uk enterprise social network software solutions analysis

innovation | digital transformation | value creation | (r)evolution

UK Enterprise Social Network Software Solutions

Analysis

Preliminary Report

Agile Elephant in partnership with Lecko


CONTENTS

• Introduction

• The Enterprise Social Network market – an overview

• The Lecko solution analysis approach & how it works

• Lecko Solution Analysis of 21 software solutions


INTRODUCTION

Introduction by Agile Elephant

We were extremely impressed by the Lecko software analysis when we first saw it last year, and felt that it gives a number of major advantages for us and our clients as it contains very detailed summaries of a large number of software solutions, so we were able to better pinpoint for any one requirement:

• What are the criteria that a client should be looking at (Lecko’s 100 criteria is a very good starting point)• Which solutions were strongest in that area (at a great level of detail)• What are the likely tradeoffs, given no one solution does everything today

When we met with Lecko again earlier this year the conversation very quickly turned to us using their research in the UK market, and a collaboration was struck – we would research the UK market and link to Lecko’s existing research to build a composite picture. One of the first fruits of that collaboration is this report, looking at the software solutions that are most relevant to the UK market.

How the report is organised (sections, line items)

The report covers 3 key areas:• An analysis of the UK market for Enterprise Social Network Solutions and emerging trends• How the Lecko Software Solution analysis works• Analysis of 24 different solutions

“UK-ification” of the Lecko Report

The Lecko Report contains a very detailed summary of a large number of software solutions. For the UK market we have done 3 things with the Lecko work:

• Removed the analysis of French market size and added some data about the UK market (there is very little data about the UK, one of the reasons we have started to do our own research in collaboration with Lecko)

• Only included software solutions that were available in the UK (Lecko have looked at quite a number of solutions in addition that are not in the UK market)

• Made some notes on solutions available in the UK that are not yet analysed by Lecko


CONTENTS

• Introduction



• Lecko solution Analysis of 21 software solutions


DEFINITION OF AN ENTERPRISE SOCIAL NETWORKThere are a number of types of Enterprise Social Networks, aimed at doing slightly different roles. This is mainly because they originated from different design logic and places – for example comms systems like Yammer, collaboration stand-alone systems like Jive, in-solution capability like SAP Chatter, or predominantly knowledge collaboration like Sharepoint. However over time they are increasing in functionality, increasingly covering the same core areas. We define 10 core functions we believe an Enterprise Social Network should look at covering.

Function Purpose

Connect People Community social network

Communicate & Co-Ordinate Community Communication

Share & Talk Collaboration

Knowledge Management Knowledge capture & sharing

Manage Content & Web Pages Publishing and maintenance of Content

Co-Ordinate external communities Connect to customers, suppliers, stakeholders & consumer social media

Supply Process Tools Allow system to be used throughout end to end business value chain

Productivity Tools Must allow work to be done faster using tool than otherwise

Interoperability Ability to link and integrate to other systems

User Experience A poor user experience guarantees low user takeup


ENTERPRISE SOCIAL NETWORK MARKET

http://www-01.ibm.com/common/ssi/cgi-bin/ssialias?infotype=SA&subtype=WH&htmlfid=LOL14029USEN

IDC expects the worldwide ‘Enterprise Social Networks’ market revenue to grow from $1.24 billion in 2013 to $3.5 billion by 2018. This represents an aggressive compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 23.1% (IDC, 2014). EMEA is expected to grow fastest, from c $215m to c $1.2 bn, a 40% CAGR.

Analysis of predictions

We are always a bit wary of the very high growth curves and a 23% CAGR is quite a rate of growth!

Other estimates are less aggressive - Research & Markets estimates 19% CAGR from 2014 to 2019, and Reports on Reports estimates 11 % CAGR over this period 2013 to 2018. Of course no one source is defining the marketplace the same way, but they are all looking at what they define as the “Enterprise Social Software” market over roughly the same timespan.

Even more aggressive is the estimate of EMEA growth, a c 5-fold increase in the same timeframe, or 38% CAGR which is extremely optimistic.

Nonetheless, from a UK and EU point of view, what is clear is that – whatever the real growth turns out to be – EMEA as a region is going to be on the higher end of the growth trajectory for Enterprise Social software.


UK ENTERPRISE SOCIAL NETWORK MARKET – A PRELIMINARY ESTIMATE

Source: Pierre Audoin Consultants, IDC, Research & Markets, REportsonREports, Agile Elephant Analysis

It is difficult to get a picture of the UK market size and growth, as little research has been done on it to date, but there are a number “top down” approaches one can use to try and estimate the potential, which this page illustrates. Treat it as a “ballpark” sizing estimate and no more at this stage however.

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018

SAASAll SoftwareGDP

Assumptions on estimatesThe first challenge is to work out what size the UK market is, exactly, in 2013. Estimates range from c $35bn to c 70bn. Lecko have estimated the French market at c 40bn Euro ($50bn) in 2013, and as that is a similar sized economy we will assume the UK is the same ballpark.

The second challenge is to assume growth rate scenarios. The IDC 38*% growth rate is extremely aggressive, so should be an “optimistic” case. The 23% target for the whole market may be a more reasonable estimate for EMEA.

Similarly, if we take the other “whole market” estimates from the previous page – c 19% and 11 % - we could use the 19% as a “pessimistic” marker for EMEA (i.e. approximating a c 11% growth of the global market overall).

Furthermore we shall assume the UK growth is the average for EMEA overall.

So the following fairly heroic projections can be made (see chart, left)

• High Growth Scenario – 38 % CAGR, • Moderate Growth scenario – 23% CAGR• Low Growth Scenario – 19& CAGR

So, with the usual caveats of predictions, especially about the future, and taking the middle path, we are looking at an approximate tripling of the UK market over 5 years.

We will of course be working hard over the next few months to firm up this estimate.

Growth in UK ESN market, $m 2013 – 2018


UK ESN MARKET SHARE (PRELIMINARY)

Empirical observations of the UK market….

Based on our discussions with suppliers and users, our empirical observations of the state of the UK market is that it essentially has a few well used solutions, and a “long tail” of others being used by fewer clients.

Most Used Solutions

Most projects are started with “Free” software from existing incumbent IT suppliers in a company. • Microsoft (Sharepoint and less often Yammer) & IBM are the most

common applications

“Stand Alone” Solutions• Jive is the most used of the global “stand alone” solutions as it was early

into the UK market UK originated Solutions • Huddle is the most used of the UK originated“ stand alone” software

solutions

Other Solutions used in the UK

Incumbent IT environments• SAP, Salesforce are also used

“Stand Alone” Solutions.• Early entrants such as Tibbr and • Sitreon (was Newsgator) has built a presence as a Sharepoint overlay

UK originated Solutions • Noddlepod (used in some Government areas)• Drupal (though Drupal is a Dutch system, development is usually done

by local UK specialists)

It is difficult to get a picture of the UK market share by vendor as well, our empirical observation leads to the following hypotheses as below . What is interesting is just how difficult it is to find UK information, which is why we have set about doing it this year (2015).

