Teamware and Novell announced today a strategic partnership and joint agreement whereby Novell can offer customers access to corporate collaboration systems and information assets, anytime and anywhere. Teamware Mobile™ for Novell GroupWise - powered by SUSE Linux will be available by the end of 2004 from Novell and Novell's business partners, and extends the benefits of the existing GroupWise system to support a wide range of mobile workers.

Teamware Mobile provides E-Mail, calendaring and enterprise portal access to employees where mobility is part and parcel of daily life. Working whilst on the road, whether part of senior management or as a corporate employee, has always been a major challenge, but mobile devices including the latest smartphones, combined with this new capability can ensure increased efficiency and communication 24 hours a day.

Remote workers are increasingly required to stay in contact with the office. Work routines are changing, and this can now be supported by utilizing wireless connectivity. Teamware Mobile frees mobile workers from the desktop by offering wireless access to enterprise information systems and collaboration tools irrespective of their location. E-Mail and calendar services are automatically and securely available over a choice of mobile network and smartphones. The applications start as soon as the mobile device is switched on. E-Mail and calendar information are actively delivered to the device, without any need to manually search or retrieve.

'This is an excellent solution for making use of what was previously "dead time" during travel. Even short taxi journeys can now be used to keep up to date with urgent issues, so you can arrive at the office without having to start by reading E-Mail, enabling people to get stuck straight into the day’s work,' said Rauno Toivonen, CEO of Teamware Group. 'To ensure a reliable service, we required a secure and reliable enterprise infrastructure, hence the decision to use Novell's SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server 9 as the host platform.'

'Teamware Mobile for Novell GroupWise is the first Linux based GroupWise mobile solution,' said Johan Rosius, Vice President of Alliances for Novell EMEA. 'Mobile E-Mail and calendar access have become a standard requirement for us and our customers. Thanks to this partnership, and the standards-based solution, customers get more out of their GroupWise investments'.

Teamware Mobile for Novell GroupWise supports GroupWise 6.5.3 or later, and is based on common open standards, making it easy to integrate with existing corporate systems. 'We are excited about what we have achieved so far with GroupWise integration,' added Toivonen, 'and as we move forward with product development, we are continually looking at new capabilities, with further integration with Novell's eDirectory already planned.'

'It's very good to see there is a growing number of GroupWise Partners like Teamware combining their in-depth knowledge of the mobile market with the rock-solid architecture of GroupWise,' said Erno de Korte, independent consultant and co-organizer of the First European GroupWise Summit. 'Teamware Mobile is an excellent example of one of the many GroupWise extensions, based on the newest techniques to connect mobile devices to GroupWise and running on what might very well be the break-through Linux server-platform.'

Teamware Mobile is designed for Series 60 and UIQ devices that use the Symbian operating system, but the basic E-Mail functions – sending and receiving messages - also work in devices that support IMAP. In addition, basic calendar synchronization is available for all mobile devices that implement the SyncML standard. Symbian continues to dominate the voice-centric mobile device market, with a 94% market share in EMEA and a 41% market share worldwide (source: Canalys, Mobile Device Market 2004).