How Apple can penetrate the corporate market

This is part one of an eternally ongoing series about a few of the many things that Apple (and the community behind it) could do to penetrate the modern workplace.

Over the past decade, Apple has enjoyed a breath-taking resurgence. From the release of the iMac to the iPod (maybe you've heard of it?), to the MacBook and iTMS, the popularity and brand of Apple has become something of a global cultural phenomenon.

While Apple has always enjoyed a healthy (read: rabid) cult following, it's only been in the new millennium that their fan and user base has grown beyond that of educators and well heeled creative types. Obviously the iPod came along at the right time, as the digital music revolution hit its stride, but from the perspective of the 'geek world', what really changed things was the release of OS X.

In the late 90's and early 2000s, the overwhelming majority of server based businesses were running either a Unix variant or Windows NT. While most 'clients' were using Windows 95/98/ME, the back-end was dominated by massive servers that were for the most part console based.

As there has been for many years now, a wedge was in place between those who loved their CLI (which were often difficult to learn), and those who preferred the point and click servers such as NT or 2000 (which were frequently overrun by poor programming and less than stellar stability). When the people who operated the back-end stuff went home at night, they weren't logging into Windows machines (unless it was for a quick game or to access a Windows only app/website)...they were home hacking their Linux installs and actively participating in the Open Source community.

When they left work, they were using what they knew, not what had the market share. But they were still not entirely happy with their choices.

Enter Apple.

Since the early days of Linux development, the most persevering issue has been the GUI. Countless debates, articles, flamewars and diatribes have focused on why Linux will/will not ever succeed on the desktop. There were (and remain today) dozens of visual interfaces for Linux, ranging from KDE and Gnome to XFce. For the non-programmer, who simply wanted a stable OS that could get online, run some office apps or play the occasional game, Linux was instead a never ending nightmare of failed dependencies, incoherent and sometimes counter-productive usability flaws and a hostile community that didn't suffer fools (newbs!) very well at all...even the most noble and well regarded of Linux distros were prone to in-fighting and lack of direction.

So when Apple, the darling of the jet set multimedia crowd, released a Unix based OS that had a resplendent and intuitive GUI (one that was, to paraquote Steve Jobs, "lickable") the curiosity of the hardcore geeks was without a doubt piqued. Suddenly, the ability to interface directly with their 'work computers' was a heck of a lot easier. Things that required third party software or jumping through hoops on Windows, such as SSH, remote access or web development (or even using tools such as nslookup or telnet) were now as simple as popping open a Terminal window and going to work. No more fiddling with quirky software or trying to keep Windows up and running. It was a stable Unix with an easy to use GUI, and it was there at the right time.

As the next few years passed, OS X evolved into something that wasn't just a computer operating system, but a work of art of sorts. By taking some of the best metaphors for human interaction and applying them to the computer, Apple had developed an astoundingly good platform onto which millions of people migrated. From college students to photographers to developers to IT staff, Apple gained another sort of following...not one that was enamored by the elite subculture that surrounded the usually higher priced (and sometimes gaudy) computers, but one that was thrilled to be able to accomplish a myriad of goals without having to first become so familiar with the intricacies of the underlying OS itself' that it became a distraction. From iTunes to iPhoto, Apple became the brand of choice for those who simply wanted to get things done.

But one thing has evaded Apple for years, and it's something that a large number of people would love to see come to fruition: the ability for Apple users to coexist in a Windows based workplace. There have admittedly been great advances, such as the addition of Samba compatibility for traversing filesystems, IP based printing, Active Directory integration and the simplification of networking in general, but there are still some large obstacles that prevent Apple from being a welcome presence in the corporate arena.

Part One: Microsoft Exchange and Collaboration
Microsoft Exchange is the predominant choice of larger companies that have the need to share data such as email, contacts, calendars, tasks, files and information in general. Exchange is a powerful set of applications that provide businesses with numerous services in one place. The use of Microsoft Outlook in Windows spearheads the use of Exchange in the server room. When each employee has instant access to the shared calendars and tasks of their coworkers, or they can quickly and easily browse a set of Public Folders to get to valuable documents, those employees become both dependent and loyal to that application.

