by Bill Ives
March 11, 2010 at 6:11 pm · Filed under
Web 2.0
Google’s recently launched its online storefront for Google Apps™ products and services. The Google Apps Marketplace makes it easier for more than two million Google Apps customers to discover, purchase and deploy integrated business applications and related professional services. By integrating with user account and application data stored in Google Apps, these cloud applications provide a simpler user experience that can increase business efficiency and reduce administrative overhead.
Now Zoho recently announced it has added Zoho CRM and Zoho Projects to the Google Apps Marketplace.™ These are two of their most popular offerings. Zoho had previously integrated their apps with Google at the log-in level with single sign-on. Now, they are taking their integrations deepe using the enhanced APIs for Google Apps.
Users gain a variety of benefits from the integration of the Zoho applications with Google Apps. For all Zoho applications, the integration lets users automatically sign in to the Zoho applications with their existing Google Apps credentials. In addition, Zoho Business applications are listed in Google’s universal navigation, and Zoho application gadgets can be embedded in relevant Google applications, such as Gmail™, iGoogle™ and Google Sites™.
With Zoho CRM users can view Gmail emails in Zoho CRM contextually, so all Gmail emails exchanged with a Zoho CRM contact can be viewed. Users can also import contacts from Google Apps to Zoho CRM, view Zoho CRM calendar events in Google Calendar, and more.
With Zoho Projects users can view Zoho Project calendar events in Google Calendar and attach Google Docs™ files to Zoho Projects.
Here is an interesting post, It Is Not About Our App, It Is About the User’s Data and Context, by Zoho’s Sridhar Vembu that discusses their integrate with Google Apps. He writes that an important emerging theme in cloud applications is the one-browser-tab approach to design. In this case there is contextual integration of information across applications, so that whatever app the user happens to be in, relevant information is pulled from other apps and displayed it in the right context. This is a good move.
by Bill Ives
March 5, 2010 at 3:25 am · Filed under
Web 2.0
Brightidea brings the capabilities of social computing to the idea generation and implementation process. Their WebStormTM product is an Idea Collection and Ranking Portal that facilitates the innovation process that I have covered here (see: Brightidea.com – Brings Focused Enterprise 2.0 Capabilities to Innovation).
Now collaboration is forecasted by Forrester to be one of the big drivers for smart phone usage in 2010 (see Smartphone Surge in 2010). In line with this trend Brightidea has announced the release of Brightidea MobileTM. Designed exclusively for Apple’s iPhone and iPad, as well as the Google Android platform, the native App brings the Brightidea platform to mobile users.
The Brightidea MobileTM app supports public or private communities and is designed to support the rigorous security requirements and access controls required by large enterprises that host many online brainstorms simultaneously.
Users of Apple’s iPhone and iPad can move between multiple Brightidea WebStorms through the familiar iPhone interface and simple navigation menu with built-in access to all accounts, campaigns, ideas, and comments. With Brightidea Mobile, users can view, post, comment, vote, and share ideas as well as use Brightidea’s corporate micro-blogging feature that allows users to post and follow activity within their innovation community.
One of Brightidea’s first clients to roll-out the mobile app is The Nielsen Company. Brightidea Mobile TM can be downloaded directly from the iTunes store. I think the migration to mobile instances of enterprise 2.0 collaboration software will continue. Most studies have shown that moving to mobile is a major direction for enterprise software (see for example, Global Intranet Trends 2010 Report).
Brightidea was also recently selected by the city of San Francisco to power their program to get more employee involvement in improvements for the city. They are also supporting Ireland’s efforts to get more citizen involvement in improving the country in the Your Country Your Call effort. A mobile app should be very useful in these cases.
by Bill Ives
March 2, 2010 at 3:02 am · Filed under
Web 2.0
I first spoke with Acquia as they were beginning to offer support services for the Drupal social publishing system (see: Acquia Makes Drupal Community Building Accessible). Recently, I spoke with Bryan House on their progress over the past six quarters. He said that the Drupal community has grown from 300,000 members to 600,000 during this time. Acquia provides products, services, and technical support for Drupal and it has also grown along with this Drupal community expansion. They now have 450 companies signed up. Customers include: Economist, InfoWorld, TNT, TechTarget, Washington State University, Emory University, and University of North Texas.
Bryan said that they have gotten especially good traction in the media and entertainment, education, and government sectors as you can also see above. This makes sense given Drupal’s combination of low cost and comprehensive features. The US White House has now adopted Drupal and Acquia is helping with this effort. Here is a blog post from Acquia founder and creator of Drupal, Dries Buytaert, on the White House move.
Other Acquia examples include Florida Hospital that has adopted Drupal for both internal collaboration and to run the web site of each of its seven hospitals. Acquia also has 140 business partners. Bryan said these are mostly web design firms. However, they are now getting a lot of interest from the large global systems integrators.
Acquia has three offerings. First, they offer annual support for Drupal 6. They also offer Drupal hosting so you can have one stop support for all Drupal needs. Their newest product is Drupal Gardens. It is a SaaS-based tool that allows you to quickly and easily build a Drupal website. Drupal Gardens allows a non-developer to take advantage of social publishing as Acquia has simplified the startup process. Acquia’s slogan for this is: “designed and online in 15 minutes.”
