Every Friday I’m going to attempt to summarize any relevant news in the future of work/collaboration space. I’ll provide the name of the vendor, a short summary of what the announcement or piece of news is with a link to the original, and finally a short POV. I can’t cover every single thing that comes out but I will do my best to provide as much relevant content as I can. If you have something you think I should include then please send it over and I will decide if it’s something I can add.
Socialtext releases version 6.0
Socialtext recently upgraded their platform to include several new enhancements and features. The addition of video technology allows users to record, host, and share videos with each other (among a few other things). The activity stream was also update to show a preview of any content that is shared in the feed. Search functionality was also updated with auto complete and term suggestions to help users find information. Finally, some cosmetic changes were also done to some layouts and the people and groups directories.
Link to announcement (with video walk-through)
My POV Some great additions here. Most of the features should be expected from most platforms but the video technology is something that many vendors still don’t offer (for some strange reason). Ironically video conferencing and recordings are becoming very popular within organizations so I’m glad to see that Socialtext added this to their recent release.
Lithium raises another $50 million in preparation for IPO 
Some very exciting news from my friends over at Lithium Technologies today. They raised another $50 million and are getting ready to become a publicly traded company. They also hired former Yahoo! executive Tapan Bhat to be their new SVP and Chief Product Officer.
My POV
Lithium has quite frankly been kicking ass lately. They have an all-star executive team, recently moved into new offices in San Francisco to prepare for rapid growth, were ranked a visionary, leader, and major player in Gartner, Forrester, and IDC reports (respectively), and are now getting ready to become a public company. On a side note I recently found out that Tapan Bhat is my friend’s cousin, which I learned during my birthday dinner, small world! Anyway, back to the point. As customer experience and engagement continues to be a major focus for business leaders around the world Lithium is in a perfect spot to dominate, and that is what they are doing.
Salesforce cuts 200 people and announces new file sync and share service called “files” 
After the ExactTarget acquisition SFDC says there was some overlap in roles and so they decided to trim those roles back. Salesforce also announced that they are killing off Chatterbox (a Box-like feature for file sharing and storage). Details on “files” are scarce and the new service should be launched in 2014 but you can expect mention of it at Dreamforce this year.
My POV Nobody likes to hear about job cuts and it’s really unfortunate that 200 people had to be let go. The overlap was due to the Radian6 acquisition that happened a few years ago and Buddy Media. ExactTarget, Buddy Media, and Radian6 are a part of the new Marketing cloud. However, the good news is that SFDC is providing as much support as possible for the 200 employees to help them get situated elsewhere.
Salesforce certainly has the resources and manpower to create a powerful Box-like platform but it sounds like this new direction is more of an integration with other existing platforms such as Box instead of a new product. Either way the name “files” make it sound like it’s something from the 1980’s but that could just be the millennial in me talking.
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