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.
Huddle launched Connected Desktop
Connected Desktop is essentially a major update comprised of four main areas:
- Cloud storage and access- files no longer need to be saved locally, the cloud is now your hard drive and you can edit, open, lock, store, and collaborate on files.
- Outlook integration- basically everything that happens in Outlook is transposed into Huddle and moved into a collaborative threaded environment instead of email chains.
- Huddle Viewer- images and videos can be previewed directly from the cloud as if you were accessing them directly on your computer or an external hard drive.
- Huddle Dashboard- an activity stream that allows you to see content and activity happening within your organization.
My POV
This is a huge upgrade for Huddle with a heavy bet on the cloud (which I think is the right bet to make). The main challenge with Huddle is that while it might be a good platform for content management or project management, it still lacks in many of the collaborative capabilities that other vendors offer. However, Huddle’s main competition is Box and Sharepoint and not necessarily Jive or Chatter. I really like the new updates but still, it would be great to see features that allow employees to share what they are working, ask and answer questions, submit ideas, etc that don’t specifically revolve around a specific piece of content.
HighQ release Collaborate 3
This newest release includes some big new additions such as: responsive design for mobile (all devices), tablet, and desktops; secure file sharing, rich profiles, private messaging, activity streams (including microblogging, image sharing, commenting, and “liking”), and task management.
My POV
Truth be told I can’t imagine how HighQ existed without having these features in place which many consider to be standard for any collaboration vendor. This is certainly a huge release for HighQ which has really need to step up in order to be considered a “true” vendor of collaboration software. Of course the challenge now is that with the current new features HighQ still isn’t better or ahead of anyone else, they simply caught up to where much of the market is and vendors are already taking next steps with 3rd party integrations (and building out their own ecosystems), adding video and voice calling, Office integration, and a host of other things. Congrats to the team on a major release but they need to keep it coming!
Mango Apps announces version 8.2
Disclosure: Chess Media Group uses a no-cost version of the software which Mango has “given” us.
The new Mango release features things such as a new admin roles interface, ability to set user permissions on folders, smart settings which “remember” how you like to view information, moving folders between projects, and a host of other things.
My POV
It’s funny, you don’t really notice many of these changes on the surface but you certainly notice them when you are actually working within Mango and realize that you would like to do something such as move a file from one group to the other. This release mainly focused on specific use case that I’m sure customers were requesting and mainly deals with more functional or tactical changes instead of broader new feature sets. Still, this new release makes it much easier to use Mango to get work done without worrying about the little tedious things that make you say “darn, I wish I could do XYZ.” I’m excited to see the future versions of Mango, especially since I was given a little glimpse into their roadmap. These guys really have a great product that rivals what the other major players have.
Mindjet releases newest version of MindManager
MindManager was given a big update to help teams improve the
way hey visualize and then act on the mind maps that they create. The full list of new updates is extensive but highlights include: the ability to build formulas directly into your mindmaps, “what if” analysis and visual decision making that allows users to set thresholds and color code information (to help make better decisions), and drag and drop functionality to easily move content around.
My POV
In all fairness I haven’t used or seen their product in quite some time.
If you use mindmapping software then MindMapper is certainly one of the leaders in that space. Imagine using a visual mapping tool to get all of your work done (assign tasks, budgeting, roadmaps, etc) and that’s what you have with MindManager. I’d be curious to see how they fit in with enterprise collaboration platforms such as Chatter, Jive, Yammer, Telligent, and many others. While I can’t say that their product really fits within the enterprise collaboration space, I suspect that they will either release a product in this area or add features to their project management tool.