IBM unveils WebSphere Portal software

NEW DELHI: Delivering on its strategic direction of a single portal, IBM has

announced IBM WebSphere Portal software in three simple solution packages to

match customers' varying portal needs.

IBM WebSphere Portal provides a single point of interaction with dynamic

information, applications, processes and people, which are essential for

building successful business-to-employee (B2E), business-to-business (B2B) and

business-to-consumer (B2C) portals. WebSphere Portal also supports a wide

variety of pervasive devices enabling users to interact with their portal

anytime, anywhere, using any device, wired or wireless.

The three tiered solution packages are: WebSphere Portal Enable Solution,

WebSphere Portal Extend Solution and WebSphere Portal Experience Solution.

WebSphere Portal exploits the power and scalability of the WebSphere

Application Server, IBM's core technology for Web-based applications. It is

another example of how IBM is extending the WebSphere software platform and

creating a truly integrated software infrastructure for successful e-business.

The WebSphere Portal has evolved from IBM's existing portal offerings --WebSphere

Portal Server, WebSphere User Experience and Lotus K-station. Existing portal

customers' investments will be protected because the three existing offerings

are being integrated into the WebSphere Portal along with advanced

collaboration, security enhancements and more than a hundred new portlets.

Whether a customer wants to implement a simple portal and enhance its

capabilities in stages, or immediately exploit the full breadth of IBM portal

capabilities, the packaged options of WebSphere Portal are designed to meet a

customer's unique circumstances.

Depending on a customer's portal focus, WebSphere Portal can be extended with

additional software from partners and from IBM that include IBM WebSphere

Everyplace Server for wireless network infrastructure, Lotus Discovery Server

for Knowledge Management, IBM Enterprise Information Portal for advanced

information integration and connectivity, plus Voice, Location Based Services,

Dynamic Translation and other capabilities of the WebSphere platform.

IBM also announced that through its agreement with SAP Portals it is now

offering customers software that gives them the ability to integrate key

enterprise business applications from SAP, PeopleSoft Inc., Baan, Oracle

Financials and others into portal solutions deployed using WebSphere Portal.