Connect on-demand

Following Microsoft's partnership with networking giant Cisco, the unified communications market is heating up even further with IBM's launch of a new range of collaboration products. IBM has joined forces with Siemens to turn its Lotus Sametime software into a product family that will include new telephony integration software. The move comes as Microsoft confirmed the October 16 launch of its much-hyped Office Communications Server 2007 for larger enterprises. It plans to sell unified communications to smaller businesses as an on-demand service. Unified communications pull together voice, video and data communications and a multitude of applications to allow employees to communicate more easily with a range of endpoint devices. ***

update NEW YORK--IBM said Thursday that it will invest $1 billion over the next three years on information-management products and services devoted to tasks as varied as spotting criminals and serving banking customers better. At a press conference, company executives detailed new consulting services tailored to complex information-management problems. They also introduced a software package that bundles several of IBM's existing data-management tools. The company said its global services arm will dedicate 15,000 consultants to this area and hire an additional 9,750 people. IBM said the products stem from about 500 customer deals in which IBM software and services were used to address thorny information-management problems. For example, the company worked with Maersk Logistics to ***

LAS VEGAS--IBM detailed the technical underpinnings of its on-demand initiative this week, saying growing adoption of on-demand will allow the computing giant to outpace competitors in 2004. During the company's PartnerWorld Conference here, the computing giant on Tuesday shed light on how it has internally broken down the on-demand vision of more flexible business into its component technology pieces. Big Blue also laid out a road map describing the technology projects that companies should undergo to become more responsive and flexible. The creation of a list of products and services that make up the "on-demand operating environment" was a response to business partners, such as independent software vendors (ISVs) and customers that wanted more clarity around on-demand computing, said Scott Hebner, IBM's vice president of marketing and strategy for developer relations. ***