HCL Sametime Premium (formerly IBM Sametime and IBM Lotus Sametime) is a
client–server application and
middleware
Middleware is a type of computer software that provides services to software applications beyond those available from the operating system. It can be described as "software glue".
Middleware makes it easier for software developers to implement c ...
platform that provides real-time, unified communications and collaboration for enterprises. Those capabilities include
presence information, enterprise
instant messaging
Instant messaging (IM) technology is a type of online chat allowing real-time text transmission over the Internet or another computer network. Messages are typically transmitted between two or more parties, when each user inputs text and trigge ...
,
web conferencing
Web conferencing is used as an umbrella term for various types of online conferencing and collaborative services including webinars (web seminars), webcasts, and web meetings. Sometimes it may be used also in the more narrow sense of the peer-l ...
, community collaboration, and telephony capabilities and integration. Currently it is developed and sold by HCL Software, a division of Indian company
HCL Technologies
HCLTech (formerly Hindustan Computers Limited or HCL Technologies) is an Indian multinational information technology (IT) services and consulting company headquartered in Noida.It emerged as an independent company in 1991 when HCL entered into ...
, until 2019 by the
Lotus Software division of
IBM.
Because HCL Sametime is middleware, it supports enterprise software and business process integration (
Communication Enabled Business Process), either through an HCL Sametime plugin or by surfacing HCL Sametime capabilities through third-party applications. HCL Sametime integrates with a wide variety of software, including Lotus collaboration products, Microsoft Office
productivity software
Productivity software (also called personal productivity software or office productivity software) is application software used for producing information (such as documents, presentations, worksheets, databases, charts, graphs, digital paintings ...
, and portal and Web applications.
Features
HCL Sametime Premium Features:
HCL Sametime Premium (v11.5)
* Instant meetings &
persistent chat
* Personal meeting rooms
* Multiple screen-share per meeting
* Moderator Controls
* Video meeting options
* Desktop App, Web & Mobile
* Meeting Recording
* Calendar integrations
* Livestreaming capability
* Secure data
* Flexible deployment (Cloud, on-premises or hybrid)
* Admin policies at the user, group and server level
* Inbound/outbound telephony support
Features - Previous Versions through 11.0:
HCL Sametime is a client–server enterprise application that includes the HCL Sametime Connect client for end-users and the HCL Sametime Server for control and administration. HCL Sametime (pre v11.5) comes in four levels of functionality:
HCL Sametime Limited Use (Old name HCL Sametime Entry) provides basic presence and instant messaging.
HCL Sametime Standard provides additional functionality to HCL Sametime Entry, including:
* rich presence including
location awareness
Location awareness refers to devices that can passively or actively determine their location. Navigational instruments provide location coordinates for vessels and vehicles. Surveying equipment identifies location with respect to a well-known loca ...
*
rich-media
Interactive media normally refers to products and services on digital computer-based systems which respond to the user's actions by presenting content such as text, moving image, animation, video and audio. Since its early conception, various fo ...
chat, including point-to-point Voice-over-IP (
VoIP
Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), also called IP telephony, is a method and group of technologies for the delivery of voice communications and multimedia sessions over Internet Protocol (IP) networks, such as the Internet. The terms Internet t ...
) and video chat, timestamps, emoticons, and chat histories
* group and multi-way chat
* web conferencing
* contact business cards
* interoperability with public IM networks via the HCL Sametime Gateway, including
AOL Instant Messenger
AIM (AOL Instant Messenger) was an instant messaging and presence computer program created by AOL, which used the proprietary OSCAR instant messaging protocol and the TOC protocol to allow registered users to communicate in real time.
AIM w ...
,
Yahoo! Messenger
Yahoo! Messenger (sometimes abbreviated Y!M) was an advertisement-supported instant messaging client (computing), client and associated protocol provided by Yahoo!. Yahoo! Messenger was provided free of charge and could be downloaded and used wit ...
,
Google Talk and
XMPP
Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP, originally named Jabber) is an open communication protocol designed for instant messaging (IM), presence information, and contact list maintenance. Based on XML (Extensible Markup Language), i ...
-based services.
* open APIs that allow integrations between HCL's own and other applications
* Sametime Audio/Video Services supports audio (e.g.
G.722.1) and video codecs (e.g.
