Messaging and Collaboration - RSS Feeds

Wistia Joins Cisco, Google in Enterprise Video Race	Fri, 19 Dec 2008 13:15:48 -0500
Wistia prepares for formally entering the enterprise video market with a SAAS platform that lets corporations train employees or sales teams pitch prospects. Wistia adds threaded comments to give its platform a messaging and collaboration flavor, the better to compete with enterprise video players Cisco, Google, Veodia and IVT. - Cisco Systems and Google have some new competition in the market for enterprise video, which when leveraged within collaboration tools should be a multi-billion-dollar opportunity over the next few years. Wistia is emerging from stealth mode Dec. 29 to lure more customers to its SAAS (soft...

Enterprise Social Software Headed for Consolidation Cycle During Recession	Tue, 16 Dec 2008 16:02:38 -0500
What do companies like Socialtext, MindTouch, Jive Software, Awareness, Yammer and NewsGator have in common? As providers of messaging and collaboration enterprise applications, they all may be fodder for acquisition in 2009. Gartner analyst Matt Cain says 60 percent of such vendors will get bought or go under, with the recession paving the way for more deals at cheaper prices. - Startups in the social collaboration software market are facing the combination of a maturing market ripe for consolidation and a bear market, where larger enterprise vendors may look to bargain-shop and cherry-pick the best-of-breed providers. Gartner analyst Matt Cain said in a new report th...

Retooled Yahoo Mail to Bring Smarter In-Box for Third-Party Development	Mon, 15 Dec 2008 19:34:42 -0500
Yahoo introduces the new Yahoo Mail, a messaging and collaboration platform that aims to integrate multiple Web services and strengthen connections between users and their contacts. Yahoo hopes the new Mail app will help it better compete with Google and Microsoft in the Web services arena. Yahoo Mail integrates with Web services such as social e-mail service Xoopit, Yahoo's Flickr site and blog application WordPress. - Yahoo began delivering on its promise of creating a smarter in-box experience for its 275 million Yahoo Mail users, turning on a service Dec. 15 that will let the Web mail application integrate with social networks and other Web services. The new Yahoo Mail, which former Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang pr...

Unison Challenges Microsoft, IBM, Google with Free Unified Communications	Fri, 12 Dec 2008 15:06:17 -0500
Unison Technologies delivers a free, ad-supported unified communications software suite for SMBs that includes e-mail, instant messaging, contacts, calendars and VOIP for messaging and collaboration. Unison hopes to pry some seats from Microsoft Exchange, Lotus Domino and Google shops during the lagging economy. SMBs install the platform on-premises and Unison promises it won't snoop on users through its ads. - Unison Technologies has taken the gutsy step of offering its UC software suite free for small and midsize businesses. Startup Unison hopes to make money by serving business-to-business ads on its unified communications platform. Unison aims to win over customers tired of paying thousands of ...

IBM Lotus Sametime Unyte Calls on InterCall to Fight Cisco WebEx	Tue, 09 Dec 2008 11:56:56 -0500
IBM rolls out Lotus Sametime Unyte 8.2 with the help of conferencing software giant InterCall. The move is designed to give IBM more equal footing with SAAS messaging and collaboration software products such as Cisco WebEx and Microsoft Office Live Meeting. IBM needs to offer a SAAS Web conferencing option to its customers, many of whom are moving to cloud computing. - IBM made good on its October promise to roll out a new version of its hosted Web conferencing service, but it's also getting marketing and sales help from conferencing services giant InterCall to reach more customers Dec. 9. Users can subscribe to the new Lotus Sametime Unyte, Version 8.2, whi...

Embracing Social Media in the Enterprise	Mon, 08 Dec 2008 10:44:15 -0500
In this IT Link podcast hosted by Mike Vizard, the CIO of Universal McCann, Jason Harrison, talks about how his company is going about integrating Web 2.0 technologies and social media tools within the everyday work environment of the agency's employees. - Audio Podcast Content....

Open-Xchange Talks with Apple Mac, iPhone About E-Mail, Calendar Data	Mon, 01 Dec 2008 16:07:15 -0500
Open-source messaging and collaboration software maker Open-Xchange is set to release its iSync software connector, OXtender for Mac OS X, which will let users access their Open-Xchange e-mail, appointments, contacts, tasks and documents through Mac applications and the iPhone. Supporting Macs and iPhones is increasingly becoming table stakes for enterprise applications users. What better platform to support than Mac for Open-Xchange, which is trying to take down Microsoft Exchange? - Open-Xchange, an open-source messaging and collaboration software provider whose claim of 8.4 million paid users pales compared with Microsoft Exchange's hundreds of millions of users, is now talking to Apple's Mac computers and iPhone. The software maker Dec. 2 will release a free beta of OXt...

