This chapter describes the architectures for the different ways to combine WebSphere with Lotus collaboration capabilities. This chapter specifies which software pieces provide which function when the WebSphere and Domino platforms are used together -- along with recommendations as to which software to use when there are alternatives. Given that both WebSphere and Domino can act independently as fully functional Web servers, there are some choices to be made -- but that's good. The flexibility in combining WebSphere with Lotus collaboration (whether through the use of Domino, WebSphere Portal, Lotus Workplace, Lotus Collaboration Center, or any combination of these elements) will allow you to tailor a system best suited for your company's needs.

The WebSphere Portal can play an important role in combining WebSphere and Lotus collaboration tools. A portal is the next-generation desktop, the tool that provides you the access you need to get your job done, in one place and from any client or device. Essentially, the idea is to aggregate both the data and applications needed by specific workers in a unified interface to improve productivity. Portlets are the components that enable this aggregation. They are independent, reusable components that are the keys to providing access to the data and applications; but even more, they provide the value to portals by making useful integration an expected part of the portal interface. Another requisite feature of portals is collaboration. Collaboration is how you build communities using your portals, and it's one way your users get more value out of the portal than they would out of simply getting very good with the use of the Alt+Tab keys. The success of collaborative features in portals is considered one of the keys to the success of portal adoption itself. To achieve success here, you must provide both formal and informal collaboration. Formal collaboration is usually document-centric -- that is, mostly e-mail. Informal collaboration includes features such as expertise location, chat and awareness, and discussions. The "awareness" aspect of collaboration tools is very significant. The more formal term, "awareness of presence," is also used. Your Instant Messaging "buddy list" indicates who is online and hence makes you "aware" of the colleagues whom you could "chat" with online. Many Lotus Collaboration tools are including awareness as a part of the tool or as an option.

If your organization already has some kind of investment in collaborative technology, it's most likely in an integrated collaborative environment (ICE), defined by IDC and others to include such products as Lotus Domino/Notes and Microsoft Exchange/Outlook and such features as e-mail, awareness, chat, and Web conferencing. In the past few years, Meta and IDC coined the term "contextual collaboration" to describe the process of embedding these collaborative features into business applications. That process and that term finally finds its home when you embed collaboration tools into WebSphere Portal. There is both interest in and resistance to WebSphere Portal from both Lotus and WebSphere professionals. Lotus professionals tend to feel that they can create all the features a portal offers within Domino. In truth, many Lotus professionals have created portals over the years using existing Lotus technologies. To integrate those collaborative technologies fully with the other business applications in use in the environment, however, Lotus professionals need to step outside a strictly Domino environment to create the most value for their users.

Some WebSphere professionals, on the other hand, have a resistance not to the portal technology itself, necessarily, but to the collaborative features provided by the Lotus technologies. WebSphere pros need to recognize that collaboration, both on a group level and on an organizational level, has been the Lotus business since the company came into being. It makes sense for us to take advantage of their expertise in the collaborative arena and use the components included with WebSphere Portal. Those components include available portlets, such as Sametime, QuickPlace, and Domino portlets, and the Collaboration Center, which comprises a team workplace portlet that integrates with QuickPlace, a Lotus Web Conferencing portlet, and the People Finder. And, of course, there are many other ways to integrate existing Lotus collaborative applications.