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Access to intranet services
Each modern organization has several internal information systems (corporate databases, industry specific applications or Web-based intranet services) that provide business critical information and tools to their mobile employees. Teamware Mobile offers a secure wireless mobile access to them with adapted content and user interface suitable for use on small screens of mobile devices.
The Teamware Mobile Express is used to define and adapt the content of these services for easy use with a mobile device. The adapted content creates a mobile front-end that runs in Teamware Mobile and intermediates browser access to the back-end applications or systems. All end users need to do is to connect to the front-end using the browser application on the mobile device. Both authentication and adaptation of the content is performed automatically for the user.
Examples of such intranet services that are useful for mobile professionals located outside their office include CRM (Customer Relationship Management) or ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) systems, or company news or personnel directories with contact information.
Figure 1. An example of an intranet service accessed with a mobile device. Teamware Mobile adapts the content to the small screen of mobile devices.
Administration
Teamware Mobile provides an interactive user interface, Manager UI, for administering a Teamware Mobile installation. However, some configuration parameters of the system are changed by editing configuration files. Furthermore, there is an export/import utility for exporting object contents from the user repository and for creating into the repository objects by importing their contents.
Teamware Mobile server is installed on an Intel architecture based server that has the SuSe distribution of Linux. Installation includes also installation and configuration of e.g. JBoss and PostgreSQL. If needed, an SSL proxy is installed on a separate server. After installing, a private key and a public key certificate are created for – and set up in – the proxy to be used for server authentication in conjunction with establishing SSL connections. The proxy is then configured to intermediate IMAP, SMTP, and HTTP between the mobile clients and the Teamware Mobile server.
Teamware Mobile contains advanced user management features. User Tools provide means for searching, viewing, creating, modifying and deleting users. Administrators can modify user information e.g. user name, authentication information and user credentials.
Management of mobile mail access includes certain server-side configuration parameters that are updated by editing the configuration files. In addition to that, the User Tools provides the administrator with the means to see and update the parameter values in the mobile mail profile of users. These parameters include the connection point exposing the IMAP server where the user’s mailbox is located and the connection point exposing the SMTP server that shall be used by the Mail Proxy for delivering forward the messages that are sent to it by the user from her mobile device.
Figure 2. An example of Teamware Mobile Manager UI.
Administrators can also grant and revoke rights to access a user object. Removing a user object – and also disabling a user account – terminates automatically the current login sessions of that user. Furthermore, the User Tools enable administrators to create user objects.
Another part of the Manager UI, the Authentication Policy Tools, provides administrators with the means to add new back-end authentication policies, that is, policies that are used by Teamware Mobile components to authenticate on behalf of users for accessing back-end systems. The Connection Tools part of the Manager UI provides administrators with the means to manage connection points that are used for accessing the PIM databases that are referred to by the synchronization profiles of users.
The ready-to-use connectors that are provided by Teamware Mobile are installed in conjunction with installing Teamware mobile servers. Administrators can deploy new instances of those connectors by using the deployment tools of JBoss. Some of the connectors have configuration parameters that are updated by editing the respective configuration files.
The Session Tools part of the Manager UI provides administrators with the means to monitor login sessions including, for example, disabling and enabling the authentication policies that are used to authenticate users, searching and viewing details of current login sessions, and terminating chosen sessions.
Figure 3. An example view from the Session Tools.
Mobile device settings can be managed centrally with Terminal management service. Software and certificates can be easily installed to the mobile phones and software updated when new versions come available. Mobile phones can be easily configured for use with SMS messages. SMS based configuration includes definition of IMAP, SyncML and Internet access point settings. Teamware Mobile provides means to test back-end connectivity when configuration is defined. IMAP, SMTP and SyncServer connections can be tested from the phone.
Teamware Mobile has means to deal with situations when mobile devices get lost or stolen. In these situations security is maintained by protecting both the access to back-end and the data on the mobile phone. Administrators can easily disable user accounts to deny access from the lost device and/or send a poison pill that deletes all confidential data from the mobile phone. Thus confidential information is not compromised.
Technical Information
Teamware Mobile is a Java-based (J2EE) system running on Linux platform. It is based on common open standards (e.g. HTTP, XML, SyncML 1.0 and 1.1, IMAP, SMTP, JDBC, LDAP).
Teamware Mobile supports Teamware Office 6.1 or later, Novell GroupWise 6.5.3 or later, Lotus Notes/Domino 6.x, and Microsoft Exchange 2000 and 2003.
LDAP support enables user authentication against an external authentication server.
The functionality available on mobile devices depends on the device type and operating system. Teamware Mobile is designed for Symbian operating system (versions 7.0, 7.0s) Series 60 phones (e.g Nokia 7610, 6600, 6260), Series 80 phones (Nokia 9500, 9300) and UIQ phones (e.g. Sony Ericsson P900 and P910i, T630, K700). There may be limitations to availability of functionality in different phone models. We recommend checking the compatibility of phone models before acquisition.
A more limited set of functionality is available on a number of other mobile devices. Basic mail functionality is available on devices that have an IMAP-compatible mail client. Basic calendar synchronization works on SyncML-compatible devices.
Also supported are PDA devices that use Windows Mobile 2003 operating system (e.g. HP iPaq H2200 Series, Qtek 9090). Synthesis SyncML client 2.5 Standard Edition is required. The Synthesis client must be acquired separately.
Terminal Management requires a GSM modem (e.g. Wavecom Fastrack M1306B - GSM/GPRS Cl.10 Modem or Siemens MC35i Terminal).
Note that in Exchange environment a dedicated OWA (Outlook Web Access) front-end Exchange server might be needed.
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