Now more than ever, mobility, social tools and the drive for better productivity are transforming the business landscape. To help employees be productive no matter where they are and to collaborate with their colleagues and partners, we have added some powerful new features to Novell Vibe 3.3.

Some of the most important feedback we received from our customers was their desire to simply and easily work with other users in real time on the business documents they use everyday. To meet this demand, Novell Vibe 3.3 includes the Novell Vibe Add-in for Microsoft Office. With it, users can open, modify and save Word, Excel and PowerPoint files directly from their Vibe workspace. The Add-in also helps people work on documents together: a live comment stream aids discussion and decisions about content; each user can edit a file and be notified when another person’s edits are available to preview and merge; and the group can see document history and compare versions.

To further enhance the collaborative experience – anytime, anywhere – Vibe 3.3 also features Vibe Desktop, which enables users to easily access and sync files offline. Users simply download Vibe Desktop and can then connect and sync any folders and files from their Novell Vibe system to their desktop. They can then access these files offline, with any changes automatically syncing between their desktop and Vibe once they are back online.

Check out the Novell Vibe website to see what else is new in Vibe 3.3—the latest of a series of rapid releases to deliver what our customers need. We hope our commitment to developing solutions that work the way our customers want to work results in even more success for your business! To learn more about Novell Vibe 3.3, visit www.novell.com/vibe.

We’re all about paying close attention to the way our customers want to work and striving to deliver deeper value. Last week we opened public betas for two new features we think users will like:

Novell Vibe Desktop saves and syncs files and folders from your computer desktop to your Vibe site seamlessly and easily.

- Check out this video to learn more.
- Join the Novell Vibe Desktop beta here.

Novell Vibe Add-in for Microsoft Office lets you create or update a document in Vibe directly from MS Office. The new Vibe Add-in feature is integrated into the MS Office environment so users can seamlessly edit and save files directly into Vibe in near real time without leaving the comfort of their MS Office environment.

- Check out this video to lean more.  
- Join the Novell Vibe Add-in beta here.

Join both betas to test the new features in your environment or learn more about Novell Vibe at www.novell.com/vibe

Since Novell’s acquisition earlier this year, the company has been reorganized into four businesses units focused on speed, simplicity and success.

The majority of Novell’s heritage offerings are now part of three business units: Novell, NetIQ and SUSE. Attendees got a glimpse of the future for each business unit as each president took the stage. You can see the keynotes here:

Novell: Bob Flynn, President, General Manager, Novell
NetIQ: Jay Gartner, President, and General Manager, NetIQ
SUSE: Nils Brauckmann, President and General Manager, SUSE

Bob Flynn, president and general manager for Novell shared with the audience what a renewed focus on customers will look like in the months to come. The business unit structure allows Novell us to be 100% focused on the technologies it delivers. This includes collaboration solutions (GroupWise and Vibe), endpoint management solutions (ZENworks) and file and network services solutions (Open Enterprise Server and Novell File Management Suite).

Flynn’s commitment to reestablishing trust and confidence with customers while also delivering more frequent product updates received a resounding applause from the audience. Specifically Flynn touched on Novell’s commitment to GroupWise as a critical part of the company’s success by inviting his team to provide a sneak peak of its new version, GroupWise 2012.

Flynn exited the stage allowing his teams to showcase new product features in Novell’s collaboration, endpoint management and file and network services solutions.

With a reassuring commitment to the audience and Novell customers, Flynn stated: “The measure of our success is how we execute against these commitments I’m making to you this morning. We’re going to help you maximize the value of the products you get from us.”

GroupWise Calendar and Task Sync: A top priority for Novell Vibe OnPrem customers who also utilize GroupWise, this new connector leverages Novell Data Synchronizer to initially sync calendars and tasks from Vibe OnPrem to GroupWise. Bi-directional synchronization (from GroupWise to Vibe OnPrem) will be added in the next release.

Task management improvements: As more customers utilize Vibe OnPrem for project collaboration, new capabilities have been incorporated to improve productivity of task management, including sub-tasks; task ordering; completed time stamp; changing Priority, Status and Progress in list view; auto-date calculation; and quick search for folders.

User experience improvements: To meet customer demand for better access to information updates in their Vibe OnPrem system, enhancements to the “What’s New” user interface and Vibe OnPrem’s landing pages have been added.  The What’s New activity stream is now more interactive, and building landing pages to suit your purpose is easier than ever, with drag and drop editing, HTML and iFrame widgets, as well as new displays for calendars, tasks and surveys.

Enhancements for customers migrating from Sitescape Forum: For customers still using the Sitescape Forum product, making the transition to Novell Vibe OnPrem is easier, as the product  now offers folder views, workflow transitions, notifications, the ability to disable/retire users, individual form/folder notification schedule; and access through multiple domains.

Search improvements: As key components of Vibe OnPrem and how it performs, the search engine and index now feature basic stemming support, better handling of punctuation characters, stop-word filtering and improved search matching with acute characters.

Novell Vibe OnPrem 3.1 is currently available. To learn more or to request a trial, visit: http://www.novell.com/products/vibe-onprem

"I only have positive things to say about ATT Live. Not only is it a fantastic learning environment on select advanced subjects, but I enjoy the easy access to the instructors/engineers. ATT Live is personal and covers not only advanced subjects on existing products, but gives me a first look at upcoming products. Last year we saw the data sync and file storage/management, and more. Plus the information provided by the 3rd party vendors is an added benefit."