H.264
Advanced Video Coding (AVC), also referred to as H.264 or MPEG-4 Part 10, is a video compression standard based on block-oriented, motion-compensated coding. It is by far the most commonly used format for the recording, compression, and distr ...
)
HCL Sametime Advanced provides additional real-time community collaboration and
social networking functionality to HCL Sametime Standard, including:
* persistent chat rooms
* instant screen sharing
* geographic location services
HCL Sametime Unified Telephony provides additional telephony functionality to HCL Sametime Standard or HCL Sametime Advanced, including:
* telephony presence
*
softphone
A softphone is a software program for making telephone calls over the Internet using a general purpose computer rather than dedicated hardware. The softphone can be installed on a piece of equipment such as a desktop, mobile device, or other comp ...
* click-to-call and click-to-conference
* incoming call management
* call control with live call transfer
* connectivity to, and integration of, multiple telephone systems - both IP private branch exchange (
IP-PBX
An IP PBX ("Internet Protocol private branch exchange") is a system that connects telephone extensions to the public switched telephone network (PSTN) and provides internal communication for a business. An IP PBX is a PBX system with IP connecti ...
) and legacy
time-division multiplexing (TDM) systems
HCL Sametime Gateway provides server-to-server interoperability between disparate communities with conversion services for different protocols, presence information awareness, and instant messaging. HCL Sametime Gateway connects HCL Sametime
instant messaging
Instant messaging (IM) technology is a type of online chat allowing real-time text transmission over the Internet or another computer network. Messages are typically transmitted between two or more parties, when each user inputs text and trigge ...
cooperate communities with external communities, including external HCL Sametime, and public instant messaging communities, such as:
AOL, AIM,
ICQ,
Yahoo
Yahoo! (, styled yahoo''!'' in its logo) is an American web services provider. It is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California and operated by the namesake company Yahoo Inc., which is 90% owned by investment funds managed by Apollo Global Manage ...
,
Google Talk, and
XMPP
Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP, originally named Jabber) is an open communication protocol designed for instant messaging (IM), presence information, and contact list maintenance. Based on XML (Extensible Markup Language), i ...
. HCL Sametime Gateway replaces the Sametime Session Initiation Protocol (
SIP) Gateway from earlier releases of HCL Sametime.
The HCL Sametime Gateway platform is based on
IBM WebSphere Application Server
WebSphere Application Server (WAS) is a software product that performs the role of a web application server. More specifically, it is a software framework and middleware that hosts Java-based web applications. It is the flagship product with ...
, which provides failover, clustering, and scalability for the HCL Sametime Gateway deployment.
The product is shipped with the following connectors: Virtual Places,
SIP, and
XMPP
Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP, originally named Jabber) is an open communication protocol designed for instant messaging (IM), presence information, and contact list maintenance. Based on XML (Extensible Markup Language), i ...
. More protocol connectors may be added.
Platform support, APIs and application integration
Because HCL Sametime is middleware, it supports application and business process integration. When within the context of real-time communications, this is often referred to as Communications Enabled Business Processes. Sametime integrates in either of two ways:
# by surfacing the application into an HCL Sametime
plug-in
# by surfacing HCL Sametime capabilities into the target application
Some examples of integration between HCL Sametime and applications include:
* HCL's products including HCL Notes, HCL Domino applications, HCL Connections, HCL Quickr
* Microsoft office-productivity software including
Microsoft Office
Microsoft Office, or simply Office, is the former name of a family of client software, server software, and services developed by Microsoft. It was first announced by Bill Gates on August 1, 1988, at COMDEX in Las Vegas. Initially a marketi ...
,
Microsoft Outlook, and
Microsoft Sharepoint
SharePoint is a web-based collaborative platform that integrates natively with Microsoft Office. Launched in 2001, SharePoint is primarily sold as a document management and storage system, but the product is highly configurable and its usage v ...
* portal applications, including portals built with IBM
WebSphere Portal
WebSphere Portal is an enterprise software used to build and manage web portals. It provides access to web content and applications, while delivering personalized experiences for users.
The WebSphere Portal package is a component of WebSphere app ...
