dlythgoe's blog

There are so many things to blog about, it has been difficult to pick just one subject. So I may ramble a little bit here!

GroupWise Advisor in Miami. I was in Miami most of last week to present Bonsai, Novell Teaming + Conferencing and Open Collaboration. The show had light attendance, but still a strong showing for GroupWise. The SharePoint, Notes, Access Database, etc break-out sessions were mostly ghost towns. 3-12 people were about the norm. GroupWise, on the other hand, had about 40 people in the Keynote and always had 25+ people in almost every GroupWise session. Several of our partners and consultants were there. RIM, Nokia, SilverDane, GroupLink and Computhink were all part of the partner pavilion.

Novell Teaming + Conferencing was a big hit. Lots of interest in the social networking capabilities and extended teaming functionality. The Conferencing piece seems to get a lot of people's attention as our customers try to control travel costs, need desktop sharing and want whiteboarding capability within their organizations without having to pay per minute charges.

Bonsai, of course, was the main event and the excitement is continuing to build. Almost all of the attendees are already running GroupWise 7 and so they are seeing all of the great benefits that release has brought their users. Bonsai will be even more dramatic! My recent favorite feature is being able to 'Reply' or 'Reply to All' without having to deal with that annoying intermediate dialog. You will see exactly what I mean when you get your hands on this code.

I was also able to go bike riding through the Everglades. We saw plenty of alligators, turtles and fish. One alligator was right beside the rode and had about 15 baby alligators huddled around it. Alex was perfecting his alligator call, which sounded like a a southern drawl of "C-mon". It was a great time! Ask him to do it for you the next time you see him!

GWAVACon Berlin. In a couple of weeks, we will be in Berlin at GWAVACon. We will have another strong presence from GroupWise. Engineering, Marketing and Product Management will all be represented. We are expecting great things and hope to see and meet several of you there. GWAVACon is October 20-22 in Berlin. GWAVA continues to be a great partner and we appreciate their efforts in bringing the GroupWise community together. We hope to see many of our partners there and we will be showing Bonsai and Novell Teaming + Conferencing extensively. Hands-on demos and live code!!

Advansys. I have been working with Greg from Advansys for a long time, but just recently I have been testing some of his products on the Bonsai BETA code to see how well it performed. What a GREAT set of tools and a strong platform, Formative! The Stationary, Templates and the Mail Merge are such excellent extensions of GroupWise. They are things users will utilize everyday. They have so many products - you should visit them at advansyscorp.com. I could never list all of their great products here, but Archive To Go is another product that is very handy.

BrainStorm Inc. BrainStorm has agreed to help us during our BETA process. They have produced some down loadable, short training clips to help us introduce some of the new features in Bonsai. These will be available to our Authorized BETA sites to help us teach users about the new features that are available and to point our BETA sites to the areas we need them to test and to concentrate their efforts. We are looking forward to this new approach during our Bonsai Beta.

All of Partners are great and I will spot light one here in my blog from time to time. Bonsai BETA. I am fielding questions on a regular basis about 'when' is BETA. As you know, there have been a few dates that have come and gone. This has everything to do with wanting to have a good/solid BETA and to make sure we are date sensitive, but quality driven. Over my many years with GroupWise and Novell, almost universally I hear that quality should always trump the ship date. Creating software is an art and good art takes time. We are trending down our BETA show stoppers - currently we have about 60 or so outstanding. We are fixing about 100+ per week and our testing is getting deeper and deeper. The back end pieces (Engine, POA, MTA) are very solid and we are actually chasing down some bugs that have been difficult to reproduce and that have existed prior to Bonsai code - there are 4 of these bugs across this area. The clients are looking very good, still a few small glitches in Tasks,Contact Management, and WebAccess. The two areas of concern and that are holding up Authorized BETA are with Install and our new Document Converter. We have been testing these areas very hard and we have shaken the tree harder then normal. We want these areas to be better than 'BETA READY'. We hope to be ready by the end of October.

My next blog will be to announce our Authorized BETA release and to provide an extensive What's New list of what will be in Bonsai - so keep reading and stay tuned!

As much as we have talked about Bonsai, there is another very exciting 'Collaboration' product that will be shipping soon from Novell. Novell Teaming + Conferencing. This product adds significant value to the overall portfolio of collaborative solutions from Novell. This product is currently in BETA and is expected to ship within the next few months.

I have been participating in the weekly BETA calls with many of you. I have also been involved with several companies and organizations that have deployments planned and are gearing up for the delivery of this product. The teaming portion includes Team Spaces, Workflow, Document access, blogs, wikis, surveys, global searches, and threaded discussions. The Conferencing piece has Instant Messaging and Chat, Presence, Applications and Desktop sharing, Whiteboarding and Voice over IP.

