Lotus Sametime 7.5 gains flexibility

IBM has announced the availability of Lotus Sametime 7.5, the latest version of its corporate collaboration platform. The new version has the ability to be extended to link with third-party applications, according to IBM, turning it into a unified collaboration platform.

“Today, customers can take advantage of a unified approach to communications that can be easily extended based on open standards - not proprietary code - putting customers in control of their collaborative environment, ” said Michael Rhodin, general manager of IBM's Lotus Software division.

Plug-in modules being showcased by IBM include a presence indicator for Lotus Sametime buddy lists, and the ability to move from a chat session into a multi-party audio/video conference as necessary. Another plug-in from Dassault Systems allows users to share a view of a 3D model within a chat session.

Last month, IBM announced that Lotus Sametime 7.5 would ship in a Linux version, allowing firms to cut costs by using Linux servers and bringing instant messaging to Linux desktops. The product already supports Windows, Solaris, and IBM's own iSeries and AIX-based systems.

Lotus Sametime 7.5 costs $55 (£30) per user.