Jacob Morgan's Blog, page 38
August 9, 2013
Friday Vendor Roundup: Asana, Good Technology, and Box
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. Again, keep in mind this is weekly roundup so the news or announcements need to be from that week. Here is the roundup for this week:
Good Technology changes pricing structure
Good provides mobile security which is especially relevant for companies that allow their employees to access their collaborative environments through mobile devices and/or tablet devices. Their old pricing model focused on charging per device which meant that if you had multiple devices you would be charged more. They recently switched their model to a flat $5/user/month rate.
My POV
I don’t think anyone will argue that this is a bad move for Good. It makes it easier to market and sell their product and is much easier for organizations to get behind and support for their BYOD policies. Their pricing is also low enough so that a company of any size can take advantage of their product. Great move which I think will really help the company grow.
Asana adds time tracking through Harvest partnership
Asana, the task management company recently added time tracking capabilities to their product through a partnership with Harvest (easy to use time tracking software).
My POV
Again, I don’t think anyone is going to say this is a bad thing. Time tracking and task management go together like peanut butter and jelly; it’s clearly a natural fit. The integration is pretty well done and the new feature is something I’m sure many people have been asking for although a separate login for Harvest is required. I’m sure we can expect several other apps to be integrated and released from Asana in the near future and I wouldn’t be surprised to see some of these integrations involve existing enterprise collaboration vendors.
Box focusing on education market
Although Box already has a pretty strong presence in the education space they are making a much bigger push into this market by announcing the development of an entire education ecosystem designed to connect students and teachers. This being made possible by an integration with Canvas which is a widely used learning management system. Crocdoc (which Box acquired) is already used by Canvas and many other companies in the education space. The list of the partners and integrations which are now a part of their OneCloud directory can be found in the link to the announcement below.
My POV
A great move for Box since in my opinion the education market is under served when it comes to enterprise collaboration software and just technology in general. Our companies need to adapt but so do our educational institutions. Students and teachers already use Box to access and share information from their computers, tablets, and smart phones. This ecosystem that Box is building is going to completely change how students learn and how teachers teach. Just like a knowledge worker who always needs to be connected to co-workers and information; students and teachers also need to be connected to information and to each other, anytime, anywhere, and on any device.
August 8, 2013
Friday Vendor Roundup: Asana, Good Technology, and Box
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. Again, keep in mind this is weekly roundup so the news or announcements need to be from that week. Here is the roundup for this week:
Good Technology changes pricing structure
Good provides mobile security which is especially relevant for companies that allow their employees to access their collaborative environments through mobile devices and/or tablet devices. Their old pricing model focused on charging per device which meant that if you had multiple devices you would be charged more. They recently switched their model to a flat $5/user/month rate.
My POV
I don’t think anyone will argue that this is a bad move for Good. It makes it easier to market and sell their product and is much easier for organizations to get behind and support for their BYOD policies. Their pricing is also low enough so that a company of any size can take advantage of their product. Great move which I think will really help the company grow.
Asana adds time tracking through Harvest partnership
Asana, the task management company recently added time tracking capabilities to their product through a partnership with Harvest (easy to use time tracking software).
My POV
Again, I don’t think anyone is going to say this is a bad thing. Time tracking and task management go together like peanut butter and jelly; it’s clearly a natural fit. The integration is pretty well done and the new feature is something I’m sure many people have been asking for although a separate login for Harvest is required. I’m sure we can expect several other apps to be integrated and released from Asana in the near future and I wouldn’t be surprised to see some of these integrations involve existing enterprise collaboration vendors.
Box focusing on education market
Although Box already has a pretty strong presence in the education space they are making a much bigger push into this market by announcing the development of an entire education ecosystem designed to connect students and teachers. This being made possible by an integration with Canvas which is a widely used learning management system. Crocdoc (which Box acquired) is already used by Canvas and many other companies in the education space. The list of the partners and integrations which are now a part of their OneCloud directory can be found in the link to the announcement below.
My POV
A great move for Box since in my opinion the education market is under served when it comes to enterprise collaboration software and just technology in general. Our companies need to adapt but so do our educational institutions. Students and teachers already use Box to access and share information from their computers, tablets, and smart phones. This ecosystem that Box is building is going to completely change how students learn and how teachers teach. Just like a knowledge worker who always needs to be connected to co-workers and information; students and teachers also need to be connected to information and to each other, anytime, anywhere, and on any device.
