Novell Touts IM, Spam Filters in GroupWise Beta

Upping the ante in its efforts to outclass rival Microsoft Exchange, Novell has begun beta testing GroupWise 6.5, the next release of its corporate e-mail, calendar and collaboration suite. Version 6.5, code-named "Hawthorn," introduces a more streamlined user interface, with a client that resembles Microsoft Outlook.

Corporate instant messaging has been added in 6.5, with improved security to protect conversations from outsiders. GroupWise Messenger does not appear in the current beta, however. The move by Novell follows AOL's recent announcement of Enterprise AIM, a secure IM service for businesses. Microsoft this week also announced a corporate IM solution dubbed MSN Messenger Connect.

Along with behind the firewall IM, SSL support can now be required by GroupWise administrators to ensure data is protected.

"In addition to improving security, we've revamped the user interface so GroupWise 6.5 customers will be able to more easily and intuitively manage their contacts, priorities and workload, on top of the ability to access their information anytime via a Web browser or PDA," said Novell's vice president of networking infrastructure products, Doug Knight.

Listening to feedback from customers, Novell has included a new junk mail feature in GroupWise 6.5 that filters out unwanted spam e-mail. Microsoft introduced such a feature in Outlook XP and the next version of Exchange, code-named Titanium, will support advanced spam filtering.

The beta version of GroupWise 6.5 is available for public download and a final release is expected early next year. Release notes have been posted with additional information on the beta. GroupWise 5 customers can receive a 30 percent discount and free upgrade to version 6.5 by migrating to GroupWise 6 by January 31.

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