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Groupware 2000: a universe of opportunity New applications are likely to emerge for groupware in the next two years as the software becomes ever more powerful, interactive and visually engaging. Lotus Domino 5.0, scheduled for release in late 1998, embraces a browser interface and features Java-based tools designed to facilitate "market facing" initiatives on intranets: sales automation, demand-flow manufacturing, threaded discussions for customers. "Groupware is everything that the Web needs to move it from the static environments that people see on the (World Wide) Web to dynamic, market-facing presentations," says Robert Monio, chief technology officer for Metrix Communications. Sherman of Merrill Corp. envisions menu options customized for each employee, push technology that selectively distributes industry news gleaned from remote Web sites, and user-friendly, graphical security tools. She believes that Active Server technology championed by Microsoft will probably displace groupware for archival applications such as inventory control, document searches and catalog sales. Active Server pages solve the problem of proprietary (and potentially obsolescent) groupware by plucking information directly from a back-end database. "With Active Server, you are not subject to the limitations of (proprietary) software, and you can adapt it to whatever level that you need," Sherman says. But out-of-the-box groupware, with its ability to mediate between a web browser and relational databases, will still be the preferred choice for "live" applications such as version control, check-in and check-out, and security control, she adds. In the meantime, there's an enormous installed base of groupware at work in Minnesota businesses, most of it migrating rapidly towards intranets. Sherman hears opportunity knocking for multimedia developers: "Developers can offer businesses something new by helping to facilitate collaboration, communication and cooperation on intranets. They can be the centerpoint to make it all happen."
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