A few things you might want to know

Information Sharing

I rarely need to share my information with other users. Why would I want to use Rabbit?

Rabbit is about much more than just sharing files with other users. For your own information it provides a:

• Secure and fast backup environment
• Access from anywhere so you can work in different locations
• Review files that other people have shared with you

Of course Rabbit is much more than just sharing information. It lets you collaborate with other users, work on projects with local and distant team members, interact with customers and suppliers, and let you interact with applications and people from anywhere.

What is the difference between sharing a document and creating an article using the CMS?

Sharing a document is simply about making something that you are currently working on available to other users within your group, or in the broader directory. It is a quick way to move files between other users.

The CMS is used to publish a core piece of information for your group, department, team or company. It isn’t just a file but a tagged article which allows you to bring together content from multiple source – documents, photos, podcasts, external links etc. In most organisations contents published up to the central system (be it an intranet, portal, website etc) are normally part of an approval process, which is also built into Rabbit. They have fixed lifetimes and are added to an article archive. Everyone who logs in to their Rabbit will see any articles of interest from their usual alert method, and can view the latest articles in the articles application.

I only use Rabbit when I’m working out of the office. How can I ensure I’m working on the latest version?

Rabbit lets you synchronise information between your desktop and Rabbit system and back again. As long as you have synchronised you will be working on the latest version.

Can’t I just email files I want for other people to see?

Many organisations now put limits on the size of emails that can be sent. Although most people don’t need to email large files there are many circumstances when this is necessary – for example sending the artwork for the corporate brochure for review by the Chief Executive. With Rabbit you can just share the information you want; you don’t have to wait for someone to read their email, you don’t have to worry about attaching files and filling up your own email quota. There is just one copy of the file so storage is minimised and there is no difficulty or slowness in accessing the file by the destination user.

What’s the difference between sending large files using Rabbit and using something like an FTP Server to transfer data?

In all these methods you’re physically moving a file from one location to the next, from source to destination. With Rabbit your file remains in the same shared directory in your Rabbit web implementation but is just accessed and edited by different people. So it’s much speedier, less resource-intensive and you know that you’re working on a current file.

I don’t want end users to be able to access all information, or access all applications. Can I modify access for all users? How easy is it for me to do this, as user requirements change?

Rabbit’s powerful filesharing capabilities allow users to set access privileges for the information they publish, and for administrators to set privileges for users so that they can only perform certain actions, use certain applications, and update certain datasets. It’s very flexible, easy to administer, to set up initially and to change

If everything is hosted on the web, how can I be sure that my data is secure

Security is a critical component of Rabbit. Web-hosted data is protected by the usual physical and virtual security, and data is protected at the individual file level through access controls.

Most data is lost at the user level; through lost memory sticks, PCs, virus damage. With Rabbitsoft there is no need to carry around data as it can be accessed from anywhere and is hosted in a secure environment.

Intranets/Extranets

Rabbit looks more like a Windows desktop than my current intranet. How does it act like an intranet?

People are wedded to the idea that intranets are web pages, static internal websites. Intranets should be your gateway to sharing information and ideas and interacting with your colleagues. The Rabbit desktop is your startpoint to access all the information that you expect to see on the static web site PLUS all the tools you need to share that information, and to collaborate with colleagues.

How customisable is the interface? Could I have a different look and feel for different departments and users?

The user can customise their interface in the same way that they would their current windows desktop, but according to what they need and are allowed to see and use. Certain default applications will always be present. It’s possible to set a different interface for different users centrally – particularly valuable when you are creating a company portal as the startpoint for all activity.

Can I have different intranets for different countries in my company?

With Rabbit it’s possible to set up areas for as many groups as you want and a user can specify what information they want to see. So as they login they might see information relevant to their specific subsidiary company and then view the overall company updates. They won’t see information outside their group access.

I only want certain people to publish information into the intranet areas. How do I do this?

You can accomplish this in several ways. Only allow certain users CMS access. Allow CMS access by group – so that information published by that person is only seen by the group they’re in. Finally there is a full workflow approval process built in as part of the CMS and this can be as multi-layered as you require.

Our current intranet has articles that date back to five years ago. Can Rabbit stop us seeing out-of-date information?

When you are creating an article on Rabbit you can set publish and archive dates. Once the archive date is passed it is only viewable by opening up the archived articles folder; it doesn’t clutter the desktop.

We’re trying to encourage more people to put things up on the intranet. How easy is it?

You can give access to as many people as you want and then putting information up is as simple as creating a document and pressing submit. As long as the content is acceptable according to your own content publishing guidelines the article can be published straightaway. There is no separate uploading of files or documents.

Our old intranet had lots of applications that ran from it? Will I have to rebuild them?

Rabbit comes pre-packaged with many of the standard applications that people use on intranets – for example meeting room bookings, holiday forms, marketplaces etc and it’s easy to build new applications if necessary.

We use the intranet as a content repository where all our standard documents and templates are maintained. Is this still possible using Rabbit?

Underpinning Rabbit is a complete file management system (the Rabbit FS) so all your files, documents, templates etc are stored within Rabbit. For those standards there is a public folder which can be accessed by everyone so becomes the perfect home for all these documents.

We have many mission-critical applications, for HR management, ERP, Accounting etc. Will I have to buy new systems if I change to Rabbit?

Many applications that are web-based and run as SaaS are already integrated into Rabbit, and more will be integrated with time. Where you still have licences and infrastructure, you can still run your existing systems through your traditional OS. We offer a published API to integrate existing systems into the Rabbit interface.

