AT&T Wireless Business Solutions for IBM
Through their new "AT&T Wireless Business Solutions for IBM," AT&T Wireless will, in mid-February 2003, begin offering Lotus software email, personal information management, and instant messaging products on mobile devices. As a big part of the agreement forged between IBM and AT&T, AT&T Wireless Business Solutions for IBM will include access to IBM Lotus Domino EveryPlace and Sametime EveryPlace.

This solution is designed to simplify the configuration and deployment on AT&T Wireless' high-speed GSM/GPRS network and make it accessible on a variety of laptops, Pocket PC phones, and PDAs. One advantage IBM noted of having wireless access to Lotus Domino EveryPlace is that it opens the door to other advanced features, such as the ability to send real-time alerts to mobile workers.

IBM Lotus Sametime Everyplace 3
Along the lines of mobilizing Lotus software, IBM has plans to release IBM Lotus Sametime Everyplace 3, a wireless instant messaging solution. Sametime Everyplace (at http://www.lotus.com/products/wireless.nsf/allpublic/EC979AC72589879A85256A6C00508470?opendocument) is designed to extend the instant messaging capabilities and presence awareness of Sametime to mobile phones and wireless devices like Pocket PC and Palm handhelds.

IBM sees mobile access to presence awareness and instant messaging as opening the door for the next generation of wireless applications, such as smart notifications and access to interactive agents, or "bots," which allow employees to tap mission critical applications and information immediately. What bots will do is allow you to use Sametime Everyplace to send simple queries to office applications, such as the corporate directory. The information would then be automatically sent back to the wireless device of choice, all without having to modify back-end applications. Sametime Everyplace 3 could also be used to notify you when you get important email via IBM WEA (WebSphere Everyplace Access) intelligent notification services.

Along with this release, Lotus also wants to increase the level of scalability and administration capabilities. This would allow companies to add new wireless Sametime users more easily. Sametime Everyplace 3 should be available in Q3 2003 through IBM's Passport Advantage distribution channel.

IBM Lotus Domino Toolkit for WebSphere Studio
Another big announcement from IBM was the IBM Lotus Domino Toolkit for WebSphere Studio. It's an application development toolkit designed to make it easier for Lotus Domino developers to use their current Domino development expertise and Domino-based applications in a J2EE development environment.