IBM Workplace Services Express -Technical Overview and Directions

Stuart DuguidAsia Pacific Portal & Workplace Technical Lead

Disclaimer

The following material is directional in nature and does not imply any product plan commitment on the part of IBM.

Some of the ideas presented here may be delivered in future versions, but some will not.

IBM Workplace Services Express

Share, organize, and find information easily• Create and manage documents or lists• Office and Windows Integration

Team Collaboration and Custom Applications• Quickly create team work spaces• Find and communicate with other people• Document libraries, task lists, team calendar, etc.

IBM Workplace Services Express

Templates-based applications• Pre-assemble pages and portlets for reuse• Customize pages by drag/drop, themes, lists, and templates

Easy to Deploy and Operate• Policies for automatic management of your portal• Quick installation; configuration that adapts as your needs

change

A Quick Tour

Easy ways to make the site your own and create new team spaces on demand

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Organized to help you perform common tasks

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Handy people finder and contacts list, plus online status for instant messaging

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Adding New Portlets

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Slide out palette on each page lets you add new portlets to that page

Re-arranging Portlets

Simply grab a portlet on the page or from the slide out palette and drag to the desired location on the page1

Changing the Look

Organizing and Managing Information

Share contact lists, event calendars, announcements, and meeting materialsCreate, organize and share documents

• Review documents and record comments• Version control, and check in/out• Drafts and Approvals• Browser access• Office and Windows integration

Search and find documents

Shared Lists

Lots of predefined lists to help you organize and manage content

Drag new lists from the palette to add to any team space

LinksContactsIssuesVacationsAttendanceAgendaSurveyMilestonesFAQs

LinksContactsIssuesVacationsAttendanceAgendaSurveyMilestonesFAQs

Sales TrackingSign Up SheetProspectsAnnouncementsEmployee DirectoryInvitationsDirectionsMinutesCustom

Sales TrackingSign Up SheetProspectsAnnouncementsEmployee DirectoryInvitationsDirectionsMinutesCustom

Lists and Forms

To add or change items in the list, you fill out a formIt’s a very simple way to build your own “applications” that collect and store the data you need

Sorting and Filtering Lists

Sort by any columnFilter the results to show just a subset of the dataScroll through the data a page at a time

Customizing Lists

Add new fields that will be displayed in the list and on the data input form

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Drag and drop to re-arrange the columns

Adding New Fields

Customize the list by adding new fieldsSingle or multi-line text, selections, date, time, file attachmentComputed fields: date, time, authorDesign fields: rich text and dividers

Views

Choose detail or summary views, plus bar or pie charts for the list data

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Managing DocumentsSearch for

documents and save searches

to “smart folders”

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Send links to document

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Familiar Folder Navigation

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Create or import any type of document

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Live names throughout, so you can contact the author or other users

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Document Lifecycle

Check in, check outPrivate DraftsComment and ReviewApprovalsVersion history

Reviewing Documents

Discussion threads for tracking comments on documents

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Microsoft Office Integration

Document properties can be stored in portal,

searched and used for preview

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Word, Excel, and PowerPoint toolbars are extended to provide direct access to portal functions such as locking, versioning, etc…1

Desktop Integration

Windows Explorer extension lets you work with server documents as if they were local files

Files are automatically stored back on the server after being saved in Windows applications

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Search

Content sources• Web sites• Shared files in document libraries• Team spaces and applications• Search results are filtered to enforce security

Crawler and Indexer• Fast indexing• Crawler can be scheduled• Indexes hundreds of document types, including PDF and Office• Language detection and language-specific optimizations

Team Collaboration

Create shared team spacesChat with people and find contact informationSet up chat rooms and a shared calendar for a teamTake surveys and track tasksAccess your mail, calendar, and address bookIntegrate existing applications with the portalTeam membership and privileges can be managed by the team itself, without any assistance from the IT staff

Team Spaces

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Manage roles, membership and access to the team space.

