Overview
What is OpenText Vibe?
OpenText Vibe (formerly Micro Focus Vibe) is a web-based team collaboration platform developed by Novell, and was initially released by Novell in June 2008 under the name of Novell Teaming. Novell's acquisition by Micro Focus was completed in April 2015.
Finding your Vibe in the storm of production
Novell Vibe the beauty and the beast.
Why to Consider Novell Vibe as Your Next Team Collaboration Solution
Vibe Review
Good Vibe-rations
Experiences with Novell Vibe
Tools for team and project management
Pricing
What is OpenText Vibe?
OpenText Vibe (formerly Micro Focus Vibe) is a web-based team collaboration platform developed by Novell, and was initially released by Novell in June 2008 under the name of Novell Teaming. Novell's acquisition by Micro Focus was completed in April 2015.
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What is OpenText Vibe?
OpenText Vibe Video
OpenText Vibe Competitors
OpenText Vibe Technical Details
Operating Systems | Unspecified |
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Mobile Application | No |
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(9)Community Insights
- Business Problems Solved
- Pros
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- Recommendations
Novell Vibe, now known as Micro Focus Vibe, has been tested and implemented in various organizations with positive user experiences. One of the main use cases of this software is its ability to automate processes and make them more paper-friendly, particularly in office and work floor divisions. Users have found that Vibe provides a clean and appealing interface, making it suitable for creative individuals working in media production and website design.
For project-driven companies, Novell Vibe offers centralized data collection from clients and allows for the organization of project ideas, meeting notes, and production schedules. This feature has proven beneficial in managing workflows and tracking project progress. In addition to serving as a shared calendar for departmental events, Vibe also acts as the backbone of the organization's intranet. It addresses company-wide communication needs, electronic form usage, file storage, collaboration on projects, and serves as a central repository for documents and contracts.
One notable advantage of Vibe is its flexibility in assigning user rights at any level, which gives content-management control to department managers. This ensures that access remains secure while allowing for efficient collaboration across teams. With its successful replacement of traditional intranets, Novell Vibe has become an essential tool for organizations of various sizes and industries.
Highly Configurable and Customizable: Several users have praised Novell Vibe for its high level of configurability and customization. They have mentioned that the platform can be easily tailored to their specific needs and preferences through the use of JSP.
Effective Access Structure: Many reviewers have appreciated the effective access structure of Novell Vibe. They have found it beneficial to be able to set up forms and workflows, which allow them to control who sees what information. This feature has helped them maintain privacy and confidentiality within their organizations.
Useful RSS Feeds: A significant number of users have highlighted the usefulness of RSS feeds in Novell Vibe. As project managers, they find it beneficial to be updated in real-time as information is posted. This feature enables them to stay on top of progress and anticipate any potential issues.
Cons:
- Steep learning curve and lack of findable information: Several users have mentioned that they found the system to be one of the most user-unfriendly they have encountered in their experience of building websites. They have also noted a steep learning curve and a lack of easily accessible information on the internet, making it challenging for them to navigate and use the tool effectively.
- Workflow disruptions when making changes to tree structure: Users have reported difficulties working with the interface due to quirks in the Java used. Specifically, when making changes to a tree structure, some users have experienced issues where it gets reset to the top level, disrupting their workflow and requiring additional time and effort to fix.
- Lack of copy option interrupts workflow: Some users have found it strange that there is no copy option in the tool, which constantly interrupts their workflow. This means that they cannot easily duplicate or replicate elements within the platform, leading to inefficiencies and extra steps in their tasks.
Users have made several recommendations for Micro Focus Vibe 4.0 based on their experience with the software. Firstly, many users have found the software to be very user-friendly and easy to use for every feature. This ease of use has been highlighted as a key strength of the product, making it accessible and intuitive for users of all experience levels.
Secondly, reviewers have suggested trying the free trial of Micro Focus Vibe 4.0 before making a purchase. This recommendation allows potential customers to explore and evaluate the software's features and capabilities, helping them make an informed decision about its suitability for their needs.
