N&H has been working with LINUX since 1992 and has been developing
Server Appliances based on LINUX since 1994. During these years LINUX
has become the most powerful alternative to the MS-Windows(TM) world
on the market. In 1998 N&H received more and more customer requests
asking for a indepedent workgroup server solution running under LINUX,
but using MS-Outook(TM) as the Client on the MS-Windows(TM) Desktop
for use with shared calendars and task lists etc. and not limited to
e-mail.

Since MS-Outlook(TM) is part of the office solution with the largest
desktop installation base, itīs installed on most desktops. Itīs
definitly available in most companies.

MS-Outlook(TM) uses a MAPI Service Provider to store workgroup data
centraly in MS-Exchange(TM) database or other 3rd party messaging
servers.

Based on this, N&H decided to start an internal project that
implements a storage server that can run on LINUX where different
workgroup clients and other applications can exchange workgroup data.
The interface has to be open and clearly documented, so that everybody
can develop new clients for different platforms, or adapt existing
applications.

It was obvious that we also needed an option to integrate
MS-Outlook(TM) with the BILL workgroup server. We chose to implement a
MAPI compatible service provider to connect MS-Outlook(TM) clients to
BILL. This BILL MAPI service provider runs on MS-Windows(TM) and
communicates over CORBA network calls with the BILL workgroup server.
With an own MAPI Service Provider we have a clear and stable interface
to MS-Outlook(TM). This interface gurantee that BILL interoperates
with all versions like Outlook 97, 2000 and 2002.

N&H decided to develop a storage server that is flexible enough to
accomodate complex data structures. This server communicates over the
network with other servers or clients through CORBA. The backend is a
middleware to a SQL-connector which uses Postgres as the default
database, but can also connect to other SQL databases. Like
MS-Exchange(TM) BILL can also handle the e-mail communication. E-mail
clients other than MS-Outlook(TM) can access emails stored in the BILL
server through BILL's IMAP gateway.

For rapid and platform independent development but good performance N&H
decided to develop in Python and C.

Now after more than 2 years of development, BILL is ready. N&H declares
all work that was developed for LINUX Open Source. N&H will start a
project on Sourceforge. All W32 applications are closed source but
available as 30 days test licences.

N&H invites everybody to join the development and deployment of the
open workgroup data exchange project.

Next steps :

- clients for LINUX and other operating systems. 
- secure CORBA , encryted communication between the server and the client 
- additional SQL-connectors for more scaleability 
- server ports for BSD, OS-390, Solaris, MS-Windows(TM)

contact for testing     ->  testbill@n-h.com
contact for developers  ->  devbill@n-h.com



Helmuth Neuberger (CEO) , Ryan Hughes (CTO)

Neuberger & Hughes GmbH , Im Bruckenwasen 1, 73207 Plochingen, Germany



* MS-Windows, MS-Exchange, MS-Outlook are trademarks of Microsoft Inc. , USA
  BILL is an open source project started by Neuberger & Hughes GmbH, Germany