Groupware Gets Thin

A new generation of thin-client products proves that Web groupware can scale across an enterprise network

By JAMES E. GASKIN

Groupware developers Lotus, Microsoft and Novell may say Web-based groupware lacks the horsepower for anything but small departments, but numerous end users report success running a new class of thin-client groupware across global enterprise networks.

Managers now find that thin-client software from vendors such as Instinctive Technology Inc., Zap Business Communications Systems Inc., Eastman Software Inc. and even Lotus deliver the groupware features they need without the expense, complexity or overhead of fat clients.

Some examples: Haworth Furniture uses a single Web server to coordinate 600 salespeople, dealers, suppliers and customers across the globe. American Family Life Assurance Co. (AFLAC), long devoted to developing its own fat-client software, changed to a thin-client, Web groupware product to better communicate with customers via its Web site. True North Communications Inc. uses a Web groupware system at 498 offices worldwide that lets each regional office manage its own content and even display information on Palm Pilot VII wireless systems.

Scores of new products now call themselves groupware rather than the more limiting term "teamware." And these vendors readily attack and solve enterprise-scale collaboration projects. According to these vendors and their customers, they only lack the fat--expensive clients required by the traditional groupware products: Lotus Notes, Microsoft Exchange and Novell GroupWise.

While on one hand, the big three groupware vendors may deride the products from the groupware start-ups as mere teamware, they also see the opportunity. Lotus, Microsoft and Novell are all shifting from proprietary clients and network connections to actively embrace open standards and Web-browser clients.

"The whole messaging groupware market is more server-centric today," says Jim Kobielus, groupware analyst for the Burton Group, a consultancy. "The big three are supporting multiple clients with standards, meaning they are making standard Web browsers an all-purpose client."

Lotus even released a "groupware light," or teamware, product last summer: QuickPlace. "Teamware products do a good job supporting transient product teams, groups of trading partners, or even just set up communities to chat," says Kobielus. "The big vendors have an eye on serving this market as well."

He adds: "Fat clients aren't dead, but they are not really the focus of development anymore." The traditional groupware players maintain and improve their fat clients, but perhaps work even harder on their server capabilities to support thin clients. "Microsoft has four or five Exchange clients from different versions of Outlook," says Kobielus, "but they also support Internet Explorer as a client and are improving that support."

Haworth Furniture started making custom wood products in 1948 and now sells more than $1.5 billion per year worth of furniture products in more than 50 countries. When Jacquie Karr-Zlotnicki needed a way to coordinate 600 salespeople worldwide, she helped Haworth evaluate seven groupware options suitable to support field sales operations across every time zone, usually from laptops on the road. Customers, dealers, installers and even potential customers also needed access to the information.

"Lotus Notes was expensive for our users, and we couldn't give it to outside people like dealers or customers," says Karr-Zlotnicki. Haworth had looked for a "couple of years" for a way to connect sales offices 24x7. Until they found a solution, they were stuck with e-mail, telephone, voice mail and faxes.

Haworth chose Instinctive's eRoom, leasing the application at first. Now, Haworth hosts eRoom internally, supporting more than 600 worldwide users on a single server. Called the Global Account Information Network, the system uses more than 300 customer "eRooms," or collaborative workspaces, that include documents, issues, tasks and complete discussion lists. Team leaders add or delete members from their own eRooms, making administration simple.

Every salesperson has a license, but not all feel comfortable. "We have a few who have never been on the Internet at all," says Karr-Zlotnicki, "but once the salespeople get hooked, they really love it." One hard rule for any collaborative software success is support from the top. "We send product announcements, hold sales meetings and make presentations, all through eRooms," says Karr-Zlotnicki. "People must log in and check their eRooms, or they won't get their information."

Employees outside the sales department regularly join eRooms to service particular customer needs, such as engineers helping design installations. Once they use eRooms, they don't want to leave. "Every sector of the company has expressed interest in expanding the use of the tool in their department." says Karr-Zlotnicki.

Haworth field employees reach their eRooms through the Internet, or through the corporate VPN. Field personnel generally use laptops faster than 300-MHz with 256MB of RAM. Clients outside headquarters normally use Internet Explorer 5.0, Haworth's standard. Extra functionality provided by customized plug-ins lets users drag and drop files into eRooms for easier administration.

Michele Hagan, Instinctive's vice president of marketing, explains why eRooms are such a hit at Haworth. "We focus on the project team itself, rather than providing a platform to build applications or make modifications," says Hagan. One of the primary differences between traditional groupware and eRooms is the focus on the team, especially teams from multiple organizations. "We bring together suppliers and partners, customers and vendors, but we don't need IT to add external customers," says Hagan.

Karr-Zlotnicki proudly points to the job her users have done with eRooms, without IT help. "I'm impressed with the job the coordinators have done. They have standards for eRoom content, they take votes and track discussions there and keep the information current. Education, training, product marketing, and corporate all make sure they aren't duplicating information within eRooms."

Haworth uses a smart system that can be a model for other collaborative software users. "If you own information," says Karr-Zlotnicki, "you can put it out. If you don't own it, you can't."

