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-------------------------------------------------------------- This story was printed from ZDNet Australia. --------------------------------------------------------------
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Corporate mobility: Six wireless e-mail packages tested June 03, 2003 URL: http://www.zdnet.com.au/reviews/software/internet/soa/Corporate-mobility-Six-wireless-e-mail-packages-tested/0,139023437,120274938,00.htm
 There's an abundance of wireless-capable devices and a growing number of networks to service them. How do you make your corporate e-mail available to staff when they're out of the office? 
For many years now we have come to take for granted the basic mobile telephone system in Australia, however this generally has been limited to voice calls and some very low bandwidth and high cost data transfers (9600bps at timed mobile phone rates in most cases). Many enterprises are now looking to take that mobile platform one step further by seeking a convergent solution that ensures most forms of data communication are portable such as e-mail, calendar/appointments, contact management, database records, company documents, faxes, and even presentations are available while on the move. Many of the software packages we review here allow communication between these types of applications and mobile devices. However for the purposes of this article, we will be restricting it to e-mail access via mobile devices. It should be noted that many of these applications include the facilities to synchronise or backup your data between the mobile device and devices such as the network server or your desktop PC. However, our interest in this article was in real-time access to information via wireless, not backup or synchronisation via a cradle or cable. Mobile devices come in several different form factors and many brands these days, from your mobile phone to your PDA, Tablet PCs right up to notebook PCs with wireless LAN or Bluetooth. Many of these devices have their own proprietary interface, especially mobile phones, and to some extent PDAs. Keeping this in mind, e-mail to mobile software has to be relatively platform-independent and highly configurable to enable an administrator to set it up to fit their individual users' devices. And just when IT managers thought that their lives were getting easier with standard operating environments (SOEs) and plug-and-play network appliances, someone must have decided that they can't be let off that easily. Another factor to consider when deploying e-mail to mobile applications is the type of data connection that the devices utilise to access the information. Firstly we will assume that the mobile workers need their devices to be wireless. You could argue that they can run into a nearby Internet café and access their Web-based e-mail via the systems provided there, or they can access the Web-based e-mail from a client's Internet connection, but these users are then not entirely using a mobile technology solution. Granted they themselves are mobile, but their hardware equipment is not. Therefore the mainstream wireless data connections that we utilised in this comparison are General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), Bluetooth, and Wireless LAN (WLAN) 802.11b, a, or g. Each data connection has its own specific devices and areas of application. GPRS is generally run across the mobile phone connection and effectively gives users access to the wide area network (WAN) for their e-mail. Bluetooth is predominantly for the mobile device to connect via a personal area network (PAN); range is generally effective up to 10 metres. Bluetooth is also utilised as the connection between the PDA or notebook and a Bluetooth-enabled mobile phone that then uses GPRS to access the network. And WLAN is utilised for mobile users either within their local office area or in one of the fast growing public hot spots--which work generally up to a 65-metre radius from the wireless access point. GPRS is the slowest and most expensive connection (at around 2c per KB upload or download) that would suit this type of e-mail access. It is however the most likely connection to be used by the truly mobile user who is on the road at the moment. Both Bluetooth and WLAN connections are generally limited to specific physical locations and have limited ranges but provide higher bandwidth connections up to 55Mbps. While it is true that GPRS is also limited to mobile carrier networks and towers that support GPRS services, most of metropolitan Australia is now covered by these services. In this article we looked at six applications, but there are plenty more available on the market that can create and handle interfaces between e-mail servers and mobile hardware. Here's how they went. Extended Systems XTNDConnect Server v3.6
The installation process includes general configuration of the application. This configuration is quite lengthy and involved so it would be advisable to set some time aside to work through it systematically. Once completed, and the server is up and running, there would be few configuration changes/modifications required. Of particular note to those IT managers with security on their minds--particularly when it involves accessing e-mail and data over the public Internet--Extend Connect offers a DMZ proxy software package that enables the XTNDConnect Server to access the data via a built-in firewall. If you currently only have a few mobile workers requiring access to their data while on the move, but are planning to scale up the number of staff on the move, then XTNDConnect Server may be the platform to suit you, particularly with its single- and multi-node installation options.
