Novell pushes out GroupWise 2012 update with iPad support

Novell has released a new version of its GroupWise collaboration tool, adding support for Apple's iPad, enhanced calendaring tools and integration with instant messaging and social networks.

Available now, GroupWise 2012 is the first major release of the platform since Novell was acquired by Attachmate late in 2010 and demonstrates the firm's continued commitment to supporting customers, according to Novell.

"GroupWise 2012 is an important part of our market strategy," said Novell president Bob Flynn in a statement.

The latest version aims to make it easier for organisations to integrate social collaboration tools alongside GroupWise's existing email, calendar, contacts and document management capabilities.

Novell has extended the tools interoperability, with the calendar tool now enabling cross-boundary calendaring, allowing users to subscribe to external calendar sources and publish their own calendar information to external messaging systems.

Novell's messenger tool also now links with Skype for Presence, SMS and click-to-call integration.

Also new is an enhanced user interface, featuring the Home View Dashboard, which provides users with an at-a-glance customisable overview of the information and tools that are most important to them, including RSS feeds and team workspaces.

Novell has now added explicit support for Apple's iPad tablet via new web templates in GroupWise 2012, providing direct access to GroupWise post office resources and allowing iPad users to check and create messages, appointments and tasks.

Other mobile devices are supported via the Novell Data Synchroniser, which syncs GroupWise account data with almost any device that supports Microsoft's ActiveSync protocol.

Novell claims that GroupWise offers lower running costs than rival email and collaboration platforms such as Microsoft's Exchange server.

For example, GroupWise 2012 is capable of supporting up to 10,000 users from a single server, according to the firm, yet can still be managed by a single administrator.

GroupWise 2012 can be hosted on Windows Server 2003 and above, plus Novell's Open Enterprise Server (OES) or Suse Linux Enterprise Server 10 and above.

Customers choosing Suse Linux can claim a free entitlement to install as many SLES servers as they require to run their GroupWise deployment, Novell added.

On the client side, GroupWise 2012 runs on Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7, while Linux and Mac users are currently limited to the older GroupWise 8 clients for these platforms.

GroupWise 2012 is licensed at $143 (£92) per user.