The beginning of a new year is a good time to look ahead in time. So let’s have a look at what the future holds for Teamware Office. As a general rule, there will be one major release each year in the spring complemented by a supplementary release in the autumn.

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The next major release will be Teamware Office v 6.1 ed 1 in late spring 2004. Space permits only highlighting some of the most interesting enhancements among the several dozen new features and enhancements. The key enhancement areas include security, effective use of information, new client and server features. Teamware Office v 6.1 will replace the existing anti-virus connector with two new options: Symantec (all platforms, database and real-time scan) and F-Secure (Linux, database scan). POP/IMAP4 over SSL makes secure connections from remote devices possible.

Several enhancements in WebService, Windows clients and Offline will make use of information more effective. WebService continues approaching Windows clients in level of functionality. WebService will include several new features such as download messages, copied mail, modify permissions to mailbox and enhanced integration between the services. A new plug-in toolbar for MS Internet Explorer introduces checks for new mail and latest messages in Forum, and other useful features.

Secure mail items will be shown with icons in mailbox list. The attachment bar in Windows clients will show details of attached files. New settings are introduced for preventing autoreply loops and viewing selected header information in the Mail client message area.

Offline Mail will provide search capability and a new Offline Calendar functionality is introduced. This functionality allows downloading and viewing information in selected calendars. Among other enhancement we can mention support for Windows 2003 server, LDAP API in Linux, mailbox size limit enhancement and publishing of a XML API.

Spring 2004 will also bring enhanced support for mobile users. The launch of “Integration server” will provide secure remote access to Mail, Calendar and Teamware Office WebService and Teamware Pl@za.

A number of new features are currently under investigation and depending on the results can be listed as candidates for either v 6.1 ed 1a (autumn 2004) or v 7.0 ed 1 (spring 2005). These include mail archiving, support for new smart cards and single sign on, WebService Calendar enhancements, enhancements in mail filters and many more.

Years 2005 and 2006

The next major release after v 6.1 is targeted to spring 2005 and is called v 7.0 ed 1. Teamware Office v 7.0 will introduce affinity to J2EE environment in order to enable seamless connectivity between server functions and J2EE environments. This will be made possible by utilizing a MVC programming model enabling the use of an XML interface and portlets. The portlet-based component approach will make it easier to integrate Teamware Office to enterprise information portals and other compatible applications.

Looking at year 2006 we envision a next generation Teamware Office with architectural changes, high integration capabilities, real time communication and secure mobile connectivity. The renewed Teamware Office will address the needs of modern users enabling them to work more productively anytime anywhere.