IBM adds Australian flavour to Lotus
IBM adds Australian flavour to Lotus
IBM considers the acquisition of Australia-based web content management software provider Aptrix to be a key move in strengthening its Lotus portfolio.
The acquisition is seen by IBM as a natural progression, having worked so closely with Aptrix in recent years, according to Michael Loria, director, IBM Lotus Software.
"In the last few years, web content management has been a standalone product offering in the market and having a business partner like Aptrix has been very advantageous for us, but we started to see the technology as becoming a really fundamental of what we are doing, and it was at that point that we decided that the technology should come directly from IBM."
IBM's forthcoming Lotus Workplace Content Development offering will be built based on the Aptrix technology and will accelerate the development and delivery of critical business information and help lower the cost of managing content.
"The fact that Aptrix is really focused on developing this technology for the IBM platform means that their customers are our customers anyway, so this it just seemed the right move to make," adds Loria.
"The Lotus Workplace strategy is designed to blend Lotus collaborative solutions with IBM WebSphere Portal and DB2 Content Manager technology to give our customers a dynamic, cost-effective, and integrated platform that can be designed to fit specific industry or business needs," says Ambuj Goyal, general manager, Lotus Software, IBM Software Group. "The addition of Aptrix's web content management technology, and IBM's plans for the Lotus Workplace Content Development offering, will help our Lotus Workplace customers derive maximum value from business content, as well as help our customers tailor their collaborative infrastructure as they move towards an On Demand computing environment."
Richard Osborne, executive chairman of Aptrix, said the deal was not only terrific for Aptrix, but sent a message out to the wider IT community worldwide about the innovation going on in this country.
"It's just overwhelmingly good news. It gives us tremendous security and allows our key people to grow and prosper under the IBM umbrella. Our lab is also set to become an IBM centre of excellence in web content management. We also get to become part of a much expanded customer base and product marketing machine, so it's great news all round and a great advert for Australian IT capability generally."Related Article: