Mail. IBM WorkGroup offers an E-mail facility of the future, enabling multimedia notes that can include enriched text, images, audio, video clips, and binary attachments. IBM WorkGroup's UltiMedia-based E-mail tool sends mail using TCP/IP's SMTP protocol and supports mail standards RFC 822, MIME, VIM, and MAPI. It can be used in TCP/IP networks, and will connect to industry-standard TCP/IP mail backbones, including the Internet.
Agents. IBM WorkGroup's rules-based agent technology handles information as well as the best secretary. It can perform tasks associated with files, mail, or time, and do so 24 hours a day, 7 days a week -- even when you're on vacation. Your assistant can start programs, respond to office correspondence, send mail, and perform a variety of predetermined actions on your PC.
Directory. IBM WorkGroup's directory feature stores critical information necessary for effective communications and systems management. Storing both personal and enterprise directory information online, it employs the X.500 model as a base for defining information about users, as well as their responsibilities and organizations. Directory synchronization utilities can maintain directories across multiple LANs and hosts. Capable of holding hundreds of thousands of entries, the IBM WorkGroup directory allows enrollment in multiple applications (such as mail and calendar) in a single step.
Scheduling and Calendaring. IBM WorkGroup's powerful group scheduling and calendar function, derived from IBM Time and Place, keeps track of tasks, meetings, and to-dos. For those who are very busy or preoccupied, it includes snooze alarms and memo pads. For the fussy, it provides different calendar views (by day, week, month, or even group). And a host interoperability function lets you keep track of other users on PROFS, OfficeVision/VM, /MVS, and /400 systems.
FAX. People who don't use workstations should reconsider. One reason: IBM WorkGroup includes a versatile facsimile tool just for the paper fanatics. They can both send or receive information from their desktop, and incoming facsimiles automatically can be routed to the appropriate recipient using the directory feature.
These group communications functions and the messaging backbone provide the foundation for IBM WorkGroup. Additional functions are being integrated to provide information and work management capabilities.
Two key capabilities are workflow and imaging and document management. An enterprise-level workflow tool allows desktop and line of business applications to be linked in a seamless work automation system, helping organizations manage work effectively and efficiently. Aside from its employees, documents are often a corporation's most precious commodity. IBM WorkGroup's document management system stores, organizes, and locates vital business documents and includes robust relational database and search technology.
For more information on these and other IBM WorkGroup components, see IBM WorkGroup Products.