Groove Networks Launches Groove Virtual Office v3.0 For Secure Cross-Agency Communications In Public Sector.

BEVERLY, Mass. -- --Government Agencies And NGOs Cite New Capabilities, Including Third-Party PKI Support, Enhanced Forms Tool, and Ease of Use

It's 8 o'clock in the evening in Anytown, IL. An Illinois State Police Task Force is investigating a homicide. The task force creates a Groove virtual workspace where investigators and analysts will track information related to the probe. Aaron activates the calendar, scheduling a neighborhood canvass for 7 o'clock the next morning. Ellen begins entering leads in shared files. Bob activates the discussion tool and posts intelligence on violent felons who have been released from nearby prisons. The next morning, new members join the task force and quickly read up on what's occurred overnight. Jim, a supervisor, quickly sees which suspects have been interviewed, and who's scheduled next. The investigation is in full swing, and though task force members come and go during the investigation, everyone involved is on the same page.

The Illinois State Police needed more than a collaboration solution in establishing its model for criminal investigations. It needed the social synergy Groove Virtual Office provides so field investigators, analysts, field supervisors, and senior command are linked inside active, virtual, mobile workspaces with up-to-date information.

The Illinois State Police is one of many government and non-governmental organizations deploying Groove virtual office software to securely bridge the boundaries that divide them, and surmount the technological challenges faced by mobile and remote workers. After four months of extensive beta testing, Groove Networks today began shipping Groove Virtual Office v3.0 to public sector, commercial enterprise, and small business customers worldwide.

Groove Virtual Office - new name, same value

Previously called Groove Workspace, Groove Virtual Office more aptly characterizes the ways customers use and benefit from Groove software. The increasingly virtual nature of work is nowhere more evident than among government and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) alike, where by the nature of their mission they must selectively share information and work together effectively in a decentralized manner. Transcending collaboration, government and non-governmental organizations deploy Groove for ultra-secure, inter-agency and inter-organizational collaboration, information sharing, project management, and decision-making, particularly in austere and highly variable communications environments.

Groove Virtual Office version 3.0 represents a major upgrade with hundreds of enhancements and new capabilities, some specifically geared toward the public sector, including third-party PKI support, centralized auditing, and an enhanced forms tool.

The U.S. State Department recently used Groove to coordinate the establishment of the largest U.S. embassy in the world, in Baghdad. "Groove allowed us to keep everyone working on the same page," said Glen Johnson, director of the State Department's Iraq Transition Management team. "The key for us was the ability to have secure communication and collaboration over the open Internet with the Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad, and Department of Defense." Johnson says the State Department and DoD are continuing to use Groove for coordinating Iraqi support and policy.

Later this week, a civil/military capabilities demonstration is being held in Kona, Hawaii, called Strong Angel II (http://www.strongangel.org) to encourage the development and evaluation of tools for humanitarian information collection in communications-challenged environments. Groove v3.0 is being used. "We're particularly interested in solutions that cross civil-military boundaries securely, gracefully, and reliably during a post-conflict reconstruction initiative," said Dr. Eric Rasmussen, Navy physician and project coordinator. "Groove forms are an important element of the demonstration since they allow us to collect data offline, and then transmit that data securely and automatically in an environment where Internet connectivity is intermittent. It's also important that the information be shared equally among military and non-military organizations. Groove forms provide this, and allow us to integrate with open source databases and content management systems, another critical demonstration success factor."

The United States Army 350th Civil Affairs Command was deployed to Iraq in January and is currently part of the Multinational Force Iraq. The Command and its subordinates provide the multinational force with expertise in planning, execution, and assessment of civil military operations. Army 350th Command personnel assigned to the knowledge management team developed a decision support system for civil military operations. The team responsible for developing the Web-based Civil Affairs Knowledge Management System (CAKMS) used Groove for secure communication between military members of the knowledge management team in Iraq, and civilian subcontractors and project managers working in the United States. "Our ability to collaborate in real time with our contractors halfway around the world allowed us to streamline the iterative design and development process for CAKMS," said Captain Gregory Vialle, a knowledge management team member. "We were able to make sure our contractors understood the intent and procedural technicalities on the fly. Given that we were working on a shoestring budget in a combat environment with an extremely short timeline to produce results, this ability to communicate securely was critical to our success."

