Comparison
| Product Name | SCIM Enterprise Server | Lotus Sametime | Microsoft Exchange | |
| Company | Cloudswell | IBM Lotus Software | Microsoft | |
| Web site | www.cloudswell.com | www.lotus.com/sametime | www.microsoft.com.au | |
| Phone | 03 8430 0865 | 13 24 26 | 13 20 58 | |
| Price (inc GST) 500 users | $6995 | $39,800 | $69,942 | |
| Warranty | 3 months | As per licence | Limited express warranty applies | |
| E-mail support (times/cost) | 8AM – 6PM AEST, Mon – Fri | See below | Visit www.microsoft.com.au/support for support information or to log incidents online | |
| Phone support (times/cost) | 8AM – 6PM AEST, Mon – Fri | 12 months included | Mon-Fri 8am to 8pm. Variety of options starting at $297 per incident. | |
| Other support information | 10 incident phone/email support, annual, $750 | www.lotus.com/support | www.microsoft.com.au/support | |
| Features | ||||
| Leave message if offline/away | Available March 2003 | Yes | See if contacts are away; the IM client provides a single click option to send an e-mail instead. | |
| Server-based logging | Available on request | Yes—customisable | No | |
| Attachment handling | No | Yes | Yes | |
| Attachment filtering/checking | No | Yes—by file size | No | |
| Friends list | Yes. Server-based, so available from anywhere you login. | Yes | Yes | |
| Foes list | Blocking of friends allowed. | Yes | Yes | |
| Rich text support (HTML) | Clickable hyperlinks | Connect Client—No Meeting Center—Yes (whiteboard & app sharing) | No | |
|
Notification types (beep, flash icon, dialogue box) | Flashing icon, others available March ‘03. | Dialogue box, blink window, play a sound | Alerts and/or sounds when contacts come online and when an IM is received. Alerts when e-mail is received. | |
| Provides support for: | Jabber (in Feb 2003) | AOL AIM, SIP | Microsoft MSN Messenger | |
| Win/Mac/Linux server support | Windows, Mac (OS X), Linux | Windows | Windows 2000 Server | |
| Other server support | Solaris, HP-UX. Any Java-enabled platform. (Java 1.3 and above) | IBM iSeries (OS/400); (AIX & Solaris coming soon) | No | |
| Win/Mac/Linux client support | Windows, Mac (OS x), Linux, PDA | Windows, Web | Windows, MS Pocket PC 2002 | |
| Other client support | Any Java enabled platform. (Java 1.3 and above) | WAP support (Sametime EveryPlace) | MS Smartphone 2002 | |
| Directory support | ||||
| Active Directory | Limited integration—full version March 2003 | via LDAP | Yes | |
| LDAP | Limited integration— full version March 2003 | Yes | Native | |
| Other | Domino Directory | |||
How we tested
|
IM for business:
Introduction Next-generation IM Putting IM to work IM still not secure 1. SCIM Enterprise Server 2. Lotus Sametime 3. Microsoft Exchange Comparison Sample scenario About RMIT Labs |
- Excel Notebook running Windows 2000
- AMD Desktop running Windows 2000
- HP Vectra VE desktop running RedHat 7.2
We looked at how easily the server and client software could be installed and configured, and how well it integrated with and imported user names from an existing directory server.
Interoperability: We looked at the ability to work with industry standards, especially SIP/SIMPLE, and also the variety of operating systems and devices (including handheld devices and mobile phones) that the client software could run on.
Futureproofing: Here we considered how the IM server would work with a business’ existing directory systems such as Active Directory and LDAP.
ROI: We looked at overall price and considered existing infrastructures. Service: This was calculated on the support cost per year per user.
Jabber is a good solution. Not only is it an open standard, however, you can find many open source and even commercial solutions.
See: http://www.jabber.org.au/