Lastly, users recommend considering the NOWS bundling option when purchasing Micro Focus Vibe 4.0. This bundling option is suitable for businesses of all sizes and offers cost-effective solutions tailored to specific requirements, making it an attractive choice for both small and large businesses alike.
In addition to these recommendations, some users have also pointed out that Micro Focus Vibe 4.0 could be considered as a cost-effective alternative to SharePoint. Moreover, if budget is not a concern, reviewers advise choosing a product with a user-friendly interface.
Overall, these recommendations emphasize the user-friendliness of Micro Focus Vibe 4.0 and suggest exploring the free trial and considering the NOWS bundling option when evaluating this software for business needs.
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Reviews
(1-5 of 5)Finding your Vibe in the storm of production
- RSS Feeds: As a project manager (at the time and still am in a sense) being updated as information is posted helped me to stay on top of progress as it happened. The feeds also allows me to foresee problems before they happened, coming in like Super Woman to save the day...kidding (or am I?).
- Customizable workspaces: While we've got our video project workflows down to a science, our website projects are a different monster. Because we offer customized websites, each client's needs are different from the next. Vibe's Workspaces reflects this - not only for our projects, but for the users as well. Everyone has a different way of organizing their thoughts and with Vibe no one has to fall in line with cookie cutter layouts...or at least they can start out with one and develop it into their own.
- My god MOBILE DEVICE Support: I know many many many project collaboration tools have migrated to the mobile device platform - but I found that a lot of times, features are limited. I'm always on a go and can't always access my Surface for a brief look at what's going on. But when you fall in love with a platform, it makes it all the better that it is usable outside the confines of my desktop box.
- Export calendars or sync calendars with programs like Outlook.
- Easier way to print or create reports on projects (completions status, tasks left to be done, etc.) for paper trail lovers. The workflow process is nice, but it takes time to configure. Most of my teammates weren't quite in love with that aspect.
- Instant messaging for those of us who don't like the phone and want to keep project related work conversations in the same window.
- I really wish there was better is a way to display videos. In video production, we're always trying to find ways to share our progress and being able to do so in the same platform without one having to download it would have pushed Vibe to a 10 star rating.
- Increase team efficiency for sure.
- Able to provide better customer service because project status and details is plain to see and in plain English.
- Because Vibe is so feature rich, the downside is having to train new users on how to use it which takes time away from other tasks.
What my team migrated from was an open source platform called Projectfork. I really loved that platform, but it is easy to break. So in search from something stable, I stumbled across Vibe. It gave me the features I was accustomed to having plus the reporting, improved document versioning, easier flow of setting up users and permissions, and push notifications.
Novell Vibe the beauty and the beast.
- Novell Vibe connects GroupWise mail with Vibe natively which means you can access Vibe from within the mail product.
- Once forms and workflows are set up, the access structure on who sees what or not is very effective.
- You can use Novell Vibe as your main intranet with everything from wiki's, blogging and more fully automated and still in synch with your internal organisational structure.
- After playing with it for a while i found that through jsp it is highly configurable.
- Having build lot of websites over the years this is one of the most user unfriendly systems I [have] run across. The learning curve is very steep and a lot of stuff is not findable on the internet.
- The Java used under water has some quirks that makes working with the interface almost undoable. If you make a tree and you change something in that tree it is completely reset to the top level every time so the workflow is broken constantly.
- There is no copy option in the tool which is strange as 80% of the things you build is the same or similar with minor adjustments like a different color code. Like the previous remark this makes the workflow constantly interrupted.
- The learning curve for a regular user is also a little too steep. They can do too much and it goes beyond the daily things they need to do with it. To configure Novell Vibe so that the user is protected from doing or seeing too much is a lot of work which means you will have to hire an FTE to manage Novell Vibe alone.
