Our panel of Lotus software experts -- Rocky Oliver, Rob Novak, Gabriella Davis, Andrew Pollack, and Karen Hobert -- searched the Lotusphere 2005 tradeshow floor for innovative products. Here's what they found for solving real-world business needs.

The 2005 LOTUS ADVISOR Editors' Choice Awards go to...

• ADMINISTRATION TOOLS
• BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE
• COLLABORATION/VIRTUAL MEETING
• COMPLIANCE
• CONTENT MANAGEMENT
• CRM
• DEVELOPMENT TOOLS
• HELP DESK
• INSTANT MESSAGING
• INTEGRATION
• MOBILE
• SPAM/E-MAIL SECURITY
• UNIFIED MESSAGING

Aedificomm Workplace Control for Notes
www.workplacecontrol.com
Aedificomm Workplace Control lets Notes administrators centrally manage, upgrade, migrate, and control the user environment. A central database lets the administrator set virtually any client option for the user and then sends that configuration change to the user via an e-mail; Workplace Control automatically applies the configuration change when the user reads it (or clicks on an enclosed button). There's nothing to install on the client, so the functionality is just as useful for remote sites and traveling laptop users as it is for large network populations. It also comes with a comprehensive auditing feature that again uses e-mail to communicate back to the administrator the status of the update. You can use it on a day-to-day basis for managing everything from execution control lists (ECLs) to connection documents to bookmarks and even the ini file.


DYS Analytics Control SE for IBM Lotus Domino
www.dysanalytics.com
DYS Control is a suite of tools that provide comprehensive monitoring, alerting, and reporting for Domino. Of particular note are the Email Investigator and Email Reporter components that present detailed analysis of e-mail traffic patterns and bottlenecks, in data and graphical form. The combined toolset can help you identify network, server, and mail problems before they escalate and understand what services are being used and what are not. You install it on a Windows server running on IIS and it requires a single add-in task on a Domino server, which then acts as the data-gatherer for the remaining servers in the organization. Originally in use at large corporate environments, the new SE version is aimed at the small-to-medium business and its monitoring, analysis, and reporting features are impressive for the price.


Percussion ServerAdmin Plus 8.5
www.percussion.com
Percussion ServerAdmin Plus again stands out as an administrator tool this year with its launch of version 8.5, which continues to build upon its rich admin control feature set. Still installed on a single client with no server configuration required, it lets an administrator build and apply rules to servers, databases, and even clients. From moving databases to new servers including the automatic updating of user bookmarks to analyzing ACLs and applying security rules across your entire organization with only a couple of clicks, ServerAdmin Plus greatly simplifies the life of the Domino administrator. The new version lets you control user settings from locations and connections to many user preferences.

Business Objects XI and Crystal Reports XI
www.businessobjects.com
Business Objects' 2004 acquisition of Crystal Decisions and the Crystal Reports line of reporting tools has launched the company into the small and medium business sector. BusinessObjects XI and Crystal Reports XI give Domino professionals powerful enterprise reporting, query and analysis, report distribution, and decision support tools. BusinessObjects XI is a business intelligence platform designed to help users get the information they need wherever it might be located in the organization. Crystal Reports XI expedites report development, presents user information in familiar formats, and simplifies managing, securing, and delivering reports over the Web.


Decision Analyzer and Decision Centric
www.decision-technology.com
Decision Analyzer does primarily mainframe-based reporting, and Decision Centric is a cross-platform set of tools for reporting and analysis of multiple sources of data. A free-form report designer, Web services architecture, and ease of use for technical users make Decision Centric a powerful solution for Domino developers who have integrated reporting needs.


Integra for Notes, Integra Quick Reports, and Integra for Domino Administrators
www.integra4notes.com
Integra for Notes, Integra Quick Reports, and the new Integra for Domino Administrators are helpful tools for Domino professionals.The products' tight ties to Lotus Notes, with export formats including Microsoft Word, Excel, XML, and PDF files, makes Integra for Notes and its sister products for users and administrators a good investment for Notes-centric reporting.

Premiere Global Services
www.premiereglobal.com
The integration of Premiere Global Services' teleconferencing capabilities with IBM Lotus Web Conferencing has enhanced the environment of Sametime meetings to include interactive telecommunications capabilities, such as queueing, dial-out, speaker identification with icons, and individual controls such as line muting and individual disconnect. In addition, live help is available for either the Web or telecom portion of a conference. This integration adds significant value to the online meeting experience, transforming conference calls and online presentations into truly collaborative work sessions.


