GroupWise pushes to portables

Novell is to enable mobile access to its GroupWise collaboration suite by integrating wireless technology from messaging firm Intellisync. The move will enable push email, calendar and contact information for GroupWise customers onto virtually any data-enabled mobile device.

GroupWise 7, which shipped in August, will be available with Intellisync's wireless technology in the first half of 2006. A beta programme will start in January, after which customers with maintenance agreements will get the new capabilities at no extra cost, according to Novell. "In a world where collaboration software is fast becoming a hub for making decisions and doing business, mobile access is critical for users," commented Novell vice-president of product management Jeff Hawkins.

He added that the Intellisync partnership will allow GroupWise users "secure access to their collaboration resources from virtually any device, on any platform, in any region of the world".

Novell is essentially integrating Intellisync's entire Mobile Suite messaging server into GroupWise, according to Al Canal, senior director of carrier and channel marketing at Intellisync.

However, not all of the Mobile Suite features will be turned on. "Novell has its own device management tools, so they do not need ours," Canal explained.

With the addition of Mobile Suite, GroupWise will have push delivery features similar to those in Microsoft's recently released Exchange Server 2003 Service Pack 2. However, Intellisync's mobile support goes beyond that offered by Microsoft, according to Canal.

"We're giving [GroupWise users] the capabilities of our server, which has been tried and tested in the market for several years. It's secure, and we believe it has support for the broadest range of devices on the market today," he said.

Intellisync's technology will also enable GroupWise customers to mobilise other applications in future, according to Canal.

Mobile Suite can integrate with back-end systems from other vendors, including customer relationship management (CRM) applications. Although some integration work would be needed to implement this, it gives firms a "baseline capability to mobilise other applications", according to Canal.