Novell Vibe

The platform of collective work of new generation consisting of products with the former names Novell Pulse and Novell Teaming offers the enterprises an opportunity of creation of solutions on the basis of a cloud or in the local environment.

The version of Novell Vibe Cloud (earlier known under the name Pulse) is based on modern "cloud" technologies. Novell Vibe OnPrem (the former name – Novell Teaming) represents more traditional solution intended for deployment on the local equipment. The client enterprises will be able to select that option which in the greatest measure corresponds to their specific requirements.

on November 16, 2010 the Novell Company announced release of the beta of the platform of collective work new generation of Novell Vibe. To take part in the program of beta testing, be registered on http://vibe.novell.com (Novell Vibe Cloud) or http://novell.com/beta (Novell Vibe OnPrem)."'

Novell Vibe Cloud

In Novell Vibe Cloud emphasis is placed on the speed, simplicity, joint work online and safe interaction between the organizations. More than 7500 alpha users find new methods to gather, to create and work together ― from brainstorming before development of business strategy. Are a part of Novell Vibe Cloud:

• Corporate social networks – user-to-user messaging, chats, blogs and the Wiki in the uniform, unified flow of messages that does information visual and supporting response.
• On-line joint editing documents in real time - allows to make and edit collectively documents online, considerably accelerating obtaining results and excepting the errors characteristic of traditional iterative processes of editing.
• The general access to files - synchronization between local and cloud services guarantees to users work with the latests version of documents.
• Special groups and communication - simplify process of creation of groups and the invitation to cooperation, giving an opportunity to users as inside, and out of the organization collectively to generate the ideas, to quickly receive a feedback and to quickly resolve issues.

Vibe Cloud will provide to the organization a single platform for deployment, service and operation of corporate social networks. The list of key features of a product includes abilities to manage profiles of employees and tapes of activity, the organization of communication in the chat mode, support of blogs and the Wiki resources and also means for joint editing documents in real time, file sharing and formation of the working groups. Using the administrative tools which are included in the delivery, IT specialists will be able to manage internal social networks, to be engaged in monitoring of activity of employees and to solve other problems.

Part of the listed functions can be found also in the product Vibe OnPrem, however the "local" version of the platform is focused on the organization of effective working spaces, business process automation and content management to a large extent.

In the future developers intend to provide close compatibility of the products with Microsoft Office applications. Thus, the staff of the organizations will be able to export and import documents between Novell Vibe and one of the most widespread sets of office tools. Novell is also going to provide to third-party developers all necessary for development of compact applications for the Vibe platform.

Novell Vibe represents the new platform of interaction on which the best solutions for maintenance of business contacts and collective work in the market which were called before according to Novell Pulse and Novell Teaming function. This platform helps users to be aware of news, to exchange the ideas and also it is easy to establish connection and to interact with colleagues, clients and partners. Using Vibe they can invite experts in groups and working circles, quicker execute collective projects, make decisions more quickly and work jointly on documents. Customers can select a product which in the best way corresponds to their requirements - Novell Vibe Cloud or Novell Vibe OnPrem. Over time Novell Vibe Cloud and Novell Vibe OnPrem will approach on the functionality, but so far each version has a number of distinctive features.

Novell Vibe OnPrem

Using Novell Vibe OnPrem of a user group can create the configured working spaces, forms and processes. Customers of Novell Vibe OnPrem have a checked system of collective work for storage of knowledge and information management in corporate network or beyond its limits. Are a part of Novell Vibe OnPrem:

• Group working spaces ― digital office in which physically separate team members can gather online and coordinate efforts, implement the professional skills and exchange information and resources on specific projects.
• The automated workflows and the configured forms - the integrated tools, templates and forms allow to create quickly documents and business processes for more effective interaction and achievement of the best results.
• Content management ― document storage, correspondences and the collective knowledge relating to specific groups in one safe work area with an opportunity is easy to find and use them at any time.
• Possibility of independent creation of the working groups ― the powerful tool for the organization of joint work which is under control of IT department and intended for ensuring internal and external interaction.

The version for local installation of Vibe OnPrem will appear until the end of 2010. Will begin to offer cloud edition Novell in the first half of the following.

