“If you need the kind of groupware functionality you get from the Exchange ecosystem, there’s really nothing for you on Mac OS X, and that’s a real problem for Apple which is trying to gain traction in the Enterprise,” John Welch writes for Datamation. “Groupware is a mission-critical need in corporate America. The ability to have your email, contacts, events, scheduling and tasks all working together is no longer a luxury of the Fortune 500. While things like iCal, and Web client-only systems may work for a select few, in a modern enterprise it’s not going to play. Things like delegation, public folders, real handheld support, instant messaging integration and the rest are not ‘highfalutin’ options anymore. They’re basic functions that an enterprise needs to coordinate the functions of its people.”
“And every time Apple has to throw up its hands when asked about groupware and admit that its only calendaring solution is .Mac, they lose a lot of credibility outside of the server room,” Welch writes. “Groupware is one of the biggest holes in Apple’s Enterprise offerings. There’s nothing out there that runs on Mac OS X that you can use to replace Exchange, or Domino, or Groupwise. Apple offers a solid email solution, and a good directory service, but that’s it. There’s no calendaring, and if you aren’t on Mac OS X 10.4 Server, good luck with using network address books. That’s just not going to cut it.”
“Now, as a Mac writer, it probably borders on heresy for me to be using Exchange, or to be as happy with it as I generally am. ‘John, why aren’t you using something that runs on Mac OS X?’ Well, I’d like to, but at the moment, there aren’t any mature groupware servers that run on Mac OS X that support enterprise groupware’s range of needs. Note… I said mature. There are some products that come close for a subset of those features,” Welch writes. “I know a lot of companies that regularly evaluate competitors to Exchange, but other than Domino, GroupWise or possibly Oracle Collaboration suite, there really aren’t any. And on Mac OS X, there are none. The opportunity is there. It’s rich, and it’s waiting for someone to ‘Think Different.’ It’s only a matter of time before someone does, and it would be silly if the first enterprise-ready groupware solution on Mac OS X didn’t come from Apple.”
Full article, highly recommended, here.
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haha, they said crack
What about Open Text’s FirstClass?
First Class has an awful UI
Sure, we need another proprietary groupware product that works only with Apple. Dumb, dumb, dumb. What we need is Apple to get behind an open source project. But I don’t see that happening anytime soon. Apple is too afraid to support OpenOffice.org, for fear of Microsoft retaliating. So I wouldn’t expect Apple to support a competing product to Exchange.
Apple obviously has targeted the consumer space rather than the corporate space. Maybe that’s why they don’t have an enterprise solution comparable to Exchange? Mayybe they don’t see enough money to be made in it to justify the time and expense of engineering a top notch groupware solution.
Besides, there is such a prejudice against Apple in the corporate IT world that even if they had such a solution available, chances are that most of these IT monkeys would still just ignore them anyway.
I’m still chuckling over “highfalutin.”
Nice self-referential contradiction. Like “eschew obfuscation.”
I’m sure it is a considerable investment for Apple to meet the demands for interoperability with Exchange. As it is OS X mail can work with exchange servers (I’ve tried it), but all the rest will take time to achieve. I believe Apple are slowly plugging away at this and with each new release adding more and more compatability with windows and exchange.
I would imagine Apple would far rather have groups switch to a different system but the problem is that too much investment has been made to warrant dumping old systems for something new. I agree that the best way of getting attention is to build in compatabiility and make the alternative significantly cheaper than exchange. Apple have certainly scored on that for their servers and MAc OS X server. The systems just needa few more years to mature and become feature rich.
I can’t imagine Apple supporting OpenOffice.org for more reasons than the terrible UI and bloated architecture.
Apple needs to do alot to show they are enterprise-friendly, but this takes time. Apple is making huge changes and you can’t expect them to do everything at once.
I have a crazy idea. Why not use Microsoft products? Today Apple needs client penetration. Server penetration comes after that. For now Office for Mac does just about everything doesn’t it? It’s even better than the Mac version. It’s missing Project though. I think Microsoft could get this stuff out to the market faster than Apple who would be starting from scratch.
Microsoft is in a better position of providing enterprise software than Apple right now. We should be bugging them.
Who cares. Groupware is Tediumware. It creates added piddly work and certainly does NOT help groups organize.
I’d like to know what Apple internal uses for its corporate meetings/organization.
