OSNews

Websites section. This section is where the administrator would modify the Group-Office site itself. It is one module that would normally be left out for other users on the site. They do, however, give a nice introduction into the methodology of setting up the site and changing it around in the on line help file. E-mail is really simple in Group-Office, you can setup POP accounts for each user and they can use them. Groups and others can also be setup in email. The interface is very simple and straightforward, however, when editing a message it does open a new window with many options for fonts, colors, etc. I personally do not agree with the whole color in email or different embedded fonts, as I like to be kind to my fellow email readers, but the options are there.

Files is a nice touch. The files menu contains a subtree like Meany with icons at the top. The tree is basically your directory on the server, and you can make folders, upload, delete, add, share, copy, email, search for, compress and uncompress files. It is simplistic, and each file shown has size, date modified, name a type. There is a also a tree for browsing and jumping through your file hierarchy in the left.

The notes section is where you can place a text note of any kind, but you can also associate read a write privileges to other groups in the system, thereby sharing the note. I note here that the editor for the note is the same as that of email and projects. You can also associate a due date and responsible person for any note in the window for editing notes.

The projects section is just what the name implies, projects. You can create projects and associate them with clients, employees, have start and end dates, status (offer, ongoing, waiting, done, billed), probability (I like that one), and a budget. Comments can be placed in the project also. After the project is created, the user can enter data for the project, add notes, and of course set read and write permissions so that others can read or write to that project. This is probably the second most important feature of the group office (at least in my mind) and just like the rest of Group-Office it is simple and straightforward. There is also a search function on it, but essentially it searches Google for you.

I have used the system for a few weeks at the house to write myself notes, store and share files and access some bookmarks and such from school. I also actually used the projects section to list some of the projects I had ongoing in my Ph.D. classes. It works nicely, and as I have stated before, in my mind the strong point of the system is its simplicity and ease of use. The average user should not be confused by this system and I add also that it is more than intuitive in nature due to the limited number of useless options (if any). I have used other group ware type suites and have used a combination of many independent programs to do the same thing (email, projects, calendar, file manager) and I can say that this could prove very useful for the corporate area. For a company with no such suite, Group-Office can be a simple and easy way to manage projects, get people using a centralized system where backups can be done easily and have all of the information for contacts, etc in an SQL database (which could be mined, etc by outside means if needed).

I would like to also note that this is a project on sourceforge, and being as it is mostly written in PHP, a PHP savvy administrator could tailer this further to their needs if need be. I found little wrong with the system, besides my harboring on and on about the help file. This could be fixed or ignored.

Group-Office has on line demos and they also have a 30 day trial, see http://www.group-office.com
The Sourceforge project page is at http://sourceforge.net/projects/group-office/
Intermesh can be found at http://www.intermesh.nl.