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What’s New in Novell Vibe 3.3
Most major networking vendors have extended their portfolios with a collaboration tools. Citrix has a suite of products like GoToMeeting and the recently acquired Podio. Cisco has Unified Communications, Jabber and WebEx. Novell has Vibe.
Novell has released a new version of Vibe that includes several new features like custom workpaces, which allows users to create threaded discussions around a topic, integrations with Groupwise and Microsoft Office and new mobile applications for iPhone and Android. It seems Novell was very focused on enticing users to more deeply integrate Vibe into their normal work streams in this release, which is a good strategy for ensuring the platform has better staying power with customers.
Office Integration is Key
Novell added a new Novell Vibe Add-In for Microsoft Office that allows users to open, modify and save Office documents directly from Vibe. The new feature also allows users to collaborate on documents via a live comment stream, notification on edits and version history.
Work Online and Offline
In addition to the new Office integration, Novell included Vibe Desktop, an offline access and file synchronization tool. With Vibe Desktop, users can work while disconnected and have the content automatically synched once they are connected.
Tight with GroupWise
Vibe works with most popular business email platforms, but has especially tight integration with Novell’s GroupWise 2012. This allows users to use one tool to access Vibe and GroupWise content. Novell also said it will make additional enhancements to the previous release of Vibe, version 3.2, this winter.
Additional Information
It will be interesting to see if Novell’s latest round of enhancements helps the company gain any additional market share.
The latest release of Novell Vibe is available now for US$ 81 per user. Additional details about Vibe, samples, help videos and how-to articles are available in the Vibe Resource Library site. In addition, Novell has created a Vibe demo site potential customers can use try Vibe without installing it locally.