….are not dissimilar to the Global (i.e. mainly US) Market adoption %

Source – Information Week survey, 2012 – there is a “long tail” we have omitted as we suspect at that level the UK differs with UK/EU local suppliers taking a greater share than small US suppliers


ESN USAGE BY INDUSTRY TYPE IN UK

Govt Education HealthcareNot for Profit Professional AgenciesTech Industry Commerce

Split of Huddle customers by type (153 total)

There is currently very little information on ESN usage by industry type in the UK. To give a view we have taken the publically available data from Huddle, one of the UK’s largest suppliers with 150+ customers, and the EU research of 2013.

Notes on data used

• Huddle has a uniquely strong presence in Government funded services, so the average UK usage probably is not nearly 50% Government/ Healthcare/ Education

• Note on EU

Split of usage by Industry type, EU 2013

KeyKey


ESN DEVELOPMENT – GROWTH IN SOCIAL CAPABILITYLecko has been analysing ESN market solutions annually since 2008. They measure the development of each solution according to specific functional scopes (social, productivity, communication & knowledge management). It has allowed them to see market trends, and to compare groups of vendors.

Functional enhancement continuesIn a highly competitive market, pure player vendors have started to adopt strategies that set them apart, forcing them to review the scope of their product and add features that will make them stand out. Functional enhancement, therefore, continue in 2014, on the side of the generalists too, but mainly with a view to integrating the different tools proposed. Jalios has therefore reviewed the ergonomics of its offer, Microsoft is incorporating Yammer into Sharepoint, and IBM is improving integration of its tools IBM Connections and Filenet (while adding IBM Docs to its offer).

Social intranet software trends 2014/15.

Social features have not changed as much this year (in keeping with 2013), compared to earlier years the focus has been on ancillary functionality.

As you might expect, communication is the sector that has grown most for vendors. Over 2014/15, with the need to add mobile solutions.

Productivity (individual and collective) continues to grow evenly, at the instigation of the key integrated system players who have created a gap with the pure-play vendors.

In addition we are seeing point integration with other ancillary systems such as CMS modules.

Lastly, the Knowledge Management field is the one that has seen fewer changes with social. Few pure player ESN vendors have made this move today and generalist vendors are sticking with traditional information filing methods.


ESN SOCIAL SOLUTION USAGE BY BUSINESS FUNCTIONSocial tools took off in business in 2 main areas – Social Media, used for outside and inside communications; and collaboration tools, used for internal collaboration. Functionality is growing, as the Lecko analysis notes, and usage is extending from the original areas it took root in.

Outgrowing original areas….The Chart (left) shows the % of 1.402 companies McKinsey looked at who reported using Social technologies.

….driving the need for Integration with other systems

There are two major lines of integration starting to occur within enterprise social software:

• Software solutions becoming suites: Whether each solution can do more of the end to end work. At present users have to bolt together a range of application specific solutions to cover their end to end workflow. This is costly and inefficient. The history of every other emergent past software area is that the market has eventually gone to integrated suites, this area is unlikely to be different. What history also suggests, however, is the current integrated suite incumbents are often not those present at the endgame.

• Integration with other enterprise software: As social software becomes an increasing part of the enterprise’s workflow, the pressure to integrate with these systems will rise. The ERP, CRM and Mail systems in particular contain a lot of data that the social systems will need to access, and increasingly will need to input.


MOBILE, ANALYTICS & CLOUD – THE “DIGITAL WAVE”

Social technology is these days increasingly seen as a part of the “SMAC” stack ( Social, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud) , the key platforms that are driving ESN (and other software) developments. We see this as part of the a series of systemic changes transforming the way IT is used in Enterprises, which we call the “Digital Wave”.

Mobile

Mobile capability will have to be included, but “mobile” will have a variety of meanings:• “Mobile” devices does not mean smartphones – it is more

likely that tablets and “mobile” computers will take the bulk of the load for enterprise usage

• Mobile means people – being able to provision one person’s service irrespective of device and geography will be the major trend. Ironically the best “lingua franca” to underpin this is email

Analytics

Social software generates a lot of data hitherto unseen, and so the need for analytics systems to search, scrub, manipulate and display this data will rise rapidly. There is too much value to be gained in areas such as:

• Prospect & customer behaviour• In-company analysis of currently “unstructured” data

captured by these systems• Employee measurement

One of the ongoing issues that will emerge is the balance between intrusion into employee privacy vs. business benefit. Too little and an opportunity is wasted, too much and employees will start to obfuscate the system.

Cloud

While Cloud technology will have a major role to play, many enterprises will still want control of their servers and databases for a variety of security of data and quality of service issues (see diagram, right).


CONTENTS

• Introduction



• Lecko solution Analysis of 21 software solutions


CONTENTS

• Introduction



• Lecko Analysis of 21 software solutions


SOFTWARE ANALYSIS – SOLUTIONS COVERED (TO BE COMPLETED)

• Bluekiwi• Calinda*• Chatter• Clearvale• Confluence• ExoPlatform**• Google• Hoozin*• HumHub**• IBM• Jalios*• Jive• Liferay• Knowledge plaza • Microsoft

• (Microsoft 365 + Yammer)• Yammer only

• Podio• Sitrion + Sharepoint* • tibbr• Xwiki**• Zyncro

Software solutions analysed in this Report UK available solutions not yet covered by this Lecko report

HuddleHuddle is a cloud-based collaboration service that will securely store, access, share, sync and work on files with everyone they need to - regardless of whether they are inside or outside of an organization's firewall. The service users can work together effectively on content from wherever they are, via whatever device they’re using – PC, laptop, smartphone or tablet

SlackA relative newcomer but growing fast. Slack is a team collaboration tool. Slack offers persistent chat rooms organized by topic, as well as private groups and direct messaging. Slack integrates with a large number of third-party services and supports community-built integrations

Drupal**Drupal is a very powerful open source software platform, with many different modules to handle aspects of an enterprise’s workflow. It has a number of Community building and social networking modules and is continually adding to its functionality. Drupal is popular in the UK, and functionality is typically installed by companies themselves or Drupal consultants NoddlepodNoddlepod is an online community tool designed to enable mutual support in the application of learning. Core functionality is focussed on facilitating collaboration, organising knowledge and facilitating workflow. It’s customers are focussed in the public sector at present but it has taken additional funding in 2015 to build out the offering further

Our aim is to analyse these solutions over the coming year.

