Enterprise 2.0 News

Today's Friday post is dedicated to support agents and those who organize helpdesk service. Here are two interesting stories about why the customer support system should be social. The first story was created by the guys from the helpdesk-service Zendesk (watch video). It's about the support agent who is always hanging on the phone, repeating the same phrases and answering the same questions. The second story is pitched by IBM with really scary title - "The Man Without Email". Here is he: ***

As Cisco promised, its web-conferencing service WebEx is becoming free. True, the number of free conference hosts (i.e. users that can create and manage online meetings) was reduced from 3 to 1. But the free disk space was increased up to 1 GB. The free online meeting can support up to 25 people simultaneously and provide the variety of tools: screen-sharing, whiteboard, remote control, file sharing, presentations, VoIP, video in HD-format, recording. You might be surprised that the service is currently in Beta status (after all, WebEx has been the web-conferencing market leader  for many years). The fact that it's not just the free version. It's a new version of WebEx, which in addition to web-conferencing adds a workspace for collaboration before and after online meeting. ***

One of the best online task-managers Producteev has launched the new version. From the start Producteev positioned itself as a super-cross-platform service and promised to support all possible platforms. And the reality of our time is such that the desktop applications for Windows and Mac are coming last (see the screenshot below). Before they appeared, Producteev has come in the Web-interface, on iPhone, Android, Facebook, Outlook, GMail, Google Calendar. For Windows Phone and Blackberry the mobile Web client was created. As for the new version, it's biggest change is updated web interface. It now looks like Outlook - with three columns. Besides now you can add (to-do like) subtasks and use @ and # tags in task titles (like in Twitter) to quickly assign task-owners and tags. Besides, it's now easier to view tasks by specific user. Recall, Producteev offers the free 2-user version. ***

To say that Salesforce makes a wrong Social CRM - is like saying that Microsoft makes a wrong operating system. After all, Marc Benioff has almost bought the word Social. However, these words have been said. And they have been said by John Ferrara - the man who invented CRM. Long ago in 1989, when there was no Salesforce and even Siebel, he created the CRM software Goldmine (and later sold it to FrontRange). His new startup is Nimble, and John claims that it's the "right" social CRM. And some experts really believe that this system can disrupt the CRM market. At first glance, Nimble has no revolutionary features, but it looks really suitable and totally focused on customer information from social networks: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn. It is interesting that Google is not supported yet, though Google - is one of the startup investors. ***

Microsoft continues to troll Google services with funny videos. At this time, they take on Google Docs. According to the scenario a group of young co-workers wants to creat a document and starts working on it in Google Docs. Naive guys don't know that Google Docs are only suitable for simple tasks and drawing a planetary system in Google Docs - is impossible. But it's possible in Microsoft SkyDrive. Even not in the Skidrive itself (it also can't do such complicated formatting) but in the desktop MS Office, that can edit the document simultaneously with the online SkyDrive editor. Note that Microsoft has removed the title Windows Live Office, which was used from the start to refer the online office, and now is using SkyDrive (that formerly was used to refer only the file storage). ***

Meanwhile we don't see a large number of business applications for Windows Phone. Even Microsoft's Skype for this platform is still in the development. But the world helpdesk leaders - Kayako and Zendesk - almost simultaneously launched their mobile clients for Windows Phone. Moreover, it is interesting that for Kayako the Windows Phone app - becomes the first mobile client at all (for Zendesk, it's already the fifth one after the apps for iPhone, iPad, Android and Blackberry). Both mobile applications, Kayako and Zendesk, allow to easily manage ticket with your fingertips: assign owners, change status, add comments, respond to customers. And all changes are immediately synchronized with the main Cloud service. ***

IBM's SaaS collaboration services under the LotusLive umbrella received a lot of good reviews and always presented in the analyst top product lists. Nevertheless they haven't been very successful in sales (compared to the competitors). "What's the problem?" - IBMers tried to figure out - "Maybe the problem in the name? Or in marketing?". And they decided to copy the model of Salesforce and to see what will happen. They decided to remove the word "Lotus", which many people associate with the heavy software from the past. And instead, wherever it's possible, they put the words "Cloud" and especially "Social". In result, LotusLive becomes SmartCloud for Social Business. In its description you'll find such words as Social, Social and Social. And on the US television the new SmartCloud cartoon commercial (reminding Salesforce Chatter ads) has appeared (watch the video). ***

Almost a year ago, IBM promised to launch its own alternative to Google Docs and Office 365 - LotusLive Symphony. And the company has fulfilled the promise. True, the service is called differently - IBM Docs and for now it has no relation to the SaaS-platform LotusLive. IBM Docs is now in Beta the status and located on the strange portal Lotus GreenHouse. It's strange because, first, why it's Green, while the company is Blue? And second, IBM doesn't clearly explain the purpose of this portal and how long it will exist. It provides several IBM services for free, including Lotus Connections, Lotus Quickr, Lotus Sametime, Lotus iNotes. Moreover, the portal has less restrictions than bugs. But let's get back to the IBM Docs. ***

While the deal between Google and General Motors is still unpublic, Google has officially signed another large Google Apps customer - the largest Spanish banking group BBVA. BBVA plans to implement Google Apps for 110 thousand employees in 26 countries up to the end of 2012. Thus, Google has updated its personal SaaS record (in terms of project volume). It's interesting that BBVA moves to Google Apps from Microsoft Exchange (so Office 365 loses again). Besides, this deal will be a huge step forward for Google and for the whole SaaS industry because it's the largest SaaS project in the banking sector. After all, we all know how carefully banks  protect their commercial data. See also the Top 5 largest SaaS projects. ***

The popular online file storage service DropBox - is in danger. And this danger comes from Google Docs. The fact that before now DropBox had one great advantage over Google Docs - it could synchronize files between online account and several computers. Now this opportunity has become available for the users of Google Docs / Google Apps, and for free. Actually you need only to pay for disk space (over 1GB), but it's much cheaper in Google Docs than in DropBox. And all this - thanks to the startup InSync. It becomes free and not due to business problems, but right after almost $1 million funding. InSync runs almost invisible - you just create a folder on your PC or Mac and it syncs with Google Docs account (watch the video). Google Apps users can create shared folders for the entire company. ***