LinkedIn goes deeper into the enterprise with Lotus deal

LinkedIn will integrate with Lotus products to boost staff productivity

IBM and LinkedIn have announced a major new partnership, which will see social networking functionality integrated into various Lotus products to help boost worker productivity.

LinkedIn's Lotus Notes integration will allow users to look up the profiles of email senders and Lotus Notes contacts, use LinkedIn people search, and monitor their professional network via a network updates feed, all from within Notes.

The integration of IBM's Lotus Connections social software tool with LinkedIn will give users a wider range of contact information to refer to, thereby boosting collaboration efforts, according to the companies.

Finally, integration between LinkedIn and the newly announced LotusLive cloud-based service will allow LotusLive users to collaborate with professionals found in the LinkedIn network using LotusLive services such as real-time web conferencing and file sharing.

"It is obvious to see how productivity is enhanced through this [integration]. Productivity is the reason why IBM and Lotus partnered with LinkedIn," said LinkedIn European managing director Kevin Eyres.

"It is the first time this has been done by anyone: world leading enterprise collaboration and productivity software combined with enterprise professional networking."

Eyres predicted further similar announcements in the future, as LinkedIn seeks to become "more and more part of the enterprise".