Novell Vibe 3.2

The Novell company submitted in November, 2011 the new version of the Vibe 3.2 service which ensures collective functioning of staff of the organization with use of both stationary jobs, and mobile terminals. Besides, in the new version of Vibe enhanced capabilities for access control to files, for creation of polls, for creation of landing pages and other functions are implemented.

The new version of service is constructed based on the platform of version 3.1, offering a number of important differences, especially regarding mobile access. It is remarkable that developers promise to start even more new features in the next version of Novell Vibe which will be issued in the winter. In particular, in the next version implementation of offline synchronization between individual working environments of Vibe and also a new superstructure for Microsoft Office applications is planned.

It is worth describing in more detail differences of Novell Vibe 3.2 service from the previous version. In particular, developers pay special attention on new mobile applications for the devices iPhone and Android smartphones – if before users got mobile access to the individual working environments of Novell Vibe through the web interface, then now these mobile applications for iPhone and Android are offered these users. Besides, for even more convenient mobile access the user can store registration data for one or several accounts in the different websites Vibe directly on the mobile device.

As for file management, improvements in the version of Vibe 3.2 help to cope even with big and fast-growing amount of data. In particular, now it is possible to include and turn off control of versions of files, to set the maximum quantity of the saved versions of the file, to set automatic removal of old versions and also to delete at once several versions of the file with one command. At last, the possibility of installation of restrictions for the size of files appeared.

In the new version of the Novell Vibe 3.2 platform additional opportunities for work with landing pages and tasks are implemented. Developers note that the frequent release of new versions helps to implement small, but very demanded changes with each new version. In particular, in response to requests of users convenient formatting of tables, a background, flowers and images on pages is implemented. Also members of the working groups can trace better a status of team work due to expanded synchronization of the calendar and tasks from the Novell Vibe environment in the system of collective work Novell GroupWise now.

The additional flexibility during creation of polls is provided by the simple, but absent earlier opportunity to quickly move questions to the list up and down. Steps in the created procedures of document flow can dynamically change on the basis of the value entered into a certain field on the previous step now. Besides, the procedure can change values in fields now.

In addition It should be noted a number of purely esthetic changes – some functions are made more convenient, plus execution of the system notifications sent by e-mail became fresher and modern.

Novell Vibe 3.3

The main advantage of this version consists in transparent integration with packets of Microsoft Office 2010 and 2007. This integration facilitates to people accomplishment of routine tasks using usual tools, and now it is easy to share results of work with colleagues in the command. Also as a part of Novell Vibe 3.3 the special desktop client of Novell Vibe Desktop who provides access to documents without connection to network and synchronization of changes for all files saved in a working environment of Vibe is provided.

The mobility, social tools and search of ways to increase in productivity force modern business to change the principles of the work quickly. The Novell Vibe technology offers users all necessary for the solution of relevant tasks, in any place. Thanks to mobile applications for Android/iPhone and to tapes of social activity the Novell Vibe system offers rich feature set for collective work where it is necessary for the client. Moreover, the new superstructure of Novell Vibe Add-in for Microsoft Office helps users to open, edit and save the Word, Excel and PowerPoint files directly in the working environment of Vibe. This superstructure also supports joint work with documents: the tape of comments on the air helps with discussion and decision making on contents of the document; each user can edit the file, and changes of other users are available to a preview and an approval/deviation; all group can see a document history and compare versions.

One more important innovation in Novell Vibe 3.3 is the desktop client of Vibe Desktop who provides offline access to files and synchronization of changes of files at the following connection. It is enough to users to load to itself Vibe Desktop, and then to connect and synchronize any folders and files from the working environment of Novell Vibe in the local machine. From this point it is possible to address documents in a standalone mode, and all made changes will be automatically synchronized between the local PC and the Vibe environment as soon as the machine is connected to network again.

Though Novell Vibe 3.3 represents the independent platform, it can work with any standard system of e-mail. Also the closest integration with the Novell GroupWise 2012 system so users can freely work with content in the Vibe and GroupWise systems via one interface is supported. Thus, the gap between personal and team work that employees could use all the working time more effectively is eliminated.