GWAnywhere and GWArchive Optimize GroupWise Performance, Improve Productivity and Lower Messaging Costs for ART for ART - Theaterservice GmbH in Austria
Background
ART for ART - Theaterservice GmbH in Vienna, Austria, the largest costume and scenery workshops in Europe. The company has 200 years of experience as the sole provider of scenery and costumes for the Vienna State Opera House, the Volksoper Vienna, and the Burgtheater, and it offers professional production management in stage decorating and costume manufacturing for national and international opera houses, theaters, film productions and business enterprises. The company is well known for technical facility management with the latest technological installations for any kind of building, from stages to high-rises. They plan, design, manufacture and deliver everything - from the idea to the final product. Over 430 highly trained employees work for the company.
Infrastructure Challenges
The IT infrastructure is an essential aspect in the opera houses, theaters, film productions and business enterprises in Vienna. Theaterservice’s network is a Novell-based infrastructure with both local and central servers and with matching GroupWise email service and administration software from Novell. Employee-clearance, finances, accounting and technical administration are centrally managed on Unix / Oracle systems.
Theaterservice had the need to synchronize all mobile devices from a mobile phone to a PDA with the Novell GroupWise Mailing system in an easy, secure and comprehensive way. This meant no double entries, past appointments, jobs and contacts. Additionally, due to the organization’s growing archiving and storage needs, better management of the post offices was needed.
Solutions
When looking for solutions to these GroupWise-specific needs, the IT personnel at Theaterservice turned to Messaging Architects as one of the few software developers that specializes in the Novell GroupWise space. EDSA-Systems GmbH, the regional representative of Messaging Architects, analyzed the collaboration environment at ART and implemented GWAnywhere and GWArchive to meet the company’s needs.
Karl Pusch, IT manager from EDSA-Systems GmbH explains: "The installation of both products was done in only two days. With GWAnywhere, we covered all devices and carriers. Depending on the users’ needs, we implemented the Push and Pull functions to synch emails and calendar data directly to the mobile device. GWArchive makes it possible for the client to access information stored in GroupWise frequently, without taking the risk of losing data or corrupting its integrity," Pusch continues. "The existing archive is stored in a central archive-management repository. It’s also possible for Theaterservice to transfer a single or multiple GroupWise Mailboxes into XML-format using the GWGArchive export feature. This way the use of the GroupWise licenses can be optimized, without the risk of losing information."
Christian Lörincz, System Admin of Theaterservice, concludes, "After searching for several years, we can finally save a lot of time and costs with GWAnywhere, a GroupWise-native solution, which easily synchronizes our mobile devices. In addition, using Messaging Architects’ GWArchive, we have successfully established a very useful system to retain email and manage our email traffic optimally."
