otus Software, which gained renown as the creator of some of the world's most widely used business software before being acquired by I.B.M. in 1995, is to announce upgrades to its major products tomorrow that will tie its software more closely to that of its corporate parent.
Lotus develops products that help people work in teams, including e-mail and instant messaging, software for setting up online meetings and sharing documents, and online education packages. The upgrades make it possible to link Lotus software more tightly with I.B.M.'s software platform for e-commerce, known as Websphere, its Tivoli systems management software and its DB2 database.
Al Zollar, Lotus's general manager, said that the unit, which is still based at Lotus's former headquarters in Cambridge, Mass., has evolved into I.B.M's "power brand" for software that supports information sharing. He said that a goal of the changes was to help users of other I.B.M. software get more out of Lotus products. For example, server computers running Websphere will be able to be host to hundreds of thousands of simultaneous Lotus-based online meetings thanks to the new upgrades, Mr. Zollar said.
Lotus is the only I.B.M. software unit that still sells a wide range of applications for computer users as well as so-called middleware, which are programs on top of which other vendors build applications. But Lotus is also moving to make it easier to embed components of its applications in the products of other vendors.
One example is customer management software, which allows service representatives at call centers to retrieve instantly records of previous dealings with a customer when a call arrives. Using Lotus's Sametime software, a representative can exchange instant messages with managers or colleagues who may be familiar with the customer. It will now be possible to embed Sametime directly within the customer-management program so that the representative does not have to load it separately to check who is online and send instant messages.
The new products are the first across-the-board revamping of Lotus's product line since Mr. Zollar took over at Lotus early in 2000. The software unit, known as the Lotus Development Corporation when it was an independent company, became an industry powerhouse on the strength of Lotus 1-2-3, its spreadsheet, and Lotus Notes, the first major program aimed at helping desktop computer users in companies to share information.
I.B.M. stunned the computer industry when it made its $3.3 billion hostile bid for Lotus to gain control of Notes and the new field of software that became known a groupware. I.B.M. promised Jim Manzi, Lotus's chief at the time of the takeover, to take a "hands-off" approach.
Although Mr. Manzi left the following year and Ray Ozzie, the main architect of Notes, departed in 1998, Lotus remained largely autonomous until Mr. Zollar's appointment as its president and chief executive. Last year, Lotus shed its original name, Mr. Zollar's title was modified to general manager, and Lotus's sales operations were brought into the reporting framework for the rest of I.B.M. software. I.B.M. does not disclose Lotus's revenue or profits.
