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  Asked: Jan 14 2008   3:15 PM GMT
  Asked by: Ricshaw

Sametime for Customer Chat Support


Lotus Sametime, Lotus Instant Messaging, LIM, Lotus Domino Server 6.x, Instant Messaging, Instant Messaging (communications)

We currently have a Lotus Domino 6.5.1 clustered environment, with Domino serving up our corporate website. No Sametime is currently set up. We are interested in knowing the feasibility of setting up Sametime as a means to support customers in a "real-time" chat (or IM). We would also like our internal people to be able to use Sametime for internal IM's as well. Also, I understand that Sametime Limited Use is built in to our servers (ie no extra licenses to buy). In order to extend chat support to our corporate site, would we need to go to the "full" Sametime version, or would the limited use work?

Any suggestions or guidance is welcome. Thanks.

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Last Answered: Jan 15 2008  5:00 PM GMT  by Pressler2904




In order to avail yourself of many of the Sametime features which are available, you will have to install a Sametime server (whether a dedicated server is required or not, I'm not sure, but to be safe, I would suggest installing on a discrete server or virtual server).

The Sametime Limited Use licenses you currently have will allow INTRA-company messaging (with certain limits) but you will need the full server AND a Sametime Gateway server to allow your non-internal customers to chat with you via Sametime/other IM client.

Answers to your questions may be found here:

http://www-1.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21221360

or here:

http://www-306.ibm.com/software/lotus/products/sametime/faq.html

You CAN have a mixed-license setup, where certain clients are using a full Sametime license and will be able to avail themselves of the full range of features (provided the back-end infrastructure is in place), while others can be set up as internal only limited use clients
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Smiley2  |   Jan 17 2008  6:32PM GMT

I think that if you have utility server licenses, you have free use of the limited facilities and can do some great integration on your web site, especially if you have registered users in a directory. If you are using user cal based licensing then you need a utility server, this allows you to do authenticated user access for an extranet application, amongst various other facilities.

However, as this is a server driven application, I would also think that you would be wdvised to upgrade to 7.5.x or 8.x to gain the benefits which have come through in subsequent releases of sametime and the functions available to developers.

 

Ozzy0028  |   Jan 29 2008  3:16PM GMT

One solution may be to use Websphere and an Websphere Application server, this way you would be able to accept conversations from other Im clients, I think asking your customers to use an IBM product would be a mistake.

 

Ennova  |   Jan 29 2008  5:50PM GMT

Rick - once the basic Sametime issues are resolved, you will also need some queuing/routing software that will be able to take your customers requests and find the next available customer service or help desk analyst.

For an example of such a solution for Sametime and other enterprise and public IM systems, take a look at: <a href="http://www.vayusphere.com/call_centers.htm" rel="nofollow">http://www.vayusphere.com/call_centers.htm</a>