Pointers to the original information source provide the needed links. "Threaded discussions and document sharing are common themes for our users," says Hagan. "We have the extra-added attraction of a project focus and provide some templates and help for new users." Hagan hints that more templates, including ones specialized for vertical applications, are on the way.

AFLAC, another company that's using Web groupware, started groupware a decade ago in the guise of electronic filing and document management. The company has been an Eastman Software customer for nearly a decade, starting back when the company bought imaging products from Sigma, which was acquired by Wang, acquired by Eastman Kodak and spun off to Eastman Software. AFLAC is also a Microsoft shop and builds custom desktop software using Microsoft's Visual Basic and ActiveX. Yet some of the newest Eastman software used at AFLAC requires only Internet Explorer.

"The browser gives us an extra level of flexibility," says Lynn Fry, vice president of information technology at AFLAC. "People can work at home, AFLAC associates can enter work items from the field, even AFLAC payroll accounts can submit work items via the Web," she says. "The software functionality goes outside the walls without downloading imaging desktop software."

The latest Eastman Software project included placing customer correspondence entered directly on the Web site into the workflow system. Customers wanted information and requested changes, and AFLAC wanted to keep the process paperless while still servicing the customer.

"Our goal is to pull the information straight from the request entered on the Web site and integrate that into the legacy mainframe system, then send the notice to the workflow system," says Fry. "Correspondence is routed to the appropriate person with the skill set to provide the service." All the routing is managed by a browser client, which is new for AFLAC, but welcomed.

"All client-server apps are moving to the browser," says Fry. "We're either developing them there now or moving that way."

Trayce Reeves was in a tough spot: True North Communications was growing rapidly by acquisition, and as the company's worldwide IT project manager, it's her job to develop, customize and deploy Internet applications at the advertising conglomerate's 498 offices around the world.

That's when True North turned to Ucone from Zap: "We had a terrible chore in front of us," says Reeves. "We used e-mail but had no worldwide collaboration system in place. We were working with a nameless vendor and came close to making a system before we met Zap. Then we clearly had no other choice but Zap."

Hosted by Linux running on a Cobalt Networks Inc. RaQ3 server, Zap installed their system in less than two days and turned it over to Reeves. True North then customized for their needs and started the rollout. Each office creates and manages their own "toolbox" inside the Zap Ucone software. The toolboxes contain the information for everyone to share.

"More than 250 people are using the system now," says Reeves. The 250 are scattered throughout the nearly 500 offices around the world. "Everyone loves this," she says.

New applications opportunities popped up immediately. More than a dozen True North employees had brand-new Palm VII's and wanted to use them to access the system. Luckily for them, Zap headquarters is in Hamburg, Germany, where wireless devices are more available and better supported than in the United States.

Engineers from Zap translated Ucone's XML output to the brand-new Wireless Access Protocol. Since Zap uses a standard WAP server for connections, wireless Web telephones and other devices should work when connected. Zap had to write a small Palm Query Application, but nothing changed on the server side. The PQA eliminates the need to type in a specific URL from the organizer.

"When we had any problems or changes," says Reeves, "we just put the information on the system. The engineers in Germany got back to us within a few hours." International tech-support problems caused by the time difference disappeared.

Security takes place on the server, not the clients, making Reeves feel more comfortable, especially with the wireless users. A separate user information database resides in the Ucone server, and the security software relies on that database.

"All the security is in the server, not the client," says Reeves. System rollout started last October, and multiple offices are online, including the dozen Palm Pilot VII users. "Notes was too e-mailish," says Reeves. "We needed more than just discussion threads, more of a knowledge management library. We also store logos and forms in the system."

Anke Zimmermann, CEO of Zap, says, "Even conversations between two people, typically handled in e-mail, have an impact on the company. Engineers in Hamburg often pulled down changes being discussed and fixed the problems before an official request came through."

One of the best features for Reeves is Ucone's ability to schedule information display or deletion. Documents placed in the system can have a window of display, such as three weeks before an important meeting, then disappear on a scheduled date. "The information is not deleted," says Zimmermann, "just not displayed. Information always stays in the system for archive purposes."

Knowledge exists in many forms within a company, and official documents are only a part of the knowledge store. "When people leave, their information usually goes with them," says Zimmermann. "With this, information still lives within the system. You can track their stuff."

Groupware, teamware, collaboration software, messaging store, workflow, knowledge management or even instant messaging all describe some part of the method used by companies. As the new products become more powerful and the big three adopt new features in response, the mashing of terms into a muddle continues.

So this market will continue to grow and attract new vendors. How about new customers? Delphi Group analyst Nathaniel Palmer says the consulting group's latest research indicates that new deployments of horizontal, full-blown fat-client versions of Notes were virtually nonexistent. He sees an expansion of current deployments with an increasing conversion to Web-based clients. The message to groupware developers: Get thin.

James E. Gaskin is a freelance computer journalist based in Mesquite, Texas. He can be reached at james@gaskin.com.