Item: OpenText Vibe
Rating: 9
Author: Richard Johnson

Overall Satisfaction with Novell Vibe

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.

Pros and Cons

Pros

Workflow management is where Vibe excels
Shared file access
Shared calendar

Cons

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.

Return on Investment

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.

Alternatives Considered

I have not evaluated any other product as Vibe is part of our current Novell license.

Likelihood to Renew

We would never go back to a spreadsheet to manage our inventory!

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.

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.

Comments

Please log in to join the conversation

Vibe Review

Software Version