AvistarVOS
www.avistar.com
Avistar's video platform, AvistarVOS, is integrated with IBM Workplace Client Technology, bringing real-time, presence-based, "face-to-face" communications to the collaboration platform, while also allowing for video recording and playback. The AvistarVOS video operating system powers the Avistar Business Video solution, and enables a suite of video-enabled business applications. The AvistarVOS software provides the infrastructure support to help you integrate Avistar's video conferencing technology in your enterprise. The addition of rich video capabilities to the platform rounds out the collaboration experience.

AXS-ONE E-mail and Instant Messaging Management
www.axsone.com
AXS-ONE E-mail and Instant Messaging Management is a policy-driven, high-volume archiving solution for e-mail and instant messaging (IM) on all the major e-mail and IM platforms. You can establish policies to control archival, review, retention, and information lifecycle management all the way through permanent destruction or offline storage. It automatically moves e-mail and attachments from e-mail servers to a managed archive. The archive satisfies SEC requirements for a Write Once Read Many (WORM) storage medium. It also adds instant messages (IM) to the archive, putting them in context with e-mail and other records stored there. Users can search through all message header fields, date-range filters, and full-text search across message body and more than 250 attachment types, including PDFs. It gives you sophisticated searching that takes into account alternate spelling and word variants.


Extracomm SecurTrac
www.extracomm.com
Tracking who accessed or changed data in a particular database -- in short, the ability to create an audit trail -- can be invaluable when it comes to complying with government regulations such as Sarbanes-Oxley and HIPAA. Extracomm SecurTrac is a plug-in that lets you add audit trail features to your Domino applications and Notes mail. Using a fast, non-invasive server add-in task, SecurTrac catches all changes to all documents that meet specific criteria and records them in a Domino log database you can archive and recall as needed -- via a Notes client or a Web browser. It tracks what databases are being accessed, who is accessing them and when, and what is being changed. You also get intrusion-detection reporting and real-time alerts. This kind of early warning system can help you detect malicious activities or vulnerabilities when they first appear, and with this information you can help prevent any disastrous consequences of these actions.


Sherpa Mail Attender for Lotus Notes
www.sherpasoftware.com
Sherpa Mail Attender for Lotus Notes helps you regain control of your organization's e-mail. By establishing policies in Mail Attender, administrators control all aspects of retention policy, including who can access documents and attachments and when, and who can edit, delete, and archive documents and attachments. This tool provides regulatory compliance and business continuity policy enforcement that ensures the assets stored in the messaging system are maintained and managed. Mail Attender also helps companies control legal risks through keyword searches that audit inappropriate content and confidential information.


FrontBridge Message Archive
www.frontbridge.com
FrontBridge Message Archive gives you e-mail archiving and disaster recovery in one package. It's a hosted service that intercepts e-mail and instant messages and archives and indexes them for monitoring, search, and retrieval. In the event an organization's primary e-mail system fails, Message Archive offers a Web-based e-mail hosted service that continues to accept inbound e-mail and lets employees reply, forward, and create new e-mail until the primary system comes back online.

DLI.Tools DocLogic
www.dlitools.com
DLI.Tools has products for any kind of content management. Extensibility is the key. New this year is DocLogic, a document management solution that lets you "drive" work and information. Its capabilities include file edit-in-place, document life cycles, ad-hoc workflow, parallel and serial file review-consolidation-approval, customizable views and document types, full audit logging, task management, check-in/check-out, file locking, search and filter capabilities, eWormholes, eWaxSeal, and a Windows Explorer-like navigation. As you work in one part of the system, it dynamically informs you about other actions in the system that would pertain to you. DocLogic has a Windows client component that lets users manage tasks and seamlessly send new or checked-out files back into the system.


Imaging Systems IMiS 5
www.imaging4notes.com
Sometimes content management doesn't just mean Web pages, and that's where Imaging Systems shines. Imaging Systems offers powerful and extensive tools for managing image media both internally and for Web repositories. Using IMiS, users can store images as ordinary .TIFF (or PDF) attachments in Notes documents, as an ODMA attachment in Domino.Doc, as a link to an object, stored on IMiS/ARC storage server, or as a link to a file on the file server. Even if a paper-less office isn't 100-percent possible for your organization, Imaging Systems provides the tools you need to reduce the amount of paper, and make it easier for people to find the documents they need.


