Midrange Stuff, OS/400 Edition

Stalker Software announced new software last week that allows its CommuniGate Pro e-mail server to function as a groupware server. CommuniGate Pro Groupware gives users the same types of collaboration, calendar, and scheduling capabilities they enjoy with Microsoft Exchange, but doesn't require them to run it on Windows servers and is cheaper to buy and support. The new groupware functionality, like the CommuniGate Pro e-mail server, supports Microsoft Outlook clients as well.

CommuniGate Pro Groupware is actually a messaging application program interface, or MAPI, connector that installs next to Outlook on a user's PC and maintains a constant connection to the IMAP-compliant CommuniGate Pro e-mail server. When installed, the CommuniGate Pro Groupware connector immediately converts all messages from the MAPI format to the Multipurpose Internet Mail Extension (MIME) data format, supported by the CommuniGate Pro e-mail server. In this way, companies can instantly migrate their back-end groupware server from Exchange to Stalker's CommuniGate Pro, while retaining the Outlook front-end that tens of thousands of companies around the world have installed for their employees.

Stalker claims that its software has two competitive advantages over Microsoft's. The first is platform flexibility. Stalker's software runs on 25 operating systems, including various flavors of Unix, Linux, FreeBSD, OS/400, mainframe Linux, and MacOS, in addition to Windows. By comparison, Exchange requires a Windows server operating system. Stalker says this allows companies that are implementing a new e-mail or groupware application to use existing server resources, instead of purchasing a new system to run the expected workload.

The second advantage claimed by Stalker is cost. A license for Microsoft's Exchange Server 2000 with 25 users runs $6,999, according to Microsoft's Web site. By comparison, a company would spend about $1,800 with Stalker to purchase a similar setup. This price includes a license for 25 CommuniGate Pro Groupware connectors ($1,199) and a 50-seat license for CommuniGate Pro ($599). This comparison doesn't factor in the price of the Windows 2000 Server operating system (about $1,200), which is required in order to run the latest Exchange Server 2000 groupware application. Many open-source operating systems can be had for far less than that. Stalker claims additional savings when hardware, software maintenance, and administration costs are factored into the mix.

Stalker is one of three software companies that has recently developed MAPI connectors that allow users to move scheduling and calendaring groupware features off Microsoft Exchange servers and run them somewhere else, while retaining the Outlook clients. Bynari, a small Dallas software company, in March announced InsightConnector, which allows the company's cross-platform e-mail server, InsightServer Enterprise Edition 3.0, to function as a groupware server. Software giant Oracle acquired similar technology this June, when it bought Steltor, a small Montreal software company. In all cases, the software companies say that Microsoft has created a market for Exchange alternatives by forcing customers to make expensive operating system upgrades to keep their groupware software.

Stalker, based in Mill Valley, California, was founded in 1993 and offers a range of e-mail and messaging applications. The company ported its e-mail server to OS/400 in 2000 at the request of IGNITe/400, an electronic OS/400 user group that wanted to move its mail server from Windows to an OS/400 server. (For the complete story, go to IGNITe/400's site. To see the text of that story, use your cursor to highlight the entire page.)

Probably less than 50 of Stalker's 5,000 customers are running the software on OS/400 systems, said Ali Liptrot, a Stalker spokeswoman. But many of the company's customers running the software on Linux and Windows systems were clamoring for the groupware module, she said. For its next release, Stalker is developing Web calendaring features and the capability to work with groupware applications from IBM Lotus, the other dominant player in the e-mail and groupware market besides Microsoft. Liptrot said Stalker is working on supporting the new iCAL and vCal standards. The iCal proposed standard is being authored by IBM Lotus and Microsoft to enable e-mail-based group scheduling over the Internet. vCal is a new technology IBM Lotus has delivered in Domino 6 for supporting Internet calendaring.

CommuniGate Pro Groupware will require CommuniGate Pro 4.0, which is in late beta testing and should become generally available within a few weeks. Stalker will support OS/400 as soon as that version of the mail server becomes available, Liptrot said. For more information, go to www.stalker.com.