Instantly chat with other members of the team

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Collaboration tools: team

schedule, team

documents, discussions, chat room, and search

Membership

Team spaces have a group of people that can use them – we call these the “members” of the team spaceEach member has a role: moderator or contributor

Members List

The moderators of the team space can invite additional people to joinThe list of members and roles determines who gets access to documents, who appears on the contacts list, who is invited to meetings, etc.

Communicating with People

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Integrated Instant MessagingEnables easy communication within

yourorganization

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Pop-up menu near people’s names so you can chat, send mail, call, or find out where they fit in the organization

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People Finder integrates with your company’s directory

People Finder

Quick search for people by name, e-mail address, portal user id, phone, department or job titleAdvanced search lets you search by any field in the user’s profilePop-up menu for contacting people

Organization View

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See an organization view to find out who a person works for, and who else is in the same department

Team Task List

Organize and track work items and priorities

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Shared Team Calendar

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Set up meetings on for the team; attendees can be selected from the membership list

Chat Room

Participate in chat rooms with team members; chats are saved and archived

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Surveys

Mail, Calendar, and Address Book

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Predefined tools allow easyaccess to Mail, Calendar andAddress Books

2 Predefined Portlets for access to Lotus Domino, Microsoft Exchangeand industry standard POP3/IMAP mail services

Team Space Templates

Within any organization there are many different teams working together every dayEach of these teams might want their own space to work in, where they can store documents, manage a project calendar, etc.

• The exact pages and portlets that each team needs will depend on the nature of their work

• Team members may not have the skills or time to define the pages and layouts from scratch

Team Space Templates

To make things easier, we provide predefined templates

• Templates are pre-arranged pages and portlets optimized for certain tasks

• Examples: planning for an event, holding a regular team meeting, developing employee guidelines, etc.

Predefined Templates

Chat RoomDiscussionDocument LibraryDomino Application AccessEmployee HR SiteEvent PlanningHR TeamMarketing TeamMeeting MaterialsYou can easily change these and save them as new application templates of your own

A Typical Team Space

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Page team space for organizing

sales activities; with a schedule

document library, discussion area,

and search

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List portlets that are useful for this team’s work

2 Team Tasks and calendar

Editing Templates

Choose the template you want to work on

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Templates link leads to this page

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Pages

Re-order and edit the pages that will appear in your application

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Page Layout

Parameters

Roles

Moderator Role

Templates ideas – what partners could build

Accountants• Update clients on the latest

tax laws • Post to-do lists for creating a

corporation

Ad Agencies• Track deadlines • Post design ideas, stock

photos, storyboards for review

Architects• Post floor plans, sketches,

photos• Keep lists of preferred sub-

contractors

Associations or Trade Groups

• Share ideas and latest trends• Post notes from seminars and

conferences

Authors and Publishers• Review drafts and revisions • Track publishing deadlines

More templates ideas

Entertainers• Post photos and artist profiles • Post audition opportunities

Job Recruiters• Post job openings • Store resumes and review

applicants• Track hiring deadlines

Real Estate Agents• Post info and photos of

properties • Checklist lists for closing

Volunteer Organizations• Track volunteer and donation

needs

Web Designers• Post design reviews and

gather client feedback • Create to-do lists for bugs

and technical issues

Deployment and Operations

System is designed for self-service administration, plus policies to keep things running smoothlyEmployees can create and customize their own team spaces without any help from the IT departmentTeam space owners assign roles to decide what users can see or doPolicies help manage unused team spaces

Policies

Most work is done directly by users in a “self-service” mannerPolicies are used to set limits on what users can do, so that the server doesn’t get overloaded or become unmanageableTeam Space Policies limit size and activity

• Set limit on size and specify warning threshold• Specify maximum days with no activity

When over quota, warnings are sent• Team Spaces are not deleted

Installation

Quick single-server install for small departments or teamsMove to company directory later, using configuration wizards

Summary

Fast time to value• Up and running in less than 1 hour• Lists, documents, & templates to get started quickly

Easy to use• Easy access from the browser• Drag and drop to customize pages• Policy-based management

Template-based applications• Define your own assemblies to reuse and share

Grows with you• Start with a single server deployment and grow up