Lecko analyse more solutions than we have presented in this report, but we have taken out those that are very specifically for the French market. Those we have included are solutions where we know there are customers or suppliers in the UK market, or have expressed an interest in the UK. We have also listed with a (*) those that overlay Sharepoint (a very popular UK solution) and those that are deliberately Open Source in structure with a (**)

innovation | digital transformation | value creation | (r)evolution72

New in 2014

Ergonomics

Strategy and position

Functional ergonomicsintuitivityLook & Feel

Dedicated app

Accessibility

Productivity

Knowledgemanagement Communication

External Processes community

BLUEKIWIblueKiwi is a ready-to-use social network solution, distributed as SaaS and a historical French player in ESN. The solution mainly focuses on conversation spaces, within which different types of content can be shared (messages, documents, links, ideas, questions, polls). The shared content has its own conversation thread and populates the newsfeeds of the communities and the users. The solution has advanced page and rendering customisation features for a full SaaS solution. blueKiwi can now be used as a community platform, social network or even company intranet with the use of the solution's CMS functions.

Leader

Specialist

Specialist

Specialist

Specialist

Responsive / Web App

61100

There is very little news for blue Kiwi in 2014 but a release has been announced in February 2015 to further encourage the solution's roadmap. The work done for Atos on the scalability of the tool and its performance will enable blue Kiwi to offer a more fluid tool, capable of handling the contexts of very large companies (more than 100,000 users at the same time) without slowing down.An ergonomic overhaul of the publication functionality has also been announced. It will enable the publisher to offer newsfeeds with all of the important information present without needing to click further. Lastly, the overhaul of mobile applications enables a consistent navigation experience regardless of the terminal used by the end user.

BlueKiwi has a visually rich interface, which reflects the solution's complex potential. At first glance, the tool is fairly complex to master compared to pure player ESN solutions, but page customisation features enable platform coordinators to guide users towards important content and uses (the user's homepage is customisable as are the pages of each community). Configuration work therefore enables a navigation experience suited to the context of each company to be offered. It is worth noting that the ergonomics on mobile devices is quite good, with access to all of the platform's features.

blueKiwi now targets companies of all sizes, with a complete SaaS tool that can respond to the contexts of large companies and is integrated into Microsoft Office, Sharepoint and instant messaging tools.The publisher, bought out by Atos in 2012, has dedicated a lot of resources to the implementation of the tool within a large enterprise structure, working in particular on the scalability of performances and the reliability of the tool. The solution has, however, only changed slightly from a functional point of view in two years, and blue Kiwi has lost some of its influence on the French market.The good references acquired before 2012, and the Atos project, help the publisher to retain legitimacy on the market. blue Kiwi is also expected to clarify its strategy in 2015, a strategy that has been rather opaque up until now (the "Zero mail initiative" stance announced by Thierry Breton upon the takeover has not really affected the solution and the distribution of the tool).

Web


BLU

EKIW

IFU

NCT

ION

AL A

NAL

YSIS

BRE

AKD

OW

N


New in 2014

Ergonomics



Dedicated app

Accessibility

Productivity


CALINDACALINDA is a publisher of collaborative solutions (including, but not limited to, add-ons for Microsoft products). The offer consists of Social Factor, a social add-on to Sharepoint (contributions to microblogging, production of collaborative uses, etc.), Business Guest (a tool for collaborating securely with users outside the organisation, even if the Sharepoint infrastructure is installed where you are), InsideOut (creation of mobile applications for displaying certain Sharepoint of other content) and lastly electronic signature solutions.

35100

CALINDA has mainly concentrated its efforts this year on its electronic signature tools, available with offers for each sector (Real Estate, Mutual and Laboratories).These tools give field sales professionals mobile tools to manage the sales process from A to Z (the salesman can get his prospect to sign on a tablet using contracts saved elsewhere, for example in Sharepoint), and can only access information that is useful to them. Other uses can also be imagined, such as the signature of inventories, reports, etc.

The ergonomics of the electronic signature tools is excellent, designed from the end user's point of view and considering the terminals of choice. Social Factor and Business Guest supply the tools for uses that are missing from or not adequately covered by Sharepoint with simplified ergonomics.

The publisher is diversifying its offer more and more, now offering a catalogue of specific applications to supply tools to different collaboration segments. CALINDA has recently moved into the electronic signature field, which points towards a repositioning in certain business lines or certain processes in the company. This strategy is necessary following the integration of Yammer into the Microsoft offer.Social Factor is still a good add-on for Microsoft'scustomer-hosted offer.

Specialist

Leader

Leader

Web Responsive / Web App


Leader

Specialist


New in 2014

Ergonomics



Dedicated app

Accessibility

Productivity



CHATTER

Chatter is the social network from the publisher Salesforce, a CRM specialist. Originally, this solution was designed to enable CRM process players to communicate, but has evolved into a comprehensive offer that can be extended throughout the company. The tool comes in the form of an evolved microblogging thread and communities (groups) themselves made up of discussion threads. The tool favours simplicity.

50100

Salesforce develops its collaboration solutionexternally, adding supportcommunitymanagement intended to supply the tools for internal/external dialogue, but also integration into social networks (Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.) to enable external users to log in using their accounts on these tools.Lastly, Salesforce adds a Dropbox type service to its offer, Salesforce Files, and two-way integration with Microsoft Sharepoint.

The publication’s features, inspired by tools on the market (Microsoft Office in particular) are ergonomic and easy to use. The central administration functions are, however, more difficult to access.In a context addressed at the public sector, Chatter also enables the creation of web platforms that meet accessibility standards, with alert tools based on the RGAA reference base. The publisher also offers specific modules through an integration service.

The publisher's strategy is quite specific: Chatter is not the tool that makes Salesforce unique, only the integration into the CRM offers an added- value cumulative solution. Salesforce mainly distributes its tool through its CRM clients, and expands its offer thanks in particular to the Chatter solution, which has won over some large companies. But Chatter can, on its own, also supply tools to companies wanting to set up a social network.The tool is designed to retain simple features and the publisher focuses on two collaboration areas: external communities, for which smart integration with the CRM has been ensured, and productivity. This last segment, a recent addition to the Salesforce offer, also relies on Salesforce Files and integration into Sharepoint.

Operator

Operator

Operator

Specialist

Specialist



New in 2014

Ergonomics



Dedicated app

Accessibility

Productivity


CLEARVALEClearvale from Broadvision is a classic collaborative platform (spaces for sharing documents, conversation threads, social network), with the special characteristic of managing several networks within a company: the internal network, the external network (clients and end customers) and potentially other networks. Users can easily identify the collaboration context they are in and they have a central interface enabling them to incorporate content from the different networks.

37100

In 2014, the publisher developed built-in instant messaging throughout the tool (available regardless of the collaboration context).Other features have been added such as the introduction of push notifications, in addition to the mail alerts that were already in place. Users can now easily discuss the information they are sharing.File sharing has also been redesigned to make it accessible whatever content is being shared (before, you had to be in the file content).

