Mobility technology becoming critical in today's frenetic business environment

Conducting business on the move on an anywhere, any time basis is rapidly becoming the norm, supported by a proliferation of intelligent mobile devices that have been developed to meet the general clamour of business for improved productivity and the profits that come with it.

Robin Redgrave, collaboration product manager for Novell's Groupwise and Vibe collaboration solutions at Novell UK, told customers and channel partners at a Novell seminar, in Midrand, that productivity is a key issue with companies continually striving to achieve better and faster business results.

“Top management is moving across to iPads, iPhones and Android and Web-based messenger clients within the corporate environment. Instant messaging is a feature that businesses and individuals want. We are living in a world where people expect instant gratification via technology.”

Novell has developed Groupwise WebAccess ultra-mobile collaboration solutions that suit both individuals and businesses, giving people the ability to roam freely and productively through e-mail, integration to Skype and SMS.

Redgrave said WebAccess had been streamlined and the attachment process simplified and sped up, contact facilities upgraded; the development of a highly efficient and feature-rich calendar function enables viewing of the individual calendars of those persons being invited to attend a meeting. A travel folder brings up flights, hotel and car details along with templates for making bookings.

Another feature is a “discussion thread” that enables all e-mail correspondence related to any topic to be viewed prior to sending a new e-mail on the same topic. Unread messages can also be retracted from a receiver's mailbox provided it has not yet been opened.

An e-mail sent to a group of recipients can be tracked and its status automatically recorded and displayed as either opened, read, not opened or deleted.

A task list feature automatically provides the status of task progress, indicating percentage complete.

Stability and cost of ownership are important factors with Groupwise. Redgrave pointed out that downtimes experienced over the past 10 years have been minimal - four occasions only. “This is testimony to the stability of the product, which is maintained by one administrator for 115 000 users. Viruses are very rare and post offices operate in terabytes without problems.

Vibe is a collaboration tool for groups, teams, departments, consultants and service providers, among others. Vibe integration allows users to see the infrastructure within the Groupwise offering and provides knowledge management, project management, improved business processes, social Intranet enhancement and is able to pull paper-based forms into the system and distribute them.

It is able to expose existing documents from old servers and index them, making access to historical documentation and information a simple operation.

There is also a relevance mechanism that monitors the volumes of users' actions related to specific projects with a “frequent folders” option that highlights messages relevant to each project. The knowledge management capability includes version control, e-mail notification to those who are involved or have an interest in the project and full auditing of what has been edited, by whom and when. It will also highlight who has not read the document. Contributors are able to edit a document simultaneously.

“Using Vibe does not mean having to change user behaviour,” said Redgrave. “It will expose existing document stores going back 10 years and maps processes and controls to meet local national archiving requirements. Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites can be monitored and all marketing activity can link back into Vibe. It is also a valuable tool for task management on promotions and projects.”