Can my users really do everything that they currently do?

Although some of the applications will be different the functionality will be the same. For example you might use Zoho or Googledocs rather than Office for standard word processing, presentation and spreadsheets. These applications have been designed to work on the web unlike Office but have also been designed to make the transition seamless to the user.

Rabbit Enterprise Social Networks

How many groups can I belong to?

There is no limit to how many groups that you can belong to. Some groups will be invite-only so you cannot just participate in the activities of that group but that is the only restriction. Unlike many wiki tools Rabbit is not priced on workspaces or project team members, so any user can be a member of any number of groups.

How many groups can I set up?

Similarly you can set up as many groups as you can manage. You do not need to have special privileges to set up groups, and there is no limit to the number of groups that you can run. You also have the option of deleting groups where a project has finished.

How can I keep my group private?

All groups have the options of being invite-only – a simple tick box. Then only people that you invite can become part of that group and it is not visible to other Rabbit users.

What if I want one of my customers to join a group?

Your customer will have to be added into the overall directory hierarchy, with associated access rights but can then be invited in just the same way as your colleagues.

You talk about groups letting you share ideas? How do I do this?

Within a group you can share files amongst your group members, publish articles for review just by the group members and also start discussion topics with multiple threads using the group’s discussion board. So it’s easy to make the groups very interactive even if the members are not in one physical location.

How do I know if there are any changes within the group?

As with everything in Rabbit you can set up notifications – notified when there are changes to files, members, articles etc by the method which is most convenient to you.

Can I connect with people using AIM or MSN?

Rabbit has its own corporate messenger so you can chat online instantly. This improves productivity as users only chat with people in the Rabbit network, and keeps the system free from viruses often associated with messenger tools.

I always thought that Wikis were social software and have introduced them to get people working together. Are they the same as Rabbit?

Rabbit includes wiki functionality through its social group function which combines forums, project management and file sharing but offers many more applications and file sharing capabilities.

Rabbit Web OS

Isn’t this just the same as terminal server and virtual desktops. I can access my desktop remotely using services like this already?

Many organisations have moved to the virtual desktop for many of the reasons that we are suggesting introducing Rabbit. These include ease of managing distribution of software and applications, improved security, better user management, and better remote access. However, these systems can be very slow, needing increasing amounts of server resource, and still need a massive amount of network maintenance in order to service the needs of users across multiple sites. Additionally with many vendors having complex licensing structures about server-based vs desktop-based installation, licensing costs may not be reduced and in some cases may increase. Although you seem to have your desktop available anywhere it is not actually working on the web but by delivering applications back to your desktop and then taking the key strokes back to the server to update. This can lead to performance issues and also, as you are just relocating your licences to the server from the desktop, means that there are no cost advantages

In technology terms, Rabbit is built using the latest performance-optimised and streamlined web technologies, as opposed to these products which use client-server and terminal emulation technologies that have been around for many years and are not built for today’s networked environment.

Is Rabbit OS a replacement for Windows?

Rabbit OS is designed to run as a complementary service to your current Windows environment, allowing you to work more on the web, improve your collaboration and act as your intranet environment. For some users, there is enough richness of applications within Rabbit that they don’t need to spend much time in their Windows desktop and so make Rabbit not just their startpoint but their main place to work. For other business users they may rely heavily on existing Windows applications that don’t work off the web then they will alternate between using Rabbit for collaboration and their normal Windows OS for other tasks.

How do remote users access Rabbit?

Users just log in to Rabbit through their web browser and then continue to work in the same way as everyone else. Because everything is stored on the web it is the same from wherever you access it.

There are all sorts of free operating systems and open-source os out there. Why should I pay for Rabbit OS

Many of the ‘free’ Web operating systems are really designed for the consumer market to change their home computing environments and give them an alternative to the mass market operating systems which have become an unquestioned part of the infrastructure. They have not been designed to be enterprise strength or to take into account the needs of the enterprise. The value of Rabbit OS is in its unmatched security, support and its ability to scale up for many users to use the system and its applications; the free os do not have this robustness or scalability in their architecture. In particular, Rabbit is designed and optimised for speed; so that the enterprise experiences the performance it needs to function effectively.

The end-users in our organisation have only just got to grips with Windows Vista. Isn’t it going to be a huge training effort if we move to a new OS

Most users will log in to Rabbit without considering that they are accessing another operating system. The look and feel is just as for a Windows environment, so the training needs are more in parallel with using their intranet systems.

How robust is Rabbit?

Rabbit has been built with an industrial strength, rock solid architecture so as long as there is an Internet connection then you will be able to use Rabbit.

Using the Internet is really slow sometimes. How can I be productive if this is my new working environment?

Rabbit uses bandwidth very efficiently thanks to its innovative technologies so it would perform all its functions even with slow connections. Performance of Rabbit has been tested using many different connection types such as dial-up services, Public Wi-Fi Hot Spots, Mobile Data Cards, iPhone 3G and so on.

How many users will Rabbit support?

There is no limit to the number of users. The implementation of Rabbit may vary, according to whether we install it on your own web-servers, or you access it through our hosted solutions and the number of users may determine which method you choose.

What technology is Rabbit built on? Do I need to buy new technology to run it?

It is a modern client-server approach: Server side implementation is a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) providing services via controller presenting output to client in XML or JSON format. Presentation layer is RPC (Remote Procedure Calls) / RESTful type of services. Client side is a JavaScript runtime.

It is platform and language independent but mainly a combination of PHP, JAVA, XML, SOA and also C++, C#