Jive Updates Platform with Seamless Sharing, Big Data Brawn
Jive launched its revamped social business platform today, bringing in its wake new features aimed at not only making it easier to keep coworkers in the loop, but also in the right loops.
For this update, Jive set out to create more avenues and opportunities for social sharing. In that spirit, the company developed Jive Anywhere, a browser plug-in that instantly “socializes” websites and applications. Tim Zonca, the director of product marketing at Jive, says the new feature makes it possible to take “the power of the social community and social connections wherever you go.”
Jive Anywhere eliminates the need to re-architect Web applications and commit developer resources for the sake of integrating social collaboration features. The plug-in appears as a tab in the browser and allows users to link Web pages or cherry pick information to start discussions or quickly share their discoveries, documents or other online content among colleagues and teams.
In a product demonstration, Zonca shared a relevant online article with colleagues from within his browser window using Jive Anywhere without leaving the website or otherwise impacting the browsing experience. In an example of how the technology can be leveraged to collaborate across teams, he shared a LinkedIn job prospect with a hiring manager from within the LinkedIn profile page. This browser-based approach also lends Jive-based collaboration features to cloud and Web-enabled enterprise applications including Salesforce.com, SAP or Microsoft Dynamics.
Integration by Exclamation
The new Jive !App Experiences further erodes the walls that can stymie collaboration between coworkers. Employing an approach that Zonca calls “integration by exclamation,” the feature is akin to Twitter's at symbol (@) and hash tags. Rather than provide links to accounts, trends and searches, using an exclamation mark followed by an app's name from within Jive's sharing and discussion fields invokes Jive apps sharing. From there, users can seamlessly pull charts, graphs, images or content from a selected app into social activity or conversation streams.
Also new is Jive Edge, a technology that “blends Big Data and social graph intelligence,” says Zonca. With roots in Big Data analysis software from Proximal Labs, which the company acquired last year, it forms the foundation for Jive Find, new search functionality that delivers targeted and individualized results and recommendations. It takes into account social interactions, types of data, business process information and countless other factors to deliver actionable results in context, says Zonca.
These features are tied together by an updated and streamlined UI that emphasizes social sharing and brings timely and relevant updates to the fore. This includes new Jive What Matters activity streams that automatically prioritize shares and posts and customizable Attention Streams that allow users to focus on specific people or topics of interest.
Testing, Testing
To kick off its updated platform, the company is launching Jive for Teams. Able to handle teams of 25 to 250,000 people, the group collaboration package is available as a 30-day free trial under the company's new Try Jive program.
While it may help drum up new business, Zonca says the new trial and its bevy of educational and training features provide an automated alternative for organizations that want to try out Jive. Describing Jive's market adoption rates as brisk and healthy — the platform is used by 15 percent of the Fortune 500 — interested parties would have to contact a Jive representative in the past. Now, they can sign up for the cloud-based software on the company's website.
Pedro Hernandez is a contributing editor at InternetNews.com, the news service of the IT Business Edge Network, the network for technology professionals. Follow him on Twitter @ecoINSITE.
Pedro Hernandez contributes to Enterprise Apps Today, and 11Press, the technology network. He was previously the managing editor of Internet.com, an IT-related website network. He has expertise in Smart Tech, CRM, and Mobile Tech, Helping Banks and Fintechs, Telcos and Automotive OEMs, and Healthcare and Identity Service Providers to Protect Mobile Apps.
