Yesterday  Michael Osterman wrote an interesting article that all GroupWise sites and consultants should read. His comments are no surprise to me. I’ve LIVED GroupWise for over 15 years as a consultant (and saying I’ve lived it is not much of an overstatement), and while I’ve seen ups and downs along the way, I’ve never bought into the gloom and doom idea.  So, when I say the rumors of “our” demise in the title of this entry, it’s because I take this stuff quite personally!

For my own business, the past few months have been busier than any other time in my career than perhaps in 1995 when I was working 12-15 hours a day, saying yes to just about any project anyone would offer me!  I’ve been migrating systems to Linux (more from Windows than from NetWare to be honest), upgrading sites to GroupWise 8. speaking at conferences, and actually turning down projects and speaking engagements that I could not squeeze in.

I think the comments that are amassing in relationship to this article say it all.  I know many, many sites who use Exchange (Outlook) or Notes, but you don’t typically find the users and administrators of these products lining up to show such unabashed love and loyalty for the product.  I continually hear from sites who are “forced” to move to another email platform bemoaning the loss of their GroupWise client.  And even in the cases where the overall experience of the move has been good, the vast majority of the employees I speak with always have something positive to say about their GroupWise experience, and regret the loss of functionality they never really appreciated until it was gone.

I’m hoping that 2009 will be a year of regrouping and reenergizing of the GroupWise community.  With GroupWise 8 and the announcements Novell made at GWAVACon concerning their own ActiveSync integration for handheld devices, there is a lot to be happy about this year in the GroupWise world.

Happy GroupWising!

Danita