Although you will find some overlap of features with GroupWise and other products from Novell, there is significant interest and excitement about many of the things that this product will allow organizations to accomplish. The product has such flexibility and it exposes many of the social networking technologies that have become so popular in the Internet and Open Source communities. Now more than ever, effective teams work more as self-organized networks, rather than rigid hierarchies. Professionals from all walks of life are easily connected and can collaborate more freely with technologies and products that can facilitate their ad-hoc team rather than confine it.

Here are some of the ways Novell is using the product or planning on using the product:

- We are using the product to conduct the BETA for Novell Teaming + Conferencing. A couple of weeks ago, one of the participants demonstrated how they were using the product by 'sharing' their desktop with all of the other BETA sites.

- We are using the product to help facilitate trouble-shooting and support with our Partners and Customers. Having a customer be able to simply 'share' their desktop and demonstrate a problem OR have an engineer explain a new feature or how to configure a new agent.

- Product Management is conducting Sales Training and other activities.

- We plan to use the technology when we conduct the BETA for Bonsai.

- We will soon be using the product to collaborate with many of our engineering teams that are scattered around the world. We will use the blogs to update teams on what is happening within our organization. We will be using wikis to keep our test plans and test lab configuration information up-to-date. We will use the conferencing software to hold meetings and design new features.

In addition, I wanted to include some of the other ways we anticipate this product will be used (I stole this partial list from an white paper Phil Karren is preparing - he won't mind :)

Project Management, Acquisition Management, Program Management, Quality Assurance, Employee Performance Management, Issue Tracking, Online classrooms, Time-Off scheduling, Asset and Inventory management, Technical Research, Event management, Product and Process Life cycle, Change Request management, Competitive bid response, Sales Automation, Customer Relationship management, etc.

This is obviously an abbreviated list - I just wanted to give you a flavor for the 'areas' where this product could be deployed and utilized.

Like I said, we are in BETA with this product and are working towards final shipment. Please check it out!!

Here is a screen shot:

On Thursday, August 2nd, the GroupWise Engineering team presented all of the features and functionality that they completed between milestone two and milestone three. It was very exciting! As much as we have talked about and discussed all of the new features in the Windows Client, there were several other components in this demo that stole the show.

Let me back up... During the development phase of Bonsai, we planned three major milestones. At the end of each milestone, the engineers present or demo what they have accomplished or what is 'code complete' at the end of that milestone. We have been presenting and completing features and functionality all along. This was the final milestone demo. We have been anticipating a bunch of new features and functionality in WebAccess. It was my belief that it would be the highlight of this demo. It certainly was - BUT to my surprise there were a few other components that really have come a long way and were equally impressive.

First up - Linux/Mac Client. This was the first demo of the day. Ron and Doug spent an hour going through all of the features that are finally code complete in this client. Let me list a few: Notify, Change To, Home Folder, Navigation Bar, Schemes, Panels View, Web Page in a Panel, POP/IMAP Account Support, Find, and Discussion View. We also added several end-user options and preferences that have been missing. A lot of work has also gone into stability and performance (start-up, deleting message after message, moving from folder to folder, etc.) Those of you on Linux and Mac - you will be so pleased! It still might not have everything, but it was designed to meet 'all' of the most sought after features.

WebAccess was next. The virtual message list is sooo cool!! Improved calendaring, with multiple calendar support, day, week and month views. Publish Calendar, Quick Filter, Improved Address Book support, HTML compose, Spell as you go, TimeZone and Multi-language support, and message list column management. If you have users that love the web, but hate some of the quirky issues - make sure you get a look at the new Bonsai WebAccess. Kevin's team has done some outstanding work and a lot of building blocks have been put in place for more, quicker features in future versions. Sirisha's Calendar efforts are impressive - you will love the interaction! My Windows engineers are jealous!

Install - new technologies, fewer prompts, more intuitive. We have revamped install with the latest versions of InstallShield and DemoShield. We have moved off of old technologies that have made the install awkward and clunky. Backend installs are all new - install all the agents at once - no more separate installs. System Creation without having to install ConsoleOne first. Corey's efforts here will pay big dividends as upgrades and rollouts become easier and more manageable.

PDF indexing - Kent demonstrated how we are using the Stellent technology to be able to index and search any file type that the Stellent viewers support. You asked for this functionality and now it will be part of Bonsai.

