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. Obviously 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. Again, keep in mind this is weekly roundup so the news or announcements need to be from that week. This is just getting started and I expect it to grow quite a bit but I’ll try to keep it manageable. Here is the roundup for this week
Podio (acquired by Citrix) Adds Audio and Video
Podio added the ability to talk to and see your colleagues. It’s similar to using the Gchat interface where you can click on a phone or a camera icon to activate a certain action. This means that employees don’t need to leave the application to use something such as Skype to have audio or video chats. It’s all available directly within the Podio application.
My POV
A great addition to an already powerful platform. However, this feature set is starting to become the standard instead of a differentiating factor. It can be a bit frustrating to to have to switch applications for audio and video chat and storing those conversations for search later but this solves that problem for all Podio customers. I’m very happy with this and I’m sure customers are as well.
Box Named as a Forrester Wave Leader, Hires Top Talent From Oracle and Salesforce
In the recent Forrester Wave report around sync & share platforms, Box was named as one of the leaders. I follow box in the enterprise collaboration space which is why I am giving them special attention here, however other companies such as Egnyte, Citrix, and Dropbox were also on that list. This is a unique accomplishment for Box as they are now the only vendor that is recognized as a Leader in the Enterprise Sync and Share and the Online Collaboration markets analyst firms, Gartner and Forrester.
Box also hired senior level leaders from Oracle and Salesforce to run sales and engineering. See the second announcement link to get a breakdown of names and roles.
My POV
No surprise here as the folks at Box have been hard at work building a tremendous product which is gaining a lot of attention. Not too long ago Box moved into an office which was MUCH greater than their staff needed. When I asked Aaron Levie (their CEO) about this, he mentioned that it just goes to show that Box has tremendous plans for growth and expansion. I believe he said something along the lines of “taking over the world,” and he’s getting there! Their recent hires accurately highlight their core focus in the foreseeable future; expanding their product features and dramatically increasing sales.
Link to Forrester Wave announcement
Dropbox Launches Datastore API and Drop-ins
This past week has marked some very interesting and exciting things for Dropbox. The Datastore API they released basically allows developers to create applications which can be used and synced both offline and online. The simple analogy that was used is how Amazon’s Kindle knows what page you are on regardless of what device you are using and automatically updates and syncs. The goal is to have this done with any application whether it be a game, a photo editing app, a to-do list, or perhaps even a shopping purchase. Drop-ins allows users to attach or “drop in” files from Dropbox into other applications. For example if you wanted to send an email and directly attach a file from Dropbox (instead of sending a link to that file) you can. You can also save files directly to Dropbox instead of to your hard drive.
My POV
A very good addition to Dropbox. In a recent interview their CEO said that users shouldn’t be able to tell whether they are working online or offline. My favorite example of what this looks like is the TripAdvisor City Guides application which basically downloads packets to your iphone for a specific country or city that you want to visit. Then while you are offline you can still explore things to do, the best places to eat, and can even write reviews and check into locations; then this syncs once you get online again. The integration is seamless and their offline app feels very much like their online app. Being able to do this for virtually any application is a big deal and should greatly improve the experience and functionality of any app that uses this API. Drop-ins is also a great move but in my opinion not as crucial as their Datastore API. However, the two work very well together. This is huge for developers looking to create applications that work across multiple platforms and devices while making for a superior user experience. I believe Box has similar if not identical functionality focused on files for organizations but I don’t believe they have this for applications.
Tibbr Adds New Marketplace Apps
Yesterday tibbr announced that they are adding new apps into their growing marketplace for things such as ideation, customer engagement, task management, and several others. The new apps which include Teamly, Kollaborate, Wazoku, and others; are available in their app marketplace as we speak.
My POV
Tibbr is one of those companies that offers a compelling product that very few people know about; which is unfortunate. They are slowly but surely moving in the right direction but they seem to always be one step behind where many of the competitors are. Jive, Yammer, Atlassian, and many other vendors out there have a far more developed marketplace with applications that can do almost anything (and if they can’t you can build your own). So while I like the tibbr announcement and see it as a step in the right direction; I’d like to see something more substantial coming from them.
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