Novell and America Online have announced an agreement to further accelerate the deployment of the AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) application within the rapidly growing business and enterprise markets.
With this agreement, Novell and Lotus Development Corporation have chosen AOL Instant Messenger to support a common enterprise extranet instant messaging community. These agreements are part of the effort to expand AOL Instant Messenger`s reach into the enterprise market and enhance business productivity for these companies` future business solution clients.
Under the agreement, Novell will integrate AIM with its full-service Novell Directory Services (NDS), used to manage and control user access to applications and other resources on business networks. The installed base of 80 million Novell users will gain the ability to establish policies for corporate access controls and encryption of business communications, accelerating efforts to expand AIM`s reach into the enterprise market and enhance business productivity for users.
In addition, Novell and AOL will work together to develop and distribute a co-branded instant messaging client that will link users of its business solutions to the AOL Instant Messaging community.
Through the co-branded instant messaging client, Novell users will be able to trade personalised and private online messages in real time with business colleagues using NDS, NetWare server platform and directory-based Novell applications such as GroupWise messaging, ZENworks desktop management, and Novell`s forthcoming digitalme product for personal management of digital identity information. These business users will also gain managed access to the entire AIM community, including Lotus Sametime users and the 17 million AOL members and 28 million registered AIM users.
Novell also will develop a co-branded business portal using Netscape`s Custom Netcenter product. The co-branded portal -- using the Netscape Custom Netcenter content, services features and functionality -- will target the business audience and will be marketed by Novell to its customer base.
Novell SE manager James Stewart said: "Integration of AOL Instant Messenger and NDS will bring business customers a new level of manageability and control for deployment of instant messaging within their organisations. Novell`s highly scalable, full-service directory can manage more than a billion objects, leaving plenty of room for the expanding community of AIM business users. The integration of leading applications like AIM with NDS, and new services like our business portal co-branded with Netscape Netcenter, will empower businesses everywhere to bridge the gap between the enterprise and the Internet and smoothly extend their networks for new e-business activities."
Earlier this year, Lotus announced that it would deliver a co-branded suite of AOL offerings to the over 40 million enterprise users of Lotus Notes. As part of that agreement, Lotus Sametime, Lotus` real-time collaboration platform, incorporates AIM connectivity so that Sametime users may communicate in real time via private text messages with the millions of AOL Instant Messenger users worldwide.
"We are very pleased to extend the benefits of instant messaging -- the fastest-growing and most exciting phenomenon on the Internet -- into the rapidly growing enterprise market sector," said America Online president and chief operating officer Bob Pittman. "With this agreement, as well as our collaborations with Lotus and others, we continue our efforts to build the world`s leading instant messaging community both at home and in the workplace. We also are thrilled to extend our partnership with Novell to using our Custom Netcenter product to help them build their own co-branded business portal."
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