Percussion Rhythmyx
www.percussion.com
Percussion Rhythmyx is a robust enterprise content management solution that manages Web content, documents, digital assets, portals, and scanned images. Rhythmyx is great for managing big channel sites where it can be difficult to track everything that's out there. With its automation, you can build links to related content based on similar key words and can manage sunsetting and content aging smoothly. Especially nice are the Rhythmyx FastForward feature sets: pre-built application functionality you can use to get a head start in your own environment.

iEnterprises CRM on the Go
www.crmonthego.com
No matter how you manage your communications -- even if you choose other CRM solutions -- iEnterprises has an integration option. New from iEnterprises is CRM on the Go. It's designed for RIM BlackBerry devices, so it works even if you're out of cell phone coverage and offers secure communications via end-to-end Wireless Triple-DES Encryption. CRM on the Go works with any CRM application, and iEnterprises will configure your wireless CRM solution to connect with your current CRM solution, regardless of your company size or what CRM solution you're using.


Relavis
www.relavis.com
Relavis provides tools that focus on the CRM process from initial contact, through the sales process, through the project management process, to final delivery. The product suite offers something to fit nearly every CRM need: eSales for salespeople to coordinate their customer-facing sales activities with the rest of the organization, eSales Express for support staff, eService and eMarketing to evaluate the effectiveness of your company's efforts in those areas, eSales Mobile for most PDAs, and a CRM portal that offers CRM functionality through portlets.


Salesplace
www.salesplace.com
Salesplace offers a comprehensive solution specifically tailored for mid-sized and larger organizations with many salespeople and managers who need pipeline reports and other such tools. The product suite consists of three modules. Contact Management captures contact profiles and histories for prospects and clients, and lets you send and track all communication with them. Sales Force Automation divides leads into three categories (Suspects, Prospects, and Opportunities) so sales teams can better prioritize their efforts. Customer Service is designed to help you better serve your customers and to identify cross-selling opportunities.

Bowstreet Portlet Factory
www.bowstreet.com
Bowstreet Portlet Factory for WebSphere Portal lets developers create multiple customized portlets from one code base, without requiring additional code changes, redeployment of files, or publishing of HTML and JSP. Bowstreet's Lotus Collaboration Extension, which augments the capabilities of Bowstreet Portlet Factory for WebSphere, provides graphical tools for automating the creation, customization, and maintenance of Domino Portlets for WebSphere Portal. You can create and deploy a simple Domino Portlet in minutes, and more complex Portlets are easier to develop with this integrated toolset. Version 5.9.3 and newer of Bowstreet Portlet Factory supports IBM Rational Application Developer 6, the successor to WebSphere Studio Application Developer.


MartinScott NoteMan
www.martinscott.com
MartinScott NoteMan contains dozens of features in a single, easy-to-use toolbar interface. You can save time using the integrated Notes utilities for everyday development, testing, and administration tasks that would be tedious to do manually. For example, you can use it to walk through the differences between a replication conflict and its parent, or save an ACL to a file. NoteMan can do these functions (and many more) with just a few clicks. SmartIcon-based NoteMan tools are non-invasive and don't require you to modify the design of your target database. NoteMan is written entirely in Lotus Notes code.

Datawatch Visual Help Desk 8.6
vss.datawatch.com
Datawatch Visual Help Desk (Visual|HD) is a Web Help desk and call center solution. It's designed to reduce the number of calls to your Help desk by offering self-help tools for users and letting managers inform users of any network issues that might affect their system. Visual|HD is also engineered to help reduce the number of calls after the user submits a problem by letting users enter information themselves and check on the status of their issue. By helping users resolve their own problems, and check on the progress of problems they couldn't resolve, it helps free up Help desk staff. With Visual|HD, you can automate common requests such as adding new users. The reporting tools integrated into Visual|HD let Help desk staff identify problem areas, measure performance of technicians, measure performance against SLAs, and track customer satisfaction. Report options include: Visual|HD Today, so managers can get a quick snap shot of how the Help desk is doing in real time; Detail Reports measure call volumes and performance by time period and for ticket variables such as dept, location, user, asset type, root cause, etc.; graphical reports let managers create charts and graphs for all the variables in the detail reports, and Auto-Customer Satisfaction Survey Reports measures statistics.


RPR Wyatt Essential Help Desk
www.rprwyatt.com
RPR Wyatt Essential Help Desk is a Lotus Domino/Notes application with an integrated Web portal. Organizations use it to implement a collaborative Help desk solution that can help them reduce user support cost, increase user satisfaction, identify problems proactively, and get a detailed analysis of how it's using its resources. Essential Help Desk offers Excel-based graphical reporting, Notes and Web user interfaces, customer self-service capabilities, customer satisfaction surveys, and category-based scripting and workflow for better efficiency. Users can receive an automatic status update on their requests by sending an e-mail to support with "status" in the subject; Essential Help Desk then generates a list of their support request with status information, and e-mails it to the user. Essential Help Desk includes RPR Wyatt's Essential Audit application to help diagnose user desktop problems, identify software on a desktop, and/or check on software license compliance via e-mail. Help desk personnel can provide solutions without leaving their desks and without asking users to perform any technical tasks.


