*Our Client is a leading IT consultancy services organization based in Tokyo,
Japan. The company observed the growing need among medium and large sized
enterprises to coordinate and synchronize internal operations among large
teams for efficient manageability. The larger the team size greater is the
probability of mismanagement and lack of coordination. In its effort to prevent
this situation, *Our Client. conceived the idea of a groupware that would
allow team members and co-workers to manage and schedule tasks, proactively.
The solution had to be developed as an integrated Web enabled groupware that
could be ported on mobile devices as well as PCs. This would allow enhanced
manageability of operations through continuous and global data accessibility.
Workgroups would be well informed about the regular tasks that they would
need to perform. With increased coordination, managers would be able to track
and manage projects effectively, at reduced costs.
With these considerations, *Our Client., ventured with Icreon to develop a
comprehensive groupware to perform enterprise critical operations. The objective
was not only to develop an integrated groupware, but also to make it accessible
over multiple platforms.
Enterprise Computing for Effective Manageability
of Operations
During the initial stages of the project, we at realized that data was required
to be accessible over public channels or the Internet. Consequently, security
was a major concern for this project. Besides this, we had to ensure that
Groupware Manager was customizable by end-users to suit their business requirements.
For us, the key areas of focus were:
Seamless and
secure data access
Multi platform
support
Multi lingual
and multi terminal support
Net-ready mobile
phones support
Highly secure
& reliable data access
Customized
and user-friendly front-end
After extensive research on the technology alternates, the teams at Icreon
and *Our Client decided to setup a 3-tier architecture for Groupware Manager
using HTML, PHP and MySQL to retrieve, store and present data.
Solution
Benefits
Enhanced monitoring
and management of operations
Fully customizable
Cross-platform
(Mobile Devices/PC) portability, accessibility and support
Centralized
management driven by reliable & high-speed database access
Multilingual
(English/Japanese)
Integrated
e-mail services that provide multiple POP3 access
Technologies & Platforms
PHP
HTML
MySQL
i-mode
EZWeb
WAP
Jphone
Windows
Linux
Solaris
Macintosh
Apache Server
IIS Server
Requirement
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IMPORTANT:
Due to a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) with *Our Client, the
names of the solution and the client have been changed. All
changed names have been prefixed with an asterisk (*). |
*Groupware
Manager- Integrated Suite of Web based applications
*Our Client., planned to develop a groupware of Web enabled
applications for information and knowledge sharing between
workgroups. Its intended targets were medium & large sized
organizations. *Our Client required a comprehensive enterprise
computing solution, providing multi-platform, multi-protocol
support. Icreon developed Groupware Manager for *Our Client.,
to provide enterprises with high-end tracking and management
capabilities, along with the ability to synchronize and manage
activities for mobile workers. As an integrated groupware,
Groupware Manager enables workgroups to reduce project costs,
improve staff efficiency, and foster an appropriate change
in business culture and profitability.
Customer Profile
A leading IT consulting organization based in Japan, *Our
Client., provides consultancy services to organizations in
the field of content management, online education systems,
broadband, e-commerce and mobile communication.
Business Requirement
To manage operations efficiently, enterprises require coordination
of activities, schedules, and knowledge among team members
working on various projects. *Our Client, recognized this
requirement within medium and large sized organizations, where
large teams need to coordinate while working on turnkey projects.
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Backend |
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Multi-byte
String
Support |
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The front-end
is the HTML presentation layer and the backend is the open-source
MySQL database. PHP is the business logic control unit layer,
which is the middleware used to control the request-response
functionality. The PHP business logic control unit includes
the PHP extension "mbstring" for multi-byte string
support. Multi-byte string enables Groupware Manager to support
Japanese characters and alphabets. In addition, Groupware
Manager employs the IMAP extension for supporting a Web based
e-mail client, used to access the POP3 server.
We developed Groupware Manager to be compatible with PCs as
well as mobile phones, providing similar level of security
and interoperability. Groupware Manager can be accessed using
'Net-ready' mobile phones like i-mode, jphone, WAP
and EZWeb. These phones are developed exclusively for users
in Japan only. Groupware Manager can be easily deployed within
disparate operating system environments like Windows, Linux,
Sun Solaris and Mac using Web servers such as, Apache, IIS
or Xtami.
Groupware Manager comprises of two modules - Administrator
and User. The administrator creates users, assigns rights
and privileges to each user, and manages the overall activities
performed by users, who work on the Groupware Manager user
module. The User module provides tools that allow users to:
Schedule
Tasks
Track
& Manage projects
Store
Contact Information
Manage
Files & Folders
Setup
To-Do Lists for Personal Use and for Others
Save
Useful Weblinks
Setup
Bulletin Boards and Conduct Polls
Create
Forms & Questionnaires for Defining Workflows
The modules available in the Groupware Manager user and administrator
interfaces are: |
| User
Interface |
Administrator
Interface |
| Scheduler |
Holiday Manager |
| Project Management |
Facility Manager
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| Address Book |
Address Book Manager |
| Mail |
Message Manager |
| Private Groups |
User Manager |
| Workflow |
Templates Manager |
| To Do List |
Rights Manager |
| Weblinks |
Weblink Manager |
| Whereabouts |
Whereabouts Manager
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| Announcement |
Announcement Manager |
| BBS |
BBS Manager |
| File Manager |
File Manager |
| Polls |
Poll Manager |
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Summary
Enterprise computing is a concept that is increasingly
gaining the attention of top managements for managing business-critical
operations. The idea is to exploit technology to develop an
integrated repository of proven business value. Groupware
Manager has been developed with precisely these considerations
& parameters. The concept and design of Groupware Manager
has been directed to allow medium and lower level managers
to supervise, monitor, and coordinate day-to-day operations
of enterprises along with secure and seamless data access
of multiple platforms. Streamlining organizational procedures,
Groupware Manager ensures the technical edge that enterprises
require to administer tasks proactively without incurring
extra costs for managing internal operations.
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