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August 7, 2013
Every Employee is Now a Buyer of Collaboration Software
Remember when the traditional model of selling software to a company meant that you had to go through either IT or a business unit leader? Yep, those days are over. Thanks to cloud based solutions every employee is now a potential buyer of collaboration software. This has been an ongoing shift over the past few years but only recently am I seeing a very strong push in this direction from employees who are not satisfied with the software solutions that their companies are providing. I think the tipping point has finally been reached.
This shift is mainly happening because of three things:
Low cost
From anywhere between $3-$12 a month you can be up and running with the most up to date and powerful piece of collaboration software that exists today. Some companies even allow you to get access to their full-featured products at no cost at all. This means that for the price of daily latte you can have an entire team connected to each other and to the information they need to get their jobs done, anywhere, anytime, and on any device.
Low barrier to entry
Thanks to cloud based solutions, deploying software within organizations today isn’t that much more complicated then setting up a Twitter account, Facebook page, or buying something from Amazon. No IT or manager approval necessary. Just imagine how hectic your life would be if every time you wanted to buy something online you needed to get approval from your boss or from IT, yet that’s exactly how our companies are set-up today.
Employee dissatisfaction
Many employees today are just not happy with the approaches and technologies that their companies are pursuing. Today inside of most companies it’s hard to find people and information, share ideas, connect with others, collaborate or communicate, and build any type of community. Meanwhile it’s easy to do all of these things on social platforms that we use in our every-day personal lives. The disconnect between the two is massive.
Vendors in the collaboration and future of work space really need to pay attention to this as it opens up a lot of opportunities for them. As mentioned above vendors no longer need to focus just on just selling to a primary “decision maker.” Now I’m not saying that they need to abandon this approach altogether I’m saying that they also need to focus on the every day employee. There are a few things vendors can do to capitalize on this shift.
Messaging
Instead of focusing the benefit and the value on the organization as a whole (or on a specific buyer), vendors need to adapt their messaging as if they were marketing to individuals instead of to just corporations. If any employee is a potential buyer then any employee needs to understand the value and benefit of the product.
Education
This is a huge area. Vendors needs to consistently be educating employees not just decision makers. Employees need to understand how the world of work is changing, what they need to do to adapt, and how they can actually adapt. Some vendors do a fantastic job of educating their customers and prospects but many do not. Education can mean webinars, whitepapers, blog posts, insightful articles shared through social channels, and speaking at conferences. The more employees know the better. In my opinion education is one of the best forms of marketing.
Vendors need to change their strategy to shift away from the traditional mentality of just selling to a decision maker. I’ve spoken with and worked with many companies where the “decision maker” goes with a certain product because it’s what the employees want and are oftentimes already using.
Every employee today is a potential buyer of enterprise collaboration software.
August 6, 2013
Every Employee is Now a Buyer of Collaboration Software
Remember when the traditional model of selling software to a company meant that you had to go through either IT or a business unit leader? Yep, those days are over. Thanks to cloud based solutions every employee is now a potential buyer of collaboration software. This has been an ongoing shift over the past few years but only recently am I seeing a very strong push in this direction from employees who are not satisfied with the software solutions that their companies are providing. I think the tipping point has finally been reached.
This shift is mainly happening because of three things:
Low cost
From anywhere between $3-$12 a month you can be up and running with the most up to date and powerful piece of collaboration software that exists today. Some companies even allow you to get access to their full-featured products at no cost at all. This means that for the price of daily latte you can have an entire team connected to each other and to the information they need to get their jobs done, anywhere, anytime, and on any device.
Low barrier to entry
Thanks to cloud based solutions, deploying software within organizations today isn’t that much more complicated then setting up a Twitter account, Facebook page, or buying something from Amazon. No IT or manager approval necessary. Just imagine how hectic your life would be if every time you wanted to buy something online you needed to get approval from your boss or from IT, yet that’s exactly how our companies are set-up today.
Employee dissatisfaction
Many employees today are just not happy with the approaches and technologies that their companies are pursuing. Today inside of most companies it’s hard to find people and information, share ideas, connect with others, collaborate or communicate, and build any type of community. Meanwhile it’s easy to do all of these things on social platforms that we use in our every-day personal lives. The disconnect between the two is massive.
Vendors in the collaboration and future of work space really need to pay attention to this as it opens up a lot of opportunities for them. As mentioned above vendors no longer need to focus just on just selling to a primary “decision maker.” Now I’m not saying that they need to abandon this approach altogether I’m saying that they also need to focus on the every day employee. There are a few things vendors can do to capitalize on this shift.
Messaging
Instead of focusing the benefit and the value on the organization as a whole (or on a specific buyer), vendors need to adapt their messaging as if they were marketing to individuals instead of to just corporations. If any employee is a potential buyer then any employee needs to understand the value and benefit of the product.
