IBM Software Services for Lotus To support your business objectives. Maximize your portal solution through a rapid, low-risk deployment.

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1 IBM Software Services for Lotus To support your business objectives Maximize your portal solution through a rapid, low-risk deployment.

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3 For businesses around the world, Web portals help increase productivity. Lower costs. Uncover new revenue opportunities. Unlock the value in existing business systems. And drive competitive advantage. Gartner, Inc. expects the portal product market to grow through 2006 and reports that enterprise portals continue to place in the top 10 on most surveys of CIOs priorities. 1 3

4 IBM WebSphere Portal for Multiplatforms software, one of the industry s most comprehensive portal offerings, can help you: Boost efficiency by providing centralized access to business data and applications and by enabling real-time collaboration. Improve decision making through anytime access to relevant information. Reduce costs by increasing efficiency, improving information flow and lowering training expenses. Drive revenue by enabling workforce productivity and innovation. Increase customer satisfaction by forming tighter client relationships. The software is available in two versions: IBM WebSphere Portal Enable for Multiplatforms software is the base offering that provides personalization, content publishing, document management and productivity functions along with the scalable portal framework. IBM WebSphere Portal Extend for Multiplatforms software adds powerful collaboration, extended search and Web analysis features to enhance portal effectiveness. IBM [portal software] continues to lead in several respects. its vision is well-thought-out, and its technology is broad. 2 4

5 Trust IBM to help you effectively deploy a portal solution Whether you re ready to deploy a portal solution or upgrade your existing portal, investing in new technology can feel risky. To justify the investment, you need to ensure it will meet your business needs. Be compatible with your IT system. And fit within your budget. When you re ready to deploy, you want it done fast and you want it done right. The professionals from IBM Software Services for Lotus specialize in mission-critical projects that require seamless integration and real-world experience. IBM Software Services for Lotus professionals have the resources and connections to conduct successful WebSphere Portal for Multiplatforms deployments designed to help you meet your business goals. They not only help you design, build, test and deploy your portal solution. They apply extensive technical consulting and training skills to help you tap your solution s full potential to improve business processes. Our specialists help mitigate your risk by demonstrating how WebSphere Portal for Multiplatforms solutions can benefit your organization. And they provide effective training, consulting and knowledge transfer so you can get a rapid return on your investment (ROI). Identify how a portal can benefit your organization Before introducing portal technology into your organization, you must clearly understand your needs and how a portal can help address them. IBM Software Services for Lotus specialists can conduct methodical assessments to give you a clear vision of your business requirements and determine how WebSphere Portal for Multiplatforms software can help you achieve them. The IBM Software Services for Lotus team offers a business value assessment for portals, consisting of four modules that explore how portal technology can address your specific business challenges. This proven approach provides a set of tools to help you prioritize and analyze the impact of making a business portal investment or replacing or adding functions to an existing portal. Our team works with you using a structured evaluation model to determine what areas of your business will benefit from WebSphere Portal for Multiplatforms software. 5

6 Business value alignment Business value demonstration Business value assessment Business value realization (optional) Determine how you can reap the greatest benefit from a business portal solution Assess portal initiatives in terms of measurable benefits compared to their ease of implementation Help project stakeholders reach a shared understanding of different portal investment benefits and risks and consensus about how to proceed Create a working model that represents the possibilities of your portal and the potential impact it can have on your organization Visualize how a proposed portal solution can deliver value Demonstrate the value and functions of the business portal to a wider audience throughout your value chain Use findings from this module in the ROI analysis and to help guide implementation Identify the potential employee and IT infrastructure costs required to implement a business portal solution Produce macro estimates of costs and benefits Present findings and recommendations to help define the next steps in your business portal initiatives Deliver a written report outlining ROI and costbenefit analyses Evaluate your existing portal Use findings as a baseline for an ROI analysis to expand your existing WebSphere Portal software solution or to replace a current portal with a WebSphere Portal software solution A business value assessment for portals can help you explore the benefits of WebSphere Portal for Multiplatforms software in your organization. Defining your needs is another prerequisite to successfully deploying a Web portal. A business requirements assessment by IBM Software Services for Lotus specialists addresses your current business challenges from the point of view of your business users, stakeholders and project sponsors to provide a strong understanding of what is required to implement your portal solution. The business requirements assessment is designed to: Consider your main business drivers. Identify your different user communities and their needs. Identify data sources, applications and communication networks that need to be built into the solution. Upon completion of this assessment, IBM Software Services for Lotus specialists deliver your customized business requirements and a roadmap to help effectively introduce WebSphere Portal for Multiplatforms software into your infrastructure. Speed deployment while minimizing risk The faster you deploy WebSphere Portal for Multiplatforms software, the sooner you can realize the benefits of a business portal and your ROI. IBM Software Services for Lotus professionals can conduct several initiatives from workshops to a pilot rollout to help you deploy your portal solution as efficiently and safely as possible. Start with an IT architecture that supports a successful portal The critical architecture and design workshop sets the technical direction of your portal implementation. During this onsite workshop, you ll have access to the experience and best practices of the lab-based team that helped develop IBM WebSphere Portal Server and IBM WebSphere Application Server software. IBM Software Services for Lotus architects work with you to review your business goals and to develop an architecture or validate your existing architecture to support a successful portal solution. They assess the features and functions required for your portal, ranging from application integration to collaboration to a single sign-on security solution, to help meet your business objectives. 6

