Central Desktop Releases its 2.0 Version
by Bill Ives
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.
