Information Week talks about GroupWare
September 16, 1996
Issue: 597
Section: Applications
Groupware -- GroupWise Offers Strong NDS Ties -- But version 5.0 of Novell's mail and groupware product will appeal little to non-NetWare users
By Sean Gallagher
Groupwise 5.0, launched last week and scheduled for release at the end of this month, is Novell's answer to Microsoft's Exchange mail and groupware. But GroupWise's close ties to the upcoming NetWare 4.11 network operating system (formerly known by its code name, Green River) and NetWare Directory Services will appeal to loyal NetWare users while making others look elsewhere.
GroupWise's NetWare ties don't prevent it from running on Microsoft's servers as well. The three agents in the server portion of GroupWise-the Post Office Agent, Mail Transfer Agent, and Administration Agent-will run on NetWare or Windows NT servers. Client software runs on Windows 3.1, Windows 95, and Windows NT.
InformationWeek Labs recently looked at a beta of GroupWise 5 finalized in July-the last general beta distributed by Novell. As with all beta products, this version had some stability problems. Novell claims that many of these have been resolved in later internal betas, which have not been released. In general, the product looks to be on the mark for a late September ship date.
GroupWise requires NetWare Directory Services (NDS) to run, and its clients require direct access to the directory service. Consequently, the administration software for GroupWise is incompatible with Microsoft's Windows 95 and NT 3.51 clients for NetWare, both of which use bindery emulation to connect to NetWare servers.
Also, Novell has identified problems in the way Windows 95's NetWare client handles network file caching. For the GroupWise client to work properly on Windows 95, users need to apply a patch to Microsoft's client or replace it with Novell's Client32 for Windows 95 (available free from Novell's World Wide Web support site, support.novell.com or the CompuServe NetWire forum)
Microsoft's clients aren't the only ones that need patching to work with GroupWise. The current 32-bit and 16-bit clients for NetWare also require some modification to work with the new software. Before installing the GroupWise client, users must exit Windows 95 to DOS mode or exit Windows 3.1 to replace a set of system files with client files supplied on the CD-ROM.
GroupWise also requires an upgrade to the NDS software on NetWare 4.1 servers and a new version of Novell's NetWare Administrator (included with the beta of GroupWise), essentially upgrading NDS services and administration to the level of those provided in NetWare 4.11.
User and post-office administration is integrated with NDS's NetWare Administrator, which is used to create GroupWise's objects-post offices, domains, libraries for shared files and documents, distribution lists, and allocatable resources (conference rooms, etc.). During the installation of GroupWise, a wizard-like dialog
guides the administrator through object configuration.
Two Ways To Connect
GroupWise offers two methods of connecting to its post offices-direct connection (by way of a drive mapping to the server's database) over Novell's IPX/SPX protocol, or a client-server connection over TCP/IP (similar to the transport used by Microsoft Exchange). This means that clients can connect to a post office over a wide area network connection-including the Internet-without using IPX.
The GroupWise client for Windows 95 integrates into Microsoft's Windows messaging architecture; the GroupWise mailbox, address book, and mail transport register as services usable by Microsoft's Exchange client. As a result, the Exchange client can get mail messages from the GroupWise post office and can access other client mail services-including Exchange Server, fax services, and Internet mail. But the Exchange client can't take advantage of GroupWise's special message types, such as appointments and task assignments.
The GroupWise client looks much like the Exchange client-it uses an expanding and contracting tree view of the mail system just like Windows 95 Explorer and Exchange. Also like Exchange, a user can create a message folder and set access rights for sharing it with other users. A folder can hold just about anything that users create or import into the GroupWise environment:document files from desktop applications, OLE objects, discussion messages, to-do assignments, and
appointment information.
Create And Share
GroupWise lets users create and share documents in applications such as Microsoft Word and Excel, and has built-in versioning with check-in and check-out of documents stored in shared folders.
Access to shared documents, presentations, or spreadsheets can be controlled by checking them out to local disk space for diting-locking access to them until they are returned. The document can also be made available to others for viewing without checking the working copy back in.
Documents can be created directly in a shared folder from GroupWise, which will launch the appropriate application to edit the document. They can also be created from templates stored in shared libraries. Existing files can be added to a shared folder using drag-and-drop, or selecting the files from a directory browser.
In addition to shared documents and discussions, GroupWise supports shared calendars with a built-in appointment book feature. Unlike Microsoft's Schedule+, which runs separately from the Exchange client, GroupWise's calendar is part of the client interface.
A user may create and share multiple calendars for specific groups or projects, setting each as the default view of a shared or personal folder that contains appointments. These appointments can be viewed as messages or in calendar form. The client also has a personal calendar folder for scheduling appointments and events, and GroupWise can print schedules in the formats of popular hard-copy calendars.
Task tracking and assignment are also integrated into GroupWise. Tasks can be assigned to other users, who accept or decline in an E-mail message to the originator.
The user can even pass the buck by delegating an assigned task to others. All assigned tasks and shared documents appear in the user's work-in-progress folder, giving users one place to look for all their pending assignments.
Conversation Place, a built-in phone-call tracking feature, integrates all GroupWise phone features into a single module. Users can automatically dial their phone, record when and to whom phone calls were made, and perform other phone-related tasks through Microsoft's TAPI telephony interface over PC modems or through the TSAPI telephony server interface and a telephony server.
GroupWise also interfaces with Novell's Telephone Access Server, giving users access to their E-mail over the phone by reading it with an electronic voice.
GroupWise's workflow module was not implemented in the public beta. The module, which will let users attach routing slips to documents and perform other similar tasks, is being jointly developed by Novell and Filenet Inc.
More Coming
Other promised features that are not yet available are indexing of all information on remote client systems for search and retrieval, a software distribution feature, the attachment of OLE objects to GroupWise mail, and administrative utilities for managing the ownership of shared folders.
GroupWise is a more complete package out of the box than Microsoft's Exchange. But GroupWise lacks some of the customization features of Exchange. Not does it measure up to the ability of Exchange to integrate with a database; Exchange can view Microsoft's SQL Server records as a shared folder.
GroupWise's most compelling feature is its integration with the rest of Novell's network software architecture through NDS. In the end, GroupWise's fate rests upon the success of NDS, and Novell's 4.1 and 4.11 network operating systems.
---
Pricing And Platforms
GroupWise 5.0 beta
Vendor:Novell, Orem, Utah, 800-638-9273, novell.com
Price:Not available
Platforms:Servers:Novell NetWare 4.1 and Windows NT (NetWare Directory Services required). Clients:Windows 95, Windows NT, and Windows 3.1
Data:Novell
---
Novell's GroupWise 5.0
Network messaging software with integrated groupware features
Strengths
- Highly integrated with NetWare Directory Services
- Built-in scheduling, workflow, and document sharing
- E-mail integration with Microsoft Exchange client and Office applications
- Post office agents available for NT
Weaknesses
- Requires NDS and NetWare 4.1 or greater
- No custom forms generator
- No integration with back-end databases
Copyright * 1996 CMP Media Inc. |