The tool's ergonomics is average as the tool has a substantial history. The concepts are easy to assimilate and each user has personal organisation spaces making the tool easier to adopt for personal productivity.

Broadvision operates in the digital workplace field, hence the release of VMoso, a user-centric tool that amasses content from email, the social network and instant messaging within a single mobile or desktop interface. VMoso is branded like Microsoft Delve: a tool for simplifying employee access to information.Broadvision's strategy is therefore to supply the tools for all of the collaboration methods (excluding office solutions) of companies of all sizes, combining the power of its corporate tools (Clearvale) with that of its tools focused on user productivity (VMoso)

Operator

Operator



Operator

Operator


New in 2014

Ergonomics



CONFLUENCELaunched in 2004 by Alessia, Confluence is a collaborative tool that focuses primarily on the use of wikis. The solution can be used to create spaces addressing a large variety of uses: team intranet, project areas, mutual assistance or innovation communities.With its advanced file structure and browsing management options, the solution also facilitates the construction of knowledge bases. Confluence also offers a market place with lots of modules for addressing specific needs.

46100

Alessia has worked hard on the integration between Confluence and JIRA (another of its products dedicated to bug tracking and project management). The shift from JIRA to Confluence becomes more natural (for example, the option to convert Confluence content into a Jira ticket, contextual feedback of information from JIRA directly into Confluence, automation and formatting of statuses), thus reinforcing the product's ability to address project management and decision-making requirements. Ergonomic developments make it easy to enter information and help users to navigate the interface more easily.

The solution has a modern design and an easy- to-use interface. The effort of understanding the solution is down to the administrators. There are many configuration possibilities but scripts need to be written from a certain level. This is accessible to non-developers but training is required.

Originally operating in the collaborative content management market (wikis), Confluence now competes in the knowledge managementand process managementsegments.With its market place and its ability to easily incorporate new developments (by coding the desired macros directly in front-office), the tool offers an interesting base for implementing approval procedures, status management or a file structure for content. All in all, a very interesting alternative to SharePoint with a simplified interface. Confluence targets any companies sizes.

Dedicated app

Accessibility

Productivity



Specialist

Leader

Leader

Operator

Operator



New in 2014

Ergonomics



Dedicated app

Accessibility

Productivity


CONVOConvo is an American collaborative solution (formerly known as Convofy) that focuses on the creation of spaces dedicated to project management and co-publication. The main advantage of the solution is that it offers a document viewer that has an annotation system and instant messaging. These features are also available with the mobile applications offered by the publisher. Using navigation tab, the tool enables the user to build a real working environment and work on various content at the same time. Convo is modular and content can be recovered from external platforms (Dropbox, GDrive, Box).

65100

The introduction of instant messaging is the main few feature from the publisher in 2014. Users can communicate whatever the device used (desktop or mobile) and manage their availability level. Other new features include integration with Google Drive, Dropbox or Box, overhaul of the Android application and the development of a Chrome extension. This enables users to continue conversations on the platform from any web page.

The tab navigation system provides users with flexibility and encourages multitasking. Content is accessed exclusively through a news feed, which complicates use (and subsequent access other than by searching). The tool focuses on processing "hot" information. The publisher has made a great effort to offer ergonomic and easy- to use mobile applications.

The publisher aims to specialise in applications dedicated to "small" team collaboration and email generation tools (such as asynchronous co-publication of documents). Convo providesturnkey working environments,thusmaintaining a simple approach, in the tool and in the SaaS distribution.The publisher targets all sizes of company and relies on the viral nature of its offer to expand within these companies.Lastly, integration with SaaS personal document management tools (Box, Dropbox, Google Drive) enables companies with these tools to add to their catalogue of services a dedicated project management platform, bringing in documents hosted elsewhere.

Specialist

Operator



Specialist

Operator

Operator


New in 2014

Ergonomics



Dedicated app

Accessibility

Productivity



eXo PLATFORMeXo Platform is a French open source company founded in 2003 by Benjamin Mestrallet. Its product started out as a CMS. Having quickly assumed collaborative features, eXo Platform took a turning point two years ago (with version 4). Its aim was to become the leading open source platform on the collaborative intranet market. The tool has all of the basic functionalities but stands out from the competition thanks to its CMS features that allow the platform to be customised on demand. It is more of an enterprise social collaboration platform than an ESN.

39100

In 2014, eXo Platform consolidated version 4, which was released in 2013. In addition to technical improvements and the implementation of patches, a notification system was added, video was integrated into the chat module and the user experience of the calendars was redesigned. Despite having some of the richest functions

on the market, eXo Platform offers a product with a clean, well-designed interface. The lateral navigation offers users clear segmentation between the different types of corporate content and work spaces. The solution becomes increasingly complex the more you move towards more advanced uses such as content management. From a mobility point of view, the solution offers user-centric mobile applications to make it easier to access news, messages and personal documents.

The publisher offers SaaS and on-premise solutions with average tariffs of €3 per user per month (perhaps even less depending on the size of the company). Competitively priced, eXo Platform also stands out thanks to its open source model and its approach based on the combination of a powerful CMS engine and an enterprise social network.

Leader

Specialist

Specialist

Specialist

Specialist



New in 2014

Ergonomics



Dedicated app

Accessibility

Productivity



GOOGLE APPSGoogle offers a suite of SaaS office/collaboration applications, distributed either free of charge to individual home users, or as an enterprise offer with some additional administration features (but a similar functional scope). The main components of the Google Apps suite are email, diary, contacts, Drive (personal document manager, co-publication of documents), Sites (customisable web pages), Google + (enterprise social network + communities), Hangouts (instant chat), etc. The components are fairly independent of one another, although efforts are being made to gradually integrate them, and are accessible separately from the user's point of view (from a menu on each page).

73100

Google developed all of the components of its suite in 2014, with frequent releases. The Google Drive interface has been redesigned and is now similar to traditional document management tools. Similarly, the Hangout interface has been redesigned to make it available from each component of the suite, with the option of starting video calls or chats in just one click no matter which page the user is on.Lastly, a lot of work has been done to integrate the components, with the option of easily sharing links to Google documents on Google +, plus access to the social profiles of users directly from email.

Google has defined the ergonomic standards of certain uses on the collaboration market, in particular the co-publication of documents. The interface is user-centric and has been designed for general public users. It is therefore very easy to use.The mobile applications are also cutting edge, with each component of the collaborative suite having its own application.The ergonomic limits are reached as soon as you want to customise the rendering of the platform and fit it into a context of communication/ company or department intranet. (branding, etc.). Development is required to create customised spaces shared with all users of a department/business line.

