Yahoo! Zimbra Desktop To Offer Centralised e-Mail Mgmt

Yahoo! has launched Zimbra Desktop Beta that gives users access to a simple, centralised place to manage work, personal and other e-mail even when they are not connected to the Internet.

Through Internet protocol support called Post Office Protocol (POP) and Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP), Yahoo! Mail, AOL Mail and Gmail can now be accessed offline at the same time, from the same place. Additionally, Yahoo! Zimbra Desktop allows users to use the iCal standard to take their calendar offline.

“Zimbra is focused on creating communication and collaboration solutions that ease the pain points of traditional e-mail, and switching between multiple e-mail accounts is one of the communication headaches that users encounter on a daily basis,” said Satish Dharmaraj, Zimbra co-founder and Yahoo! vice president. “With Yahoo! Zimbra Desktop, we have made our collaboration suite available for everyone for use anywhere, anytime, with any e-mail account.”

Yahoo! Zimbra Desktop also includes a number of features designed to help enterprise users stay organised, such as document creation, spreadsheets, task management and document storage, giving users a robust alternative to other desktop applications.

New features include online and offline access to:

- Zimbra Documents, a document and spreadsheet program, which gives users the ability to embed complex objects such as photos into documents and spreadsheets. With the addition of Zimbra Documents, Zimbra Desktop users can easily create and edit documents and simple spreadsheets without having to switch between desktop programmes or e-mail large attachments.

- Zimbra Briefcase, which allows users to upload, store, and conveniently access any files including spreadsheets, documents, presentations and others. Instead of keeping all attachments in e-mail you can simply store them in the same place with Zimbra Briefcase, and access them from anywhere, online or offline.

- Zimbra Tasks, a task management system which allows users to manage to-do lists simply and easily by monitoring start and due dates, priority, progress and percent complete.