaas.com/2005/07/microsoft_in_th.html
Sure it’s just one analysts’ opinion and we all know how dangerous that is …