IBM On Verge Of Releasing WebSphere Portal 4.1

WebSphere Portal 4.1's features include collaborative capabilities, new event-management support, Web services capabilities, content publishing options, enhanced security, a new search engine and preintegration with commerce technology.

Nine new partners will soon join a growing list of companies developing portlets for IBM WebSphere Portal, said Larry Bowden, vice president of IBM's Portals Solutions Software Group. In mid-March, IBM said it added 23 companies including i2 and Vignette. "We are adding a partner every two to three days and we intend to accelerate that," Bowden said. "I have a goal of adding a partner every day."

WebSphere Portal 4.1 has multiple entry points and add-ons so it can be offered to SMBs as well as larger enterprise customers, Bowden said. The package comes in three versions, including Experience, which is aimed at comprehensive e-business portals requiring advanced security and content management; Extend, which is aimed at e-business portals requiring robust collaboration; and Enable, aimed at personalized e-business portals that manage content and process transactions.

Eric Simone, senior managing director at Perficient, Austin, Texas, said the e-business solution provider has been developing enterprise portal solutions for more than four years. He said he expects the company to benefit most from features such as personalization, collaboration and support for open standards such as Web Services.

"We migrated off Plumtree in favor of WebSphere Portal to create our MyPerficient.com employee offering," Simone said. "We're impressed with how quickly IBM has delivered on its promise to enhance and integrate the WebSphere Portal product family."

Pricing is on a per-processor basis and starts at $55,000. The price increases to $95,000 for the midprice system and $145,000 for the largest package. That package is only available with a minimum of four processors at a time, however, bringing the minimum price to $580,000.

IBM also said it will in the second half of 2002 begin delivery of several new WebSphere Portal offerings, including a new offering specifically designed for SMBs. Deliveries are also expected to include five new Portal Industry Editions and expansion of platform coverage to include IBM eServer iSeries, eServer zSeries and Linux-based zSeries.

Using WebSphere Portal 4.1, users can create "collaborative places" where team members can edit documents on virtual whiteboards, establish information libraries, maintain group calendars or chat on bulletin boards and instant messenger-style discussion areas, Bowden said.

Other new capabilities include Collaborative Components, which features functions such as the ability to know who is online at any given time and integrate that function into any portlet.

IBM also plans to ship, as part of WebSphere Portal 4.1, an enhancement that provides Web Services publishing and integration facilities. WebSphere 4.1 also adds a new, encrypted vault from IBM Tivoli Access Manager.

The English-language edition of WebSphere Portal 4.1 is expected to be available for download May 31. Non-English editions should be available in late July.

Giga Information Services estimates the portal market to grow to $2 billion in 2005 from $850 million in 2002.