IBM Workplace Services Express - Technical Overview and Directions Stuart Duguid Asia Pacific Portal & Workplace Technical Lead
Disclaimer The following material is directional in nature and does not imply any product plan commitment on the part of IBM. Some of the ideas presented here may be delivered in future versions, but some will not.
IBM Workplace Services Express Share, organize, and find information easily Create and manage documents or lists Office and Windows Integration Team Collaboration and Custom Applications Quickly create team work spaces Find and communicate with other people Document libraries, task lists, team calendar, etc.
IBM Workplace Services Express Templates-based applications Pre-assemble pages and portlets for reuse Customize pages by drag/drop, themes, lists, and templates Easy to Deploy and Operate Policies for automatic management of your portal Quick installation; configuration that adapts as your needs change
A Quick Tour Organized to help you perform common tasks 2 Handy people finder and contacts list, plus online status for instant messaging 3 Easy ways to make the site your own and create new team spaces on demand 1
Adding New Portlets Slide out palette on each page lets you add new portlets to that page 1
Re-arranging Portlets 1 Simply grab a portlet on the page or from the slide out palette and drag to the desired location on the page
Changing the Look
Organizing and Managing Information Share contact lists, event calendars, announcements, and meeting materials Create, organize and share documents Review documents and record comments Version control, and check in/out Drafts and Approvals Browser access Office and Windows integration Search and find documents
Shared Lists Lots of predefined lists to help you organize and manage content Links Contacts Issues Vacations Attendance Agenda Survey Milestones FAQs Sales Tracking Sign Up Sheet Prospects Announcements Employee Directory Invitations Directions Minutes Custom Drag new lists from the palette to add to any team space
Lists and Forms To add or change items in the list, you fill out a form It s a very simple way to build your own applications that collect and store the data you need
Sorting and Filtering Lists Sort by any column Filter the results to show just a subset of the data Scroll through the data a page at a time
Customizing Lists Drag and drop to re-arrange the columns 1 Add new fields that will be displayed in the list and on the data input form 2
Adding New Fields Customize the list by adding new fields Single or multiline text, selections, date, time, file attachment Computed fields: date, time, author Design fields: rich text and dividers
Views Choose detail or summary views, plus bar or pie charts for the list data 1
Managing Documents Search for documents and save searches to smart folders 5 1 Create or import any type of document Send links to document 4 3 2 Familiar Folder Navigation Live names throughout, so you can contact the author or other users
Document Lifecycle Check in, check out Private Drafts Comment and Review Approvals Version history
Reviewing Documents 1 Discussion threads for tracking comments on documents
Microsoft Office Integration 1 Word, Excel, and PowerPoint toolbars are extended to provide direct access to portal functions such as locking, versioning, etc Document properties can be stored in portal, searched and used for preview 2
Desktop Integration Windows Explorer extension lets you work with server documents as if they were local files 1 Files are automatically stored back on the server after being saved in Windows applications
Search Content sources Web sites Shared files in document libraries Team spaces and applications Search results are filtered to enforce security Crawler and Indexer Fast indexing Crawler can be scheduled Indexes hundreds of document types, including PDF and Office Language detection and language-specific optimizations
Team Collaboration Create shared team spaces Chat with people and find contact information Set up chat rooms and a shared calendar for a team Take surveys and track tasks Access your mail, calendar, and address book Integrate existing applications with the portal Team membership and privileges can be managed by the team itself, without any assistance from the IT staff
Team Spaces 1 Collaboration tools: team schedule, team documents, discussions, chat room, and search 2 Manage roles, membership and access to the team space. Instantly chat with other members of the team
Membership Team spaces have a group of people that can use them we call these the members of the team space Each member has a role: moderator or contributor
Members List The moderators of the team space can invite additional people to join The list of members and roles determines who gets access to documents, who appears on the contacts list, who is invited to meetings, etc.
Communicating with People 1 People Finder integrates with your company s directory 3 2 Integrated Instant Messaging Enables easy communication within your organization Pop-up menu near people s names so you can chat, send mail, call, or find out where they fit in the organization
People Finder Quick search for people by name, e-mail address, portal user id, phone, department or job title Advanced search lets you search by any field in the user s profile Pop-up menu for contacting people
Organization View 1 See an organization view to find out who a person works for, and who else is in the same department
Team Task List 1 Organize and track work items and priorities
Shared Team Calendar 1 Set up meetings on for the team; attendees can be selected from the membership list
Chat Room 1 Participate in chat rooms with team members; chats are saved and archived
Surveys
Mail, Calendar, and Address Book Predefined tools allow easy access to Mail, Calendar and Address Books 1 2 Predefined Portlets for access to Lotus Domino, Microsoft Exchange and industry standard POP3/IMAP mail services
Team Space Templates Within any organization there are many different teams working together every day Each of these teams might want their own space to work in, where they can store documents, manage a project calendar, etc. The exact pages and portlets that each team needs will depend on the nature of their work Team members may not have the skills or time to define the pages and layouts from scratch
Team Space Templates To make things easier, we provide predefined templates Templates are pre-arranged pages and portlets optimized for certain tasks Examples: planning for an event, holding a regular team meeting, developing employee guidelines, etc.
Predefined Templates Chat Room Discussion Document Library Domino Application Access Employee HR Site Event Planning HR Team Marketing Team Meeting Materials You can easily change these and save them as new application templates of your own
A Typical Team Space 2 Team Tasks and calendar 3 List portlets that are useful for this team s work Page team space for organizing sales activities; with a schedule document library, discussion area, and search 1
Editing Templates 1 Templates link leads to this page 2 Choose the template you want to work on
Pages 1 Re-order and edit the pages that will appear in your application
Page Layout
Parameters
Roles
Moderator Role
Templates ideas what partners could build Accountants Update clients on the latest tax laws Post to-do lists for creating a corporation Ad Agencies Track deadlines Post design ideas, stock photos, storyboards for review Architects Post floor plans, sketches, photos Keep lists of preferred subcontractors Associations or Trade Groups Share ideas and latest trends Post notes from seminars and conferences Authors and Publishers Review drafts and revisions Track publishing deadlines
More templates ideas Entertainers Post photos and artist profiles Post audition opportunities Job Recruiters Post job openings Store resumes and review applicants Track hiring deadlines Real Estate Agents Post info and photos of properties Checklist lists for closing Volunteer Organizations Track volunteer and donation needs Web Designers Post design reviews and gather client feedback Create to-do lists for bugs and technical issues
Deployment and Operations System is designed for self-service administration, plus policies to keep things running smoothly Employees can create and customize their own team spaces without any help from the IT department Team space owners assign roles to decide what users can see or do Policies help manage unused team spaces
Policies Most work is done directly by users in a selfservice manner Policies are used to set limits on what users can do, so that the server doesn t get overloaded or become unmanageable Team Space Policies limit size and activity Set limit on size and specify warning threshold Specify maximum days with no activity When over quota, warnings are sent Team Spaces are not deleted
Installation Quick singleserver install for small departments or teams Move to company directory later, using configuration wizards
Summary Fast time to value Up and running in less than 1 hour Lists, documents, & templates to get started quickly Easy to use Easy access from the browser Drag and drop to customize pages Policy-based management Template-based applications Define your own assemblies to reuse and share Grows with you Start with a single server deployment and grow up