I have written about Central Desktop before (see - Wiki-based Collaborative Platform with Central Desktop and How Barack Obama is Using Web and Enterprise 2.0 in the US Primary Campaign Through Central Desktop). Central Desktop provides on demand, web based collaboration tools for business teams. Their focus has been the small to midsize business or departments within larger enterprises. Now they are expanding their offering with features designed for broader enterprise use.
The expanded enterprise features include a new integrated workflow engine, enhanced enterprise-grade security, a minimum up-time guarantee (SLA), Salesforce.com integration as well as access to a number of new APIs. In addition, the company will provide customized consulting services and training for all of its Enterprise Solution customers. I really like workflow based collaboration tools, as this approach was what got me excited about knowledge management in the early 90s at Cigna Insurance. Enterprise 2.0 allows this to occur with much more powerful tools. The Central Desktop rules-based workflow system integrates into their file system, databases, time-tracking and help-desk tools. It enables users to create automated email notifications and tasks for team members to support business processes. Here is a shot of the workflow creation screen.
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The enterprise-grade security offering delivers perimeter, network, server, application and data security to ensure greater data privacy and availability. This applies to both SMBs and organizations that work within industries that require security compliance such as, healthcare and financial services, as well as business teams within larger organizations that have more stringent requirements enforced by their IT departments (Corporate Governance, HIPAA, etc). Here is a screen shot of the trusted screens feaure.
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Central Desktop’s Salesforce.com integration allows for a single sign-on experience between the two applications, member provisioning, lightweight task management and secure extranets to collaborate with external customers, partners and vendors. They are also expanding their API access developers and enterprise customers to create custom workflow triggers, business processes and integration with third-party systems. Here is the pass word security settings screen.
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These are all good moves. Its cuuruent enterprise customers include: Adobe, Allied Barton CBS, Harvard, Johnson Controls, Nielsen, Oracle, Ramada, Reuters Toshiba, and USC among others. I can see how they would want these expanded features.
Central Desktop also released its Customer Network to allow their customers to share implementation stories and best practices linked to discussion threads, user forums and social networking communities. Customer Network members can search and share content both within the Central Desktop Customer Network or the social networking platform of their choice such as LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace, Delicious and Flickr. This is a Web 2.0 version of a traditional user group and another good move. It is a good place to find more enterprise 2.0 success stories (e.g., Abraham & Harrison (PR firm) Successful Global Task Management Across 3 Continents or Tad Onine (an outsourced accounting firm) More Than Doubling Profit per Client).