Teamwork

Enterprise Deployment

In addition to the standard applications for use in the enterprise, the Professional version even includes a Helpdesk solution with an integrated ticket system, which is likely to go down well with support departments. To cover conventional enterprise-specific purposes, Group Office also integrates a complete project management system, including a Time Tracking module that allows users to manage projects seamlessly, from scheduling to time monitoring. The developers have even considered vacation planning.

Users find the required data in tabular form and divided into categories in the Projects tab. An integrated file manager helps users navigate. If the additional Billing module is installed, users can manage a project in Group Office from the kick-off meeting through the entire process to invoicing the customer and receivables management (Figure 4). The Project module also integrates the Helpdesk and Time Tracking modules.

Figure 4: The Billing module replaces invoicing software in Group Office.

Communicative

The individual Group Office modules can load datasets from numerous third-party applications and convert and export them into other formats. The LibreOffice derivative Collabora Online [11] is responsible for importing and exporting Office formats. In addition to filters for the common proprietary Microsoft formats, it also offers filters for PDF and, more recently, even the EPUB format.

To use Collabora Online in Group Office, admins need to configure an appropriate server. The E-mail module not only assumes the email client role, it can be supplemented by an email server if required. Here, Group Office supports Postfix [12] or Dovecot [13] as mail transport agents (MTAs). However, on Linux systems, this feature is currently only available for Debian and Ubuntu.

For large datasets, Group Office additionally integrates a document module with an index function, which handles even complex searches in datasets and mailboxes. This module is available as an add-on; on Debian and Ubuntu, it requires the installation of various tools like ImageMagick or Tesseract. Both the Billing and the Document editing modules are commercial and not available in the community version.

In the Team

As of version 6.4.145, admins can also integrate Rocket.Chat into the Group Office instance. The desktop integrates chat functions, including individual groups in the chat, and users can hold videoconferences and exchange files with Rocket.Chat if required.

To this end, Group Office does not provide Rocket.Chat itself but instead integrates it as a third-party application. To use the package in Group Office, admins already need to have a working Rocket.Chat instance running on a server.

Because of the possibilities that result from the integration of chat functions and videoconferences, Group Office is also useful as a platform for working in the home office. The synchronization module integrates smartphones and tablets into the system, but their capabilities are reduced because of screen limitations.