Education
This is a huge area. Vendors needs to consistently be educating employees not just decision makers. Employees need to understand how the world of work is changing, what they need to do to adapt, and how they can actually adapt. Some vendors do a fantastic job of educating their customers and prospects but many do not. Education can mean webinars, whitepapers, blog posts, insightful articles shared through social channels, and speaking at conferences. The more employees know the better. In my opinion education is one of the best forms of marketing.
Vendors need to change their strategy to shift away from the traditional mentality of just selling to a decision maker. I’ve spoken with and worked with many companies where the “decision maker” goes with a certain product because it’s what the employees want and are oftentimes already using.
Every employee today is a potential buyer of enterprise collaboration software.
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August 5, 2013
The Future of Work Research Report. Reshaping the Workplace Today. Building for Tomorrow.
This is a guest post from Connie Chan, my business partner, Principal, and co-founder of Chess Media Group.
Today’s business leaders face the challenge of creating the future workplace. Because of the advent of new technologies as well as the emergence of Millennials as a major percentage of the workforce, the future workplace will look vastly different than the one we are used to. At the same time, a culture of sharing, transparency, and mobility is entering the business world, as technology barriers lower.
In this report, we examine three imperatives of the future workplace that will squarely address the issues organizations need to discuss today to prepare their organizations for tomorrow: enterprise social and collaboration tools; bring-your-own-device (BYOD) policies; and flexible work arrangements.
The fact that over half of those who responded to our survey work for multi-national companies demonstrates that this is a crucial issue for smaller organizations or those with just a few offices, as well as some of the world’s largest organizations. Companies of all sizes recognize that an evolution of the workplace needs to happen, and they are making the necessary investments. Their business leaders understand that they need to reshape their business processes and policies and to adapt to the new ways of working to be successful at attracting, inspiring, and retaining the best workers out there.
Key Highlights
Collaboration is promoting stronger growth and creating more effective workers. In 2011, a Chess Media Group survey, the State of Enterprise 2.0 Collaboration found that many organizations were just getting started on their collaboration initiatives. However, findings two years later show that 64% of workers state that their organizations have been making investments in collaboration for over one-and-a-half years, and many for three years or more (36%). Currently, general communication (76%), peer-to-peer collaboration (69%), and “to ask and answer questions” (64%) are the top three reasons workers use social and collaboration technologies.
This is a positive movement, given that the majority of workers (86%) said that using social and collaborative tools allows them to work more effectively then if they didn’t have access to them.
Bring-Your-Own-Device is here to stay. The majority of organizations provide a BYOD policy (54%). Of those who reported that their organization does not provide a BYOD policy (39%), the majority (52%) would like to be offered one. Well over half (57%) of workers believe that BYOD motivates employees to use social and collaborative tools.
Flexible work arrangements are no longer employee perks but a business strategy. A significant number of organizations offer flexible work arrangements (81%) and within those organizations, the vast majority of workers (87%) participate in at least one flexible work arrangement.
Whether your organization is already providing workers with collaboration tools, a BYOD policy, or flexible work arrangements, or perhaps your organization is still exploring its options, this research report will shed light on the trends and provide your business leaders with the supporting data needed to reshape today’s workplace and to build an organization that is prepared for the Future of Work.
Download the State of Enterprise 2.0 Collaboration Report (2011)
For white papers and case studies, visit Chess Media Group’s Resources library.
August 4, 2013
The Future of Work Research Report. Reshaping the Workplace Today. Building for Tomorrow.
This is a guest post from Connie Chan, my business partner, Principal, and co-founder of Chess Media Group.
Today’s business leaders face the challenge of creating the future workplace. Because of the advent of new technologies as well as the emergence of Millennials as a major percentage of the workforce, the future workplace will look vastly different than the one we are used to. At the same time, a culture of sharing, transparency, and mobility is entering the business world, as technology barriers lower.
In this report, we examine three imperatives of the future workplace that will squarely address the issues organizations need to discuss today to prepare their organizations for tomorrow: enterprise social and collaboration tools; bring-your-own-device (BYOD) policies; and flexible work arrangements.
The fact that over half of those who responded to our survey work for multi-national companies demonstrates that this is a crucial issue for smaller organizations or those with just a few offices, as well as some of the world’s largest organizations. Companies of all sizes recognize that an evolution of the workplace needs to happen, and they are making the necessary investments. Their business leaders understand that they need to reshape their business processes and policies and to adapt to the new ways of working to be successful at attracting, inspiring, and retaining the best workers out there.
