LotusLive Executive Interview

I was invited with some other bloggers to interview Susan Oblak, Program Director of GTM Strategy and Satwik Seshasai.

One of my questions was around Quickr and LotusLive and Quickr is not part of it but if you can compare private communities to places and that works for you or your client then this might be the way to go for you.

There are some new offerings coming:
Labs - for testing, playing and other apps sort of like the sandbox
Integration of a full notes client and other pieces like traveler and BES

Great news about LotusLive Notes is the only one with 50 minimum, down from 1,000 users. This will certainly speed up adoption as it prevented many BPs from offering it.

The other LotusLive offerings start from 1 person.

I asked about the uptake on Meetings vs. installs of Sametime 8.5 and IBM feels it is complementary in such a way that some customers want the different options in each package. It should be noted that Sametime works with LotusLive so you can create an efficient hybrid. And some of our customers are doing this already.

The goal is to provide a way to work in context more in the future than the way most organizations work today.

In some cases IBM suggested LotusLive Connections might be an option for those not willing to invest in a whole infrastructure but want all the benefits.

LotusLive Notes with admin interface is to be generally available in 2nd half of 2010 and for an open API to come out in beta in Q2 2010.

Skype is being added to enable click to call with it, Prolific and Silanis are the 1st 3 partners and premier global will be a reseller as well.

Lotuslive is available to all Business partners free of charge for 12 months when registering at the site as a BP. Go here to do this.

What will you get as a BP?
LotusLive Engage Trial
User Accounts: 1 Admin Account (can add up to 99 more)
Meeting Size: Up to 14 participants per Web conference
Term: 30-day no-cost trial (Really 12 months don't worry, they know to fix this typo)
Storage Space: 1.0 GB per user

LotusLive Labs is ONLY available to LotusLive subscribers. It is free with your subscription. Labs will allow you to experience and use code coming out of the IBM labs that should enhance your experience as time goes forward.

It was an interesting discussion and one which to be honest as a BP I have reservations about. However after today the future of LotusLive looks much better than before and after all 18 million users can't be wrong.