IBM is feeling increased pressure from Microsoft for e-mail and collaboration tools. To counter this threat IBM is expanding the Lotus Notes platform. For more information on this new offering, refer to the Info-Tech Advisor research note, "Lotus: Definitely Not Dead Yet." It also announced a new version of WebSphere Portal that will compete directly with Microsoft SharePoint. IBM WebSphere Portal Express 6.0 offers many of the same features as Microsoft SharePoint Server at a price that will please small organizations.

Announcing: IBM WebSphere Portal Express 6.0

IBM's newest portal offering caters to small enterprises with fewer than 1000 registered users. It includes many of the features that IT decision makers typically associate with Microsoft SharePoint:

• Standards compliancy. WebSphere Portal Express is compliant with typical portal standards such as WSRP and JSR 168. The "express" or "lite" aspect of the product is related to licensing and deployment restrictions, not functionality.
• Collaboration tools. WebSphere Portal Express can be deployed as an internal application to support team and project spaces. It offers features for document sharing and integrates with Lotus Sametime...