IBM unveiled new software for managing and analyzing big data to the workplace. The new offerings span a wide variety of big data and business analytics technologies across multiple platforms from mobile devices to the data center to IBM's SmartCloud. Now employees from any department inside an organization can explore unstructured data such as Twitter feeds, Facebook posts, weather data, log files, genomic data and video, and make sense of it as part of their everyday work experience. IBM is also placing the power of mobile analytics into the hands of iPad users with a free download in Apple's iTunes Store. The new software is designed to help employees in industries such as financial services, healthcare, government, communications, retail, and travel and transportation use and benefit from business analytics on the go. IBM is delivering new analytics and information management offerings: New Hadoop-based analytics software on the cloud, which helps employees tap into massive amounts of unstructured data from a variety of sources including social networks, mobile devices and sensors; New mobile analytics software for iPad users; and new predictive analytics software with a mapping feature that can be used across industries for marketing campaigns, retail store allocation, crime prevention, and academic assessment. http://www.ibm.com/
Recently in Collaboration Category
OpenText announced a new release of OpenText Social Communities (version 8.1), designed to help companies promote and drive the shift to a social business model. It combines a comprehensive social framework with a set of applications for building and engaging communities. This new release builds on the security and governance of the OpenText ECM Suite to apply appropriate controls to social objects. This is designed to create a safe environment of dialogue to foster informal collaboration and networking to help improve internal collaboration. Social Communities now integrates with OpenText Wave, OpenText's Mobile Enterprise Application Platform (MEAP), which allows organizations to create, develop, and deliver mobile applications for employees, partners, and customers. Integration with OpenText Web and Social Analytics offers the ability to monitor and measure social activity. To help promote and manage sharing between public social networking sites into a community site, Social Communities now gives users the ability to post content from a community site to Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ and other social networks. Social Communities 8.1 provides a set of social applications for social intranet, social marketing and social workplace workloads. These are complemented by reusable and adaptable site templates with the flexibility to combine features as needed to meet specific goals, such as launching a brand, product or campaign. http://www.opentext.com
Box.net announced it closed $81 million in funding from a mix of investors including NEA, Bessemer Venture Partners, Salesforce.com, SAP Ventures and existing investors. As revealed on their company blog, Box has aspirations to compete with Microsoft's Sharepoint. Box is currently available on most mobile platforms, while SharePoint is currently tied to Windows Phones. Yet Box also lacks the full array of content management features that an enterprise user may currently need/use from Sharepoint. http://box.net/
IBM announced a definitive agreement to acquire i2 to accelerate its business analytics initiatives and help clients in the public and private sectors address crime, fraud and security threats. Financial terms were not disclosed. With more than 4,500 customers in 150 countries, i2 is a provider of intelligence analytics for crime and fraud prevention based in Cambridge, UK with U.S. headquarters in McLean, Va. i2's clients span multiple sectors globally such as banking, defense, health care, insurance, law enforcement, national security and retail. i2 solutions are currently used by 12 of the top 20 retail banks globally and eight of the top 10 largest companies in the world. http://www.i2group.com/ http://www.ibm.com/
Cisco Systems (CSCO) has purchased San Francisco-based startup Versly to form a more complete corporate software package that melds the Microsoft Office suite and its own platform, the company announced. Cisco gains technology that allows Microsoft Office users to work collectively on content used in Office programs such as Word, PowerPoint and Excel. Eventually, Cisco wants to include Versly's software in its collaboration portfolio, which includes such services as social networking with Quad, instant messaging with Jabber and Web-conferencing with WebEx. Terms of the deal, which has already closed, were not disclosed. Versly, which is undergoing private beta testing with about 250 users, integrates email for easier communication within Office programs and merges changes made by different users while keeping workers up to date on who has access to the document and who is actively making changes. Versly was founded in 2009 and received funding from Bay Area-based venture capital firms Accel Partners, Baseline Ventures and 500 Startups. The company has 10 employees, including a member of Sun Microsystems' original Java team, who will join Cisco in its San Bruno office. http://www.cisco.com/ http://www.versly.com/
Docusign has announced Docusign for Salesforce, which allows users to enter data, initial, date, and sign contracts online, all while updating accounts automatically. Most document types are supported, and processes such as identity management/user authentication, forms/data collection, workflow automation, and storage are provided. Key aspects include: Connect with Documents in the Cloud; Single Sign On with your Salesforce Password; Mobile In-Person Signing; and Share Your Deals with Salesforce Chatter. http://www.docusign.com/ http://www.salesforce.com/
Adobe Systems Incorporated announced the immediate availability and free trial of its new Adobe Digital Enterprise Platform and first set of solutions for Customer Experience Management (CRM). The Adobe Digital Enterprise Platform, first unveiled in June, is an open, modular, standards-based offering for delivering engaging digital solutions across social, Web, mobile, and print channels. The platform includes integration with the Adobe Online Marketing Suite to optimize digital marketing campaigns and personalize digital experiences across all marketing, sales and service delivery channels. In addition, integration with Adobe Flash Builder(R) 4.5 and Flex 4.5 helps enterprise IT organizations build highly expressive mobile applications for Android devices, BlackBerry PlayBook, iPhone and iPad. Built on the Adobe Digital Enterprise Platform, an initial set of the company's Customer Experience Solutions are available now: Integrated Content Review; Web Experience Management; and Customer Communications. http://www.adobe.com/uk/solutions/customer-experience/enterprise-platform.html
Enterprise Hive’s software-as-a-service (SaaS) collaboration platform HiveSocial has been upgraded to Microsoft’s .NET 4.0 Framework. This upgrade provides a technology infrastructure that allows customers more flexibility to connect to existing applications with their online communities. In addition, enhancements were developed to optimize user engagement. These enhancements include simplified content creation, ameliorated content search and navigation. Enterprise Hive also announced HiveSocial Now for Education. HiveSocial Now for Education has no software license fees, yet provides a social collaboration solution that can be fully implemented for customers within days. Running on the same platform as edu1world.org, HiveSocial and HiveSocial Now for Education are SaaS offerings that allow organizations to provide cross campus groups, multiple department teams and education user groups with branded public and private communities. These communities can be integrated with existing websites or internal applications. http://www.enterprisehive.com/
Box.net announced new integration with Google Docs. Box users can now create, edit and concurrently edit with Google Docs. In the announcing blog post, doubt was expressed by Box.net over Microsoft opening Office 365 to 3rd party developers like themselves, and thus implies that this integration with Google will be the focus of the Box.net platform for the foreseeable future. http://www.box.net/
Gilbane Boston 2011