TextFlow Is Parallel Word Processing Answer to Microsoft Word, Google Docs	Wed, 26 Nov 2008 09:30:58 -0500
Nordic River launches TextFlow, a parallel word processing application for consumers and business users who need to spice up their productivity workflow with collaboration capabilities. TextFlow won't challenge Microsoft Word or Google Docs overnight, but it will fire up the conversation about more interactive editing. - Another company has released another word processing program but before you yawn, pay attention: Nordic River's TextFlow is a parallel word processor. The productivity application, in open beta now and built on Adobe's AIR platform, lets multiple writers edit the same document at the same time....

Managing Collaboration	Mon, 24 Nov 2008 12:13:12 -0500
In this IT Link podcast hosted by Mike Vizard, GSX CEO Antoine Leboyer talks about why IT organizations need to take a more holistic approach to managing collaboration software from Microsoft, Oracle and IBM. - Audio Podcast Content....

Google's Unified Communications Play Starts with Gmail	Mon, 24 Nov 2008 11:33:05 -0500
Google Apps Product Manager Rajen Sheth denies any clandestine strategy to help Google Apps steal share from messaging and collaboration software rivals Microsoft, IBM and Cisco. But new voice and video chat in Gmail say otherwise and position Google Apps as a serious unified communications and collaboration suite for cloud computing in the enterprise. - When Google launched voice and video chat for Gmail Nov. 11 it threw a new dimension into the Web mail application used by more than 50 million users. What started as a basic compose/send/receive Web mail application in 2004 is looking more like Microsoft SharePoint than it is Microsoft Outloo...

Will Microsoft Online Services Cannibalize On-Premises Exchange, SharePoint?	Fri, 21 Nov 2008 15:07:14 -0500
Microsoft executive Chris Capossela denies that Microsoft Online Services such as Exchange Online and SharePoint Online will eat into the market share of Microsoft's traditional on-premises messaging and collaboration software suites. If this is true, it's good news for Microsoft as it moves deeper into cloud computing and SAAS to take on Google in Web services. - Microsoft on Nov. 17 formally launched Exchange Online and SharePoint Online, Web-based versions of its productivity and collaboration software applications, providing two more logs with which to stoke the fire in its fight with Google. Exchange Online and SharePoint Online represent an attemp...

Xobni Now Socializing Outlook with Facebook, Yahoo	Wed, 19 Nov 2008 15:29:13 -0500
Xobni, maker of a plug-in that helps users add social contacts to their Microsoft Outlook in-boxes, has now added support for Yahoo, Facebook and Hoover's. There is also new integration with the Skype VOIP application. Xobni was reportedly targeted for acquisition by Microsoft earlier in 2008, although the deal didn't take place. In the meantime, check out these slides of the Xobni integrations to decide if they're right for you. - ...

Xobni Social Inbox Friends Facebook, Yahoo Mail, Skype, Hoovers	Wed, 19 Nov 2008 13:31:53 -0500
Xobni is a messaging and collaboration startup whose application brings social contacts from other consumer and enterprise applications to Microsoft Outlook inbox. Xobni today has integrated with Web services Yahoo Mail, Facebook and Hoovers, as well as from VOIP communications provider Skype. Still no sign of Google Gmail integration. - Xobni, which makes a free application that let users port social contacts to their Microsoft Outlook inboxes, has added support for Yahoo Mail, Facebook Platform and Hoover's Nov. 19. Icons for each service, which are free and opt-in, are rendered in a toggle format within the Xobni sidebar, whi...

Microsoft Slashes at Google Apps Price Point with Rapier of Granularity	Tue, 18 Nov 2008 18:21:04 -0500
Microsoft officials position the granular pricing in Microsoft Online Services as superior to Google's one-size-fits-all subscription fee for GAPE messaging and collaboration enterprise applications. GAPE is easily less expensive than Microsoft's offerings of Exchange Online and SharePoint Online, yet Microsoft's ability to let customers pick and choose apps with the familiar Exchange and SharePoint user interfaces may be appealing to customers new to cloud computing. - When Google launched its GAPE (Google Apps Premier Edition) in February 2007, software experts were awed by the simple, one-size-fits-all pricing model for a handful of collaboration applications. At the time, this seemed a profound departure from the CAL (Client Access Licence)- and SA (Soft...

Inside Microsoft Online Services	Tue, 18 Nov 2008 12:38:30 -0500
Stephen Elop, president of the Microsoft Business Division, formally released Microsoft Exchange Online and Microsoft SharePoint Online from public beta to all business customers and industry partners in San Francisco Nov. 17. The SAAS productivity and collaboration suites are aimed for the heart of Google Apps, signaling another front in the cloud-computing war. Here is a taste of the user interface for Microsoft Online Services, as well as the administration centers for Exchange Online and SharePoint Online. - ...