Suntel bids adieu to Microsoft, embraces IBM

BANGALORE, INDIA: IT major IBM announced today that Suntel, a Sri Lankan based telecommunications provider, has selected IBM Lotus software to create a collaborative environment to improve the way employees work together in any mode at any time, raising employee performance and cost-efficiency.

Suntel chose to move from Microsoft Exchange and Outlook to IBM Lotus suite of products because of flexibility, reliability and cost, said a press release.

Under the agreement signed in 2008, Suntel is deploying the enterprise-wide software consisting of Lotus Notes and Domino and Lotus Sametime for unified communications and collaboration and Lotus Symphony document, spreadsheet, and presentation tools to its employees, the release added.

Moving to IBM Lotus Notes and Domino from Microsoft Exchange and Outlook has reduced software licensing costs by about 50 per cent for Suntel.

In addition, Suntel would make available Lotus Sametime to its employees so they would be able to communicate with each other through instant messaging, visuals and voice, the release added.

Lotus Notes was chosen because it is more than just e-mail, as it enables creation of Web 2.0 composite applications or "mashups" which combine content in unique ways from multiple internal and external web sources and does "live text" which allows a person to click on a company address and automatically bring up driving directions, it said.

“We are sure that IBM Lotus Notes and Domino solution will give us a secure and scalable collaboration environment for future growth and development at a lower cost of ownership,” said Dr. Tariq Marikar, director, Product Development and CIO, Suntel Ltd.

He added that they are also pleased with the contribution IBM has made to the open community through Lotus Suite of products. With Lotus Symphony, which is based on the Open Document Format (ODF), an open industry standard, Suntel no longer relies on a proprietary technology.

This feature-rich integrated office productivity suite would provide Suntel the ability for users to create, edit and share word processing documents, spreadsheets and presentation at much lower costs.

“This win holds great significance for us as it further affirms the acceptance of IBM Lotus in our market and the significant growth in the number of Lotus users,” said, Chari Wijewardane, country manager, IBM Sri Lanka.

“Rapidly growing enterprises like Suntel are making strategic IT investments to meet their long-term growth plans. They prefer open standards-based solutions like Lotus Symphony over legacy proprietary technology for their long-term collaboration investments,” Chari added.

Chetan Yardi, country manager, Lotus Software, IBM India/South Asia, “Suntel evaluated IBM’s Lotus suite as a much-enhanced solution over the existing one. Suntel chose to go with IBM as our proposed solution clearly demonstrated our capabilities in delivering a collaboration platform that would allow the user community to integrate information from a variety of sources in a single context and use it for gaining competitive advantage.”