The Hague, Netherlands (GroupWise® EMEA Summit) — June 28, 2005 — Novell today announced open beta availability of its latest version of the most secure and reliable collaboration platform in the industry, Novell® GroupWise 7. GroupWise 7 features advances for end users such as integrated e-mail and instant messaging, enhanced Outlook support and a pre-bundled SUSETM LINUX Enterprise Server. Unlike Microsoft Exchange, GroupWise runs on multiple operating system platforms. As a result, customers can reduce costs and increase productivity using GroupWise 7 to govern and protect their mission-critical collaboration functions.
“Novell's commitment to supporting GroupWise through 2015 is a strong signal to customers. GroupWise can be counted on today and into the foreseeable future,” said Mark Levitt, vice president for Collaborative Computing at IDC. “GroupWise's availability on Linux, in addition to other platforms, offers customers a real choice for firms looking beyond Windows.”
GroupWise 7 lets end users adapt the client to how they work in order to optimize their productivity and efficiency. Enhancements include integration between e-mail and instant messaging so users can see in an e-mail whether the sender is currently online, allowing them to move to IM to immediately resolve long e-mail conversations. In addition, a new “home” view summarizes a user's most pertinent information at a glance, multiple calendars for a single user make it easier to manage multiple projects, and a quick navigation bar helps end users jump to the places they use most through a simple, one-click interface.
“The promise of GroupWise is its combination of excellent functionality with rock-solid reliability and security, a promise it keeps every day,” said Corey Cush, senior director of networking services for New York Health and Hospitals Corporation. “The new features of GroupWise 7 and Novell's long-term commitment to the product make it a simple decision to keep and expand GroupWise as a key part of our enterprise.”
Advantages of GroupWise 7
Novell GroupWise enables people in an organization to relate, coordinate and communicate to keep business moving forward. Designed to eliminate instabilities typical of many communications and collaboration solutions, Novell GroupWise provides end users with secure and reliable e-mail, calendaring, instant messaging, task management, document management and data storage functions.
GroupWise 7 will include Novell's SUSETM LINUX Enterprise Server, pre-bundled at no extra cost to customers. The inclusion of SUSETM LINUX Enterprise Server allows GroupWise customers to begin embracing the leading open source server platform. On the client side, GroupWise supports Windows, Linux, Macintosh, Web browser and mobile devices. GroupWise 7 also enables cradle-based synchronization of PocketPC and Palm OS-based personal digital assistants and has made it easier for developers to build and integrate custom applications by allowing secure access to server functions through Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP), a standard Web services-oriented interface.
Microsoft Exchange and Lotus Notes Upgrade Campaign and Free Migration Utilities
Novell also announced details today of an Exchange-to-GroupWise competitive upgrade promotion. For a limited time, customers migrating to GroupWise from Microsoft Exchange or Lotus Notes can purchase a single GroupWise user license for $49, including two years of upgrade protection, a savings of more than 70 percent off the current price for GroupWise 6.5.
Novell's free GroupWise Migration Utility is available to easily move mail, calendar, task and other items directly from Exchange and Outlook into GroupWise. In addition, Novell partners are offering discounts on products complementary to GroupWise, ranging from training to anti-spam to migration utilities.
“GroupWise 7 provides a great experience for the end user on the desktop or PDA while IT staff and executives can have confidence in the back-end investment,” said David Patrick, vice president and general manager of Linux, Open Source Platforms and Services for Novell. “Our multiplatform approach gives customers choice and freedom, without them having to worry about whether their collaboration system is up and ready for them.”
Speaking today at the GroupWise® EMEA Summit in The Hague (www.groupwiser.net/summit), partners of Novell also praised GroupWise 7.
“Through GroupWise 7, Novell has really opened up GroupWise as an attractive platform for a broad range of developers especially in the Linux community. This means that many more developers like us will be able to support GroupWise, which ultimately provides more solutions and choice to customers,” said Charles Taite, CEO, GWAVA. “GroupWise has a stellar reputation for security, so GroupWise and Linux are a marriage made in heaven for CIOs looking for a secure platform for messaging,” he continued.
Pierre Chamberland, CEO of Messaging Architects, added, "GroupWise 7 represents a landmark in the evolution of Enterprise Collaboration products. It is clear that the development team has been listening to what clients want in terms of a next generation email and calendaring application and they have delivered in spades. The market for Integrated Collaboration Suites is fiercely competitive - with the release of GroupWise 7, Novell will continue to be the standard bearer to beat in terms of overall performance, reliability and ease of administration.”
Beta Software Availability
Open beta versions of Novell GroupWise 7 are now available for free download, and customers can pre-order GroupWise 7 beginning July 7. Pricing will be announced at general product availability. For more information about GroupWise or the competitive upgrade promotion, or to obtain the beta software or pre-order GroupWise 7, visit www.novell.com/groupwise.
About Novell
Novell, Inc. (Nasdaq: NOVL) is a leading provider of infrastructure software and services to over 50,000 customers in 43 countries. With more than 20 years of experience in data center, workgroup and desktop solutions, Novell's 6,000 employees, 5,000 partners and support centers around the world are meeting customer requirements for identity-driven computing and Linux solutions. By providing enterprise-class software and support for commercial and open source software, Novell delivers increased operating flexibility and choice at a lower total cost of ownership. More information about Novell can be found at www.novell.com.
Novell and GroupWise are registered trademarks of Novell, Inc. in the United States and other countries. SUSE is a trademark of SUSE LINUX Products GmbH, a Novell business. *Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. All other third-party trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
About GWAVA
GWAVA (www.gwava.com) is the worldwide leader of software solutions for Novell GroupWise and is the largest Novell GroupWise partner. GWAVA continues to lead the GroupWise partner community with email surveillance, Anti-Spam, Anti-Virus, and Content Control and email management on Linux, NetWare and Windows. GWAVA has a global presence with a worldwide network of resellers, and has forged an array of technology partnerships with companies including Novell, Inc (NASDAQ: NOVL).
About Messaging Architects
Messaging Architects (www.messagingarchitects.com) helps organizations leverage the investment in their messaging and collaboration system through a family of enterprise-class solutions that address the needs for policy, security, and mobility in the corporate infrastructure. Millions of individual GroupWise end users work with our products on a daily basis. The company is an exclusive member of Novell's PartnerNet Technology Program for GroupWise and NetMail and has a strong international presence with offices in 7 countries.