Share your experience using OpenText GroupWise

I use Micro Focus GroupWise for email, calendar, and file transfer. I use it in my organization.

Micro Focus GroupWise has been beneficial, so it's the preferred solution in my organization, and it probably always will be. My organization supports multiple clients, and some would be moving to Micro Focus GroupWise.

I like the ease of logging best in Micro Focus GroupWise. I also like its proxy capabilities from a user level. I also like how secure Micro Focus GroupWise is.

What I don't like about Micro Focus GroupWise is the removal of the Unix client. Micro Focus took that function away about ten years ago because there wasn't enough demand for it. Other solutions also do not have the Unix client. A Unix client is what I want Micro Focus GroupWise to have again.

I've been using Micro Focus GroupWise since its release, so I have twenty years of experience with it.

Micro Focus GroupWise is a ten, stability-wise. My organization didn't have any problems with the stability of the solution.

The scalability of Micro Focus GroupWise is a ten. It can scale at any level.

I contacted the Micro Focus GroupWise technical support team and found that the team was easy to get a hold of and quick to respond. I have no problems with the support.

Many years ago, we tried Microsoft Exchange one time, which didn't work out well. We only use Microsoft Exchange for customers who want it. In our organization, we prefer Micro Focus GroupWise.

If I were to rate the initial setup for Micro Focus GroupWise, it would be an eight out of ten. It's like any email system that takes quite a bit of planning.

For a smaller company, deploying Micro Focus GroupWise takes about two days.

We deploy Micro Focus GroupWise in-house because we are the third party that people hire to deploy the solution.

Micro Focus GroupWise is the most affordable solution on-premises. Versus Microsoft Exchange on-premises, pricing is 20:1, so there's no comparison. Micro Focus GroupWise is cheaper, though, for my clients, it's not about the cost but the stability and security of the solution.

I'm using both Micro Focus GroupWise and Microsoft Exchange Online.

I'm using the latest Micro Focus GroupWise version, 18.4.

Nearly thirty people use Micro Focus GroupWise in my organization. If the organization employed more people, the solution usage would increase, which is unlikely now.

I advise anyone looking into using the solution to plan accordingly, so you can add all the pieces you need.

My rating for Micro Focus GroupWise is ten out of ten.

My organization is an authorized Micro Focus GroupWise reseller.

Our email environment is complicated and we use GroupWise as a data sync server. We have around 700 users and approximately 10 terabytes of emails with four servers. We are customers of GroupWise, supporting our clients who need IT assistance. I'm the head of NCIS.

The solution is very flexible and has great storage capacity. If you have, for example, two terabytes of email data in a GroupWise system, it would be equivalent to five or six terabytes in another tool that would likely also require more resources. It's a huge advantage. This is a simple tool and we find it to be more secure than Exchange. 

The web client could be improved. The WebAccess feature is similar to what you would find in an Exchange environment but it's not as good as you'd get with the full client in the caching mode. It would be preferable if the WebAccess were a little more like the full client. That would make things easier. Unfortunately, there are fewer manufacturers that currently support Micro Focus and GroupWise these days.

I've been using this solution for 17 years. 

The solution is definitely scalable up to many thousands of users. 

Customer support did what they could but we had some issues because it required coordination between GroupWise and SUSE Linux or the Micro Focus storage support. It became a ping pong between these two parts of the same company and was unpleasant.

We had a look at Lotus Notes, but it was terrible. And Microsoft was not a choice we could make because our existing license included GroupWise so we could save a lot of money by only having to purchase the server. Netscape was the previous solution we used but it wasn't able to do all the things we needed.

The initial setup is straightforward, requiring a simple rollout of the software. We installed it on all the workstations and then set up the servers. We then did a drop-down of all the emails and that was it. We carried out the main work ourselves but also used a consultant. 

This is a more expensive solution than Microsoft because Microsoft has a few other tools and products in one license. There's probably not a lot of difference at the end of the day because a Microsoft environment requires more servers and more storage, which you don't need in a GroupWise environment. I believe the maintenance of one GroupWise license costs around 30 Euro per year. Aside from the hardware, there are no additional costs. 

We know a lot of organizations that used GroupWise for a long time and then moved to Microsoft Exchange Server or to Office 365. They have a lot more work to do in their new Microsoft environment. I think the security is still much better in GroupWise than in a Microsoft environment.

It's important to take a look at the hardware you are using.

I rate this solution eight out of 10.