* web applications
* packaged enterprise applications
* embedded and client–server telephony applications
HCL Sametime Connect, the client component of HCL Sametime, is built on the
Eclipse platform, allowing developers familiar with the framework to easily write plug-ins for HCL Sametime. It uses a proprietary protocol named Virtual Places, but also offers support for standard protocols, including
Session Initiation Protocol (SIP),
SIMPLE
Simple or SIMPLE may refer to:
*Simplicity, the state or quality of being simple
Arts and entertainment
* ''Simple'' (album), by Andy Yorke, 2008, and its title track
* "Simple" (Florida Georgia Line song), 2018
* "Simple", a song by Johnn ...
,
T.120
T.120 is a suite of point-to-multipoint communication protocols for teleconferencing, videoconferencing, and computer-supported collaboration. It provides for application sharing, online chat, file sharing, and other functions. The protocols ar ...
,
XMPP
Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP, originally named Jabber) is an open communication protocol designed for instant messaging (IM), presence information, and contact list maintenance. Based on XML (Extensible Markup Language), i ...
, and
H.323.
HCL Sametime Connect can run under
Microsoft Windows,
Linux
Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, w ...
, and
macOS
macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and lapt ...
. Also available are a zero-download web client for Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox and Apple Safari; mobile clients are also supported for Apple iPhone,
Android, Microsoft Windows Mobile, RIM Blackberry, and Symbian. The HCL Sametime server runs on Microsoft Windows,
IBM AIX
AIX (Advanced Interactive eXecutive, pronounced , "ay-eye-ex") is a series of proprietary Unix operating systems developed and sold by IBM for several of its computer platforms.
Background
Originally released for the IBM RT PC RISC ...
,
IBM i (formerly i5/OS), Linux and
Solaris. Sametime can also be accessed using the
free software
Free software or libre software is computer software distributed under terms that allow users to run the software for any purpose as well as to study, change, and distribute it and any adapted versions. Free software is a matter of liberty, no ...
Adium
Adium is a free and open source instant messaging client for macOS that supports multiple IM networks, including Google Talk and XMPP. In the past, it has also supported AIM, ICQ, Windows Live Messenger and Yahoo! Messenger. Adium is written usi ...
,
Gaim,
Pidgin, and
Kopete
Kopete is a multi-protocol, free software instant messaging client released as part of the KDE Software Compilation. Although it can run in numerous environments, it was designed for and integrates with the KDE Plasma Workspaces. Kopete was star ...
clients.
History
HCL Sametime became an IBM product in 1998 as the synthesis of technologies IBM acquired from two companies:
# an American company called Databeam provided the architecture to host
T.120
T.120 is a suite of point-to-multipoint communication protocols for teleconferencing, videoconferencing, and computer-supported collaboration. It provides for application sharing, online chat, file sharing, and other functions. The protocols ar ...
dataconferencing (for web messaging) and
H.323 Multi-Media Conferencing
# Ubique, an Israeli company whose Virtual Places Chat software technology (also known as VPBuddy) provided the "presence awareness" functionality that allows people to detect which of their contacts are online and available for messaging or conferencing
The Sametime v3.1 client was part of the standard platform loaded by the IBM Standard Software Installer (ISSI) for many years, enabling communications over the corporate intranet by hundreds of thousands of IBM employees. The next major release was the Sametime v7.5 client, built on the
Eclipse (software)
Eclipse is an integrated development environment (IDE) used in computer programming. It contains a base workspace and an extensible plug-in system for customizing the environment. It is the second-most-popular IDE for Java development, and, u ...
platform, enabling the use of the plug-in framework.
In 2008
Gartner
Gartner, Inc is a technological research and consulting firm based in Stamford, Connecticut that conducts research on technology and shares this research both through private consulting as well as executive programs and conferences. Its client ...
positioned IBM for the first time as a
"leader" in Gartner's
Unified Communications
Unified communications (UC) is a business and marketing concept describing the integration of enterprise communication services such as instant messaging (chat), presence information, voice (including IP telephony), mobility features (including ...
Magic Quadrant
Magic Quadrant (MQ) is a series of market research reports published by IT consulting firm Gartner that rely on proprietary qualitative data analysis methods to demonstrate market trends, such as direction, maturity and participants.
Their anal ...
.
Version
References
External links
*
Apple StoreGoogle Play
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ibm Lotus Sametime
Web conferencing
Teleconferencing
Sametime
Windows Internet software
Internet software for Linux
Instant messaging server software
Symbian instant messaging clients
Videotelephony