Acquia built Drupal Gardens on Drupal 7, which is currently in Alpha, because of its advanced features and increased usability. Examples of this includes: overlay menus for editing, one click editing, personalized short cuts, and customized menu bars. Drupal Gardens also includes a WYSWYG editor, personal media library, tagging and other metadata, and multiple authors. You can export your entire Drupal Gardens site, including users, content and theme, if you want to implement more advanced features.
Drupal Gardens is built to primarily support micro-sites. Large complex sites should use Drupal. Use cases include artist and events sites in entertainment, department and professor sites in higher education, responses to topics of interest and emergencies for government. It is especially useful when you want to maintain a consistency across the micro-sites. This is a nice addition to the Acquia product suite and a natural extension of its support services.
by Bill Ives
February 26, 2010 at 3:28 am · Filed under
Web 2.0
Central Desktop provides a comprehensive SaaS-based social technology platform that is focused on the mid-market. I have written about it several times on this blog (see Central Desktop adds MS Outlook Integration to its SaaS Social Technology Platform and Central Desktop Moves Up with Enterprise Edition for most recent posts). Recently I spoke again with Isaac Garcia, the CEO.
We first looked back at 2009 that was a very good year for Central Desktop. They had a 44% year-over-year revenue growth coupled with a 50% increase in staff. There are now hundreds of new Enterprise Edition customers such as Netflix, CBS and U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. Central Desktop also experienced a more than 600% increase in Enterprise Edition sales in Q4 2009 compared to Q4 2008. You can read more in a recent blog post by Isaac Garcia, Central Desktop CEO 2009 Retrospective.
We discussed the general growth of SaaS-based applications in the down economy due to the relatively low initial costs and the ability to scale up and down the investment level. However, Isaac said that he has not seen the scaling up and down. His customers tend to maintain and increase their commitments. This makes sense because you would not want to take useful tools out of your employees’ hands for a relatively small savings. You need increased productivity in today’s economy and a collaboration platform such as Central Desktop can help make this goal happen.
We went on to cover aspects of Central Desktop 2.0. They completely re-designed the user experience. Isaac said that development has occurred on an ongoing basis and these incremental improvements have led to a more utilitarian interface and some inconsistencies. They felt it was time to do a complete re-design of the front end to simplify it, make it more accessible to non-power users, and ensure consistency. They spent a lot of time with customers going through possibilities and making adjustments.
We took a look at the new interface and I think they have achieved their goal. It is a cleaner look with a consistent approach. They have done click optimization so you can navigate much faster. Part of this is done with an effective use of drop down windows. There is also a nice logic to the layout. The recent activity display was re-done with color-coding and a consistent sequence of presentation. You first see a defining icon, then a title and then the status as you scan lists. Here is an example of the new dashboard.
There is a micro-blogging status box at the top. It can export to Twitter and Facebook or stay within Central Desktop.. If you click on a profile picture you see information about the person and their most recent micro-blog status update. With documents or in discussions you see the comments in a Facebook style display. Images of people are used more than names to speed recognition. Here is an example of their favorites drop down which helps with the click optimization.
Central Desktop 2.0 also features an enhanced online file viewer that supports more than 200 different file types. Even files that require specific viewers such as CAD files are supported, allowing people who not have these applications to view them through Central Desktop. You can quickly see thumbnails of documents before deciding to open them. It is also possible to comment on documents and start a discussion around them. They also added the ability to print through a Fed Ex office to make it easier to handle special printing jobs.
Central Desktop 2.0 has templates for the different capabilities: projects, intranets, blogs, forums, wikis, help desk, and database. You can customize these templates with drag and drop arrangement of the components. I certainly agree with this focus on the interface, as adoption remains the biggest issue in enterprise 2.0. An intuitive interface is essential to get the majority of employees to convert from their current and familiar applications. Here is an example of their wiki page interface.
Their next moves include upgrading mobile device support, and providing an enhanced API, as well as increasing the ability to customize for verticals. Recent research has indicated that collaboration will be one of the major growth uses of mobile devices so this is timely. Central Desktop also plans to set up a marketplace where customers can share templates. These are all good moves.
by Bill Ives
February 22, 2010 at 3:07 am · Filed under
Web 2.0
CubeTree is a robust enterprise collaboration platform that I have covered before on this blog (see CubeTree Releases Innovative Enterprise Collaboration Platform). Recently, I spoke again with Carlin Wiegner, their CEO. We began with a conversation about the greatly expanding market for enterprise 2.0 software. Carlin is very pleased to be part of a growth market just as I am pleased to be covering it.
Carlin suggested that one of the main drivers is the increased awareness of the value of alternatives to email for collaboration through the very rapid growth of such consumer Web tools as Twitter and Facebook. We have gone past the tipping point and people can see the value of the more social forms of communication and collaboration. Carlin said that some of the firms they are speaking with have shifted the tone of the conversation from “why do this?” to “why not do this?” One client moved from a department implementation to an enterprise adoption, considering CubeTree as another “dial tone” necessity.