This year, the conference will be held in Las Vegas at The M Resort, Spa and Casino December 7 – 10. Mix and match from over 50 technical sessions including Novell Identity Manager,  ZENworks, GroupWise, SUSE Linux Enterprise from Novell, and more.

A regular ATT class is $2,800 USD.  Right now Novell ATT Live is only $1,695. Register before October 31 and receive a 20 percent "early bird" discount and pay only $1,400.

More information is at www.novell.com/training/attlive

What’s more, this new tool makes it easy to get business critical applications to talk to each other with application connectors that provide bi-directional data synchronization among business and collaboration applications including Novell GroupWise, Microsoft SharePoint, SugarCRM and Salesforce.com. The available SDK also enables organizations to customize existing connectors or create new ones that address their specific business needs.

The Novell Data Synchronizer Mobility Pack will replace GroupWise Mobile Server, and it's available free of charge to Novell GroupWise, Novell Teaming, Novell Open Workgroup Suite and Novell Open Workgroup Suite Small Business Edition customers with current maintenance contracts.

Download it today here.

About a year ago, the City of Los Angeles decided to migrate all its staff to a new, cloud-based application and collaboration system provided by Google. As the incumbent supplier for collaboration tools, Novell agreed to provide ongoing support to the City to make sure the transition was smooth and that important services weren't disrupted. Delays in implementing the system, largely because of security concerns, mean that Novell is still providing services and support, notably to the City of Los Angeles Police Department. We'll continue to offer support to our customer at the City for as long as it takes, so together we can ensure ongoing, day-to-day operations for all City employees.

Novell is sympathetic to the security and other challenges the City of LA faces. We have an industry-leading security and identity management business that exists to solve just these kinds of challenges, and have over 56,000 customers around the world. Cloud computing offers the promise of lower costs and greater flexibility, but creates new challenges around access control, governance and data security. In survey after survey, security is the leading concern amongst IT executives exploring cloud adoption, which is why leading cloud providers such as Verizon Business have teamed with Novell to offer identity and security services in their cloud offerings.

To support organizations seeking to leverage the opportunities in cloud computing around Collaboration, Novell delivers a compendium of solutions that fit the specific needs of the customer, minimizing painful transitions. These solutions include Novell GroupWise, Novell Teaming, Novell Conferencing and soon-to-be-released Novell Pulse that provides innovative, real-time collaboration services protected by industry leading security and compliance.

With server-side synchronization,  Novell Data Synchronizer users can avoid switching between applications manually to keep their data up-to-date in various apps and on multiple devices. Users modify data once and then have access to it anywhere, anytime.  For example, on the sales and marketing front, managers have data at their fingertips from apps and devices tied into an organization’s CRM or other sales management systems. Even the smallest modification, syncs with all systems and  no one misses a beat. At the end of the day this saves users time and reduces IT frustration by providing a central location through which to manage all of an organization’s data.

A few of the key features of Novell Data Synchronizer with GroupWise connector are:

1. Server-side synchronization: As users update information in apps and on mobile devices, the engine stores those changes in real time to allow other connected apps and devices to automatically access that data.
2. Application integration: Integration between enterprise and third-party apps eliminates the need to manually add the same information into multiple systems. Enter data once and multiple apps, devices and users have instant access from anywhere.
3. Many-to-many integration: Synchronization with Novell Data Synchronizer can be achieved from multiple applications to multiple targets.
4. Mobility integration: As users work from their mobile devices, data synchronizes back to their connected applications. Novell GroupWise email, calendars and contacts sync with a variety of mobile devices and operating systems including iPhone, Android, Symbian, Palm and Windows Mobile.
5. Extensible and highly configurable: Through Novell Data Synchronizer SDK and open API, administrators can customize existing connectors to fit their environments’ unique needs. These can be used internally in an organization or even provided as third party solutions.

Novell GroupWise users can get Novell Data Synchronizer access immediately with GroupWise connector availability starting today.  Stay tuned for integration with Novell Teaming later this fall.  Be sure to check out www.novell.com/products/data-synchronizer/  and happy synching!

Like most businesses, secure financial management and reliable customer service are keys to success in the banking industry. Synovus, a $33-billion dollar, multi-chartered financial services holding company has customers with 30 banks, which includes more than 300 offices and 467 ATMs throughout the Southern United States. Not only did the company cut associated IT costs by 80 percent, but they also reduced password-related helpdesk calls by 40 percent—meaning they are now able to deliver even more outstanding customer service.

Read our customer success story to learn how Synovus used Novell Identity Manager and Novell SecureLogin to automate and synchronize thousands of identities across all kinds of systems: human resources, FIS deposit and loan origination, homegrown banking applications, multiple directories, Novell GroupWise, as well as its corporate intranet and training software.

Also, listen to this podcast from Thomas Manley, Information Security Engineer at Synovus talk about how he used Novell’s integrated solutions to effectively manage user identities and access to get maximum value from their Novell investment.

Scheduled for general availability mid-year, you can be among the first to take this highly anticipated product for a spin. Go here to download the technology preview today.