GWI Software c.Support
www.gwi.com
GWI c.Support is an IT Help desk/customer support application that helps companies coordinate and manage support activities, track assets, build a knowledge base, and provide user self-help. Help desk staff can use its templates, categories, related tickets, and knowledge search to find answers quickly. Information from successfully resolved problems gets added to a searchable knowledge base, thereby extending the resources available to Help desk staff. The asset management feature gives on-demand and scheduled inventory scanning to manage the hardware and software in the enterprise. Customers and users can have Web access to frequently asked questions, searchable knowledge bases, submit problems, and view status reports. Reporting capabilities include customizable charts from data collected over a specific time period, plus data can be exported to Microsoft Excel for charting and analysis.

Instant Technologies
www.instant-tech.com
Instant Technologies offers instant messaging products that extend the capabilities of Lotus Instant Messaging (Sametime). Instant TeamSession lets teams share ideas and content in a centrally managed, secure, and persistent real-time environment. The TeamSession server records discussions for specified chat rooms automatically. When new participants enter the chat rooms, a "persistent chat room" capability gives them a history of the discussions from that room, so they can quickly get up-to-speed. Instant Agent Framework Queue Manager helps companies increase their Web sales and customer service via virtual queues that create internal and external support desks in their IBM Lotus Instant Messaging (Sametime) environment. Instant IMtegrity for IBM Lotus Sametime lets you securely log, save, and archive IBM Lotus Sametime Connect client and AOL Instant Messenger client chats, map anonymous AOL screen names to corporate user IDs, authenticate names via an LDAP directory, and send dynamic, customizable company disclaimer messages to IM chat parties. Chat logging formats include XML, plain text, and Lotus Notes database formats. Recorded chats are accessible via Web browser and/or Lotus Notes and are protected by access control lists (ACLs). It color-encodes the names of chat participant for easier identification. You can use Google-style full-test searches on chats via a Web interface. Instant IMtegrity provides full support to reach SEC 17a-4 and NASD 3010 compliance.


IM Logic IM Manager
www.imlogic.com
IMlogic IM Manager lets you control the use of public and enterprise IM in your organization for real-time communication while ensuring compliance with legal and corporate governance policies. IM Manager seamlessly manages, secures, logs, and archives all IM traffic with certified support for public and enterprise IM networks through one integrated IM management solution. IMlogic IM Manager helps businesses manage and control instant messaging, secure corporate networks against IM security threats, and reach regulatory compliance and corporate governance standards for logging, archiving, and auditing IM conversations.


FaceTime
www.facetime.com
The FaceTime Enterprise Edition product suite helps you secure, manage, and extend enterprise IM and real-time communication. The applications seamlessly integrate with each other and with your existing IT infrastructure, such as e-mail and archive storage, anti-virus, content scanning, encryption, and name space management. FaceTime Guardian Line secures real-time communications and blocks viruses, spIM, and unauthorized IM and P2P use. You can use the IM Auditor to set user policy, manage and control usage, and archive and log IM for corporate and regulatory compliance. RTShield helps small- and medium-sized enterprises meet IM and e-mail compliance requirements. RTMatrix lets you add IM and presence-aware applications into existing systems. VAST (Vulnerability Assessment Survey & Test) is a free service in which you work with an IM security specialist to identify potential IM and P2P threats in your enterprise, evaluate your existing IM and P2P network policies, and receive a detailed report with resolution recommendations. RTMonitor is a free monitoring tool that identifies all IM and P2P traffic on your network.

Proposion N2N
www.proposion.com
Proposion N2N helps organizations leverage their investment in Lotus Notes/Domino when building applications in Microsoft .NET. Getting this infrastructure to integrate can involve including Notes data in a .NET portal, XML Web service, or mobile application. Companies may need to have a .NET application save a document in a Notes database, send an e-mail notification, or initiate a workflow process. The need to synchronize or migrate data to and from Notes databases is common. Proposion N2N can help with all these tasks. It's a native .NET data connector for integrating IBM Lotus Notes and Domino into Microsoft's .NET Framework and Visual Studio.NET development tools. Notes/Domino developers can work with Microsoft .NET tools such as VB.NET, C#, ASP.NET, Mobile Internet Toolkit, and .NET Web Services and .NET developers can access Notes/Domino data and services from any .NET application. Companies that have chosen .NET as their application platform don't have to abandon the collaborative offerings of IBM Domino. Proposion N2N is designed around the standard ADO.NET data access interfaces.


