It's Not Your Grandfather's Groupware
Received: October 30, 1996 06:23am EST From: PC Week
From PC Week for October 28, 1996 by Matt Kramer
The latest release of GroupWise--the granddaddy of integrated
groupware--is better looking, easier to use and simpler to manage than
earlier versions, but the Novell Inc. product is now only one of several
good choices for online collaboration.
The main improvements in GroupWise 5, which shipped earlier this month
at prices ranging from $718 for a five-user license to $32,625 for a
250-user license, are its new client/server architecture, dramatically
improved user interface and incorporation of solid document management
features. These join the integrated messaging, scheduling and task
assignment features for which GroupWise has long been known.
PC Week Labs found that the improvements in GroupWise 5 make it a
logical upgrade for sites already using GroupWise 4.1, and the product
is also a good purchase for companies that want to meet most groupware
needs with a minimum of application development. Version 5's addition of
support for MAPI (Messaging API) means a GroupWise server can
communicate with MAPI clients running Microsoft Corp.'s Exchange and
Lotus Development Corp.'s Notes.
But Microsoft and Lotus also sell competing client/server groupware
packages with some more sophisticated features, such as better
navigational aids, than GroupWise. Forthcoming versions of Notes and
Exchange also will integrate collaborative functions in much the way
that GroupWise already does.
Lotus is beta testing a Notes client that incorporates scheduling
features, and Microsoft is beta testing Outlook 97, a groupware package
that combines Exchange's messaging functions with the scheduling tools
of Schedule+. Oracle Corp.'s Oracle InterOffice, a relative newcomer,
also combines messaging, scheduling and other groupware tools.
GroupWise 5 includes only limited support for Internet integration. A
Web Access module running on a NetWare file server lets World Wide Web
browsers access GroupWise post offices and exchange messages; this
feature also was available in GroupWise 4.1.
But Novell plans to make the next version of GroupWise less proprietary
by expanding its architecture to support common Internet mail standards.
Company officials said the GroupWise update planned for the first
quarter of next year would be able to serve as a post office for clients
running POP3 (Post Office Protocol 3) and IMAP (Internet Messaging
Access Protocol), and would give expanded access to GroupWise messages
over the Web.
Microsoft is likewise working to make Exchange's messaging features more
accessible via the Web. (For details, see a review of a beta version of
Exchange 4.5 in PC Week, Oct. 21,
Notes 4.0 already can include information from the Web in discussions
and databases, and Lotus is building tighter Web integration into Notes
4.5 through its Domino technology.
Getting Started
PC Week Labs found that GroupWise 5's new client/server architecture
simplified configuration options. After installing GroupWise 5 as
NetWare Loadable Modules on a NetWare 4.11 file server and loading
TCP/IP support, we could link directly with the GroupWise post office
without going to the trouble of mapping drives to specific shared
directories.
GroupWise's powerful new document management functions let us set up a
central library in which we could store documents for concurrent viewing
and editing. Although these documents are stored in a central library,
it was easy to organize them by putting references to them in public
folders, which can be organized by subject.
We controlled access to the documents using GroupWise's address book.
GroupWise also tracks versions of documents, which let us track
modifications made by groups of users.
Checking an item out of the library was simple, using the check-out
options on the GroupWise pull-down menu.
Among Novell's competitors, only Oracle bundles document management
features in its groupware package. Nothing similar is found in either
Exchange or Notes.
Although GroupWise 4.1 has tools for creating workflow systems to route
documents and tasks among users, this feature is not available in
GroupWise 5. The company plans to provide a workflow component in the
first quarter of next year.
Three-Way View
The vastly improved user interface in GroupWise 5 includes some of the
navigation features already found in Notes 4.0. For example, a
three-pane display lists folders on the left, shows their contents on
the right and gives a detailed view of a selected item in the bottom
pane.
We preferred the display in Notes to the viewer technology used in
GroupWise, however, because GroupWise displays selected messages at the
bottom of the screen in such small type that they were hard to read.
Just as this three-pane layout becomes more widely adopted--Exchange
uses it too--Microsoft is cutting down the number of display windows.
Microsoft's Outlook 97 will use only two panes, and the list of messages
will incorporate the first few lines of each message along with the
message address header.
GroupWise's new conversational thread that shows the replies to a
message is especially helpful for following online discussions.
We also liked being able to display incoming and outgoing messages in
the in-box, each with an appropriate arrow icon to identify it as
incoming or outgoing.
As a MAPI-based client, GroupWise can coexist with Notes and Exchange by
using those systems' address books and messaging systems. But some
functions, such as access to public folders, require matching MAPI
clients and post offices from the same manufacturer.
Although the GroupWise 5 server runs on a variety of network operating
systems (NetWare and Windows NT versions are available now, with Unix
and OS/2 versions to follow), NetWare 4.1 and NDS (Novell Directory
Services) are required for administration. This limitation could be a
problem for sites that would rather not be required to use NDS.
GroupWise's use of NDS makes the GroupWise 5 address book much simpler
for administrators to maintain. When they make changes to user names in
NDS, those changes are accessible from within GroupWise.
Another administrative improvement in GroupWise 5 is the integration of
GroupWise management utilities into the NWAdministrator tool used for
general management of NetWare servers. This let us quickly monitor the
operations of GroupWise post offices and gateways.
GroupWise also makes it easy to quickly look up an address in a
frequent-contacts address book, which automatically monitors a user's
mailbox looking for the most frequent correspondents and incorporates
their addresses.
Share and Share Alike
Like Exchange and Notes, GroupWise 5 lets users share folders with
others. This was a simple task of indicating which users would have
access to the shared folders and specifying what access rights they had.
Folders also can be replicated between GroupWise post offices.
Although we could group shared folders, GroupWise does not support a
strong folder hierarchy. When we created a child folder under a shared
folder, it did not inherit the configuration of its shared parent
folder.
According to Novell officials, this loose organization of folders is
intentional, as it allows users much more flexibility in organizing
shared folders. This could lead to some confusion, however, if
everyone's shared folders are organized differently.
With the customizable folders, we easily organized a variety of
GroupWise information--calendar items, tasks and messages associated
with a specific topic--and stored all of them in a common folder.
The GroupWise rule functions made it easy to keep mailboxes tidy.
Although only server-based rules are available, we could use them to
specify that messages be automatically deleted or archived once the
mailbox reached a certain size or a certain amount of time had passed.
GroupWise's rules act on a user's behalf when the user is not logged in
to the post office.
Like Exchange and Notes, GroupWise offers a variety of remote access
options. With the GroupWise Hit the Road feature, we created a remote
mailbox on our client machine and quickly synchronized it with our
network mailbox and shared folders.
GroupWise 5 also offers the extensive voice support found in GroupWise
4.1, so that users can send and retrieve GroupWise messages, including
E-mail and appointments, via a telephone handset.
Not As Customizable
GroupWise lacks some of the customization capabilities found in Notes
and Exchange. Although GroupWise is designed to permit developers to
integrate their applications into it and extend GroupWise functions,
Novell has thus far done little to provide the scripting and other
customization tools found in Notes and Exchange.
Instead, Novell allows developers to use a variety of programming tools.
The GroupWise 5 Object API gives developers access to GroupWise
components such as messages, its address book and document management
libraries via Visual Basic or C++. Developers also can add new items to
the GroupWise interface using Custom Third-Party Objects.
Novell also has done a good job in installation procedures, guiding
administrators through the steps of planning a GroupWise 5 system and
then installing the post office and other components on NetWare or
Windows NT file servers. |
