IceWarp Does a Major RefreshIceWarp Does a Major Refresh

While the UC space appears to be dominated by Microsoft and Cisco, it's nice to see that there's still room for smaller suppliers to carve out a niche.

When you think of UC&C, IceWarp is probably not the first name that comes to mind, but the company has been reinventing its solution for the past decade and delivers engaging functions that are both intuitive and fun. The majority of the company's sales are in the EMEA region, though it is working to build its presence here in the US. I got a preview of the latest release, Version 11, from the company's president, Ladislav Goc, last week.

While the solution supports video and voice using standard SIP phones, the primary theme of its value prop is messaging. The user interface is browser-based and works with Safari, Firefox, and Internet Explorer 8 and up; there are also mobile clients for iOS and Android. Those mobile clients now sync notes for both iOS and Android devices. The desktop client is designed to work in conjunction with Exchange Active Sync; you set up your interface much the way you would set up an Active Sync account on your smartphone. It can also sync with Outlook if users prefer that tool, or it can be used as an Outlook alternative.

The new version presents a clean user interface and some snappy features; you can also switch back to the legacy client if you choose. You can create a contact or a calendar entry by simply dragging an email into the calendar or contacts folder, or convert emails into documents by dragging them to the documents folder. As you preview contacts, presence status based on either calendar entries or user selection is displayed, and each contact's full details are viewable without the need to open the contact card. The search function automatically searches contacts if you're in the contacts folder, events if you're in the calendar, and emails if you're in the email folder.

The product also includes an online meeting functionality similar to Cisco's Jabber, Microsoft's Lync, or Citrix's GoToMeeting, with screen sharing and recording built in. Once the meeting is ended, a copy of the recording in MP3 format can be sent to all participants automatically. You can also drag a meeting to a different day in the calendar, and updated invites will automatically be sent to all participants.

The product also features an easy-to-use document management capability with complete revision history. "Documents" can be in Word, PowerPoint, Excel, or text and HTML. You can lock documents if you want to be the only one to make changes, and emails can be sent automatically to all team members anytime a document is changed. You can also upload documents to Dropbox, and since not everyone will see that as a good thing, that function can be disabled.

Users can manage their mobile devices through the client. In the security section, you can enforce password usage, strength, and timeout, can require encryption on both the device and an SDI card, and can even perform a remote wipe. Administrators can disable attachments or limit attachment size or turn off push while the phone is in a roaming zone. It can also disable Bluetooth, the camera, desktop synchronization, Wi-Fi, or personal email accounts. It's not as flexible and functional as a true MDM system, but a big step up over the MDM capabilities in Exchange.

The bottom line is that, while the UC space appears to be dominated by Microsoft and Cisco, it's nice to see that there's still room for smaller suppliers to carve out a niche. In IceWarp's case, that niche touches on functions found in a lot of different "big name" products, and the company has done an admirable job in stitching them together in a well-integrated package.

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