Gordon Welling
Admin Group
Manager Technnical Support Services
Joined: 11-December-2003
Location: Canada
Posts: 502
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| Posted: 25-October-2006 at 11:15am
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Question: How does Omni
Mobile compare against other solutions: NotifyLink, GWAnywhere, Toffa
and the "FREE" Novell GroupWise Mobile Server?
Answer:
There are a number of advantages that Omni Mobile has over other
solutions, including the free GroupWise Mobile server. These
advantages relate to the fact that Omni Mobile is a "native" GroupWise
caching client for mobile devices. As such, it is not limited to the restrictions of the
Personal Information Management (PIM) functions of the local operating
system. Omni Mobile does not "synchronise" to the local PIM
client, it delivers the GroupWise user experience on mobile devices.
What Makes Omni Mobile Unique?
Omni
Mobile's unique feature set is due to the fact that it is a GroupWise
caching client for mobile devices. It does not synchronise emails to
the native PIM applications on the mobile device and therefore
does not require a separate server and database to store and
synchronise the emails. The Omni Mobile server module installs
directly on your GroupWise WebAccess Server and communicates directly
with the Omni Mobile client. Omni Mobile uses the GroupWise WebAccess
APIs to communicate with GroupWise. This means that any operation
that can be carried out in WebAccess can be built into the Omni Mobile
client interface. Future Omni Mobile GroupWise client features include online
access to full account searches, on-line proxy access, on-line
multi-user calendar busy searches, on-line access to the GroupWise
Document Management Store and others.
Think of Omni Mobile as a
GroupWise caching client for mobile devices - except the end user
controls which folders, calendar date range and address books to have
available for off-line access and the synchronisation cycle for those
components. The reason Omni Mobile does not require a Windows
server is that it installs on your GroupWise WebAccess server, on all
platforms, and uses the GroupWise WebAccess APIs to talk to
GroupWise. Therefore, "anything" that can be done in GroupWise
WebAccess "can also" be done with Omni Mobile. As long as your
users have access to GroupWise WebAccess from the Internet, there are
no changes that need to be made to your infrastructure - no new
servers, no different OS, no firewall holes, no SOAP protocol to
implement, no POP3, IMAP4, no trusted applications, no SMS, etc.
What is GroupWise Mobile Server missing?
Some
of the native GroupWise client functions and other features available with Omni Mobile
that are not available with the GroupWise Mobile Server and other PIM synchronization options, to the best of
my knowledge, are:
- Read forwarded emails that contain other emails (including attachments).
- Read
HTML emails (Omni Mobile uses the GroupWise WebAccess HTML rendering
agent to present those in a browser on the mobile device).
- Provide access to shared folders on your mobile device.
- Provide access to multiple and "large" address books including the System Address Book.
- Provide a workstation and "over-the-air" installation and account provisioning choice.
- Allow you to choose which is the default view when you open Omni Mobile (Folder, Calendar Day View or Month View, Address book).
- Provide access to a familiar GroupWise client look-and-feel on all PDAs.
- Include support for BlackBerry devices (Version 2.5)
- Perform cross-calendar busy searches *
- Provide on-line Proxy Access *
- Perform
a full account on-line search that includes selecting the proxy
accounts you want to include in your search. This will return the first X email
header information. When you select the email you want to read,
it will retrieve the email and store it on your local device. You
can choose to retain the results of the searches on your device in a
"Searches Folder" and update the results of the search at a future time
without having to rebuild the query. This is similar to the
GroupWise Query/Search Folder functionality. *
- Provide access to the GroupWise document management store *
- And
others ... As more options are added to the GroupWise WebAccess
client, Omni Mobile will incorporate those options into future
releases.
