If you've ever been curious about how WebSphere, Domino, and Notes can integrate together into a cohesive solution, this article's for you. In an exclusive report by CJ Frost, IBM Software Group's Life Science Industry Offering Manager, WebSphere Portal and Lotus Workplace Industry Offerings, we're able to look inside a powerful solution implemented for a growing biotech firm.

In 2001 the Nektar IT department was supporting a company that had tripled in size in just two years - growing from 200 employees to more than 500 through a combination of organic growth and acquisitions. The acquisitions brought a merging of disparate technology platforms including two newly acquired divisions which had standardized on Microsoft technologies, offering employees no means of collaborating across geographically dispersed research divisions.

For a company like Nektar Therapeutics (NASDAQ:NKTR, at http://www.nektar.com), whose core business is providing biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies with drug delivery technologies, a robust IT infrastructure is critical so that researchers and engineers can collaborate throughout the company. Accessing data and information from a variety of changing sources is an important part of the company's technology development. Today's information-rich R&D process produces an abundance of information, but successful collaboration requires the timely location of the exact pieces of required information. In addition, Nektar's partner-based business model demands fluid communication and collaboration. The ability to collaborate directly with partners could impact product development time and FDA approvals.

Based on her prior experience with IBM Lotus Notes software, Citibank and other employers, Nektar IT Manager Heidi Rebottaro knew that the Lotus Notes and Domino platforms had the stability, flexibility and collaborative capabilities needed by Nektar -- and would provide a software platform that could scale as the company grew, ultimately culminating around the Portal technology. Internally, Heidi began to implement Lotus Notes and Domino starting with a portal for employees to organize and access all information in order to work together across departments more easily. Her groups' vision was, and is, to provide best-in-class solutions and services to improve the company 's effectiveness. This foundation has been the collaborative toolset and application development environment found in IBM Lotus software.

Phase I: Implementing Lotus Notes and Domino
The first priority was to prepare the existing systems by implementing Lotus Notes databases on a Domino server. The first phase involved improving and leveraging current infrastructure. Once this was accomplished, Heidi's group managed to improve server uptime from to 99 percent, a direct result from deploying Domino. They also developed standard processes, tests and controls for software developers, highlighting the strength of Domino in rapid application development.