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Corporations are embracing World Wide Web-based groupware products as another way to increase connectivity across the enterprise. Businesses increasingly are extending electronic walls to include everyone from trading partners and customers to consultants and outsourcers. The ability to bring outsiders securely into a company's groupware process is now a necessity.
Couple this with the widespread use of the Web and indeed vendors have their work cut out for them. Groupware vendors, subsequently, must position themselves by adopting open standards in product design and incorporating the Web into products.
"Vendors that do not support the Web are not likely to remain in business," says Ian Campbell, director of collaborative and intranet computing for International Data Corp. (IDC), a consultancy in Framingham, Mass.
Web-browser penetration worldwide is forecasted to reach 180 million by the year 2000 and the number of intranet-focused Web servers will reach more than 4.7 million, according to research from IDC.
"The entire industry is moving to the Web. Some use a client, some use a browser. Any that choose only a client will lose," Campbell says. "There is a strong need to support a Web browser with full functionality."
"Vendors need to adopt the most widely accepted model, the most rapidly spreading technology," says David Weinberger, vice president of strategic marketing for Open Text in Brookline, Mass. "If you can make your application look and feel like the Web, you will automatically drive up users. People love the Web." Standards Grow As Web-centric groupware picks up speed, the demand for Web-based standards grows stronger.
The industry is driven by two...