This is what Lotus does so well. Lotus Notes and Domino add collaboration, workflow, and messaging, making your users more productive and efficient. "The idea is to combine the performance and scalability of the WebSphere framework with the rich application functionality (messaging, ad hoc collaboration, workflow, offline processing, etc.) of Domino. Better integration of the two can only help developers in both worlds," explains WebSphere Advisor Technical Editor Bob Balaban, president of Looseleaf Software. (For a complete explanation of how you can use Lotus products to enrich your WebSphere applications, see Bob's article on page 12.)

With its recent announcements, IBM is trying to make it easier for you to leverage the power of Lotus in your WebSphere applications.

Lotus and WebSphere Studio

IBM Lotus Domino Toolkit for WebSphere Studio is a new application development toolkit for creating Domino-based applications in J2EE. The toolkit lets WebSphere developers leverage Domino functionality from within WebSphere Studio. If you're working with a Domino and WebSphere shop, this means you can reuse existing Domino applications and data from within J2EE.

IBM Lotus Domino Toolkit for WebSphere Studio will be included in a future version of Lotus Domino Designer scheduled for release this summer. In the meantime, you can download the beta version now at http://www-10.lotus.com/ldd/beta.

WebSphere Portal Collaboration Center

Another key to WebSphere and Lotus integration is the addition of Lotus collaboration features to WebSphere Portal. Collaboration Center is a set of pre-configured Lotus components that plug seamlessly into WebSphere Portal, letting you interact with multiple collaboration applications to increase employee and corporate productivity. Collaboration Center extends the collaboration and communication so you can share data and assets throughout the world in real time.

Collaboration Center includes:

People Finder -- Gives you corporate white pages where you can view employees' contact information and title in relation to the organization's structure.
My Lotus Team Workplaces (QuickPlace) -- Create, manage, and search multiple Team Workplaces in a single view.
Lotus Web Conferencing (Sametime) -- Create, view, and participate in online meetings.

All three features include Sametime presence awareness, so you know who's available and can use instant messaging from anywhere in the portal by simply clicking on an employee's name. "Lotus integration with WebSphere Portal is a good thing," shares WebSphere Advisor Technical Editor John Kidd, principal of Kidd and Associates. "A single platform strategy can only help the market understand the offerings better."

Web RAD

Its rapid application development (RAD) features of Lotus Domino have always made Domino an attractive, cost-effective solution. IBM will extend these features into WebSphere Studio in the second half of 2003. By incorporating Domino Designer with WebSphere Studio, you can improve RAD for J2EE, making Web application development faster and easier. "It will improve the design experience for WebSphere application developers, reducing the cycle time on design/code/test activities, especially for those using JSPs to build Web application user interfaces," predicts Balaban.

Development fervor

One of the most important things Lotus brings to the WebSphere community is an unparalleled enthusiasm. Many developers outside the Lotus crowd don't quite understand the intense devotion to the Lotus products. "I think many people mistakenly view it as some oddball product with a cult following. Another way of looking at it is that Notes and Domino have passionate advocates because those advocates directly benefit from using the technology: They've applied it to real business problems in the real world, solved those problems in a cost effective and efficient way, and are, therefore, hooked," observes Balaban.

Perhaps the new Lotus+WebSphere integration will spread enthusiasm to the WebSphere community as well.