IBM to provide Global Network offering supporting Lotus Notes

Business Wire, August 9, 1995

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 9, 1995--IBM today announced a worldwide network offering supporting Lotus Notes(c), enabling businesses to implement Notes applications on the IBM Global Network.

The IBM Global Network offering for Lotus Notes is currently being implemented with selected customers. By the end of the year, these customers will have access to Notes-based applications in more than 450 locations in nearly 40 countries around the world. The IBM Global Network offering for Notes will be made widely available by early 1996.

Lotus' business partners and IBM will provide consulting, advisory and systems integration services to help customers implement the IBM Global Network offering for Notes within their businesses. These services will be complemented by network-based application services that enable users to easily and securely access Notes applications without having to invest in building and running a wide-area network. IBM plans to make the IBM Global Network service for Notes interoperable with other networked Notes services.

"Existing, customized and new applications are easily ported to Notes on the IBM network," said Peter Steele, president, U.S. Technologies. "This means IBM and Lotus software providers and business partners can quickly get their applications to a very wide audience."

The IBM Global Network offering for Notes will also feature the ability to make customers' Notes information available via the Internet. With the Lotus InterNotes Web Publisher(c), the service will automatically convert Lotus Notes applications into World Wide Web pages. The InterNotes Web Publisher also will allow organizations to create forms in Notes that can be completed by the millions of users of the World Wide Web. This makes it simple for organizations to create, update and manage information on the Web.

IBM currently is engaged in customized deployment of the Notes service with several companies worldwide. For example, IBM is assisting Ogilvy & Mather Advertising in its worldwide rollout of Lotus Notes.

"The integration of the IBM Global Network and Lotus Notes will help our business teams throughout our 272 offices in 64 countries react to market conditions, coordinate efforts and share information and knowledge," said Paul Cuccia, chief information officer, O&M.

"Lotus Notes on the IBM Global Network will provide an easy and secure way to organize, share, discuss and electronically publish information within and between enterprises, suppliers and customers, while offering powerful support for rapidly developing and delivering easy-to-use new services," said Fernand B. Sarrat, general manager, IBM Networked Application Services.

Larry Moore, vice president, Lotus Interenterprise Computing Group, said, "This partnership further solidifies the role of Notes as the platform for a growing number of companies to expand their communications inside their traditional enterprise boundaries and outside to inter-enterprise customers, suppliers and partners."

With more than 2 million users, Lotus Notes is the leading client/server platform for developing and deploying strategic groupware applications that help organizations communicate, collaborate and coordinate strategic business processes.

Notes is part of a portfolio of tools and services available on the IBM Global Network to enable electronic commerce, content hosting and collaborative services. The portfolio includes support for World Wide Web authoring and navigation, as well as tools for common services such as registration, billing, directory, security and authentication.

The IBM Global Network supports a broad range of communications protocols (TCP/IP, SNA, APPN(a), NetBIOS, IPX(b) and OSI) and operating systems (OS/2(a), OS/400(a), MVS(a), AIX(a), UNIX(b) and Windows(b).) The IBM Global Network is one of the world's largest providers of integrated data, voice and video services, with 25,000 customers in more than 850 cities in over 100 countries worldwide. IBM offers a broad range of solutions such as network outsourcing, value-added telecommunications services, internet enablement and network enabled applications.

Separately, IBM announced today that it is working concurrently with other leading solution providers to put their existing applications on the network and develop future applications that will use the IBM Global Network's portfolio of common services. Companies leveraging this portfolio to develop and deliver network- based solutions to their customers around the world include:

o Aexiom Corporation, Conway, Ariz.: multi-sourced databases for business-to-business marketing,

o D.X.I. Incorporated, Pittsburgh: databases of ocean-going traffic rates and tariffs,

o Entertainment Communications Network, Los Angeles: communications for entertainment professionals,

o Global Information Network Services, LLC (GINS), Central Islip, N.Y.: international market development software,

o Honicorp, Inc., New York: interactive marketing for the art community,