While Apple Mail has limited support of Exchange in regard to email, there is still no integration of event, task, contact or document management. Apple splinters these items into different applications that don't provide a cohesive methodology for using the information together. For instance, Outlook allows you to download a message, accept a meeting invitation, add it to your calendar, add the sender to your address book and then create a task that will remind you to send that person a fruit basket, all without leaving the program. To do that in OSX requires no less than three applications that, incidentally, don't tie those events together as a workflow. Outlook can automatically create a journaled timeline of the events that have transpired based on any number of criteria, such as a contact or event.

The closest thing the Apple platform has to Outlook is another Microsoft product, called Entourage. A lumbering, unintuitive, behemoth application that has been the object of much Mac hatred over the years, Entourage in its current form has the best Exchange support available for the Mac. This is akin to saying that eating glass is the best way to get full when your menu choices are glass and air.

Entourage, which is a major component of Microsofts' Office cash cow, has so many flaws that it has become something of a nightmare for those who depend on it to work with Exchange. For example, a recent update created a bug that would download (not synch, but actually download) a users email from an Exchange server, create duplicate mailboxes and then subsequently route future Exchange email to a local mailbox. This has not yet been addressed, despite being almost two months old. Then, of course, there is also the bug that is going to affect every Entourage user this Spring, on March 11th to be specific: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=924606. This particular bug will cause calendar events to be off by an hour in the primary calendar view. This will apply to new and recurring events.

How does Microsoft allow such things to occur in the only Exchange compatible app on the Mac platform? Because they don't want Mac users to use Exchange, of course.

The more people that use Macs to access Microsoft technologies such as Exchange or Sharepoint or Project server, the fewer Windows licenses they sell. Sure, the revenue from the lucrative Office suite business s what sustains the company on the whole, but the revenue from OS sales, support, consulting, licensing and addons to these platforms is where the future lies.

But Microsoft's reign as the king of software is quickly coming to an end, as any and every application can now be globalized and used over intranets and the internet itself. The days of $500 Office suites are numbered, especially when online repositories such as Google documents, hosted domains and Open Source office suites are gaining ground in the hearts and minds of the end user. Compatibility is no longer the scarecrow in the office suites cornfield...as all documents become XML based and metadata accessible, proprietary technologies fall by the wayside. Note the fact that the latest iteration of the Office suite is not being touted for it's internal changes and improvements, but instead on it's glossy interface and the 'new' ability to share documents amongst a team.

Apple is in the unique position of being able to gain ground in this area by making the integration of its bundled communication apps a necessity. By combining iCal, Mail, Address Book, iChat and iPhoto into a suite of sorts, the resulting application could harness the best features of all those applications and allow them to communicate with Exchange based servers. The parts are already there...all that needs to be done is to meld them together.

Imagine, if you will, an Apple app that would retrieve your email from the company Exchange server. An application that would allow you to drag text from that email over to a toolbar icon that pops open an iCal 'To Do' window when dropped. The text would fill the body of the To Do, while the subject line of the email would be the name of the To Do item itself. Now the app syncs those changes back to the Exchange server, making them accessible to you from your mobile phone or your home computer via web-mail. Your iCal To Do is now an Exchange Task, complete with status percentages, categories and due dates.

How about receiving an invitation from your boss to attend a meeting, and he asks you to see if a few other folks from your department can attend also? You could click the iCal icon on your toolbar, and the main window pane switches to your calendar...a single click later, you have an overlay of the Free/Busy schedules of your department. With everyone free, you simply drag the original event to their calendars and drop it, where they can then accept or deny the invite. Again, everything is sent back to the server and automatically notifies the meeting organizer of the attendees status.

All of this would be seamless to your coworkers. Windows and Outlook users would no longer have the advantage over Mac users in regard to event management or scheduling. Tasks could be assigned, updated and maintained regardless of platform.

Then, of course, there is the iPhone. Most Smartphones these days support Exchange syncing, whether directly from the desktop or via direct push. By integrating such abilities into the iPhone, Apple could put the mobile work force onto the same playing field as their PocketPC or Palm using coworkers. More users = more iPhones, right Apple?

But, this isn't the only way Apple could pull this off. They could also reverse the tide and enhance their existing services to create an Exchange killer.