Hannes Siebert, an international peace activist, has used Groove in working as an advisor to the Sri Lankan peace process, the Balkans post-war reconstruction effort, and in other troubled regions. "One reason we've been successful with Groove in Sri Lanka and elsewhere is because of its ease of use and the rapid solution capabilities of Groove forms. It typically doesn't take people long to get up to speed and productive. For example, in Sri Lanka we trained 16-year-olds to 60-year-old women for monitoring election violence. With only a couple of hours of training, these people provided us excellent reports in Groove forms. The user interface and performance improvements in version 3.0 can only help accelerate its adoption among non-governmental organizations who see its potential for conflict transformation," Siebert said.

Groove Virtual Office software is comprised of core capabilities - secure data synchronization, activity awareness, and contextual conversation - that let teams work together virtually, online and offline, independent of geographic or organizational boundaries, while flexibly supporting their unique work styles and requirements. A palette of included tools enables teams to customize workspaces to meet their unique requirements. Corporate and third-party developers can also develop their own custom tools, or access Groove's core capabilities via other applications. IT departments can centrally manage Groove deployments and usage, and integrate Groove data with centralized systems and databases.

Key enhancements to Groove Virtual Office version 3.0 include:

--Launchbar - to view and access Groove workspaces, contacts, and workspace activity from a single location;

--Rapid applications with enhanced forms - for rapidly creating business process-specific applications and connecting them to back-end databases and systems. The product comes with 10 ready-made, yet customizable forms templates to help users get started;

--Microsoft(R) Windows(R)-integrated folder synchronization - for securely sharing files across any number of a user's own PCs, or among multiple users' PCs, even across firewall boundaries;

--Expanded alerts and activity awareness - to signal when individuals come online, enter workspaces, and perform important activities through visual, audible, and spoken notifications;

--Improved performance - to quicken the start-up time and navigation of the Groove user interface, as well as data transfer among users;

--Third-party Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) support - to enable organizations to use their own certificate authorities for identity authentication;

--Activity auditing for regulatory compliance - to centrally capture workspace activity and data on users' PCs for regulatory compliance;

--Expanded Web Services API - for creating discrete applications that consume some or all Groove virtual office capabilities such as synchronization and presence awareness; and

--.NET API - for developing custom tools or bots that run within Groove Virtual Office, using Visual Studio(R).net as the integrated development environment.

Pricing, availability, and system requirements

Groove Virtual Office version 3.0, comprising client and server software and development offerings is available immediately via Groove Networks' direct sales at [e-mail]. Groove Virtual Office Professional Edition v3.0 is priced at US $179; Project Edition at US $229; and File Sharing Edition at US $69. Hosted Relay and Management services are priced at US $40 per user per year. The list prices for customers who want to deploy their own servers are: Groove Enterprise Relay Server, US $14,995; Groove Enterprise Management Server, US $19,995; and Groove Enterprise Integration Server, US $9,995.

Groove Virtual Office v3.0 runs on Microsoft Windows NT(R) 4.0 (with Service Pack 5 or later), Windows 2000, or Windows XP, Windows 98 and Windows ME, and requires Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0. The software requires a PC with an Intel(R) Pentium(R) 400 MHz or higher processor (or equivalent) with a minimum of 256 MB of RAM, 100 MB of hard disk storage, and a 56 kbps modem (local area network, DSL, or cable modem preferred). A sound card, speakers, and microphone may be required to use the software's voice and audible alert capabilities.

About Groove Networks

Founded in October 1997 and headquartered in Beverly, Mass., Groove Networks Inc. delivers the "virtual office" through software that allows teams of people to work together over a network as if they were in the same physical location. Groove software helps organizations, large and small, save money, time and travel by offering both a desktop application for instant joint work, and a set of customizable, open collaboration capabilities that enhance the utility and value of existing solutions. A 60-day free trial edition of Groove Virtual Office is available at http://www.groove.net/downloads/groove/.

Groove Networks and Groove are registered trademarks of Groove Networks Inc. All other trademarks are owned by their respective companies.