* will be available in the Omni Mobile 3.x path
What Omni Mobile includes:
- No Windows Server required
- Omni Mobile Server Module installs on your existing GroupWise WebAccess server (NetWare, SLES, OES, Windows)
- Delivers mobile GroupWise caching client for Palm, Pocket PC, Windows Mobile and Sony Ericsson PDAs
- Read
HTML emails on your handheld (Omni Mobile uses the GroupWise
WebAccess HTML rendering agent to present HTML emails in a browser on
the mobile device).
- Read forwarded emails that contain other emails (including attachments)
- Access to shared folders on your mobile device
- Access to "large" address books including System Address Book on supported devices
- Choose workstation installation or Over-the-Air installation and account provisioning on supported devices
- Only full mobile solution to use WebAccess as the conduit to GroupWise
- Does not use the local device PIM applications
- Uses a familiar GroupWise user interface (quick user adoption, reduced training costs)
- Allows you to choose the default view when you start Omni Mobile (Main View, Folder, Calendar, Address Book)
- Dial directly from the GroupWise address book (on supported devices)
- Provides
the quickest user and administrator adoption because Omni Mobile is
easy to install, easy to administer and easy to use
- Provides
access to full GroupWise account (email, multiple and shared GroupWise
folders, calendar, appointments, tasks, notes and your choice of
system, personal and shared address books)
- Compatible with GroupWise 7.x and 6.x
- Compatible with all service providers and major wireless protocols
- Supports over 200 different attachment types and over-the-air account creation on supported devices
Which GroupWise PDA Solution is Right for You?
Consider the following questions as you evaluate the various GroupWise mobile PDA products:
- What is the Total Cost of Ownership of each mobile GroupWise PDA solution?
- What
are the advantages of having a separate GroupWise client on your mobile
devices versus synchronising GroupWise to the native PIM applications?
- What
are the complexities of installing, configuring, managing and patching
one or more Windows servers to your environment to run GroupWise Mobile
Server, NotifyLink, BES or GWAnywhere, when Omni Mobile installs on
your existing GroupWise system?
- How does Omni Mobile help you leverage your existing GroupWise 6.x or 7.x investments?
- Why not adopt ONE solution that provides cross-platform PDA support to all platforms - without any Windows servers?
- Is there any value in choosing a hosted GroupWise mobile service if you can leverage your existing GroupWise investment?
- Are
you deploying GroupWise on SUSE Linux servers? Why deploy a
solution that requires you to introduce a Windows server into your
environment when Omni Mobile is fully compatible with GroupWise running
on Linux?
Consolidation of GroupWise Synchronization Software
With
the arrival of the Novell GroupWise Mobile Server, we expect to see a
decrease in offerings of PIM-based GroupWise PDA synchronization
solutions over the next few months. Novell's free GroupWise
Mobile Server synchronization software provides similar functionality
and architecture to NotifyLink, GWAnywhere and other GroupWise PDA
synchronization solutions.
Because Omni Mobile provides a
separate GroupWise client rather than PIM synchronsation, it is not
necessarily a question of whether to implement GroupWise Mobile Server OR Omni Mobile for GroupWise. Both solutions offer advantages and co-exist
quite nicely. A number of GroupWise customers have implemented
the new GroupWise Mobile Server for general users and Omni Mobile where
the users' GroupWise needs are best met by Omni Mobile.
Wrapping it Up!
Omni
Mobile currently supports Pocket PC, Windows Mobile devices (all
non-flip devices), Sony Ericsson P900 series, Nokia Series 60 2nd
generation phones and Palm OS phones. There are a number of
limitations with Palm OS devices because of its single-threaded
operating system and its non-file system storage functions. This article provides a description of the limitations of Omni Mobile on the different mobile platforms.
More information:
What is the Best PDA for GroupWise?
Omni Mobile for GroupWise Synchronization Summary
Edited by Aldo Zanoni on 18-November-2006 at 6:41am
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Omni Web Forum : GroupWise for PDAs and Smart Phones ~ Omni Mobile : Omni Mobile Server for GroupWise Synchronization
Topic: Omni Mobile vs. GroupWise Mobile Server (
Topic Closed)
