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:
Avectra acquired by Abila
Avectra is a former client of ours and they offered a great platform for customer and membership management as well as employee collaboration. They had a strong focus on the non-profit space as did Abila which acquired them.
My POV
I think it’s a great move for both companies. I think Avectra needed more resources to grow their customer base and improve their product and Abila needed a powerful membership and community management software to allow non-profits to better engage with donors and members. Both companies have a strong focus in the non-profit area so the acquisition makes sense. I’m actually very curious to see what Abila will do with the Avectra product over the next year.
Box targeting smaller businesses
Box recently announced two things, the first is that they are doubling the amount of storage space (from 5 to 10 gigs) for personal accounts. The second is a new “starter package” for smaller businesses which offers 100 gigs of storage for 1-10 people starting at just $5/month.
My POV
Box has been all over the place recently, and I mean that in good way. It really feels as though Aaron Levie and Box want to take over the world and just dominate every corner of the industry. This move is great for the company as it helps fight competition from other cloud providers such as Dropbox who already have a very strong grip on the individual and small business market. Their price point is fantastic and 100 gigs is certainly a good amount of storage for a “starter package.” Not only that but it helps build their prospect funnel to help move companies from the basic package to more expensive packages once they use up their 100 gigs.
Moxie Software adds live document editor and IOS app 
Moxie customers can now edit Microsoft documents within the activity stream of “collaboration spaces,” previously the document would have to be downloaded, edited, and the re-uploaded to the platform. Now users can edit it directly within the application. Moxie also released their IOS app for their “collaboration spaces” product.
My POV
While the new features are certainly a good thing they are merely adding things to allow them to catch up to other vendors who have offered live editing features and IOS app for quite some time already. Their “collaboration spaces” product hasn’t been out for that long but what they have now is still lacking when compared to what other vendors are offering. However, Moxie does allow you to use their product for free which is definitely a plus.
Alfresco updates their UI 
Alfresco made some changes to look and feel of their product based on customer feedback. They trimmed back their navigation bar and added advanced search capabilities.
My POV
I haven’t seen their product in a little while but the last time I did, it was a bit of a cluttered mess. Their recent changes really allow for some breathing room which is a good thing. Having a product which is intuitive and easy to use is a big help for employee adoption. When the product is cluttered and overwhelming employees tend to not use it so this recent update is definitely welcomed.
Citrix (client) announces over 100 committed apps to their enterprise mobile ecosystem 
The title pretty much says everything you need to know. There are now over 100 apps in the mobile enterprise ecosystem that companies can chose from, called Worx, with many more on the way.
My POV
Citrix is doing a great job of helping empower the mobile worker which is a huge factor when thinking about the future of work. As Citrix points in their announcement there’s a lot that goes into making a mobile app enterprise ready so to have 100 enterprise ready mobile apps is a huge milestone (and it’s growing quickly!). As we see more organizations empowering their employees to work from whenever and wherever these mobile app ecosystems are going to play an ever increasing crucial role.