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8 As applicable, the architects recommend IBM and third-party technologies to help build each layer of your portal, including content management, business rules development, front-end design and more. Then they identify best practices associated with these products to help you take full advantage of the solution. To help you clearly visualize the end product, the architects select a key subsystem, such as one portlet within the portal, and create a low-level design that they can use as a template and implementation strategy for the remainder of the portal development. At the conclusion of the architecture and design workshop, you ll receive an initial project plan for the migration and deployment of your system. Experience portal capabilities in a non-production environment To demonstrate how portal technology fits within your environment its capabilities and how it can be applied as part of your business solution IBM Software Services for Lotus professionals install and configure WebSphere Portal for Multiplatforms software in a nonproduction environment. This low-cost initiative enables you to evaluate the software in a controlled setting with a small subset of users over a short period of time. So you can experience the benefits of a Web portal immediately before making a commitment with minimal risk and disruption to your business. This test-drive program requires adherence to the following provisions: Any suggested integrations must be limited to the components included in WebSphere Portal Extend for Multiplatforms software. WebSphere Portal for Multiplatforms software requires a dedicated server, and only IBM standard configurations will be used. Use portlets available in the IBM WebSphere Portal and IBM Lotus Workplace catalog. Use only the default WebSphere Portal for Multiplatforms themes and skins. Experience real-world benefits and get user feedback To demonstrate your portal s tangible business benefits, allowing you to gain buy-in from the rest of your organization, IBM Software Services for Lotus specialists use a proven, step-by-step system to deploy WebSphere Portal for Multiplatforms software in a small production environment to a limited number of end users. With this portal pilot initiative, your end users have an opportunity to provide feedback to help tailor the solution to your business objectives. And you can help reduce risk by addressing any issues that arise before deploying the full Web portal solution. 8

9 Prepare your administrators to manage a portal solution Your system administrators need to be ready to manage your WebSphere Portal for Multiplatforms solution after the consulting engagement is complete. By including the WebSphere Portal system administration workshop in your IBM Software Services for Lotus portal engagement, you can be sure that your administrators are prepared. This two-day workshop provides hands-on experience in performing administrative tasks in your environment. Workshop materials include simulations of administrative tasks that can be used for after-class support. Topics covered include: Identifying WebSphere Portal for Multiplatforms components. Securing your portal environment. Managing pages. Deploying portlets. Managing access to resources. Using the administrative tools to manage the environment. While experience with database and messaging administration is recommended, prerequisites for this workshop include: Extensive experience in installing and configuring network server and client hardware and software. Working knowledge of networks, network protocols and operating systems. Roll out a full portal solution with confidence One of the key strengths of IBM Software Services for Lotus specialists is the ability to provide a fast start to a full WebSphere Portal for Multiplatforms implementation. When you ve determined that a portal is right for your organization, our architecture, design and product specialists can help you and your systems integrator fully deploy your portal solution. Quickly. Effectively. With minimal risk. You ll have access to IBM software specialists throughout the engagement to answer questions, provide guidance and conduct a smooth rollout. Integrate Lotus Workplace software and get more from your portal Leverage WebSphere Portal for Multiplatforms software with IBM Lotus Workplace software to build a fully collaborative portal workplace. Lotus Workplace software is a group of integrated products that provides multiple collaborative capabilities in a reliable, easy-to-manage platform. Through your portal, everyone in your value chain can use a personalized, collaborative workplace to access realtime communication tools. Learn new skills at their convenience. And easily manage documents. By leveraging WebSphere Portal for Multiplatforms software along with Lotus Workplace collaborative solutions, you can create an environment that encourages innovation. Helps increase responsiveness and efficiency. And reduces organizational complexity into a simplified, single point of interaction. So your organization can gain competitive advantage. 9

