Are people fed up enough with traditional collaboration software that they'll try this "Web 2.0 in business" idea? Jive Software is betting they are.
The company on Monday is expected to announce the availability of Clearspace 2.0, a set of tools for sharing information and making connections within a business or between a company and outside partners.
Jive Software's Clearspace 2.0 uses Web 2.0 technologies for collaboration in enterprises.
(Credit: Jive Software)Employees create a space to share documents, see what colleagues are online, or have ongoing discussions.
The product was first launched last year, a departure from Jive's software for hosting Web forums. The company raised $15 million from Sequoia Capital last year to build out the product and market it.
How is it different from Microsoft's SharePoint? CEO Dave Hersh says that the software is designed around people, rather than files, which makes it a good complement, or even a replacement for SharePoint.
Version 2.0 has a feature that lets employees create their own pages, where they list projects they are working on and where others can find who they work with. It also allows people to get an organizational view, like an org chart.
Fueled by a round of venture capital, Jive Software is pushing into the corporate technology market with lightweight Web collaboration software.
The company is expected to announce next week that Sequoia Capital has invested $15 million into Jive Software which has been self-funded and profitable until now.
Jive, perhaps best known for its online forum software, is focusing the company on Clearspace, a product first written about here and commercially introduced earlier this year.
The software is meant to be a lightweight alternative to more structured document management applications like Microsoft's SharePoint. With Clearspace, end users can start wikis, write blogs and share documents without significant upfront training, according to the company.
That lightweight, end-user focused approach to collaboration is starting to get interest from large companies, said Dave Hersh, Jive Software's CEO.
"We're getting RFPs (request for proposals) from the CIOs of very large companies," Hersh said. "A lot of it comes down to organizations stuck with too much structure with SharePoint or with blogs and wikis running rampant inside companies that are rarely sanctioned by IT."
The company has about 100 customers for Clearspace and will use the venture capital to fund expanded sales and product development.
- prev
- 1
- next
