IBM has launched LotusLive iNotes, a new email service that delivers the benefits of cloud computing to business users with prices starting at $3 per user, per month.
The company said that the new LotusLive iNotes cloud service allows IT departments to utilise IBM’s enterprise collaboration for on-or off-premise messaging capabilities, including mail that works with Lotus Notes and Microsoft Exchange or operate standalone to reduce overall IT costs and complexity.
IBM said that the new cloud service can accommodate gradual or dramatic migrations to the cloud, while also supporting a client’s existing on-premise collaboration system. It is also suitable for employee segments of large enterprises which do not require all the capabilities of full-featured email and collaboration software, or for employees that currently have no access to company email.
According to IBM, the new LotusLive iNotes allows employees in an organisation to operate under a single domain, using a shared corporate directory. It enables business users to send and receive emails in a secure environment anytime from a web browser, work off-line, automatically receive new mail on mobile devices, use a personal calendar, keep track of personal contacts and access the corporate directory and distribution lists; and safeguard their inboxes with anti-spam and virus protection that can be individually customised.
The company is also offering a free 30-day trial of LotusLive iNotes for companies and includes 25 mailboxes with 1GB of storage per mailbox. The service and trial is available in English, Brazilian Portuguese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese and Spanish.
As part of its expanding cloud services portfolio, IBM is also unveiling the public version of Smart Business End User Support – Service Assist. Created in collaboration with IBM Research, IBM Global Technology Services is offering end users a personalised, self-service portal with faster IT problem resolution for web savvy users. This one-stop web portal provides a multilingual, cross-channel environment including remote takeover, chat, improved search and data mining of incidents, IBM said.
Bob Picciano, general manager of IBM Lotus Software, said: Email and other collaboration services are the right entry point for many companies to realise the promise of cloud computing, but only if clients feel confident they’re getting business-grade service from a trusted leader in enterprise services.
