For those of you that are looking for more solutions for connecting GroupWise with Android devices, I thought I would point out a new solution from one of our GroupWise partners. Ghost Pattern Software has had a good mail client and a calendar client for iOS (iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch) for a while now. Now they have just released a solution for Android.

In short, you get an easy to use, native Android app. It uses the menu and back buttons just like other Android apps, so it should be easy for your users to learn to use. But most importantly, this is a GroupWise app. It knows about accepting appointments, completing tasks, viewing the properties of an email you sent to see status tracking, and other GroupWise like features. Being able to search all of your GroupWise address books when composing an email is pretty helpful too.

They have two separate apps, GW Mail for Android and GW Calendar for Android.

GW Mail for Android is a lot like their mail solution for iOS. It gives you quick, simple access to your mailbox to deal with your daily flood of email. Here is a list of features that they list on their website.

• Read your mail list

• Switch folders, move items to folders

• Read emails, and delete, read later, properties, etc.

• Read attachments using the GroupWise WebAccess viewer

• View attachments using apps on your device

• Compose emails

• Address book searching during compose

There are a couple of screenshots below.

GW Calendar for Android is all about looking at your calendar. You can see all of your appointments, tasks, and notes for a day, a week or a month. And like the mail app, you will be able to view or download attachments, accept or decline appointments and more.
Here is the list of features for the calendar app from their website:

• View your calendar by day, week or month

• Navigate to different dates to view your calendar in the past or future

• View appointments, notes and tasks

• Create appointments

• Address book searching during compose

• Accept and decline appointments, notes and tasks

• View attachments using the GroupWise WebAccess viewer

• View attachments using apps on your device

There are a couple of screenshots for the calendar app too:

Best of all for the IT crowd, these apps do not require a lot of effort to deploy. The app uses the GroupWise WebAccess server that you already have deployed to gather data. So when someone shows up in your office wanting to get their new Samsung Galaxy S or Motorola Droid X connected to GroupWise, just point their device at the Android Market and search for GroupWise. Buy the apps, login and the problem is solved.

Now you might want to test to make sure that your server works with the apps first. They have a free app, GW Lite, that does exactly that.

I know they give great service and support too. So you if you run into any problems, email them at support@ghostpattern.com. Or you can email Daniel, the owner of the company, directly at Daniel@ghostpattern.com.