Carlin said there are other reasons but this may be the main one. I certainly agree on its importance. He added the increasing entry into the workforce of young people who are expecting these types of tools is helping drive adoption. I added the economic benefit of SaaS offerings in a down economy with smaller start up costs and easier ability to turn down and up the investment. There is also a focus on making the downsized work forces better able to do more with less by becoming more productive and tools like CubeTree can realize this goal in a cost effective manner. There is also the reduced cost of virtual collaboration.
We moved on to discussing CubeTree. They have been successfully using a “freemium” pricing model – a free version, coupled with paid upgrades to premium versions that have additional storage and features. The free version is not a free trial – although it has a complete set of features, it simply has fewer features than paid versions. Carlin said that many small businesses begin with the free version and switch to the paid version as they get to 30 – 40 users. Then they often move to providing Cubetree to the whole company. The same threshold tends to apply to their larger customers but then the first move is to cover a department with heavy use. Carlin believes that the concept of a free offering is both embedded in the market and a great way to allow for the viral spread of support in an organization. I would agree on both counts.
Next, we covered some of their new capabilities. There are two types. First, CubeTree does a weekly release and they are on release 93. There have been many incremental upgrades recently such as adding faces instead of icons on profiles. CubeTree allows for cross-company instances and this use of faces on profiles has encouraged increased usage in these cross-company instances. They have also added ease of use and better administration for groups. Another small upgrade was the display of recent activities on the bottom of page, making it easy to go back.
There are four major additions to functionality. First, there are social documents. You can view a document without downloading it as every file has a Web viewer. There is also the ability to add visual commentary to these documents. Second, CubeTree has added issue tracking, which provides better support for workflow. The third addition is the improved functionality for administration. It is easier for IT to handle large groups. For example, you can archive all messages to a third party archive. This is useful for such regulated industries as financial services. The fourth addition is CubeTree Deal Rooms. Now you can quickly set a workspace related to an opportunity logged in Saleforce.com. This can be used for the potential customer and the firm or just within the firm to discuss the sales process.
CubeTree’s customers and licensed seats have more than doubled over the past 60 days. They recently secured $8 Million in Series B Financing led by InterWest Partners. Existing investor Trinity Ventures also participated in this round and they have raised $12 million in funding in total. CubeTree certainly seems to be on the right track with these additions and their market progress.
by Bill Ives
February 17, 2010 at 8:45 am · Filed under
Web 2.0
YoolinkPro is a French social networking tool and a major player in the enterprise 2.0 industry in Europe. The company was founded by Sunny Paris, co-founder and former CEO of Weborama, an online marketing service. I recently spoke with Sebastien Blanc from YoolinkPro about their offering.
YoolinkPro combines social bookmarking, social networking, and micro-blogging. They began as a social bookmarking tool and then added social networking features. Most recently, they added micro-messaging so users could provide more context with their bookmarks and start conversations on related topics. The micro-blogging capability is similar to Twitter in functionality except that you have 199 characters for your messages. These are all good moves. In addition to these social networking capabilities, you can upload documents for centralized access.
Sebastien said they have a taken a middle road between the standalone micro-messaging tools and the comprehensive collaboration platforms that have added micro-messaging and other social networking capabilities. On one hand, many clients have said to YoolinkPro that they need more functionality that simply micro-messaging. On the other hand, the complex implementation issues that a comprehensive collaboration platform requires can slow adoption. YoolinkPro is focused on adoption and the spread of usage through viral means.
Sebastien provides several use cases. RATP is the company operating the train/metro system for the city of Paris, with 45,000 employees. YoolinkPro is deployed within the engineering department and allows people to save, share and discuss new information about technologies and services in the transportation industry. The service is used alongside other services such as wikis. It is great to hear about this enterprise 2.0 case in France and the ones below.
BNP is the largest corporate and private bank in France. Here the innovation team uses YoolinkPro to share and centralize what is happening in the banking industry. SPF Diana is a company producing pet food, It employs 500 people in more than six countries. YoolinkPro is used to create better connection between several local marketing teams. It allows to centralize marketing documents and to start discussions about business topics. Adsolut is a communication agency with 12 people. YoolinkPro is used here as a stand alone Intranet 2.0 (foster discussions, centralize key documents, distribute company’s news, etc.).
I like their focus on adoption and their goal to keep things simple but not too simple. They are operating in a robust and growth market. This is a good thing, as it validates the enterprise 2.0 approach. It will be interesting to see how they do in North America, with their useful combination of features.
The company also develops Yoolink.to, a universal browser extension that shows the philosophy and features of the corporate service. It can be downloaded free from the Yoolink.to site and there is no need to create an account. You can start using it as soon as you log on to your Facebook or Twitter account. While surfing the internet, you can share and comment on web content in a couple of clicks on major social services such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or del.icio.us. As they said, we have many digital lives and Yoolink.to allows us to not mix them all. Yoolink supports Bit.ly, Gravatar, Netvibes, IGoogle, and Wordpress.
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