I am a small coprporate network admin for a mac only office……I NEED corporate calendaring/address book/IM/email!!!!
It really isnt out there. Closest thing is a sludgy XCNetwork.
http://www.xcnetwork.com/xcconnect.jsp
It is NOT ready for primetime. All Apple has to do is add iCal/addressbook to Tiger Server. Ichat is already there
What’s wrong with MeetingMaker. It’s cross-platform, handles calendars, contacts, manages resources, tasks and to-do lists. Allows for proxy scheduling, and can send email to your mail system. It doesn’t do instant messaging, but it’s been around for quite sometime. They do have other add on features to, but admittedly I’ve only set it up as a group calendaring solution.
FirstClass does a good job actually. True, it can use a better UI, but it works fine in the organization I belong to (must be more than 50,000 users) which has a mix of PCs and Macs.
But the point of the article is that Apple now has a real opportunity to tackle the corporate world. It has solid and secure computers, a server OS, and server hardware. What is missing is more corporate-friendly software.
I agree.
I don’t believe Apple is going after the enterprise at this time. That market is locked in Windows. Very large corporations that typically use groupware solutions don’t run OSX. If Apple was serious about this space you would see them working more with software companies in different vertical industries. I don’t think that is happening yet.
Jeff’s comments is also on the money. Apple at the present time can’t afford to have MS do something like kill Office for the Mac. Whether people like it or not Office for the Mac is one of the most powerful switching arguments that you can find.
make macs play with exchange better.
Sound like the author would better spend their energies persuading MS to upgrade Entourage…
We used at the last place I worked at (offices in Copenhagen, Denmark and Minneapolis, Minnesota) and it worked flawlessly. It’s scalable, runs on several platforms including OS X, is mature, well documented and supported and can do most if not all the “highfalutin” stuff Mr. Welch is asking for. I am speaking of course of Communigate Pro here
Just did a search in MacUpdate for “groupware” and came up with this
http://www.powdersoftware.com/
You could always use good old Lotus Notes, but, well… you’d need some other boxen to run the server. Other than a Mac.
The long range plan is to chang ethe STANDARD.
Getting into Enterprises is hard work…so it has to happen gradually and just right. here are the steps:
1. Get corpoirate IT persons buying Appel hardware that proves ease of administration and inneroperability at a great price – enter Xserve and XRAID
2. Win heats and minds of consumers and get people used to using Apple apps at home (this has yet to happen)
3. Flesh out an office suite built on best practices and Apple ease of use. Tackle the weakest trongholds in order: Powerpoint, Word, Access (filemaker) Excel, Exchange
So what are the odds that Stevie J. is gonna take the stage at some future keynote address and proclaim that Apple Mail, iCal, iSync and .Mac have been leading a “secret double life” for several years, and they’ve been integrating with each other behind a single interface and under “our new Apple Orchard Server which we think is just great. Oh, and one more thing… Our new Apple Harvester application is a fantastic project manager that’ll just amaze you.”
In my opinion, there are some things that Steve just won’t do until he knows he can overcome any possible retaliation from Microsoft. How easy would it be for his software design team to tackle MS Word head, comlete with full compatibility, yet he hasn’t done it.
No, if he tackles Exchange Server at all it will be in conjunction with an all-out assault on the MS Office Suite. That will be the day he declares war on Microsoft, and everything changes.
AJG:
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Does the Communigate Pro core server need to be on a PC? If so, I think the author’s point still stands. All Mac shops have little or no choice. I looked at Communigate Pro a few years ago for a cross platform small shop. Nice looking product, but we couldn’t afford it. Heck, they couldn’t afford me eventually.
Will Intel Mac servers open groupware doors? hmmmm.
what’s a groupware?
They do need this I agree.
Now Apple has the loot to do it I have no doubt that it is only a matter of time before they completely re-invent this…
Apple WILL clean up and use MS as the rag to polish SJ’s trainers!
Groupware solution? They want Apple to make corporate uniforms? Oh, wait. Never mind!
Groupware as we know it, even on Exchange, is Tediumware. It’s a resource hog, has a giant footprint, requires IT staffers to manage it, etc.
I hope that it is replaced someda by something like Zimbra:
http://www.zimbra.com/
Sure, it’s not perfect, but it’s a heck of a lot better than Outlook on Exchange.