- Because the end product depends on the use of jsp pages a lot it requires you to hire a specialist with a big salary-tag to build it for you. once it is up and running changes will be very dependant on the guy you hired to build it!
- How fast can I implement it fully for an organisation?
- How many hours must I invest to get it up and running?
- How does it compare to the competitors similar software?
- Once up and running how much time and money will it cost me?
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.
- The testing has provided us with a lot of wasted time in figuring out how it works even with the original manuals.
- If we were to implement it in the real environment we would like to see a lot of improvements.
- We have to invest more time to convince management that this tool is the way to go. We hope that Novell Vibe 4.0 has the improvements we are waiting for.
As SharePoint is the Microsoft version of this tool it is fair to use it for comparison. The one thing Microsoft has as an advantage is that it is a Microsoft product hence it looks and feels familiar instantly and getting it up and running is fairly easy. The price however is a different matter.
Also I am looking at WordPress at the moment this gives me an opportunity to build a similar site and with the help of some plugins I can make it a share your documents, tasks and more site. Advantage is that WordPress is free, it is installed in minutes and with the correct themes I have it up and running in the business within days. Also the learning curve for me is flat I don't need to learn as much as with Novell Vibe to get the results I want. Does it work with Outlook and GroupWise ? Maybe!
- Price
- Product Features
- Vendor implemented
- Intergation of microsoft office by adding a vibe button in office was a nice feature
Vibe Review
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.
- Workflow management is where Vibe excels
- Shared file access
- Shared calendar
- The most pressing improvement is in printing. In speaking with Novell techs Vibe was designed as a web tool, no paper necessary. However in the real world our folks love their paper printouts. Vibe utilizes views for various functions. A print view that's easily configured would be an awesome upgrade.
- Customized in JSP. Vibe is completely customized using JSP. I don't know it. I'm not a programmer. I can work things out, but programming isn't my forte.
- Saved us money and time in maintaining our inventory. We send vehicles to various sites, some off-site, an now we know with precision where and what state they are in. What happened to that vehicle?... look in Vibe!
- Easier document management. Looking for a doc? It's in the Sales workspace folder.
Since Vibe is essentially free for us there's no reason not to continue using it. We plan on rolling out more processes in other departments for the coming year.
The biggest obstacle is change. People don't want to change doing things they have been doing for years. If the workflow saves time people will embrace it.
Good Vibe-rations
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.
- Rights. You can grant users/groups rights to specific entries (i.e. an entry for IT eyes only).
- Due to how it's built, you can access it via SSO internally, and access it externally (workstation/app) using credentials.
- Wiki. We created a Change Control wiki to help document changes to our systems.
- Personal Workspaces. These are very dynamic and useful in keeping track of tasks and projects.
- Application Integration. We integrated our email and IM systems. Especially useful when working on projects with team members across multiple sites.
- The app needs some enhancements (i.e. phone numbers aren't touch-and-call)
- There can only be one global landing page. Meaning you can't have users go directly to their department page. Our work-around was putting links to their pages on the global landing page.
- The Photo Album capability is cumbersome.
- Blogs seemed to be the only way to successfully set up a landing page as it offered the most flexibility.
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?
- Collaboration has increased.
- External access to Vibe has been positive.
- Managers have taken on more ownership of the system.
- The learning curve was difficult, and near vertical, at times due to Vibe being so different than what empoloyees were used to.
Experiences with Novell Vibe
- You can create electronic forms with powerful workflows behind them. This allows for supervisor approval/rejection of forms. The workflows also allow for email alerts when certain stages are met.
- Built in social media tools. Each employee has a feed which other employees can follow.
- Allows employees to create teams in which they can chose members and rights.
- The product has a small user base, have had problems finding solutions online.
- Upgrades are not as frequent as they could be.
- Need to know JSP to do advanced customizations.
- It has improved communication. Before often people who needed to know certain things weren't getting the information, now it is delivered automatically.
- Made forms more efficient.