Chapter 5 • Enterprise Systems 209run under proprietary operating systems (e.g., not UNIX).
Examples are Digital Equipment’s ALL-IN-ONE and IBM’s
PROFS (Professional Office System). The more advanced
mainframe-based systems, such as PROFS, packaged e-mail
together with electronic calendaring and other related
features. In this mainframe environment, the e-mail system
runs on the mainframe, with the workstation being used as a
terminal; there is no GUI interface. With PROFS, the main
menu included a calendar with the current date highlighted, a
clock, a message area where other users could directly
communicate with this workstation, and a menu of other
choices, such as process schedules (electronic calendaring),
open the mail, search for documents, and prepare
documents.
The second wave of e-mail systems was designed
to run on UNIX servers (high-powered workstations
running the UNIX operating system). Popular systems
include Pine and Elm. This type of e-mail system runs on
the server, with the PC being used as a terminal; again,
there is no GUI interface. These systems do not have the
functionality of mainframe systems like PROFS, but they
are much more economical to operate on a per-user or
per-message basis.
The development of POP-servers and POP-mail
demonstrates how PC-based front-ends can be used to
provide a friendlier interface for users. POP stands for post
office protocol, and POP-mail is based on an analogy with
post office boxes. To use POP-mail, a POP-client such as
Eudora or Pegasus must be loaded on the PC. Various
e-mail systems, including Pine, can be used as a POP-
server. All incoming mail is kept on the POP-server until
the user logs on and asks for mail to be downloaded to his
or her own machine; this is analogous to traditional mail
being kept in a post office box until the patron opens the
box and empties it. The user processes the mail on his or
her own machine, using the GUI provided by Eudora or
Pegasus. The user can read mail, throw some of it away,
store some in electronic file folders, and prepare responses
to some of it. After processing the mail on the PC, the user
reopens a connection to the POP-server on the host com-
puter and uploads any outgoing messages.
The third wave of e-mail systems was LAN-based
client/server software systems that incorporated well-
designed GUI interfaces, complete with small inboxes,
outboxes, wastebaskets, attractive fonts, color, and other
GUI features. Example packages are cc:Mail by Lotus and
Microsoft Mail. If an organization wants e-mail only, these
packages are sufficient. LAN-based e-mail systems were
very popular in the 1990s, but they have largely been
replaced in the 2000s by the more robust groupware
systems such as Lotus Notes/Domino and Microsoft
Outlook/Exchange—we will talk more about these
groupware systems in the next section. A variation of this
third wave of client/server e-mail systems is Internet mail,
which has become very popular for small business and
home use. Internet mail is gaining traction for larger
businesses under a SaaS arrangement with a vendor such
as Google or Microsoft. For Internet mail, the client
software is the user’s Web browser, and the server software
is located on a high-powered Web server operated by an
Internet service or software provider. The user must, of
course, have access to the Internet via an Internet service
provider (ISP) or an organizational link to the Internet.
Examples of these Internet mail systems, which are usually
free for small business and home use, are Microsoft
Hotmail, Google Gmail, and Juno E-mail on the Web.
Most organizations, however, have moved beyond
simple e-mail. They want the greater functionality of the
older mainframe systems plus the GUI interface of the
POP-mail and LAN-based systems. They want electronic
calendaring and document sharing. The answer is group-
ware. We will discuss groupware as a separate category of
applications in the next section.
In summary, office automation is moving forward,
slowly but steadily, and the key to further development
appears to be the use of unified communications combined
with collaboration tools or groupware.Groupware and Collaboration
Earlier in this chapter, we argued that ERP systems
deserved treatment as a separate application area because
of their currency and importance, despite the fact that ERP
systems are, indeed, transaction processing systems. Now
we wish to make the same argument for including group-
ware and collaboration as an application area vis-à-vis
office automation. Clearly, the groupware and collabora-
tion area is part of office automation, but it is a very critical
part that deserves special attention.
Groupwareis an industry term that refers to software
designed to support groupsby facilitating collaboration,
communication, and coordination. Nowadays, the term
collaborationor the phrase collaborative environmentis
often used as a synonym for groupware. In choosing a
groupware product, the decision maker must decide what
functions are required and seek a product (or a combination
of products) that provides these features. Some groupware
features are electronic mail, electronic bulletin boards,
computer conferencing, electronic calendaring, group
scheduling, sharing documents, electronic whiteboards,
shared workspace, meeting support systems, workflow
routing, electronic forms, Internet telephony, desktop
videoconferencing, learning management systems, unified
communications, and IM. One groupware feature needed to