David: Please introduce yourself and explain your role at IBM.

Akiba: My name is Akiba Saeedi, and I lead the product team responsible for IBM Workplace Collaboration Services. Based on customer feedback, market research and industry input, my team drives the definition of what customers are looking for in IBM Workplace for Collaboration Services. We then work with other groups at IBM and with our business partners to design, build, deliver, sell, and support the product in market.

David: Tell us a little bit about Workplace Collaboration Services.

Akiba: Workplace Collaboration Services is a product for everyday collaboration. It includes a number of key collaboration tools that support the different ways people interact with each other during a typical work day--online, real-time, or in person. This includes email, calendaring, instant messaging, Web conferencing, team spaces, learning, Web content management, shared document libraries, productivity editors (spreadsheets, presentations etc.), templates, forms and more.

Workplace Collaboration Services has been built from the ground up as highly integrated components or services, based on a J2EE architecture, and is accessible through a browser or the IBM Workplace Managed Client.

The beauty of Workplace Collaboration Services is its ability to target and deploy the right functions to the right users. Every organization has different classes of users, and roles that have to be supported. With Workplace Collaboration Services, we've made it easy for organizations to leverage just the capabilities they need, and for IT professionals to quickly respond to changing needs and roles through a CPU licensing model.

Customers pay only for the components they need, and if multiple components are used, they can be centrally managed and deployed, adding additional value and simplifying life for IT professionals. In addition, when a customer deploys new capabilities to groups of users, a new tab or portlet will automatically appear in the user's existing interface, further simplifying the end-user experience.

David: What were some of the market and customer needs that drove the introduction of Workplace Collaboration Services?