IBM Beats Microsoft and Google To the Social Punch

For a long time IBM has been off to the sidelines in many people's minds, and Lotus, once the name for the Spreadsheet of choice many years ago, seemed to be king of the sore thumb of business apps. Some companies loved it, stuck with it, but for the most part Microsoft Office rules the roost.

Well today, IBM showed their chops, linking their LotusLive with Skype, SalesForce.com and LinkedIn, which more than likely represent the combined largest number of business users and which also likely have significant overlap.

By linking up with the three LotusLive gets a running start over Microsoft Office Live and Google Apps in the idea of using API's to facilitate easy communications. Each of the three services is very strong in one area that is common and needed. The know who is who and how to reach them.

For IBM's LotusLive, this is a very good starting point.