Key Highlights
Collaboration is promoting stronger growth and creating more effective workers. In 2011, a Chess Media Group survey, the State of Enterprise 2.0 Collaboration found that many organizations were just getting started on their collaboration initiatives. However, findings two years later show that 64% of workers state that their organizations have been making investments in collaboration for over one-and-a-half years, and many for three years or more (36%). Currently, general communication (76%), peer-to-peer collaboration (69%), and “to ask and answer questions” (64%) are the top three reasons workers use social and collaboration technologies.
This is a positive movement, given that the majority of workers (86%) said that using social and collaborative tools allows them to work more effectively then if they didn’t have access to them.
Bring-Your-Own-Device is here to stay. The majority of organizations provide a BYOD policy (54%). Of those who reported that their organization does not provide a BYOD policy (39%), the majority (52%) would like to be offered one. Well over half (57%) of workers believe that BYOD motivates employees to use social and collaborative tools.
Flexible work arrangements are no longer employee perks but a business strategy. A significant number of organizations offer flexible work arrangements (81%) and within those organizations, the vast majority of workers (87%) participate in at least one flexible work arrangement.
Whether your organization is already providing workers with collaboration tools, a BYOD policy, or flexible work arrangements, or perhaps your organization is still exploring its options, this research report will shed light on the trends and provide your business leaders with the supporting data needed to reshape today’s workplace and to build an organization that is prepared for the Future of Work.
Download the State of Enterprise 2.0 Collaboration Report (2011)
For white papers and case studies, visit Chess Media Group’s Resources library.
Send to Kindle
August 2, 2013
Friday Vendor Roundup: Acquia, Mindjet, and Moxie Software
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. Again, keep in mind this is weekly roundup so the news or announcements need to be from that week. Here is the roundup for this week:
Acquia launches rescue program for Jive customers
Although it’s just a marketing campaign it’s still interesting. Acquia is going after Jive head on with this new campaign saying that Jive is too expensive, too hard to customize and integrate with other applications, and is just building more silos within organizations.
My POV
Personally I love the marketing approach, nothing wrong with a little competition especially since Jive’s CEO was recently quoted saying that Yammer was dead. Jive is certainly one of the more expensive vendors out there but theirmarket share is still growing. I know they are working hard on making the integration and customization process easier but to be honest this isn’t exactly easy for any vendor today. However, the advantage of Open Source is the massive community that can help innovate.
Mindjet launches a productivity gains calculator
In order to help organizations figure out how much money they waste by sitting in meetings and searching for information, Mindjet created a productivity gains calculator. The data from the calculator is based on survey data from over 5,000 business professionals over a three year period.
My POV
This certainly isn’t the first calculator of its kind but it’s still interesting to play around with and I like that they used actual employee survey data. You also have the ability to select what region you are from to get a more accurate dollar amount. It’s a nice marketing vehicle designed to help organizations realize why they need technologies like Mindjet.
Moxie Software bring on a new SVP of global field operations
Steve Yount who was previously the SVP at Workshare joined Moxie to run field operations. According to the announcement Steve’s role is going to be to help fuel growth for the company including sales through channel partners.
My POV
Apparently Steve also has a strong background in M&A and has been involved in a successful company IPO. I don’t think that Moxie is planning an IPO but perhaps they can be a good acquisition target for a larger organization which I think is a direction they are certainly exploring.
July 29, 2013
Do or Do Not, There is No Try
The title of this post comes from a quote from Yoda, the famous Star Wars characters. Who would have thought that many years later this quote would be so applicable to organizations seeking to become more collaborative. This quote was actually used by one of our clients during an internal presentation to her executive team in order to drum up support and I loved that she included it! I have spent the past few weeks or so, speaking with organizations who say they want to become more collaborative and are concerned with the future of work. These same organizations have been stuck in the same place for over a year now, making little progress in their efforts. That’s because it seems as though many are caught with having one foot moving forward and the other moving backward. In other words, they have commitment issues.
