FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Melissa Crain
SNAPPS
913.381.4165
mcrain@snapps.com
SNAPPS Builds Powerful Administration Product for
Lotus Team Workplace (QuickPlace)
SNAPPS AnyPlace Administrator™ Eases Administrative Burden, Lowers Costs with Intuitive Front-End for Administrators
New Orleans, LA, April 9, 2003 – Reinforcing its position as worldwide technology experts with IBM Lotus Software’s advanced collaboration offerings, Strategic Net Applications, Inc. (SNAPPS) announced today the release of SNAPPS AnyPlace Administrator™ for Lotus Team Workplace. The only product of its kind for Team Workplace (QuickPlace) administrators, AnyPlace Administrator offers several key benefits to already-burdened system administrators. The product was unveiled at the IBM developerWorks LIVE conference in New Orleans, LA, where four SNAPPS developers are featured speakers.
Lotus Team Workplace (formerly known as QuickPlace) is being deployed in small businesses as well as large enterprises, and its growth as an advanced collaboration medium and development platform is unmatched in the industry. With the release of version 3.0, IBM exposed a Java/XML API that hooks into specific features and functionality of the product. However, access to the API for daily management functions is only available via a command line interface (called QPTOOL) with the out-of-the-box product.
AnyPlace Administrator is the only product to offer administrators an easy-to understand, point-and-click browser interface to the API commands. Activities like adding users, creating new places, locking and unlocking places and refreshing from templates are exposed in the product’s management screens, making the command line practically obsolete. Deployed with a Team Workplace server, AnyPlace Administrator also minimizes the learning curve for new administrators – covering over 95% of the functions performed while managing Lotus Team Workplace.
Adding Value to the Investment
“We’re very excited to be releasing a product that complements and enhances the core offering in Lotus Team Workplace. For years, we’ve been working within the product as developers, releasing programmatic enhancements and teaching the developer community; now we have the opportunity to actually improve it”, said Rob Novak, noted industry expert and president of SNAPPS. “AnyPlace Administrator reduces administrative burden by giving its users a simple interface to a complex API – reducing training requirements and giving administrators the ability to be more responsive to user requests. On both counts, the ROI is impressive.”
In addition to exposing the API through a browser, AnyPlace Administrator offers key benefits that are not available from the command line syntax in Lotus Team Workplace. Most notably, the product allows an administrator to choose several activities to perform, then to submit them all at the same time. In the enterprise version, this single set of activities can be submitted to several Team Workplace servers at once. “Larger deployments of Team Workplace are installed as multi-server ‘services’”, explained Novak. “We built AnyPlace Administrator to accommodate any size installation, from the single server to the global deployment.”
Meeting Expectations
SNAPPS, long know for its expertise with Lotus Team Workplace, is no stranger to the evolving world of advanced collaboration. The company, which won the coveted Lotus Beacon Award in 2002 for its work with the product, has on staff several noted speakers and authors, including co-authors of IBM’s Redbooks and the IBM certification exams on Team Workplace. “This product was built from the ground up by absolute experts, with uncompromising quality as their primary objective,” said Novak, who provided architectural input into the development process. “We’ve worked on tools for Team Workplace in the past – other offerings that enhance the user experience – but we knew that administrators demand the highest levels of precision and quality. I think we’ve met their expectations.”
Platforms, Pricing and Availability
SNAPPS AnyPlace Administrator™ will be released on April 30, 2003 at the conclusion of a focused trial period with several of the company’s global clients. Single-server pricing is $995, including one year of maintenance (upgrades and technical support) and installation assistance. Pricing for the enterprise version, supporting multi-server Team Workplace services and clustered environments, is based on the complexity of the deployment. Initially released for Team Workplace on Win32 platforms, the product will be tested and released for iSeries (OS/400), AIX, Solaris, and zSeries (S/390) in Q2 and Q3 2003. As Lotus expands its platforms, AnyPlace Administrator will be ported to match.
About SNAPPS
SNAPPS, a long-time Lotus and IBM business partner, is recognized as a leader in the advanced collaboration market with key consulting, integration services and product development efforts. As principal consultant to several Fortune 500 companies, SNAPPS has earned its reputation with high quality offerings using IBM and Lotus products. SNAPPS’ dedication to excellence earned it the coveted Lotus Beacon Award for Rising Star in 2002. SNAPPS is headquartered in Overland Park, Kansas and is a proud member of the Penumbra Group, a consortium of IBM-dedicated organizations. SNAPPS is on the web at http://www.snapps.com
Lotus, Lotus Notes, Domino, Sametime, Team Workplace and QuickPlace are trademarks or registered trademarks of Lotus Development Corporation and/or IBM Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both. IBM is a trademark of IBM Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both.
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