Google is now the main competitor to Microsoft Office 365, and with the IBM suite, is one of the few vendors to offer an office + collaboration solution designed for all sizes of company. The publisher's pricing model is simpler (but not necessarily better), with a fixed repeat cost each month. Google has reinvented collaboration and many vendors have drawn inspiration from its offers (including Microsoft and IBM, in particular with their personal document management).In our opinion, Google's offer is still limited when it comes to supplying tools for the whole collaborative scope of large companies, particularly with regard to internal/external impermeability (Google + is not fully partitionable) and the level of rendering customisation options. The publisher is now looking to reposition Google+ at the centre of its offer, to turn it into tomorrow’s social intranet. Integration with the other components has begun and points towards future improvements.

Leader

Specialist

Specialist

Operator



New in 2014

Ergonomics



Dedicated app

Accessibility

Productivity


Processes

External community

HOOZINHoozin is a collaborative solution built on a Microsoft Sharepoint base. Unlike Sharepoint, collaborative uses are natively and ergonomically managed. Information runs through newsfeeds built into communities and sites.The platform therefore presents a simplified offer: accessible project spaces, communication areas and social network.

66100

The Hoozin offer also has a new whiteboard application. The whiteboard can be used to discuss a document in an ergonomic way. Users can add notes, post-its and information and they can move the pages of the document around and lay it out as they wish. Tools are therefore supplied for different uses, such as brainstorming, co-publication and revision.Hoozin has also provided simple publicationworkflows in the tool designed for editorial teams.

The tool is easy to use and ergonomic. It has a real advantage over the Microsoft offer as it clarifies proposed features and usages for the end user. The side navigation bar structure can, however, be confusing.The solution's look & feel is modern and attractive. Hoozin maximises its youth factor (the solution was released in 2012).

The publisher markets itself as an alternative to the Microsoft offer, either before or after a Sharepoint project is created. Hoozin is based on the simple observation that the majority of customers do not need all of the features (and complexity) of the Microsoft tool. By offering a simplified, more ergonomic solution focused on basic functionality, Hoozin is winning over practical small and medium-sized companies whose IT departments do not want to enroll on long development projects.

Specialist

Specialist

Operator


Operator

Operator


New in 2014

Ergonomics



Dedicated app

Accessibility

Productivity



HUMHUBHumHub is a young open source enterprise social network solution that was released in 2014. The platform supplies the tools for uses such as project management (management of project schedules and documents, task management, synchronous co-publication), communities of practice, etc. The platform can also be used to develop new complementary modules that can be shared with the community in the market place.

70100

Released in 2014, HumHub currently offers a core set of basic features dedicated to collaboration (calendar, document and task management, timeline, etc.). The tool also offers a social directory and advanced tools for coordinating communities (possibility of automatically signing users up to certain communities depending on their group).The market place is being developedgradually and at present only has around ten complementary modules (Breaking news, Etherpad Notes, Calendar, Tasks, etc.).

The recently launched product meets web standards in terms of design and ergonomics. The interface is attractive and the tool is very easy to understand. The challenge for the publisher will be to successfully maintain this level of quality as additional modules are developed.

The publisher targets small and medium-sized enterprises, but also has organisations from the charity and local authority sectors amongst its first clients. HumHub emphasises its flexibility and the solution's ability to supply the tools for specific collaboration contexts, based on the options for developing business line modules.The publisher has (surprisingly) decided not to offer a hosted mode and distributes its tool free of charge, selling complementary development services.

Operator

Operator

Operator


Operator



Dedicated app

Accessibility

IBMIBM offers a collaborative suite made up of IBM Connections, a user-centric social network component, and IBM Filenet, an enterprise document management tool. IBM Websphere supplies the tools for the "web content management" part, which can be integrated into the collaborative offer. IBM solutions its collaborative offer either with just IBM Connections, or with IBM Connections plus the CCM module, which gives basic documentary features (but not as many features as Filenet), or with IBM Connections + Filenet. The user therefore gets a community platform with an activity thread incorporating all of the information from its network and its communities, and can access enterprise EDM if Filenet is selected, or community EDM if CCM is chosen instead. IBM also offers a document co-publication module, IBM Docs, which is fairly similar to Google Drive but can be installed on the customer’s infrastructure.

New in 2014 Ergonomics Strategy and position

Productivity



50100

IBM has done a great deal of work on personal file management, in particular on the ability users have to synchronise their personal files across various terminals or collaborate (co-publication, comments) on documents, including while on the move.Content (documents and other content) can now be previewed in the news feed itself, which has been improved to make the information easier to read.Lastly, management of external users (partners, customers, etc.) has been improved, in particular with the cloud offer.

The interface is rich and may require graphic customisation work to highlight the essential features. The tool's modularity and its connections with other IBM products (such as FileNet) do not always facilitate general understanding of the product. However, the implementation of Outlook and Desktop plug-ins, by making the social network transparent, can make it quicker to master. Massive effort has been put into the mobile and tablet applications, which are amongst the most ergonomic on the market.

For some years now, IBM's strategy has been to simplify management of the life cycle of a user's content as much as possible, from receipt of an email to capitalisation in a knowledge bank, regardless of the tool used. This disruptive vision has taken time to be put into practice in the IBM offer due to the immaturity of the market. The IBM offer is targeted mainly at medium-sized and large companies, although the cloud offer, which is not heavily promoted, may suit smaller enterprises. The IBM email solution will be developed in 2015 with Verse, a new smart email client, to remain in line with this strategy.IBM is currently struggling to make a place for itself in email and office solutions area, with Microsoft and the emerging Google hindering its ability to put its strategy into practice.However, IBM's tools, in particular IBM Connections, integrate fully into Microsoft tools, enabling the publisher's vision to be realised, including in a multi-publisher context.

Leader

Specialist

Leader

Leader

Leader



New in 2014

Ergonomics



Dedicated app

Accessibility

Productivity


Processes

External community

JALIOSjCMS is a generalist rich content management solution, competing with Sharepoint, capable of managing Xnet sites, collaborative spaces, documents and even the social network.Above all, jCMS enables trained administrators to create fully customisable communication environments (rendering, workflows, etc.). The "collaborative" and "social network" modules allow basic collaboration features to be added (pre-solutiond to make them easier to use), as well as advanced customisation features. The native solution requires an integration service to be usable in a business context.

31100

Jalios launched version 9 of its jCMS product in October 2014. The main focus of the publisher this year is the user experience (particularly on the go). The tool has therefore been completely redesigned to offer a responsive design interface in keeping with the "progressive disclosure" logic (meaning that features of no use to novices can be hidden). The overhaul has been a success, accompanied by a series of developments, particularly on the JDrive (personal document management tool), or even on integration (Evernote module, GDrive, etc.).

Because of its wide range of features, the tool can be complicated for users to understand and difficult for administrators to manage as the back-office is extensive. The native ergonomics of the solution has been improved in version 9, with more intuitive features, for both desktop and mobile.

