Intranet Journal
The online resource for intranet professionals

Groove and Microsoft Take Office Out of the Office

7/16/03

Groove Networks is getting its groove on with Microsoft's SharePoint in a pairing that brings big benefits to mobile intranet users. Separately, each product has a lot to offer, but together they offer an ideal solution for mobile professionals that neither alone can provide.

If you're not familiar with Microsoft's SharePoint Team Services, they're a set of tools bundled in with Frontpage 2002 and Office XP developer edition that let users easily create centralized document repositories for online collaboration. While the idea wasn't new, the twist was how simple Microsoft made the process. With SharePoint, any team could have an impromptu online space to store and exchange documents in minutes.

Groove Networks, on the other hand, is well known for Groove Workspace, an online tool that lets workers create virtual meeting spaces. Groove Workspace gives people a place to work on collaborative documents, host meetings, and keep track of projects.

The two products complement each other nicely, and it was only a matter of time before Groove and Microsoft brought them together in version 2.5 of Groove's Workspace product. Microsoft, by the way, is an investor in Groove Networks. The two companies have collaborated quite a bit since Microsoft's initial investment in Groove in October, 2001. In addition to SharePoint and Office, Groove has been involved with projects for Microsoft's Tablet PC and Visual Studio .NET.

SharePoint is a within-the-firewall product, so by working with Groove it gains the ability to securely serve documents to mobile workers. Groove Workspace doesn't have document management features, so it gains an entirely new valuable function.

To combine these two tools, users will need to have a SharePoint site already created and will need Groove Workspace Professional Edition version 2.5. Use Groove Mobile Workspace for SharePoint, a standard toolset included in that version of Groove. It's far easier to administer than a VPN or other protected solution.

When starting out, a Groove wizard walks you through the process of created an online meeting space that works with SharePoint.

Groove can work securely through firewalls because it only exchanges encryption keys with trusted Groove Workspace users. It can access locally all the documents stored on your SharePoint site, then pass them securely to remote workers.

The Groove/SharePoint combination is a smart one for anyone who regularly meets with outside clients and worries about having the latest versions of documents on hand. Don't know if the sales figures have been updated? Don't worry — the current version is always available.

That collaboration is only half the news, though. Groove Networks and Microsoft have already announced the next level of the Groove/SharePoint collaboration, due out later this year. For this, users will need to have the next iteration of Office, Windows Server 2003, and the upcoming major release of Groove Workspace. The collaboration will offer two useful new features: document librarian and an integration with InfoPath, a new Office tool.

InfoPath is a desktop XML form creation tool that will let users build robust forms that link to databases. Groove, in turn, will let users carry these form libraries in their Groove Workspaces, fill in the forms on the go (for example, when meeting with clients), then have the answers automatically synchronized with a central database when the user returns to his or her office.

Schedule data from your SharePoint site will automatically be duplicated on your Groove meeting place.

The document librarian will add a check-in/check-out feature to the SharePoint Portal Server 2.0 (part of Office 2003 and a separate product from Windows SharePoint Services). If you've ever had a colleague unknowingly overwrite your changes to a document, you know what a boon this will be.

Groove Networks and Microsoft are collaborating so that you can collaborate better with your fellow team workers wherever you might roam.