One of the frustrating and unfortunate things that I see companies doing is getting started with something only to stop a few months later and then resuming again a few months after that. It’s like trying watch a very scratched DVD that keeps jerking and skipping around. Business leaders need to look at collaboration and the future of work as a marriage, they either commit to it or they don’t. Commitment doesn’t just mean saying “I do” either, it means acting on that “I do” as well. This means giving it 110% from the get-go and not starting small and “seeing what happens.” At this point there should be no doubt in the minds of any business leader at any company in the world that the way we work is changing and evolving and that organizations needs to adapt. Anyone that is seriously doubting the reality of this will end up looking for a job soon…
It’s easy to spend years researching, learning, and educating without actually doing. In fact things can change so quickly that by the time you are done “planning” the landscape will be unrecognizable. I can’t emphasize this enough, organizations that aren’t committed won’t succeed. As the wise Yoda once said…
Do or Do Not, There is No Try
The title of this post comes from a quote from Yoda, the famous Star Wars characters. Who would have thought that many years later this quote would be so applicable to organizations seeking to become more collaborative. This quote was actually used by one of our clients during an internal presentation to her executive team in order to drum up support and I loved that she included it! I have spent the past few weeks or so, speaking with organizations who say they want to become more collaborative and are concerned with the future of work. These same organizations have been stuck in the same place for over a year now, making little progress in their efforts. That’s because it seems as though many are caught with having one foot moving forward and the other moving backward. In other words, they have commitment issues.
One of the frustrating and unfortunate things that I see companies doing is getting started with something only to stop a few months later and then resuming again a few months after that. It’s like trying watch a very scratched DVD that keeps jerking and skipping around. Business leaders need to look at collaboration and the future of work as a marriage, they either commit to it or they don’t. Commitment doesn’t just mean saying “I do” either, it means acting on that “I do” as well. This means giving it 110% from the get-go and not starting small and “seeing what happens.” At this point there should be no doubt in the minds of any business leader at any company in the world that the way we work is changing and evolving and that organizations needs to adapt. Anyone that is seriously doubting the reality of this will end up looking for a job soon…
It’s easy to spend years researching, learning, and educating without actually doing. In fact things can change so quickly that by the time you are done “planning” the landscape will be unrecognizable. I can’t emphasize this enough, organizations that aren’t committed won’t succeed. As the wise Yoda once said…
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July 26, 2013
Friday Vendor Roundup: MangoApps, Yammer, Salesforce Chatter, and Clarizen
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. Again, keep in mind this is weekly roundup so the news or announcements need to be from that week. Here is the roundup for this week:
Mango Apps 8.1 release
I actually meant to cover this when it was first announced and forgot so I’m adding it here. The new version of the platform adds things such as a native Windows desktop client, HTML 5 document viewer, screen capture, Google Analytics integration, and much more. They also launched a product called TinyTake which is a free screen capture and annotation tool that anyone can use..
My POV
I’m a big fan of MangoApps and believe they have a terrific product. They are a privately held company and so their marketing budget is small but their product is powerful which is why you may not have heard about them. I’ve talked to executive team around their roadmap and they have exciting things coming up in the near future. They focus more on mid-size organizations but also have some enterprise size customers. Their product rivals what many of the more known vendors are offering.
Disclosure: We use a review (no cost) instance of MangoApps and have been for a while now
Yammer adds browser extension
Yammer has added an effective way for employees to share external information internally with their new browser extension. This allows employees to push a button to share an article or web-page internally with their teams and also allows them to see if any conversations around that page are already happening.
My POV
A great addition to what is becoming a powerful Yammer arsenal. While the extension might not be a critical component it is certainly a nice to have feature for employees who are looking to start conversations around a particular topic. I’m sure community managers using Yammer are collectively saying “thank you.”
Salesforce Chatter updates mobile functionality
The goal of the new mobile update is to support pretty much any action that an employee needs to take on the platform. Traditionally most mobile apps that enterprise collaboration vendors have are either view only or provide limited functionality. However, the new mobile version of Chatter will allow employees to take actions such as editing customer records or marketing campaigns. The app will also for custom actions such as one click access to submit a help request or travel reimbursement (or anything else that the company can think of). Finally, the app will provided updated analytics dashboards in real time.
My POV
The entire point of this update is to empower the mobile employee. As mentioned above most mobile versions of platforms typically provide limited functionality which means that employees on the go can’t be as effective or productive as they are when in front of a computer. This new update is bring the idea of the completely mobile employee one step closer to reality. The fact the analytics dashboards are also updated in real time based on actions that employees make on their mobile devices also allows for employees to make critical business decisions while on the go. Great move from Salesforce.
Clarizen announces record number of customers
Clarizen just announced they broke the 2,000 customer mark spanning organizations across 75 countries.
My POV
Clarizen is one of those platforms that is sneaking up from behind on many of the “known” enterprise collaboration vendors. They have a superb project management platform and are working on adding additional collaboration capabilities in the near future. Their company is actually larger than most people think and it’s growing fast. Definitely a vendor to watch going forward. They have made some other announcements as well which you can read in the link below.
Disclosure: Clarizen is a client
