FEATURE EDITORIAL

Google Adds Another Apps Suite

People have two alternatives when they want access to collaboration tools: they can take whatever the IT Department offers them, or they can purchase it themselves on the Internet with (and sometimes without) a monthly payment by credit card. There is no shortage of tools for team collaboration available under the second alternative, and earlier this month Google added another suite: Google Apps Team Edition. And it's free.

For the free price tag, teams or workgroups get a collaborative online word processor (Google Docs), online spreadsheet (Google Spreadsheet), a start page (like an Intranet home page), Google Talk (presence, instant messaging and voice calling), and a shared calendar (Google Calendar). Online forms can also be developed, through the recent addition of form building capabilities into Google Spreadsheet. Email through Gmail is not included in the package at this time, although it may be added later. If you want Gmail, you need to go for the Premier Edition at US$50 per user per year.

The main benefit of tools like Apps is that collaborative capabilities are integral features, rather than after-thoughts. A document written in Google Docs can be shared with others by allowing them to see it in their Google Apps account. The sending around of documents as email attachments is the old way of doing things. Changes made by the original author or subsequent editors are made directly in the master document, and no one has to compare and merge different copies of the document to come up with a new master. It is always up-to-date because the changes that everyone makes are applied directly in the master edition.

The second main benefit is that users have ubiquitous access to their digital world from any computer or device with a Web browser. They do not have to be in the office to get to their personal and shared files or to view their calendar, and they don't have to carry around a laptop.

Google offers other editions of its online Apps suite, such as the also-free Standard Edition. An interesting point about Team Edition, which Standard Edition does not offer, is that it shows the names of other people from the same organization that are also members of Team Edition. Thus it is really less a "Team" edition than a free "Company" edition. This means that Google is using its awareness of who else is using Team Apps based on the email domain address being used, and is then (a) facilitating those people to easily get in touch, and (b) making it easy to share documents, spreadsheets and calendars with co-workers. Team Edition does permit, however, people from outside of the organization to share nominated documents and items.

Google claims to have over 500,000 people using its hosted Apps suite, and for some project teams, it has become the standard way of working. It's worth an investigation.

Michael Sampson

NEWS HIGHLIGHTS

SiteScape Acquired

Novell has acquired SiteScape, a provider of collaboration tools. "SiteScape, the founder of the ICEcore open source collaboration project, brings impressive team workspace and real-time collaboration capabilities to Novell - key components of a broad unified communications and collaboration strategy. The melding of the two firms creates the industry's clear leader in open, enterprise-strength collaboration and social networking offerings, giving customers powerful, flexible ways to integrate new communications technologies into their environment and drive employee productivity and business innovation."

New Version of Mobile Gateway

Synchronica has announced Version 3.5 of Mobile Gateway, its mobile email and synchronization server. The new release adds support for Microsoft Exchange 2007 and Sun Java Communications Suite 5. "Using the open standards Push IMAP and SyncML, Mobile Gateway 3.5 integrates with the native email and synchronization clients built into more than 1.5 billion devices from all major handset manufacturers like Sony Ericsson, Palm, Nokia, Samsung, and Motorola."

Zimbra Launches Collaboration Suite 5.0

Zimbra rolled out Version 5.0 of Collaboration Suite, with new offline access and instant messaging capabilities. According to ZDNet "Any file from an email in Zimbra can be stored in a "Briefcase" instead of as an email attachment. The Zimbra Desktop provides offline access to the suite, including all email features, calendar access, folders and search."

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