CASAHL ecKnowledge and Replic-Action
www.casahl.com
With CASAHL ecKnowledge and Replic-Action, you can integrate collaborative applications with traditional applications and tools, minimizing redundancy and maximizing reuse of resources. ecKnowledge (enterprise collaboration and Knowledge sharing) is a wizard-based integration, extension, and migration tool you can use to integrate Microsoft and IBM Lotus Notes collaborative applications with each other and most other enterprise data sources. You use Replic-Action for Lotus Notes to integrate and extend data between Lotus Notes and enterprise database systems, other Lotus Notes applications, and any system with an ODBC interface. The CASAHL products are designed to let you integrate, extend, or migrate your company's collaborative applications. CASAHL products focus on existing systems and preferred user interfaces, customization, and offer an integrated graphical development environment and secure server technology.


Percussion Lyrix
www.percussion.com
Percussion Lyrix offers direct Domino content reuse. You can use it to share Domino data with enterprise applications such as portals, content management solutions, J2EE/.NET Web applications, sales force automation, customer relationship management, and document management. Lyrix is based on Web services architecture that automatically transforms Notes documents and unique Domino attributes (such as Rich Text, embedded images, doc links, attachments) into standard XML and xHTML. Lyrix offers two modes: a live mode called "Content Services" and a transfer mode called "Content Transfers." The live mode lets other enterprise applications access Domino content in real-time, so there's no need to create new applications or migrate. The transfer mode supports ongoing, periodic transfers of Domino content and systematic content migrations. Lyrix doesn't require any coding to expose Domino content, and it doesn't require any Domino skills or application knowledge for non-Domino developers or system integrators.

MartinScott WirelessMail
www.martinscott.com
MartinScott WirelessMail is a configurable Lotus Domino mail forwarding agent that runs on your mailbox. Because the agent and the configuration profile are stored directly in the user's mailbox, WirelessMail polling and processing uses no network bandwidth. You can configure the WirelessMail agent to run every few minutes or immediately upon mail delivery, and auto-forward your e-mail to BlackBerry, Palm, Pocket PC, pagers, and cell phones. WirelessMail supports complete address lists so the wireless device can see and reply to all recipients. You can e-mail remote-control commands from your wireless device to your Notes mailbox to adjust settings, search mail, query your calendar, and look up addresses. There are multiple device-specific profiles for scheduling, optimization, and file attachment rules.


Colligo Workgroup Edition
www.colligo.com
Have you ever been on the road and needed to pass large files to coworkers traveling with you? Colligo Workgroup Edition gives you a secure solution with several useful bells and whistles. Colligo Workgroup Edition is a client-side software package that lets you directly connect to other laptops using a variety of methods on the same IP network. The network can be wired, such as a wired hub or a LAN, or wireless, such as 802.11. If you're wireless, a simple toggle button controls the wireless card and helps you easily create peer-to-peer networks in the absence of Internet or LAN support. This is a powerful feature that lets you instantly create a wireless network with colleagues anywhere you meet.

Trend Micro ScanMail for Lotus Domino
www.trendmicro.com
Unlike the products that just look for keywords or blacklisted servers, Trend Micro ScanMail is comprehensive: it covers prevention, mitication, response, and recovery. This product knows how to scan attachments not onlin in e-mail, but in replicating documents, plus it filters attachments for spam, confidential, or offensive content. ScanMail operates as a native Domino server application so it provides administrators with the familiar interface, and the administration is impressive. Trend Micro ScanMail for Lotus Domino runs on Windows, Solaris, and Linux.

Unified Mailbox
www.unifiedmailbox.com
Unified Mailbox combines voice, fax, and e-mail in a way that's natural and fully integrated with Notes/Domino. Unified Mailbox uses your regular Notes mail NSF (any version), and includes full voice recognition for replying to e-mail over the phone. You can even plug their test-to-speech module into any Notes application.


Applied Voice & Speech Technologies CallXpress
www.avstgroup.com
Applied Voice & Speech Technologies CallXpress offers voice, fax, and e-mail management capabilities from nearly any device -- desktop, laptop, cell phone, PDA, or wired phone. If users don't have wireless or Web access, they can use CallXpress to manage all their messages from a telephone. It integrates well with Notes/Domino, and includes test-to-speech and voice recognition. Interactive Voice Response (IVR) lets you tell your database to read or fax information on demand.