OpenText Vibe Reviews and Ratings

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

My organization comprises of a small group of individuals that interact with 3-4 clients each on a daily basis. Maybe not a lot, but when in media production and website design and development, keeping it all together takes its toll. I was looking for a solution where we could have a centralized location for the data materials collected from our clients (e.g. content to be used for websites, scripts, graphics for videos); post project ideas, meeting notes; keep track of production schedules from start to post completion (social sharing, delivery of content, etc.), in a centralized area to post new tips and production shortcuts. These things were needed and more as time progressed... all the while being maintained in a clean and appealing interface. (We're creative people!) Micro Focus Vibe really came through for us. It delivered what we needed. My team was quite comfortable with the setup, and also using it to set up temporary client accounts to share data, thoughts and messages. It's hard to get the creative to slowdown and record their thoughts and processes, but Vibe made it easy enough for my teammates to jot down what they're doing, what needs to happen with their projects, and I get updated all the while.

Likelihood to Recommend

I think Micro Focus Vibe is very well suited for organizations that work in a team collaboration front and have to share documents. I think this really shines in organizations that have a standard set of information that gets lost in the sauce because of the sheer amount of people in an organization. In this case, the Wiki is very helpful in this setting. I wouldn't quite recommend this site for video production houses unless you are patient enough to correlate your needs to the many many features available through Vibe...because it all boils down to patience.

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We are in the process of testing Novell Vibe to be used for the entire organisation. For this we have to test two parts. The landing pages, corporate wide and for users individually. The second part is implementing forms and workflows to automate some processes in order to make them more paper-friendly. We have a distinct division between office and work floor. As the company is project driven Novell Vibe would be a good choice and we have the full Novell suite so it will also be linked in with our Novell GroupWise mail environment.

Likelihood to Recommend

<ol><li>How fast can I implement it fully for an organisation?</li><li>How many hours must I invest to get it up and running?</li><li>How does it compare to the competitors similar software?</li><li>Once up and running how much time and money will it cost me?</li></ol><p>From the point of how it looks I would like to use it. As it is part of the Novell suite I would like to use it as I have already paid for it. So in conclusion with the help of Novell I might be able to implement it the way I want it but without extra cost.</p>

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We are using Vibe primarily for its workflow/work process abilities. It has replaced clumsy spreadsheets that can't reproduce what Vibe does for us.

We now can track the flow of our inventory throughout it's process over multiple sites and know at what state it's in. Our workflow is designed to be extremely user friendly. Most interactions are just one click, where the user checks that their part of the process is complete and notifications get automatically sent to coworkers who need to know that particular step is complete.

We also use the shared calendar as departmental calenders.

Likelihood to Recommend

Vibe is part of our license and if it's part of yours you should take it for a run. I believe the strength in Vibe is the workflow element. If you are looking for ways to track something with accountable processes, then Vibe is worthy of the challenge. It also will fill file sharing needs and calendar needs. There are many aspects that we don't use but could definitely implement, like the wiki. Having a wiki for new employees to learn company lingo is one that comes to mind.The hardest part is collaboration. Some employees don't like to share their knowledge or don't want to since they don't see what's in it for them. The software will allow easy collaboration, but sometimes you can lead a horse to water but can't make them drink.

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Novell Vibe was a huge success in replacing our intranet and introduced a solution to address several problems and wants: department landing pages (for related news and info), blogs, discussion threads, wiki (we use it for IT change controls), surveys, calendars, LDAP sync to Active Directory (giving users the ability to access it externally), and a mobile app, just to name a few.

The most attractive piece, from a maintenance/administrative standpoint, is that it allows us to assign user rights at any level. From a single entry to an entire landing page. It puts content-management in the hands of department managers.

Likelihood to Recommend

It is well suited in a mid-scale to large-scale, multi-site environment with 150+ employees.

Questions worth asking are:

Given our business requirements, would it be best to implement out-of-the-box, or have some hired-out programming for company-specific needs? There are advantages and disadvantages to each.

With the rights capability, can you get buy-in from department heads to maintain their content, or do you keep it in IT?

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

This product is being used as the backbone of our intranet. It is used across the entire organization. The problems it addresses are mainly company wide communication and electronic form usage. We are also using it some for file storage.

Likelihood to Recommend

If you are already using Novell products, it fits seamlessly in. If your company is 100% Microsoft then maybe SharePoint would be a good alternative. For small firms with a limited budget for an intranet solution this could be a good choice.

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We used it on projects and areas in our daily business operations to collaborate with all of our employees involved. It also provides great way to keep communication flowing. We used as a central repository for documents and contracts.

Likelihood to Recommend

Does your team want a collaborative work space?

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Novell Vibe is being used across our entire organization. We use it for file access and tracking progress of projects and customer support.

We also install Vibe for customers and work with them to design their access as well as set up their complex workflows.

Likelihood to Recommend

Novell Vibe can provide file sharing and team collaboration services for most environments. Teams that need heavy project management functionality like Gantt charts and resource allocation would be better served by using a package like MS Project.