Apple servers already have built in features such as email, calendaring, directory support and (of all things) blogging capabilities. But what if Apple were to create a cross platform application that would allow any OS client to access those services? They could build an innovative and corporate friendly collaborative solution.

Imagine it's Monday morning and you are groggily opening your iCollab app and seeing a 'welcome' page that was served over the network or from your companies web server. The welcome page would have a sidebar showing you new email messages, a section that lists todays conference room meetings, the latest posts from your coworkers blogs and perhaps another area that shows you your shared files, with those that had been checked out or edited marked in red.

Before you've even taken a sip of your coffee, the server has pushed out the latest internal content and begun to synchronize your documents.

You click on an entry from your bosses blog and iCollab switches panes to display his customized journal. On your bosses blog, you see that he is discussing last weeks tradeshow and that he has an iPhoto icon at the end of the post. You click it and are prompted to view the images as a slideshow, or to import them into iPhoto. You choose import, but the photos don't actually copy to your machine...they are simply added to your iPhoto database, pointing back to the server. But since iCollab allows you to cache offline documents in its Preferences, you have them available when you leave the office if you add them to your 'Local System' smart folder.

You then switch back to your welcome screen, and see that you have email from IT letting you know that your Documents folder is scheduled for a monthly backup to the server. The email also lets you know that you have 4gb of MP3s in your Music folder and reminds you to back them up yourself, as the server policy doesn't synch your music files. You click a link in the email and the backup schedule is confirmed on your calendar and back to the server.

Next, you look at your file section and see that Marketing has updated the letterhead you requested when your cell phone number changed. You click the file and it is automatically saved to your local system. Once you review it, you mark it as complete and the server removes it from the active file library, then archives it.

The thing about all of this is that it is not out of the realm of possibility. A majority of Apples server based applications are derived from Open Source code...from the mail server (Postfix/Cyrus) to the web server (Apache), OS X Server is packed to the gills with proven and extensible code. Creating a collaborative integration of these apps could be done without too much of a fuss.

But, I hear you asking, what about the client application? How will that work on Windows or Mac or Linux? Simple: say hi to your web browser.

By making the entire iCollab suite web based, Apple could insure that every user sees the same interface. By feeding the information to the browser from the server, the data is always current. By allowing the end user to choose specific things to add to their start page, the longing to personalize is met. But at the same time static content would remain in place, so as to push across information relevant to everyone.

But what about remote users? How do they access this content? And what about their files and data? By integrating WebDav into the iCollab server, the clients can have schedules pushed from the server that would update their data on specific schedules or on demand. Server admins could set policies in regard to content type, file size or modification dates. By assigning meta data to specific documents or files, entire projects could be synchronized between remote or local network users.

Oh, and what if we needed guest access? Let's say you have a vendor that needs access to some documents for a project in Philadelphia. You and your team have been working with them closely, and you need to share the files with them, and them only. So you create a time limited login for them and add the appropriate folder to a server hosted 'project iDisk'. The guest logs in, sees/edits/downloads the document and sends back any revisions or notes to the iDisk. Perhaps there is an embedded file editor in the iDisk itself, so you could allow them to revise without downloading. Cool, eh?

Conclusion
The ability to create an open but secure collaboration suite that could be used by employees on any platform would be such a unique step forward that Apple could easily make major inroads to the corporate server room. Shared scheduling, email, tasks, project and document management, combined with automated backup and individual employee iDisks could be the Exchange (and Sharepoint) of the future. Using either Active or Open Directory integration, clients of all sorts could authenticate to the server and have the most robust team workflow available.

While there would still be numerous things to take into consideration, such as security, bandwidth needs and processing power, these are all things that can be weighed versus the ability of a company to function as a team without using proprietary technologies.

Ease of use and the end result are the hallmarks of Apples technologies. By bringing that philosophy to the workplace, Apple opens the door to a lucrative new world.

Addendum
Thanks for reading this article. As a Mac using IT Manager for a multinational company that has a large percentage of it's users on Macs (as well as PCs'), this is something that I think about a lot. Everyday there are challenges involved in fitting Macs into our corporate environment, and everyday I curse Microsoft for having the abilities and potential to create excellent products, which they then crippled with proprietary features and sheer stupidity.

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