Lotus Development Ireland is seeking to challenge Microsoft in the key office environment with the introduction of the SmartSuite Millennium edition to compete with Microsoft's Office suite.
The newest version pipped Microsoft's latest offering by a month, and has already been well received among industry critics. It boasts a range of new features, highlights of which include advanced Web publishing capabilities, built-in speech recognition in Word Pro and improved file format compatibility with Microsoft Office.
SmartSuite Millennium is set to appeal in particular to the 20-million strong Notes users worldwide as it integrates with the Notes database, offering a more userfriendly graphical interface. The familiar SmartCenter now features a built-in Web browser facilitating faster Web-page access. Also included in the retail version of the product is IDG Books Worldwide's publication, Lotus SmartSuite Millennium for Dummies, providing a constant reference point for users unfamiliar with the new capabilities.
ViaVoice Gold, a speech recognition technology developed by IBM, has been enhanced to offer a 140-word-per-minute dictation rate within Lotus 1-2-3. Originally integrated with WordPro 97 in October 1997, the new version includes a speech enabled version of the 1-2-3 spreadsheet.
Lotus has said it will release voice-enabled spreadsheet templates, such as expense reports, budgets and other common business tasks later in the year to allow users to enter data by voice rather than keyboard.
