Today's highlights: Centra Live; AOL Integrates AIM Presence with Outlook; Microsoft SharePoint strategy; SharePoint Portal Server as market leader?; Socialtext Pricing Change; Notify Technology with Hosted Wireless Sync Service; Microsoft and Ezenia; Visto vs. Smartner;
- Centra announced Centra Live, a new client for online real-time collaborative sessions. Features a revised user interface, and integration with desktop business applications. Available June 2005. BusinessWire
- AOL integrated its AIM instant messaging service into other applications and sites, including Microsoft Outlook. AIM Sync by Intellisync displays AIM presence within Outlook, and enables the initiation of AIM sessions directly from the Outlook inbox. Available in beta immediately. BusinessWire
- Microsoft is moving toward a convergence of SharePoint Portal Server and Content Management Server. Something is in the works for 2006. CRN
- Forrester Research is advocating that Microsoft is the market leader for SharePoint Portal Server, with 3000 sites. IBM is second with 2200 sites. Comment: Number of sites is one measure, but not the only thing. What about average number of users? Unless there is more to the story, I'm skeptical. tamtam.nl
- Socialtext introduced new pricing levels for its hosted online service. The per user per month charge was reduced from $30 to $10. Socialtext
- Notify Technology released the NotifyLink Hosted Service, which provides synchronization of email and PIM data for GroupWise and Exchange sites with handheld devices (BlackBerry, Palm, Windows Mobile). Target market is small and medium sized businesses. Available immediately. tmcnet.com
- Ezenia announced that it has renewed its software license distribution agreement with Microsoft for a further three years. The agreement enables Ezenia to integrate Microsoft's web conferencing technology with Ezenia LaunchPad and InfoWorkSpace. Yahoo
- Visto is suing Smartner for patent infringement. Both compete in the wireless messaging market. Yahoo
This Briefing was written by Michael Sampson, of Shared Spaces Research & Consulting Ltd. Email or IM Michael to discuss any of these items further.
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