Using vocabulary and actions that are not consistent with other mail, calendaring and collaboration tools, GroupWise demonstrates that user experience with other software is no help for basic messaging and scheduling tasks.
What’s wrong with the email address?
What happened
I tried to send email to a colleague using GroupWise to inform him about my new contact information. The colleague is at another organization and reads his email using either Apple’s Mail or Qualcomm’s Eudora. I open GroupWise and create a new message. I enter my friends email address correctly as [email protected] A dialogue box appears indicating the address can not be resolved. To be able to send email to friends and colleagues not on the GroupWise systm (or in the GroupWise address book), you must enter “Internet:[email protected]”.
Dial "Internet" to get an outside line
Why is this bad? It’s as if…
I pick up the phone and dial the number but instead of being connected I am told that the number is unreachable and I should consult the phone book to resolve the problem. But the phone book only contains phone numbers for people in my organization, and doesn’t tell me how to contact individuals outside of the organization.
Simple solutions to this problem
Parse the address on the backend. If the address matches a valid internet address try to send, else if it matches an address in the GroupWise address book use it. This would allow users to enter valid email address or use the address look up function, which is a behaviour that can be found in Lotus Notes and Microsoft Exchange.