Product Reviews
Get Your Groove On
Remote collaboration moves forward with Groove Virtual Office's many workflow tools.
The world of work has changed dramatically. Different people from
different groups in different companies work together on projects
from just about anywhere. Telecommuters work from home almost as
easily as they do in the office. Traveling executives have virtually
the same access to their data on the road as in the office. The
Internet is the key to this brave new world. It's inexpensive, it's
widely available and finally -- it's relatively fast.
While the concept of working anywhere continues to expand, the
main problem is shared resources. For remote workers, common
office infrastructure is absent -- the tangible aspects like file
servers and conference rooms and the intangibles like water cooler
conversations and drive-by decisions. Without these elements,
remote collaboration can be difficult. You may find yourself
setting up your own FTP servers, looking at free teleconferencing
services and so forth.
It's especially tough for people from different organizations
working on the same project, or independent contractors and freelancers
with no shared infrastructure in the first place. I've just started
writing an advanced scripting book with another independent consultant
like me. We needed a way to pass files back and forth, leave
one another notes, organize sample scripts and other tasks related
to the project. That's easy enough to do in an office, but it
can be tough when you're separated by an entire continent. Groove
helped us work "together" across miles and time zones
Groovy Baby
Enter Groove Virtual Office. Groove is an Internet-based service providing
version-controlled file sharing, message boards, online meeting space and
instant messaging, among other things. It is built to make online collaboration
easier and more efficient -- duplicating what you can do in a physical office
environment to the greatest possible extent.
There are several editions of Groove Virtual Office -- File
Sharing, Professional and Project. Besides file sharing, the File
Sharing Edition provides discussion boards, a shared calendar, sketchpad,
notepad and offline folder synchronization. The Professional edition
adds basic task management, Microsoft SharePoint integration, custom
forms creation for collecting data, document review workflows and
virtual meetings. The Project edition finishes off with a Microsoft
Project-like graphical project timeline, dashboards, Microsoft Project
integration, resource allocation and some other project management
functions. There's also a Trial Edition that offers a limited feature
set for 60 days.
Installing Groove 3.1 is straightforward and only takes a few
minutes. If you have an activation key for a fully licensed edition,
you can apply it right after installation. You'll be prompted
to establish a Groove account, which you can set up to work from
multiple computers. This means you can use Groove to access your
workspace from your work laptop and home desktop computer, for
example.
You start using Groove Virtual Office by creating a new Workspace
(unless you're joining a Workspace someone else has already created).
For a file-sharing workspace, Groove will create a corresponding
folder on your local computer (or let you choose an existing
folder). This is where Groove synchronizes Workspace files with
your local computer for offline use.
The Workspace is the basis for Groove's operations. You can
send messages to other Workspace members, invite other Groove
users into your Workspace, add other computers to the Workspace
and so on (see Figure 1). Right now, you can send Groove
invitations via e-mail or AOL Instant Messenger. With Microsoft's
recent acquisition of Groove Networks, I expect Windows Messenger
or MSN Messenger will be added in the near future.
 |
| Figure 1. From the Groove Workspace, you can invite other users
to work in your space. (Click image to view larger version.) |
Integrating Groove with Microsoft Office or any other application
is a no-brainer. Simply open the Workspace-related folder on
your local computer. Then you can create new files, open and
edit existing ones, and whatever else you need to do. Groove
will automatically synchronize any changes back to the Workspace,
so it works without any annoying Office add-ins.
| REDMOND
RATING |
Documentation 20% |
9 |
Installation 20% |
9 |
Feature
Set 40% |
8 |
Performance 20% |
9 |
Overall
Rating: |
8.6 |
—————————————————
Key:
1: Virtually inoperable or nonexistent
5: Average, performs adequately
10: Exceptional
|
|
|
You can configure Groove to display a Messenger-like alert whenever
any changes occur in the Workspace, which helps you keep on top
of project changes. Groove can also assign roles for participants—such
as Manager, Participant and Guest—to which you can set Workspace
permissions. This means you can let Workspace members view certain
documents, for example, but not make any changes or revisions.