IBM Lotus Domino Everyplace Access v4.2
Due to the virtually unlimited configuration potential for this application, the actual configuration initially can seem quite overwhelming. However, it's structured in a way that if you are familiar with the standard Lotus Notes environment for routine configuration and administration tasks it will certainly be a lot more easier than trying to tackle one of the Microsoft Exchange-based packages on offer.
Due to its uniform standard interface accessed via Lotus Notes, the usability is very transparent. We found that all devices connected successfully to the environment via their supported interfaces. If you are familiar with Lotus Domino server and Lotus Notes, especially if your current environment utilises this combination, then this is the application for you.
Infowave Symmetry Pro Enterprise
The configuration wizard runs you through a few more basic questions, then runs an Exchange Server connection test before informing you that the software is installed, configured, and ready to go. Administration of this application is very straight forward, once the application control window has been opened from the program group there are only several options to select and edit to add/remove users and setup and administer their accounts. Symmetry Pro is a integrated package, however the reliance on the client software being installed on the users' desktop systems and also the client devices make it difficult for mobile workers who would like to use multiple mobile platforms to access their e-mail.
Microsoft Exchange Server 2003
Configuration and administration of users is very straightforward as this package, like most of the others in this review, makes use of the Active Directory services--it uses the standard Domain users. The application allows PDAs and phones running Microsoft Pocket PC to connect and synchronise directly to the Exchange Server, rather than via a desktop PC. This leaves Palm OS users slightly out in the dark, so if your organisation has a cross-platform PDA base it may be worthwhile considering an alternative application that supports both PDA OSes if you require this form of synchronisation. All is not lost for users of non-Microsoft devices, however. You can configure Exchange Server 2003 to run Outlook Web Access so devices running Palm or other OSes can access information via a Web or WAP browser.
If you are planning to add mobile worker e-mail facilities to your company's IT infrastructure and you are currently running Exchange 5.5 or 2000, then it may be worthwhile considering the migration to MS Exchange 2003 with the in-built mobile support. Before you do this, it's worthwhile undertaking an audit first to determine how many mobile devices in your organisation use Windows for Pocket PC, Palm, or other operating systems. The results may change your decision about which application is best suited to your company's needs today. Bear in mind too that this software has jusr been released and even though Microsoft spends big dollars, resources, and a lot of time testing its software before release, there may still be some issues that have not surfaced as yet.
Synchrologic Email Accelerator
During the last stages of the application installation there are a few quick questions to answer such as the name of the Exchange server, the full domain name path, the location and type of database being used, etc. Once the installation finishes, you can then start up the Synchrologic administration console. From here you can fine tune all the settings. The second and more commonly used administration interface is via the Web-based application tool. This allows users to individually customise their virtual workspaces and to add, remove, and configure their particular mobile devices with their own systems.
Synchrologic also has built in push-install capabilities for the synchronisation drivers for desktop PCs to sync with PDAs and mobile phones. Synchrologic's offering is the most straightforward of the six applications to install and administer, giving administrators the ability to delegate quite a large amount of configuration capabilities to the individual users, should they so wish. Therefore if your mobile workers are quite technically adept, then this may be the solution for you; certainly if you want to save some of your IT staff time from having to individually configure each mobile user's individual device.
Wireless Knowledge Workstyle Server Edition for Exchange v.4.0
The application installer initially prompts you for user information such as SQL admin and Exchange user information, then it populates its database and re-starts applications such as IIS, Exchange, and SMTP services.
The software installation was a bit muddled, and we felt the foundation software install/checking and the main installation could have been combined along with the integration of the service pack. However this is offset somewhat by the ease of configuration and administration. While this may not be the most fully-featured package out there, it certainly does the task of e-mail to mobile with some synchronisation ability. There is a version of Workstyle Server available that runs under Lotus Domino too, so if you are in an organisation that supports both Exchange and Domino, this may at least provide some form of standardisation for your mobile device support.