Windows Client - Most of the windows client has been code complete for a couple of months. During milestone three, there were finishing touches put on a several features. Task management continues to improve, the merging of CheckList and Tasklist is now complete. Printing of Checklist items is now working. RSS support was demo'd. Favorites folder is now part of the product and the completion of Contact Management features like Notes/Contact association. Global Contracts Search control, new style sheets and photos in the style sheets. We also finished off several small calendar enhancements like 'Recurring Appointments' only showing one entry in your in-box, Auto-Accept of your own appointments, Time Selector dialog offers Time Zone Selection. - just to name a few.

Publish/Subscribe Calendars host was also demonstrated. Being able to extend your calendar information outside your organization is going to be big. Free/Busy info, HTML rendition of your calendar data by just hitting a link in a browser. Another feature that stole the show!!

It's difficult to mention everything - but this was a great demo! Reminder - this was only features that were completed between milestone two and milestone three. We had two other milestones with tons of other features hitting code complete.

Want to see the latest stuff - come to the GroupWise Advisor Summit. September 30th to October 4th in Miami. I will be there with Product Management and a few members from my team.

A few links: http://events.advisor.com/cte0710p.nsf/w/maincng

Code complete can mean so many different things, but more than anything it is a barometer to know where a project is at in its product development cycle.

We are a few weeks away from code complete across the product components. However, we have been code complete in several major areas for a few weeks now. Those code complete components have been in bug fixing mode and preparing for the authorized BETA.

Generally, we have the agents and engine code complete before other areas of the project. Bonsai is no exception. Last week, I asked everyone to make sure they are running on a Bonsai POA and using a Bonsai client (Windows, Linux/Mac, Connector or WebAccess). There are at least 60 people now that are running alpha code on their corporate email accounts. Many engineers, myself included, have been running Bonsai clients since we shipped 7.0.1 ---- some of us are always on the bleeding edge. As you would expect!! As new builds are completed (usually daily) , everyone is expected to install and run the very latest. This is the best caviar to come out of the GroupWise team ever!!

Of course not everyone was enthusiastic about moving to such 'early' builds of Bonsai. For example, I asked our documentation team to move as well and after some half hearted protest, they conceded. The first day was a little rough, but the new Auto-Save feature kept me from bodily harm. We worked through two issues and on Friday, one of them came to me and said, "This is great!! Love the new features and the client hasn't crashed in days!! Baby steps - right? :)

We are now working on test plans, reviewing bug lists, and finishing up any loose ends. Automation is running, validation continuing and stabilization progressing. We are focusing on the very basics of build, installation, upgrading and internationalization.

Don't you wish you could be running Bonsai? Its getting closer!

Greetings!! As many of you know, I am now the Director of GroupWise Engineering. This is an opportunity that I am very excited about and very dedicated to. However, this opportunity has come at a cost. The cost of having Ken Muir move onto a new responsibility. It has been a pleasure working with Ken over the last couple of years and I look forward to continued contact and advice as he helps GroupWise while helping to direct the greater Novell. I will miss the daily interaction with him. I join with many of you in wishing him well!

Now GroupWise... GroupWise is nearing BETA. I am thrilled with this release and about the features the engineering team has created.

I want to start my blog where Ken left his - introducing some of the lesser known enhancements and changes that you will find in Bonsai. My recent background has been with the Windows Client, the Linux/Mac client, Administration and Install. That is where this discusion will begin...

Windows Client
1. Simplification - The Windows engineers have done several things in GroupWise to simplify the user-experience. One of those things is removing unnecssary dialogs. Here are a few you WONT see in Bonsai :)

2. Vacation Rule (This tool will allow you to provide 'text' for your auto-reply, will automatically block out your calendar AND will auto expire)

3. Left-click access to categories, including set category, remove category and find items with same categories.

4. Category background color

5. With the folder list hidden, drag n drop to the left edge of the view pops it up (instead of having to go up to the header control).

6. In checklist, completed items automatically sort to the bottom of the list. Plus you can hide completed items: immediately or the next day after the item is completed.

7. Panels will now resize proportionately; Panels now painted with drop shadow. Customize panels is accessible from any panel drop down menu. We will now support more than 2 columns for panels view.
8. Can now send display settings to other users. Like the configuration of your Home Folder.

9. Personalize received email with notes and/or attachments

10. Auto-accepting your own appointments. Meaning - if you schedule an appointment and include yourself, the appointment will automatically be 'accepted'. It can still be viewed in both your mailbox and/or your calendar.
I hope that these things will add to the anticipation and excitement that seems to be growing around the release of Bonsai. I know there are probably many other things that you would like to see, but we have to have something to do in the next release. :)

Next topic will include the Linux Client.