When I reported that Novell's Small Business Suite included the GroupWise application for e-mail, calendar collaboration and group task lists, some readers wondered whether GroupWise really has a place in small businesses.

For answers, I turned to Paul Anderson, CEO of Novacoast, an IT services company in southern California. Novacoast’s customers include big companies such as 20th Century Fox, and many small ones (fewer than 25 users) like Leon’s Transmission, which makes Anderson’s perspective quite valuable.

While Microsoft Outlook rules the small business market, its share is slipping, Anderson says: “People are sick of the virus problems. The security vulnerabilities are outweighing the value of the Outlook client.”

Anderson estimates 90% of his small business customers use the Microsoft Outlook client today, down from five years ago when nearly everyone did. When a Novacoast customer wants to move away from Outlook, GroupWise is an easy sell because of Novell's increased security and resistance to viruses, Anderson says. Unlike Outlook, GroupWise doesn't allow outside macros and scripts to execute, shutting the door to the most popular virus transmission method.

But viruses aren't the only thing pushing small businesses from Outlook. Security inside Outlook, such as the ability to read someone else’s e-mail, has problems. “Outlook Web Access is the most vulnerable,” Anderson says. “We just did a security audit for a bank. Within two hours, we were looking at the CEO’s e-mail through Outlook Web Access.”

Outlook and GroupWise occupy that middle space between e-mail clients and true collaborative software. Both offer shared calendars and task lists, and the ability (with authorization) to commit someone else’s time to fit into group meetings. And unlike the enterprise-focused Lotus Notes, neither requires an abundance of training and resources.

Even companies with special software for scheduling people and resources, such as construction companies, use e-mail packages for scheduling because they feel so comfortable with their e-mail application, Anderson says. “Our construction customers are in their e-mail application 10 times more than in their construction package,” he says. “When they need to find out where Joe is working today, they go to their e-mail calendar.”