Specifications
How we tested
RMIT IT Test Labs is an independent testing institution based in Melbourne, Victoria, performing IT product testing for clients such as IBM, Coles-Myer, and a wide variety of government bodies. In the Labs’ testing for Technology & Business, they are in direct contact with the clients supplying products. Their findings are their own—only the specifications of the products to be tested are provided by the magazine. For more information on RMIT, please contact the Lab Manager, Steven Turvey. Final wordsIn conclusion, if your business has staff people out on the road and you are currently running your mail server in-house, then it may be worth considering the move to enable your employees to receive and send their e-mail when they are out in the field. This leads to faster response times to client queries, and cuts down on company to mobile phone expenditure, particularly when it is a call from someone in the office to pass messages on or find out where the mobile worker is or what stage a particular job is up to when a simple e-mail would suffice. Subscribe now to Australian Technology & Business magazine.
Copyright © 2009 CBS Interactive, a CBS Company. All Rights Reserved. |
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Extended Systems' installation routine is almost as easy as Synchrologic's installation. However due to the number of deployment options available, it can get difficult unless you read and understand all of the documentation prior to installation. Once you understand all the options, the chosen installation path is very clearly and helpfully displayed.
Lotus Domino Everyplace Access installs on a base system that can be running a normal desktop operating system such as Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional. Installation was very straightforward, integrating seamlessly with Domino, however the configuration can prove to be a little more of a handful.
In fact, part of the configuration involves some of the initial administration. This means that the configuration settings and administration settings can easily be fine tuned per-user and per-device. There was excellent in-built support for individual mobile devices.
Before you install Symmetry Pro, you need to create and re-permission a user account on your Exchange server, following the pre-installation instructions bundled in the downloaded zip file from Infowave. Once that's done, there is then a utility provided that checks the system software status prior to running the main installation/setup application. After a relatively quick install routine, the configuration wizard pops up.
Microsoft previously had a separate application called Mobile Information Server 2002, which plugged into Exchange Server 5.5 or 2000 and allowed mobile users to connect to their e-mail, calendar and other Exchange data (see www.microsoft.com/miserver). This functionality has now been incorporated into Microsoft Exchange Server 2003, which was at Beta 2 stage of development at time of writing. Microsoft submitted Beta versions of Exchange Server 2003 and the Windows Server 2003 operating system, so keep in mind that there may be some changes when the final version is released.
The mobile client interface is very refined and also mimics the standard front end found on recent desktop releases of MS Outlook. Companies looking for an easier staff migration to a mobile solution may find that this familiarity saves some time in training and perhaps help desk calls.
Out of all six e-mail-to-mobile application packages we looked at, Email Accelerator seems to have been the most straightforward. Mind you, it requires/recommends Microsoft Windows 2000 Server, Exchange 2000, SQL Server 2000, and all their applicable patches to be installed. However once the operating system and applications have been installed and configured as per the pre-installation guide, the actual application installation is very smooth.
The interface for accessing your e-mail is very similar to most browser-accessed e-mail applications. One point to note though is a quirky setting: when you click on the "home" button, the local weather for your personal suburb/location is displayed. This does not change depending on where you are at the time you're accessing your e-mail, but is based on your user login address details.
Workstyle Server Edition is installed in two parts. Once you have ensured that your server hardware platform is compliant and have the Microsoft 2000 Server operating system and Exchange applications installed, patched, and configured to Wireless Knowledge's instructions, you run the Workstyle Foundation software setup application. This installs several other Microsoft applications and patches that are required to run Workstyle Server. Once the foundation setup is complete, you can then proceed to load the actual application itself by running the separate installer program.
Wireless Knowledge has released a separate service pack for Workstyle--we found it a little strange that the service pack had not been applied to the application that was available for download. After you install the service pack, you can launch the configuration/administration wizard. Interestingly, Workstyle requires you to authenticate yourself when opening it up to perform configuration and administration tasks; it doesn't rely on your Active Directory to determine you are who you say you are. Once the wizard is completed, then the administration console is available for use--it gives you the function to add and remove mail servers and also the ability to create and remove users. You can import new users from a tab-delimited file, which can be handy if migrating from another application. Of all the applications we reviewed, Workstyle server was the most straightforward to configure and to administer.