SharePoint & Lotus

The second Preview release of Mainsoft SharePoint Integrator for Lotus Notes 2.0 is now available! This new release, which integrates with Lotus Notes 8.5 Standard Configuration, lets you embed SharePoint calendars in Notes. You will now be able to create, edit and remove SharePoint events in the same way as you work with Notes calendar items.

Composite applications in Lotus Notes 8, aka business mashups, allow organizations to make use of their current applications and systems in a way that is very easy to use. Organizations that create Notes business mashups really help their employees and improve their effectiveness. Employees stop losing valuable time switching between applications, searching for associated content, and copying and pasting information. Now, they are able to access relevant information from multiple systems in one integrated view, helping to simplify their work process.
 
Notes composite applications can include applications built with many different programming languages, including Lotus Notes applications (Domino), Java client applications and Microsoft .NET applications, amongst others. To better understand the ideas behind business mashups, I recommend you take a look at this Smart Assist demo from IBM.
 
However, no real-world composite app will ever be complete without documents integration.
If an organization uses SharePoint for document management, what can be more natural than integrating SharePoint documents into its business mashups?

Forty nine percent of firms participating in a recent study by Forrester Research said implementing a collaboration strategy is a priority or a critical priority.  And yet, many Lotus Notes and Domino customers struggle to implement their collaboration strategy because they rely on SharePoint (the back end of Office) for team collaboration and document management.
 
If you’re visiting this blog, you know all too well that accessing/updating/publishing documents and emails on SharePoint is a hassle. And you’ve probably sat through heated debates about migrating from Notes 6.5 or 7.x to a single vendor strategy simply because SharePoint isn’t compatible with Notes.  Think twice if you are considering a migration. According to Ted Koplowitz, principal analyst of Forrester Research,“[B]e careful not to underestimate the cost of recoding those applications for SharePoint — or the disruptive impact on knowledge workers…. In fact, for many, Notes and SharePoint may live side by side for the foreseeable future.” 

This week, version 1.5 of Mainsoft SharePoint Integrator for Lotus Notes was released. But instead of resting on our laurels here at Mainsoft, we’re already hard at work on the next release of the Notes plug-in. I’d like to give you a glimpse of one of the new cool features that’s in the pipeline: Calendar Federation.

For me, the most anticipated new feature in Lotus Notes 8.5 is calendar federation. For example, it allows you to subscribe to external iCal-based calendars and overlay Google calendars inside Notes. The Google Calendar support goes beyond Microsoft Outlook’s offering; Notes 8.5 offers true integration where you can create and edit appointments on Google Calendar from within Notes.