Groove Related Third Party Products and Services

About Office for students, NabazGame and NabazGroove...

2008-10-23T14:32:00Z

Microsoft France just launched an operation dedicated to students: "Office for Students".
They have the ability to get Office Ultimate 2007 (including Groove) for a very low price.

As a partner focused on Groove technologies, Hommes & Process were asked by Microsoft to provide complementary groove-centric resources for this operation.
Some had to be helpful while others had to be more fun.

For the fun part, we decided to create NabazGame, an interactive SilverLight-based game provided as a Groove tool.
In addition to integrating a fun and non-standard component, setting up a collective "close to real-time" SilverLight game in Groove was a real challenge!

NabazGame is a reviewed and “improved” version of world famous games like “Noughts and Crosses” or “Connect 4". The goal is to align a predefined set of pawns, horizontally, vertically, or diagonally. The main difference compared to Connect 4 is that in NabazGame you do not have any constraints on a pawn’s positioning. The number of players is also free (From 2 to 5), allowing varying levels of complexity, including the fact that players can create alliances. Similarly, the grid size can be freely chosen to be rectangular or square. Game difficulty (i.e. number of pawns to align) is also chosen when starting a new game.

As this game is created during an operation already using Nabaztag (the famous WIFI rabbit), pawns look like colored Nabaztag rabbits.

If you are interested to learn more, give it a try or provide feedbacks, a Groove invitation file is available there : Invitation
Feel free to join!

You can also get more details on http://blog.fbarbin.com/nabazgame

Enjoy ;-)

NB 1 : If you are interested by Groove and Nabaztag integration, you can also have a look to NabazGroove (http://blog.fbarbin.com/nabazgroove)

NB 2 : I have to recognize that an implementation done as a game has a relatively low interest, but this set up has to be analyzed in the way it provides a new way to create interactive solutions in Groove, which can of course be used to implement business solutions.

GrooveIT! for My Documents available in Beta... Join now !

2008-01-31T21:49:00Z

Announced at the end of 2007, GrooveIT! for My Documents is a new product in the GrooveIT! line and currently available in Beta.

Product leitmotiv is : Explore. View. Publish.

Dedicated to document integration, this new application allows users to easily find and choose documents whatever they come from and, then to publish them in Groove. Connector-based, GrooveIT! for MyDocs is currently provided with 3 source connectors - File System, SharePoint, Groove - and one target connector : Groove. (New - source and target - connectors will be added in the future)

For example, you will be able to use GrooveIT! for MyDocs to :

- Easily send documents from a Groove workspace to another

Example : In a project use, send documents from an internal Groove workspace (your team) to an external one (you and your client).

- Easily send documents from a SharePoint site to a Groove workspace.
Example : In a P2P Business use, send documents from an Intranet site (your enterprise) to an external Groove workspace (your enterprise and a partner)

- Connect your legacy applications or office equipments such fax or scanner to Groove

Example : Publish in a Groove workspace all scanned documents - invoices, contracts, ... - related to a specific project.

For each connector, you can also define favorites. A quick load for often used environment !

To note that new elements will be shortly added to this main application to provide :

- advanced search capabilities in Groove,

- document integration with Groove from within Word, Excel and PowerPoint,

- document integration with Groove from your Windows desktop.

Beta Program is already started but feel free to register now to be involved and give a try to this new application !

GrooveIT! for Microsoft Office Outlook. Release 2 is now available !

2007-11-04T18:21:00Z

We thank you for your enthousiastic feedback on GrooveIT! for Outlook V1, and are pleased to announce a new major version. A full set of new features is now availble :

- Transfer information from Outlook to Groove
    - E-mails, RSS feeds, contacts, tasks, appointments, and their attachments
    - "On demand" or automaticaly by using GrooveIT! rules
    - Update calendar events, contacts and tasks when modified in Outlook
    - Build discussion threads of your emails and avoid duplicates
- Benefit from advanced Groove tools to manage items coming from Outlook : Groove links support, attachments management, filtering, sorting
- Create new Groove workspaces and invite your contacts, easily from within Outlook
- Send your Groove VCard to your Outlook contacts with one single click
- ... and much more...

Watch GrooveIT! videos to get familiar with our product in a couple of minutes! (http://www.grooveit.biz/en/foroutlook/video.aspx)

Upgrade is free for GrooveIT! for Microsoft Office Outlook release 1.0 users ! Upgrading is easy and only takes a few minutes: download GrooveIT! 2.0 and follow the instructions of the installation program. That's all it takes!. Your settings and license information remain unchanged.

You are not yet a GrooveIT! for Microsoft Office Outlook user?
Download and request a 10-days trial key!

http://www.grooveit.biz/en/foroutlook

We hope you will enjoy this new release ;-)

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Other news on GrooveIT! line.
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- Visit our new GrooveIT! website : New design, Easier to use... (http://www.grooveit.biz/)

- Discover our new blog dedicated to GrooveIT! line : news, updates, examples, user feedback and information about updates, on all GrooveIT! products. (http://blog.grooveit.biz/)

- A new product dedicated to document integration will be available in the coming weeks : GrooveIT for MyDocs. Register now to be involved in Beta Program (http://www.grooveit.biz/en/formydocs)

Toucan Reporter 2007 Available Now - special discount for grooveuser.org members!