10 IBM Software Services for Lotus professionals can help you integrate one, some or all of the following Lotus Workplace solutions within your WebSphere Portal for Multiplatforms environment to meet your business needs: IBM Lotus Workplace Messaging software is an easy-to-use, cost-effective messaging solution designed to help communicate information to employees with different needs. It s ideal for those without dedicated access to or computers, and for employees who require more advanced productivity features than those provided by basic browsers. IBM Lotus Workplace Collaborative Learning software is a full-feature, flexible, standards-based learning management system that lets you customize, deliver and manage enterprise learning programs efficiently. The portlet-based user interface seamlessly integrates online education resources on user desktops and lets training directors manage and track employee learning programs, courseware and resources to help improve efficiencies and save money. IBM Lotus Workplace Team Collaboration software integrates instant messaging and presence awareness, Web conferencing and customizable team spaces. These collaborative capabilities can help you together with your customers, business partners and suppliers simplify your infrastructure and business processes. Bring together team members. Increase productivity. Improve customer responsiveness. And enable faster decision making. IBM Lotus Workplace Web Content Management software delivers end-to-end Web content management via the Internet, intranets, extranets and portal sites. By enabling business owners to publish and update their own Web content in minutes instead of days, you can be more responsive to customer, partner and supplier information needs. IBM Lotus Workplace Documents software is a low-cost, collaborative document management solution that makes it easy to create, organize and share important documents and information across your organization. The solution facilitates document reviews and approvals, versioning, search and private drafts for spreadsheets, presentations, word processing, , graphics files and more, so you can work collaboratively on demand. 10

11 Realize the full potential of your IBM solutions through education Education can maximize the return on your technology investment and help increase productivity by building inhouse expertise. IBM Software Services for Lotus professionals can work closely with you to conduct education assessments, build education roadmaps and help maximize your technology use. During implementation, you ll receive effective technical and end-user training available through any of the following methods: Workshops and classroom training through IBM s global network of education partners Facilitated online training Stand-alone education solutions, including self-paced, computer-based training modules and just-in-time performance support tools These learning initiatives can help drive more efficient use of Lotus technologies. Increase your competitive advantage. And extend skills to support evolving Lotus software technologies. You can also choose to certify individuals in your organization through the IBM Certified Professional Program for Lotus including IBM Certified Associate, IBM Certified Professional and IBM Certified Advanced Professional for developers and administrators. Advanced certifications can help your employees use IBM solutions to their fullest potential as well as give your company a competitive advantage. Dedicated to the success of your IBM software deployments A major technology investment requires important considerations, including risk, cost, training and ROI. IBM Software Services for Lotus professionals can address these issues and create a rapid deployment plan to optimize your WebSphere Portal for Multiplatforms solution. When you choose IBM Software Services for Lotus professionals, you get field-tested experience, innovative solutions, advanced education and unparalleled insight into IBM products and technologies. These benefits can have a real impact on your organization, your business relationships and your bottom line. Let IBM Software Services for Lotus help you leverage the full potential of your Lotus software. Minimize risk. Achieve a quicker return on your investment. And connect you to the right IBM Business Partners to help you enhance communication, collaboration and learning. For more information To learn more about IBM Software Services for Lotus, visit: ibm.com/lotus/services To learn more about IBM WebSphere Portal for Multiplatforms software, visit: ibm.com/software/genservers/portal 11

12 Copyright IBM Corporation 2004 IBM Software Services for Lotus IBM Software Group One Rogers Street Cambridge, MA U.S.A. Produced in the United States of America All Rights Reserved IBM, the IBM logo, Lotus, WebSphere, Workplace and Workplace Messaging are trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation in the United States, other countries or both. Other company, product and service names may be trademarks or service marks of others. References in this publication to IBM products or services do not imply that IBM intends to make them available in all countries in which IBM operates. 1, 2 Gene Phifer, et. al. Magic Quadrant for Horizontal Portal Products, Gartner, Inc. March 30, G