Electronic communications today fall into three main technologies:

• E-Mail - The most used form of communication today
• Fax - The main legacy form of legally accepted electronic communication
• SMS - The most flexible and rapidly adopted form of alerting/spontaneous communication

Collax believes that all three of these forms of communication are important and that in an ideal world these communication methods should live side by side and interact seamlessly.

The use of a Fax should be as simple as sending or receiving an E-Mail, even integrated into your E-Mail solution. If you are working from an application like Microsoft Word a fax should be as simple as printing it on your local printer.
The integration of SMS should also be linked to your E-Mail system so that E-Mails can be sent as SMS’s to you staffs’ phones. This is what Collax calls communication.

In terms of E-Mail there are two levels of communication:

• Standard E-Mail - Although there is nothing simple about standard E-Mail, it should provide all features functions.
• Groupware - This is where E-Mail is tightly coupled with group-wide Calendaring, Tasks and Contacts.
   

Standard E-Mail

Although referred to as standard E-Mail your E-Mail solutions should support as least the following:

• PPO3/IMAP - Standard protocols
• SSL Encryption - Base level security transmission
• SIEVE Rules - To make the server more useable and efficient
• Vacation Notification - Mandatory for any business
• Header filter: MIME and extension filters - Basic security filtering
• HELO client identification - Basic security identification
• Malicious headers correction - Problem prevention
• Multidrop mailbox - Group mailbox (e.g. jobs@example.com)
• Distribution lists - Essential for businesses
• Backup - Essential for peace of mind and often regulation.

Groupware

Groupware introduces the idea of computer based collaboration to improve a company’s productivity and team working.
Collax identifies Groupware as the coming together of the following in a unified way of working:

• E-Mail
• Group shared calendars
• Group shared task lists
• Group shared contact lists
• Remote and mobile access

But to make real groupware work there needs to be a strong underlining base to keep it safe, secure and reliable:

• Storage management
• Network management
• Outlook Connectivity
• Anti-Spam
• Anti-virus

Without both these being present neither one can function correctly to achieve true collaboration.