2007-08-08T11:30:00Z

We're very happy to announce the public release of Toucan Reporter 2007, the desktop reporting and data extraction application, now available to users of MS Office Groove 2007 and Groove Virtual Office 3.1.

Toucan Reporter 2007 takes data from Groove Forms tools and turns it into actionable information. The new release includes a new set of enhancements that make it it even easier to extract and filter the data stored in Groove Forms and format it to meet your publication needs.

Toucan Reporter is now available in two versions - a standard version free of charge and a professional version, available for $100 US. We're also offering report design services for projects requiring immediate implementations.

You can find out more at http://www.infopatterns.com/products/ToucanReporter.aspx

Special Offer

To get a 25% introductory discount during August, use the Coupon GROOVEUSER when you place your order for Toucan Reporter 2007 Professional. Note - if you don't use the code before the end of this month, you won't get the discount!

Free RSS Adapter for Groove 2007 and Outlook 2007

2007-05-22T12:35:00Z

ThreeWill has published an RSS Adapter for Groove. The application lets you use an RSS Reader (including Outlook 2007 in latest version) to access discussion-based information in your Groove workspaces.

One of the key benefits of the tool is you can use your RSS Reader to search across discussion threads in multiple workspaces. And as you receive updates, when you click on the article this will open the Groove workspace and discussion item to make it easy for you to respond.

RSS Adapter for Groove supports both the Forms Customizable Discussion Tool and the standard Discussion Tool. It supports multiple identities. You can specify the port to use for your OPML and RSS requests. You can generate the OPML for the feeds at any time. You can also look at statistics including the number of OPML and RSS requests made.

You can register and download the new version here

Please contact ThreeWill at info@threewill.com for any questions related to the RSS Adapter for Groove tool.

GrooveIT! for Microsoft® Office Outlook®

2007-04-13T13:34:00Z

Short description :
Microsoft® Outlook™ and Groove® are tools that you use daily. You store critical work information like e-mails, contacts, and meetings in Outlook — how can you share them with members of your team who are using Groove?

GrooveIT! for Microsoft® Outlook™ links Outlook™ to any Groove® workspace you choose. Innovative and easy to use, GrooveIT! intelligently sends, files, archives, and shares contacts, messages, and events received by your Microsoft® Outlook™ client. GrooveIT! for Microsoft® Outlook™ is not just a gateway; it's the collaborative oomph that enhances your daily workflow.

Features List :
- Transfer your Outlook® e-mails, contacts, and calendar events to Groove®.
- Store information in standard Groove® tools, like Discussion or Calendar, and in advanced Groove® tools, which enable you to sort, filter, and search.
- Define GrooveIT! rules to automatically send your e-mails to Groove®.
- Use GrooveIT! and Outlook® rules together to refine information sorting.
- Easily create new Groove® workspaces and invite your contacts from within Outlook®.
- Send your Groove® VCard to your Outlook® contacts with one click.

Benefits :
From Outlook, you can directly send information from your clients, suppliers, or partners to any of your teams in any Groove® workspace. Regardless of whether you are recruiting, following up on a project, managing purchases and sales, or working on customer service, your message will get to the right people at the right time.

                    + Improve team reaction and response times
                    + Encourage efficient decision-making
                    + Increase customer satisfaction

By facilitating automatic and targeted information sharing, GrooveIT! for Microsoft® Outlook™ guarantees everyone will have regular and up-to-date information at their fingertips.

Price :
US$9.90 - €7.90 / license

Trial :
Free 10 days trial available
No feature limitation

Supported Groove versions :
Groove Virtual Office 3.1x
Microsoft Office Groove 2007

Supported Languages :
English
French
Other languages to come...

Link to related resources :
GrooveIT! for Outlook website : http://www.grooveit.biz/en/foroutlook/home.aspx
GrooveIT! download and purchase : http://www.grooveit.biz/en/foroutlook/download.aspx
GrooveIT product family website : http://www.grooveit.biz/

About Author :
Hommes & Process
Microsoft Gold Certified Partner - Expert on Groove technologies
(Former Groove Networks Inc SVAR and Developer Partner)
contact@hommesetprocess.com
http://www.hommesetprocess.com/page_EN.html (EN)
http://www.hommesetprocess.com/ (FR)
http://blog.hommesetprocess.com/ (FR)

Welcome to this new blog...

2007-04-10T09:33:00Z

Few days ago, I suggested to Admin (Thanks Jim !) creating a new blog dedicated to products and services around Groove.

Several Community attendees are ISV or Service Providers and I think it will be interesting for the whole community to discover how they can use (or improve their use), integrate and extend Groove by using third party products or software services.

So feel free to create new posts to describre your solutions !

As a guideline, I would suggest to each author creating a post to include (at least) the following information:

- Product Name
- Short description
- Features List
- Benefits
- Price
- Trial available (if yes, conditions : time limited, feature limited, etc)
- Supported Groove versions (3.1? 2007? Both?)
- Supported Languages
- Link to related resources (website, webstore, download site, trial site...)
- About Author (Who you are + Link to your website or useful resources)

Of course, any suggestion is welcome ;-)

Third Party Vendors

2007-04-06T17:57:00Z

Write an email to admin and I'll add you as a trusted user to manage your own postings to this blog.