The publisher profiles jCMS as a generalist tool, competing directly with Microsoft and IBM in the field of content management and collaboration within companies. The aim of Jalios is to make IT departments less dependent on, or "trapped" by the offers of these two players, while still offering connectors native to their office tools and instant messaging clients (for which Jalios does not offer any solutions).Jalios remains deliberately non-disruptive and does not really stand out from standard collaboration modes, leaving it up to integrators to expand its capability to that required by their customers, using basic, generalist components. This strategy is bearing fruit and enabling the publisher to continue to gain market share.

Leader

Operator

Specialist

Specialist

Specialist



New in 2014

Ergonomics



Dedicated app

Accessibility

Productivity


Processes

External community

JIVEJive is a social network solution that offers per-solutiond collaborative, focused on distinct proposed uses. In just a few clicks, you can create communication spaces and communities of practice and innovation, each use with its own template. Jive offers lots of content management features, meaning that the tool can perform a social intranet role centred around other IS components (on-premise or SaaS) thanks to its many connectors.

59100

In 2014, Jive worked on its short-term strategy by developing the "pages" module, which can be used to create mini Intranets for publications, in order to improve its positioning on the social intranet market, and also prepared its long- term strategy by rebuilding its APIs to make connectors designed to enhance the market place easier to create.Jive also made its platform natively responsive design (which adds to the native applications already present).

The tool is very comprehensive and is therefore intended for mature users, particularly with regard to the administration features. The look & feel is modern and attractive and contextual help is available for end users. However, on the whole, it can be difficult to understand depending on how the solution has been configured. An integration service is often necessary, unlike with the majority of the ESN pure player competitors.

Jive retains a high-end positioning on the social and collaborative market, with a tool that is ahead of the competition, strong marketing and a high recommended retail price. The offer is targeted at all sizes of company, although most of its customers are medium-sized and large enterprises.Going forward, Jive is marketing itself as an enterprise collaborative hub and a social portal incorporating the collaboration contexts of each user. At present, the solution is primarily a social intranet, competing with the market leaders (Microsoft, IBM, Jalios, etc.) in this segment.It should be noted that the publisher continues to make a loss each year and has not yet managed to make its operation profitable.

Leader

Leader

Leader

Specialist

Specialist



New in 2014

Ergonomics



Dedicated app

Accessibility

Productivity



KNOWLEDGE PLAZAKnowledge Plaza is a knowledge management platform incorporating advanced social features (Social KM). The tool allows knowledge to be shared in a range of formats (files, links, discussions, questions). It is shared through each user's news feed. Filing of information has also been simplified and relies on a smart folksonomy logic. Conversations about content are integrated smoothly into the knowledge base. Lastly, content management functions for this knowledge are available, allowing coordinators to produce customised knowledge bases.

65100

In 2014, Knowledge Plaza added collection templates to its offer, enabling creation on the fly of new types of content (project records, ideas contests, meeting minutes, etc.). This enhancement can be used to further customise the platform to the specific requirements of each customer. Knowledge Plaza has also improved its information filtering system. The smart tabs, which can be used to create customised views of the knowledge base, can now be configured further, and have facets that are visible on the interface.

The tool is simple and ergonomic compared to traditional knowledge management platforms. The publication interfaces are notably simpler, as are the search interfaces, which are clear and use faceted filters. The solution has an attractive, clean look.

Knowledge Plaza is clearly established in the social KM segment, where it has a completely unique solution in terms of staging of its tool. The publisher aims to supply the tools for all types of collaborative project in which knowledge management is a major component.This unique positioning enables Knowledge Plaza to stand out on the market and to win customers of all sizes.Knowledge Plaza has also enhanced its product with new solutions (collaborative intelligence, document base, social CRM, communication) as alternative versions of its platform. A message that somewhat contradicts the Social KM positioning, which may hide the strengths of the solution.

Specialist

Specialist

Specialist

Leader

Leader




Dedicated app

Accessibility

LIFERAYLiferay is an open source content management tool, a toolbox used for developing websites and intranet sites as well as collaborative, documentary and social platforms. The tool is available as a community version or an enterprise version, which has the addition of advanced support and administration functions (technical monitoring).Liferay is used to build Intranets or collaborative platforms with either customised structure (community and sub-community file structures to reflect the structure of the company) or customised content (complete freedom of configuration and display of content). The tool also natively offers a social network module, Liferay Social Office, adding management of rich profiles, microblogging and solutiond conversation communities.


Productivity


Processes

External community

57100

No new features were added to Liferay in 2014. The latest version (6.2) was released in December 2013, with easier document management, improved technical robustness for the platform and the addition of tools for managing mobility. The publisher is actively preparing the release of Liferay 7, scheduled for the second quarter of 2015. In the pipeline are the overhaul of publication ergonomics (improved Wysiwyg), geolocation of content, implementation of Elastic search, etc. This major version will focus mainly on content management and publication features, with relatively few additions for the social part (option to mention a user from any content, addition of notifications for collaborative content, etc.).Confirmation that Liferay will maintain its positioning as a corporate content management (WCM) tool.

Liferay's front-office ergonomics relies primarily on the integration work done upstream, but version 6.2, which was released in December 2013, facilitates mobile use of the Liferay platforms by offering a genuine development framework for mobile pages and content. Only some front-office publishing features are missing to give a user experience on a par with the most comprehensive tools.The back-office ergonomics, which is important for content management software, is quite good compared to the WCM tools on the market, thanks to a graphic overhaul and better integration between front and back-office (preview tools, dynamics links to publish publications, etc.).

Liferay is designed for companies of all sizes with the resources (financial and human) to fund a development project as the native solution is too restrictive compared to the SaaS players. Increasingly present in large companies, Liferay originally operated in the CMS market and has gradually acquired collaborative features.Limited in its native social functions, Liferay is particularly suited to companies who want to keep a strong "traditional" communication/collaboration dimension: a corporate information portal, department or company intranet, and/or content management platform. The social features present enable uses adapted to the maturity of the users.Liferay's strategy is mainly based on maintenance of a community of developers unrivalled in the open source world, and an extended network of distributors/integrators who have become experts in the product and distribute it, relying little on the publisher.

Leader

Leader

Operator

Specialist

Specialist




Dedicated app

Accessibility

MICROSOFTMicrosoft's collaborative offer consists of several tools: the Sharepoint content management platform, which is also the collaborative platform of the offer, the Yammer social network, which is only distributed as SaaS, instant messaging with Lync and Skype (only available as a client) and lastly office tools (Office and Outlook), which we will dwell on less.Microsoft solutions its collaborative offer in the cloud within Office 365, which includes all of the aforementioned tools, integrated together. The on-premise offer is less well stocked, with Yammer replaced by a module of Sharepoint 2013, Newsfeed (more limited than Yammer). The user therefore has collaborative platforms, integrated into its offline and online office tools, but also personal productivity tools (OneDrive for document management, Lync for instant messaging, etc.), in a unified environment.


