GroupWise WebAccess on the iPad just got easier

In the next few months, we'll be posting about new features in GroupWise 2012. So keep watching our blog!

For those of you who have ever used an iPad (who hasn't at least played around with one?), you know how elegant the user interface is. It is an Apple product after all and we know how meticulous Steve Jobs was. But regardless of how nice the iPad iOS interface is, sometimes web content isn't designed all that well for mobile devices. While pushing GroupWise content to the iPad using Novell Data Synchronizer works quite well, for some use cases that is overkill. But we've all fat-fingered something on our mobile device web browser and been frustrated that it wasn't very easy to access the information we need.

Well, GroupWise on the iPad just got easier. Enter GroupWise 2012 and the resigned WebAccess interface. Novell didn't just give WebAccess a refresh for 2012, they actually created new web templates, specifically for the iPad. With GroupWise 8, you are forced to use the "basic interface" when accessing WebAccess from an iPad because the regular interface flat-out does not work. With GroupWise 2012 WebAccess, Novell created a separate user interface, just for the iPad that is different from the regular interface. This was smart. Everything is just a tap away. I think this will be easier to navigate than the regular interface would have been. It took me a little bit to figure out what each button did and where to find certain things, but on the whole it isn't very complex, so shouldn't be hard to learn. This is a great solution for users on the go who need a basic, quick and easy interface to login and check email. It is not a full featured WebAccess, so I would not recommend this as an exclusive client for power users. But most people don't live on their iPad either.

So if you've got a few important iPad users in your organization, I'd say this is a must. Or with the other improvements in GroupWise 2012, this might be the icing on the cake. Either way, I would spend a little time getting familiar with the new GroupWise 2012.