Ready, Set, Interact
There are a number of services that provide
file sharing capabilities like Groove. What makes Groove unique
is its built-in interaction capabilities. Groove provides discussion
board messaging, which allows complex text conversations between
people or groups within a Workspace. Participants can use both
text and audio chat capabilities for instant interaction and
even save a transcript of text chats for archival purposes. The
Discussion feature integrated with Microsoft Outlook lets you
use one or more existing e-mail messages as a starting point
for a Groove-based discussion.
Groove has a shared Sketchpad feature, which works like an online
whiteboard. This lets you share simple graphic concepts with
other Workspace members. You can also set up your Workspace to
have shared contact lists (you can even import contacts from
Outlook) and a shared calendar. It also provides built-in instant
messaging.
The document-review workflow is helpful. Simply right-clicking
a document you've added lets you review that document. You can
also specify other reviewers from the list of Workspace members.
Reviewers are notified via a Groove message. They can then look
at the document, mark it up, make comments and ultimately approve
it.
Through integration with Microsoft SharePoint, a Groove Workspace
can become a Groove "Mobile Workspace for SharePoint," where
the Workspace data is synchronized to a SharePoint site. This
essentially uses Groove to Internet-enable SharePoint. It extends
the reach of what has typically been an intranet-only SharePoint
site to Workspace members, who may not otherwise have access
to that intranet. Groove even supports SharePoint's embedded
Microsoft InfoPath forms through Groove's own form-builder and
form-filler features. This lets you use Workspaces as data collection
tools.
| Groove
a la Carte |
You can get as much Groove
as you need. Besides the Client Editions
which cost anywhere from $69 to $229 per
user, there are several server products as
well. Here's a look at the
complete pricing schema:
- Enterprise Management Server: $23,995
- Enterprise Relay Server: $14,995
- Enterprise Auditing Service for the Management
Server: $4,995, plus $49 per user per year
Service Access License
- Enterprise Backup Service: $9,995, plus
$19 per user per year Service Access License
- Enterprise Data Bridge: $9,995
- Enterprise Data Bridge for CASAHL ecKnowledge:
$24,995, plus $25 per user per year Service
Access License
- Enterprise XMPP Proxy: $19,995
Groove also provides hosted services. Hosted
Relay Services are $40 per user, per year,
and Hosted Relay and Management Services |
|
|
Another major aspect of Groove is its online meeting management. You
can use it to create meeting agendas, action items, and record meeting
minutes. You can also publish meetings to Workspace members' Outlook
schedules and use Microsoft NetMeeting to actually hold the meeting.
Another result of Microsoft's recent acquisition of Groove will most
likely be some sort of Microsoft LiveMeeting integration.
Note that Groove doesn't actually provide the infrastructure to
hold the meeting—;apart from launching NetMeeting. It doesn't
provide conference-calling, video or similar features. The meeting
tools help you organize meetings and record minutes. They also help
you make those elements (agenda, action items, and so on) available
to other Workspace members.
Get into the Groove
If you're working with a geographically dispersed team and don't
have Microsoft SharePoint Server—which provides many of the same
features as Groove to an intranet environment—then using Groove
is an excellent way to bring all your project files, contacts, schedules,
and other data into a single, shared workspace.
The tool's straightforward user interface makes it easy to use,
and its configurable alerts help ensure that everyone is kept informed
and actively participating at all times. Groove's core file-sharing
and review-workflow functionality is extremely valuable. Coupling
that with meeting organization tools, discussion boards, instant
messaging, and basic chat features helps provide a reasonable facsimile
of the interaction you'd get in a physical office. For the price
(much less than building a branch office), Groove bundles a lot
of functionality into one well-integrated product.