Productivity



45100

Microsoft has presented the Office Graph format (modelling of links between users, the content they share, their centres of interest, etc.) to enable the creation of applications to take advantage of the social graphs and interest graphs of each one. This was recently apparent from the release of Delve, an application enabling Office 365 users to access a complete view of the documents relevant to them, regardless of the application in which they are shared (Office, OneDrive, Sharepoint, Yammer, etc.).Yammer is also becoming better integrated into Office 365, in particular for document co- publication, conversation and synergy between Yammer groups and the Sharepoint collaborative space. Integration is expected to continue in 2015!

The tools in the Microsoft collaborative suite are rather ergonomic, but the whole thing is actually very complex to understand for an average user (particularly when it comes to understanding the uses of each tool). The graphic universes of Sharepoint and Yammer have not yet been integrated and the administration interface of the first is very complex, reflecting the tool's complexity and possibilities. An in-depth integration service is needed to shed light on the essential features for each organisation, including the Office 365 offer.

Microsoft markets itself as a publisher that can supply the tools for all of the collaboration modes within organisations of all sizes. In 2013, Microsoft turned a strategic corner focusing its marketing and R&D efforts on the Office365 cloud offer. Yammer is marketed as a social layer of the offer, into which the other components are integrated. The on-premise offer is in fact less rich than Office 365 exclusively in the Cloud.

Leader

Leader

Leader

Specialist

Leader



New in 2014

Ergonomics



Dedicated app

Accessibility

Productivity



MICROSOFT - YAMMER (STANDALONE)Yammer is an enterprise social network exclusive to the cloud, offered by Microsoft as part of Office 365 or standalone. The publisher originally offered a microblogging tool similar to Facebook in terms of features. Bought by Microsoft in 2012, the tool has since evolved: integration into the Office 365 suite means that documents can now be co-published and certain Sharepoint content socialised. Yammer allows each user to easily create project communities, communities of interest or private/public conversation spaces. The interface is very easy to use and the key features are highlighted and usable from the outset.

77100

Since it was bought by Microsoft, the new features mainly concern integration between Yammer and the tools in the Office 365 suite. This is illustrated, for example, by the integration of widgets and Yammer applications into SharePoint, publication options from SharePoint to Yammer or a uniform navigation bar in Office 365 and Yammer. If Yammer is considered independently of O365, the product has changed very little. However, there have been improvements in terms of the mobile applications, notifications and geolocation of content.

The development cycle of Yammer is short (around one week) and each time takes into account feedback from users about new features introduced since the first versions. This method has meant that the tool has remained highly ergonomic and easy-to-use, including for novice users. These principles were not threatened by Microsoft's acquisition of the product. Yammer also offers mobile applications that are just as ergonomic.

Microsoft intends to market Yammer as a cross- functional social component in its Office 365 offer (i.e. a collaborative and social base integrated into tools such as Sharepoint, Office, Outlook, etc.). This promise is gradually becoming a reality for the publisher's products as Yammer is not capable of being a social infrastructure component at this stage. The tool differentiates between cloud and on-premise solutions in Microsoft's strategy, in order to push customers to choose the cloud offer (the on-premise offer has no equivalent to Yammer). As a standalone solution, the tool is deployed virally as a free-of-charge offer that enables users to create their platforms in a few minutes. Yammer is targeted directly at employees with its free offer, which the company can then upgrade to access the administration functions. This positioning had enabled Yammer to spread within companies before the publisher was taken over by Microsoft.

Operator

Specialist

Specialist

Specialist



New in 2014

Ergonomics



Dedicated app

Accessibility

Productivity



PODIOPodio is a Danish publisher that offers a SaaS collaboration application. The platform is based on apps, which in Podio consist of content that is fully customisable by the administrators of each work space. These types of malleable content can be used to contextualise the use of work spaces to a business line use. For example, we can create a "contract" style of content for a sales team, consisting of a document, a customer, an amount, a status, etc. Podio also offers a market place for importing apps created by other users. Unlike Sharepoint or an equivalent, the types of content can be created with no development in Podio.

57100

The publisher continues to regularly develop its solution. With a view to enabling companies to reproduce business line processes, Podio now has complex workflows that can be linked to apps, and summary statements for creating dashboards to manage business line processes. Many SaaS applications have also been added to the catalogue of plug & play products (Twitter, Google Apps, Evernote, MailChimp, GoToWebinar, etc.). Podio also continues to develop its mobile applications.

Podio can be used to reproduce complex business processes with interfaces that are still easy for the end user to understand. A new business object can be created in just a few clicks and publication is done directly in front office. Contextual help is available throughout (and can even be customised). The interfaces are uncluttered and meet web standards. This same level of quality can be found in the mobile applications. It should, however, be noted that the legibility of the newsfeeds becomes increasingly complex as new business objects are installed.

Podio markets itself as a collaborative platform able to supply the tools for various business line processes within companies and therefore requires prior identification of content that can populate the work spaces. The solution therefore stands out from other market players who are either generalists or operate only in certain business segments.More intended for small or medium-sized structures who would not have the necessary resources to use a large number of applications, the tool is mainly distributed via its freemium offer and the publisher has relatively little presence in the French ecosystem.The publisher now distributes its offer via its free platform, and has little presence in the French ecosystem (few sales teams, distributors, etc.).

Leader

Specialist

Specialist

Specialist


Operator


New in 2014

Ergonomics



Dedicated app

Accessibility

Productivity


Processes

External community

SITRIONSitrion (formerly Newsgator) markets the Social Sites product, an add-on for the Microsoft Sharepoint tool. Originally marketed as a complement in the social sphere (in particular microblogging), the solution has diversified and now covers certain uses that the Microsoft tool does not: innovation (management of ideas and their life cycle), communication (availability without development of features to highlight content), mutual assistance (smart questions system that lists for the user the questions already asked on the subjects in question), etc.

49100

Sitrion has developed its ONE offer, which aims to give organisations a mobile application enabling them to incorporate all of the content and documents necessary for each user. This content and these documents from cloud products (Office 365, Salesforce, etc.) or hosted products such as Sharepoint or SAP. Sitrion is improving the ergonomics of

Sharepoint, particularly for microblogging, the addition of a central dashboard populated with suggestions from the tool, and the addition of contextual help throughout navigation.

The takeover of Yammer by Microsoft and the announcement of a strategy resolutely focused on social have forced Sitrion to adopt a new position.Sitrion is now seeking to move away from dependence on the Microsoft offer by diversifying (takeover of an SAP integrator, introduction of hubs to establish dialogue between SAP and Sharepoint platforms). The Social Sites solution does, however, remain of some interest, particularly for organisations who have chosen a hosted version of Sharepoint and who do not therefore have the power of Yammer. The Sitrion offer manages, in this case, to make up for the absence of Yammer.

