Collaboration has become second nature to American consumers. A wide variety of devices, applications and services make it easy for us to keep in touch by voice, video and social networking. Those same technologies can greatly benefit businesses — a recent global study conducted by InsightExpress found that 77 percent of IT decision makers surveyed planned to increase their spending on collaboration tools, with 56 percent expecting their spending on collaboration tools to increase by 10 percent or more. Productivity and efficiency were identified as the primary benefits of increased collaboration.

A substantial majority of end-users (69 percent) regularly use advanced collaboration tools. When asked to identify how collaboration benefits them, 45 percent pointed to improved productivity and efficiency, 40 percent noted that they receive assistance in solving work-related problems, and 31 percent enjoyed accelerated decision making.

Vmware has launched Zimbra 7, the latest version of its next-generation email and collaboration platform. VMware Zimbra 7 features new data-sharing capabilities, expanded calendaring and search functionality, and upgraded management features for both IT and end-users.

“VMware Zimbra is among the largest business collaboration providers and is the largest on-premises open-source collaboration suite in terms of paid mailboxes. It creates a platform for a next-generation workspace that helps free users and IT from more than two decades of complex, device-centric computing,” said FusionStorm Executive, TITLE, FusionStorm. “FusionStorm can help customers take advantage of Zimbra to deliver a more consumer-focused cloud experience for the enterprise and deliver key collaboration capabilities for today’s mobile workforce.”

New capabilities in VMware Zimbra 7 enable users to share more, send less, stay connected from anywhere and gain control of the inbox:

·       File Sharing — VMware Zimbra 7 includes access to Zimbra’s Briefcase functionality, which allows users to easily share or store files in the cloud, enabling lightweight document management with added control directly from within Zimbra. Users can upload and access multiple versions of a Briefcase file or document, and new “check-in” and “check-out” controls further simplify document management and collaboration.

·       Finding and Communicating with People — With People Search, users have access to contact lists, org charts, seating charts, etc., simultaneously, making it easy to find contacts within the web client. With new compatibility available in VMware Zimbra 7, users also have the ability to forward contacts as a vCard, making sharing contact information easier than before.

·       Administrator Benefits — Improved administration with role-based delegation at multiple administrator levels enables features such as distribution list management, which allows administrators to set parameters around who can email certain distribution lists, drastically reducing spam. VMware Zimbra 7 also features simple policies to control automatic recovery (reboot) of Zimbra virtual servers, Zimbra server load balancing, and zero-downtime hardware maintenance.

·       Enhanced mobile experience — VMware Zimbra mobile supports native app sync, HTML-formatted emails and automatic synchronization of email tags and flags. VMware Zimbra also now offers access to the BlackBerry Enterprise Server 5.0 to customers via the VMware Zimbra Connector for BlackBerry 7.0, enabling users to sync mail, address books, calendar and tasks. Additionally, mobile device management and security features such as remote device wipe protect sensitive information.

·       Desktop Updates — The VMware Zimbra Gallery is fully integrated and available on VMware Zimbra Desktop, providing users with a unified online and desktop experience.

·       Simplified End-User Authentication — VMware Zimbra 7 supports industry-standard protocols for Single-Sign-On (SSO) via OpenID, Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) and Kerberos.

·       Increased productivity — Calendaring updates drastically improve workflow by making it easier to coordinate appointments and schedule meetings among multiple people. The Scheduling Wizard helps users suggest times, rooms, and resources to all attendees simultaneously — taking location and time zone into account — making it simpler to coordinate schedules.

·       Easily recover deleted items — Users can recover deleted items before they are purged, creating an inbox that is more “self-service,” increasing user satisfaction while reducing the burden on IT and associated costs.

·       Email and SMS Reminders — Email and SMS-based reminders can be configured for alerts from Calendar and tasks. Preferences can be configured globally for all reminders and tasks, and then applied to all the events.

·       User Scheduled Message Delivery — Users have the ability to schedule messages to be sent at a future date and time, making it easier to manage their inbox.

In a recent study by conducted by Harris research, employees identified a variety of frustrations with collaboration tools. These include a lack of integration among the applications, non-compatible formats, and the limited number of collaboration tools at their disposal. Ease of use (58 percent), the ability to communicate anywhere and at any time (45 percent), and features and functionality (37 percent) were the three most-desired attributes of a collaboration tool. VMware Zimbra 7 gives employees a tool they can use for more effective collaboration and increased productivity.