Enterprise 2.0 News

Just yesterday we talked about Sharepoint Workspace - the tool which allows to sync files between Sharepoint server and user's computer, and today the cloud file collaborative service Box.net (which is positioned as a Sharepoint alternative) released the similar tool Box Sync. This is a program that is installed on your computer and allows you to sync any folder in your online Box.net account with desktop. If you change any file in that folder, it will be immediately synced, and those users who have access to this folder - will receive an alert. For now Box Sync is only available for Windows and only in the paid (business) accounts. Versions for Mac and Linux, as well as the free version will appear later this year. ***

We have already mentioned that p2p collaboration app MS Office Groove was renamed to SharePoint Workspace and utilized as an offline client for Sharepoint. Now we have got the chance to see SharePoint Workspace 2010 in action and it appears that offline access to Sharepoint - is not the only function of this application. First, SharePoint Workspace can be used without Sharepoint - as well as MS Office Groove. I.e. you can create Groove Workspace (with files, calendar, discussions) and sync it with computers of co-workers or customers. However, the audio-chat and permission levels disappeared from the application. Recall that SharePoint Workspace is not sold as a part of Sharepoint Server, but as a part of Office 2010 Pro Plus. ***

Yesterday, Microsoft officially launched Windows Live Office with Office Web Apps for english-speaking users (US, UK, Canada & Ireland). But anyone can already use them by switching the language in the Live ID account to English. Documents can be accessed in Office menu or SkyDrive menu. To understand why, read our review. Unfortunately, the first impression of Windows Live Office - is negative. Of course, we knew that online office apps will be light. And the fact that there are no diagrams and no cell autofill in the Excel Web App, and no rich paste in OneNote Web App, and no file move between folders in Live Office - all these is not disappointing. But the main thing that we expected - correct Word formatting support - actually doesn't work. ***

A couple of weeks ago we suggested that Google is going to shift the video communications market (and win Skype), betting on mobile video calls. Today we can accurately say that very soon mobile video chat will become a huge market and the IT giants will fight for it. It's enough to watch the Facetime (iPhone 4 video chat) presentation to understand this. Since June 24 Apple will start selling iPhone 4 with the front camera and video over Wi-Fi in US, and it's obvious that to the and of this year millions of users will make video calls via the iPhone, and Apple will become the world's largest mobile video chat provider. But it will be only the short term win. Then Skype, Google and other players will join the fight. ***

Formerly we called software "cross-platform" if it worked on Windows, Mac and Linux. Then it was thought that all Web services are cross-platform as they work in browser. But today the word "cross-platform" has a new meaning. Virtually all popular applications and Web services have become platforms themselves: Facebook, GMail, iPhone, Sharepoint ... For the modern business application Facebook or Outlook app is as important as Windows client. The task collaboration service Producteev want to use this shift. In addition to "traditional" web interface, it allows you to work with tasks in email, instant messengers, mobile devices and social networks (i.e. in those places where you mostly spend time). ***

Microsoft has done a great job to confuse users with their online office applications. Office Live, Office Live Workspace, Office Live Small Business, Live Folders, Foldershare, Live Docs, SkyDrive, Live Mesh, Docs.com, Office Web Apps - a lot of similar in functionality or name services, formed in result of numerous acquisitions and rebrandings. Taking into account the existence of Exchange and Sharepoint SaaS versions (BPOS), it becomes a mystery - what Microsoft's online office suite is and what it's target audience. The new version of Windows Live Wave 4 (which includes the online office) is trying to bring this chaos into order, however, again  by the numerous mergers and renamings. Let's try to understand all this stuff. ***

SpiceWorks - is an IT infrastructure management system for small businesses. It's currently being used by over 1,000,000 IT professionals. And one of the main reasons is that it's. The freemium model is absolutely fair as the advertising banner is displayed in the software web interface. But the most interesting thing about SpiceWorks - is an in-built community for IT professionals, which allows admins to solve many problems with the help of crowdsourcing. The community includes forum where you can ask for advice, groups for communication or collaboration, wiki with useful how-to articles and ratings of hardware and software with reviews. And, of course, this community is an excellent environment for running Marketplace, where IT vendors can promote their products (post special offers, news, articles) and communicate with their target audiences - IT professionals. ***

We have become accustomed to the fact that Zoho is mainly a step ahead of Google Apps. But today's Zoho new feature is especially insulting for Google. It is Zoho, but not the search giant, who is first to deploy the unified search in the online office. Zoho Search indexes data from Zoho Mail, Docs, Writer, Sheet, Show, Notebook, Discussions, Contacts and allows you to find all the contextual results for any request from those sources. The search results can be filtered by application or date range. Found emails and documents can be opened directly on the search portal, without opening the appropriate service. Besides. directly in the search results you do different actions - for instance, reply to an email. Meanwhile Zoho Search works only as a separate service (with an interface very similar to google.com). But soon the universal search box will appear in all the suite apps. ***

We all understand the growing role of talent in the modern enterprise. To help companies better use their talents, IT vendors have created the new class of Talent management systems. In addition to it another class of Idea management systems is emerging now. Idea - is the main talent's product. Idea can be worth millions, and raise the business to a new level. At the same time each day business executives don't notice (or forget) plenty of ideas coming from clients or their own staff. This is especially actual for large companies - even if you have a brilliant idea - the chance to be noticed is minimal. Idea (or innovation) management systems tend to solve this problem and convert ideas into money (as for those who creates them, and for those who use them). ***

In addition to the business version of GAE and cloud storage GS, at the I/O conference Google introduced for developers the new APIs for GMail and Google Buzz. New GMail API allows developers to embed applications directly to emails (as gadgets). These gadgets are currently only available for GMail in Google Apps, and may be added by account administrator from Google Apps Marketplace. For example, Gist and Xobni gadgets display person social information at the bottom of email (as they do it in MS Outlook and Lotus Notes). The Manymoon gadget allows to quickly create a task or project from the email. Taking into account that virtually all enterprise collaborative and social tools use email for notifications, we can expect an avalanche of new GMail gadgets, as well as increasing popularity of this email service in the enterprise segment. ***