Leader

Leader

Leader

Leader

Leader



tibbrtibbr is a social network solution developed by Tibco, a specialist in integration between different components of the IS. This DNA can be found in the solution, which is a real social portal that can be integrated with many SaaS applications (it has a catalogue of more than 30 applications), but also through development with applications installed at the company.The solution is presented in the form of an activity feed in which the user receives messages (from tibbr or from social applications integrated into tibbr), and responds to them directly from tibbr. The messages are categorised by subject and the special things with tibbr is that each subject is itself a work community, with management of participants, readers, etc. The subjects are filed in a general file structure, which is used to model the platform's knowledge base in a fairly simple way.



Dedicated app

Accessibility

Productivity


Processes

External community

62100

The application evolves at a steady rate. In 2014, tibbr added integration into on-premise Sharepoint 2013, more complete than that offered by Microsoft in its on-premise offer.The web page creation application has also been redesigned to make publication simpler, and can be used to create mosaics of content laid out in a very simple way, like in Scoop.it. The content may be either internal to tibbr or external (social media, web articles, etc.).tibbr also innovates by adding a "VIP" concept: these are users selected from the members of the network, whose publications constitute a customised activity thread, a sort of "local network" to avoid drowning under the weight of messages sent by all users.

The tool has an attractive look & feel and can be picked up immediately (homepage, reading and writing in the flows). The subject concept, which also models work spaces, can be disconcerting to start with, but is effective in the long run. Similarly, the freedom the user has to choose the apps to be connected makes things complex for a novice. On the go, tibbr is at the cutting edge with a responsive design mobile web interface and dedicated Android, Black Berry, iPhone and Windows phone (beta) applications, all available for tablets.

Tibco sells its product in the digital workplace market, incorporated into the user's tools (office productivity) and enterprise tools. tibbr is a social portal integrated into the user's business line applications.This positioning is now well ahead in terms of market maturity and the publisher will mainly appeal to IT departments or functional departments wanting to offer their users an integrated approach, or small and medium-sized companies with lots of SaaS tools. The social foundation is still a good, simple ESN tool, the competitive edge of which comes from the quality of its interfaces (mobile in particular) and its flexibility.

Leader

Leader

Specialist

Specialist

Specialist



New in 2014

Ergonomics



Dedicated app

Accessibility

Productivity



XWIKIXWiki is a content management solution allowing organisations to create knowledge bases, websites or Intranets (amongst other things) using a powerful wiki engine, within which scripts can be written to send the right information to the right place. The solution is open source, highly modular and can be configured on demand to stick as closely as possible to the context of the client organisation.

47100

XWiki updated its interface in 2014, working on a responsive design rendering: magento, inspired by bootstrap. It was totally rebuilt (wikis, profiles, but also administration interfaces, etc.).The publisher has also worked on its content block addition interface (panels), to make it easier for the user to understand, and on many small new features (graphic display engine, native heritage of access rights between a wiki and its sub-wikis, etc.).

The solution's new templating gives an attractive look & feel on a par with the competition, including for the administration functions. The ergonomics of the solution is, however, dependent on the integration service provided and can be customised in great detail. Lastly, it should be noted that depending on the modules chosen the ergonomics can sometime be unequal.

The publisher's financial model is to distribute its tool free of charge (via an extended distribution network), and to only get people to pay for support, training and certain specific developments (XWiki therefore playing the role of an integrator).The strategy is therefore in keeping with this positioning, namely to offer a tool with a low entry cost, simple customisation and strong development to allow integrators or IT departments with suitable skills to use the power of the technology. The successful technological gamble has given XWiki a recognised positioning in the market.

Specialist

Leader

Operator

Operator

Operator



New in 2014

Ergonomics



Dedicated app

Accessibility

Productivity



YOOLINKPROYoolinkPro is a social network solution placing emphasis on being easy to use. The tool allows communities to be put in place. These can then easily be customised based on the business line of the organisation. Yoolink favours the ergonomics of its solution rather than features, and in fact offers one of the most visually attractive tools on the French market. The solution will prove excellent for sharing best practice and managing mutual assistance or business intelligence spaces.

69100

To deal with the information overload phenomenon, the publisher has done major work to overhaul its search engine. In addition to broader indexing of content, an interface is now available for filtering search results depending on their obsolescence.To facilitate community coordination work, it is now possible to create surveys and associate email notifications when a message, a question or an answer is published.Lastly, within a community, an FAQ type of space can be constructed to give answers to frequently asked questions.

The ergonomics of the product has been carefully designed and now ensures a product that is very easy to use. The target uses are in the picture and the tool has excellent intuitivity. The only downside is that the look & feel has not changed much in recent years, moving further away from web standards.

The YoolinkPro solution is marketed as an ultra- simplified and ergonomic social network. Thanks to its solution and its proximity to the French market, the publisher succeeds in creating success in companies of all sizes, although the solution seems particularly suited to small and medium-sized enterprises.At the same time, Yoolink is continuing to develop its Social CRM offer: "You Don't Need A CRM" (launched a year ago). The idea is to offer a platform that encourages the commitment of prospective customers, and the implementation of virtual exchange workspaces that are potentially able to provide opportunities. This well-marketed solution socialises the customer relations process in a YoolinkPro environment.

Specialist

Specialist

Specialist

Operator


Operator


New in 2014

Ergonomics



Dedicated app

Accessibility

Productivity


Processes

External community

ZYNCROZyncro is a social network solution targeted at small and medium-sized enterprises. The platform is a collaborative hub, enabling users who already use several SaaS or other applications to bring them all together in one activity thread and conversation Community. The user can use which connectors he or she wants and the administrator is able to define the connectors that will be available. As well as the basic features, Zyncro offers microblogging, document management, wikis, etc.

41100

Zyncro mainly concentrates its efforts on enhancing its list of connectors, and has also added administration features that were missing from the tool for management of rights (access, modification, writing) in communities.The innovation rate seems to have slowed in recent months.

The ergonomics of the tool is rather average, because of integrations that are more or less specific depending on the connectors used. However, an integration service helps to improve the basic ergonomics and the solution is easy to customise through development.

The publisher operates in the SME market, which already has a lot of SaaS tools. This market is growing gradually in France but is still limited. Zyncro is struggling to find its place in France, mainly due to a lack of commercial presence and marketing. The offer is, however, mature and is winning customers in the Spanish-speaking market. The tool has a large number of connectors with many SaaS players (Google, Evernote, etc.) compared with its competitors.

Specialist

Specialist

Operator

Operator

Operator



If you would like more details on this work or our ongoing research, contact us at Agile Elephant:

Email: [email protected]

Web: www.theagileelephent.com

Blog: http://www.theagileelephant.com/blog/

Telephone: UK +44 (0) 203 3397 9921

CONTACT US

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.theagileelephent.com/

http://www.theagileelephant.com/blog/



uk enterprise social network software solutions analysis

Internet