With this announcement, we are giving Microsoft customers the choice to join the open standards world and avoid being locked into closed solutions, says Oscar Rozario, solutions sales manager, IBM Software Group.

With Lotus Sametime 7.5, users have easy access to a full set of instant messaging and Web conferencing capabilities, without requiring costly upgrades, he adds.

Within Office word processing, spreadsheet and presentation applications, Lotus Sametime customers will be able to take advantage of Lotus Sametime 7.5 features, such as sending an instant message, initiating a call, sharing an application or launching a Web conference, he continues.

According to Hannes van Vuuren, brand manager for Lotus in SA, IBM is empowering a new class of on-the-go employees with out-of-the-box mobile support for Lotus Sametime. Business users will now be able to access the full functionality of Lotus Sametime to see who is available and where they are located, enabling quick communication through instant messages and initiating voice chats directly from their mobile devices, he says.

Lotus Sametime 7.5 will give thousands of IBM Business Partners and developers access to an open programming model, which will spur the creation and use of business applications in a real-time collaborative environment, Van Vuuren adds.

Users will be able to take advantage of plug-ins and Web 2.0 technologies, such as 'mash-ups' to create new applications on the fly, he says. For example, a Lotus Sametime 'mash-up' could combine the location and status of team members on a contact list and display it on an online map, he adds.