Microsoft Office Groove® 2007 is a collaboration software program that helps teams work together dynamically and effectively, even if team members work for different organisations, work remotely, or work offline. Groove allows teams to share information and cooperate on project activities, from simple document collaboration to custom solutions integrated with business processes. Teams using Groove work inside collaborative workspaces, which put all team members, tools and information in one place.

Groove workspaces are created by users and stored on each team member’s desktop computer, allowing them to work anywhere, anytime, with anyone. The solution keeps each team member’s copy of the workspace synchronised – within and across enterprise boundaries - with the assistance of Office Groove Server 2007. Working in Groove workspaces saves time, increases productivity, and strengthens the quality of team deliverables.

Enterprises can centrally deploy and manage Office Groove 2007 using either Office Groove Server 2007 or Office Groove Enterprise Services.

Target customers
Small high-performance teams that need to assemble quickly to collaborate on short projects.
Challenging network environments and mobile requirements.
Scenarios where valuable information is captured through informal processes.
Situations where people need to collaborate with others outside of their own firewall.

Three simple questions to start the customer conversation:

1. Do you have employees who work on projects across departments, offices and organisations

- With Microsoft Office Groove 2007 workspaces, teams can work together easily and efficiently, even when team members are in different offices or work for other organisations.
- Groove users can invite partners, suppliers, contractors and customers to workspaces as easily as they invite employees – without IT assistance, and Groove is fully secure.
- Auto-encryption of Groove workspace information is always on and requires no user action.

2. Do you have employees who work on and offline, in challenging and mobile environments?

- You do not have to lose valuable work time just because a network connection is unavailable.
Groove stores everything on your computer, so you can work productively, online and offline.
- When your documents are in a Groove workspace, you never have to worry about attaching, uploading, or copying updated documents to share them with your team. Groove automatically ‘pushes’ just your changes to your team members.

3. Does your organisation need to promote cross-organisational collaboration, without the cost?

- As a desktop solution that makes smart use of services to bridge boundaries, Groove can lower infrastructure costs inherent in cross-organisational collaboration. No application servers or VPN infrastructure are required.

For further information, contact Licensing on 0118 9898 240 or email licensing@bluesolutions.co.uk

How is Office Groove 2007 different from SharePoint?
Office Groove 2007 and SharePoint are a ‘better together’ solution. Office Groove 2007 is the rich client for dynamic team work, where the work gets done. SharePoint is the centralised, scalable system where that work gets published and integrated with structured business applications. For example an RFP would be revised and reworked in the Office Groove 2007 Workspace, then posted to SharePoint when ready for approval or use by a wider audience.

Where are my Office Groove 2007 workspaces and data stored?
All Office Groove 2007 workspaces, tools and data are stored on each team member’s computer. Office Groove 2007 keeps each team member’s copy of the workspace, tools and data synchronised, even if no two members are online at the same time, or if members are separated by firewalls. The Office Groove 2007 Launchbar provides a convenient interface to view all the workspaces on a user’s PC. Workspaces can be organised into folders and viewed in different ways to help the user identify new workspace content and activity.

What happens if two team members edit the same information in a workspace at the same time?
Office Groove 2007 handles data conflicts differently for different types of data. Generally, for more structured data types (for example, business forms), Office Groove 2007 has built-in conflict resolution; for unstructured data (for example, documents), Office Groove 2007 ensures data preservation in all cases by creating a copy when two users edit the same file concurrently.

Do all team members need to have Office Groove 2007 installed to participate in a workspace?
Yes. Office Groove 2007 is a Win32 application programming interface like the rest of the 2007 release of the Microsoft Office system, requiring a local installation. The benefits it provides require that each team member have Office Groove 2007 installed on their PC(s).

How many people can I invite to a workspace?
Workspaces are limited to a maximum of 100 users and 2 GB of data, but Office Groove 2007 was primarily designed for small, high performing teams (2-30 people).

If I’m using Office Groove 2007 with external team members, how do I know the information is secure?
By default, all information shared in Office Groove 2007 workspaces is encrypted on users’ desktops and as it crosses a corporate network or the Internet. The network does not have to be encrypted because the software does the encrypting and decrypting.

Does Office Groove 2007 have version control?
The Office Groove 2007 Files tool and SharePoint Files tool allow team members to save their changes to a document as a new version, if desired. Teams wanting strict version control can publish documents from the SharePoint Files tool in Office Groove 2007 to a SharePoint document library, where version control can be implemented.

How can I control access rights to data in an Office Groove 2007 workspace?
Office Groove 2007 workspace members are one of three roles: manager, participant, or guest. Each role has its own set of default permissions, which can be customised for the workspace as a whole and for the individual tools. By default, workspace creators are managers and others invited to workspaces are participants. Roles and permissions can be changed at any time during the life of a workspace.

How do I know when information in a workspace has changed?
Office Groove 2007 provides two mechanisms to notify team members of changes and activity: unread marks and alerts. Unread marks point out new content that has not yet been viewed by a team member. These marks are removed automatically when content is read or can be removed manually. Alerts actively call out content changes and key events, through text pop-ups or sounds (for example, when a file is updated or when a team member enters a workspace). Alerts are customisable and can be throttled up or down on specific workspaces and tools. This allows the user, not the software, to decide what work is most important at any given time.

Do I need to have the 2007 release of the Microsoft Office system to share documents in Office Groove 2007 workspaces?
No – Office Groove 2007 supports documents created in the 2007 release of the Microsoft Office system and prior versions, as well as documents created with other software applications.

Processor: 500-MHz processor or faster

Operating System: Windows XP Service Pack (SP) 2 or later or Windows Server 2003 (or later) required

Memory: 256 MB of RAM or more; 1 GHz and 512 MB of RAM or more is required to run Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 with Business Contact Manager

Hard Disk: DVD drive; 2 GB necessary for install; a portion of this disk space is freed after installation if the original download package is removed from the hard drive

Monitor Resolution: Minimum 800 x 600; 1024 x 768 or higher recommended

Internet Connection: Broadband connection, 128 kilobits per second (Kbps) or greater, for download and activation of products

Additional Components: Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 with service packs, Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server or later required for Office Outlook 2007 users. To install Office Outlook 2007 with Business Contact Manager, you need to first install Office Outlook 2007

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