As the tech world's heavyweights vie for cloud superiority, Jive Software is seeking to retain the airspace it has long held and releasing a collection of updates to make its enterprise server software jibe with other applications.
With Jive's fall cloud release, the company will roll out a new connector for Google Docs. Google's cloud-based word processor will join family members Google Drive and Gmail within Jive.
In what Jive is calling its first milestone in Microsoft Office 365 integration, the fall cloud release will include the Jive Connector for Outlook Online. Like Google Docs, the Outlook connector will let users to work inside the program without having to step through a portal and outside Jive's software environment.
Clara Liang, Jive Software's chief product officer, says her company is working to facilitate better collaboration between users, regardless of the hardware used to access Jive's applications.
"With the fall cloud release, Jive has further extended its market-leading enterprise collaboration platform," says Liang. "Jive now integrates with Google Docs and provides the first in a family of connectors to Microsoft Office 365 that enables employees to leverage even more solutions alongside Jive. This allows employees to better connect, communicate and collaborate in the workplace, and further break down the silos that hamper productivity."
Along with the new connectors, Jive Software's fall cloud update will bring both visual and functional improvements. Jive Software is attempting to attract customers to the popular card, or tile, shortcuts and distancing itself from widgets.
Jive's iOS app has been redesigned, streamlining the content it delivers to users. The Android app now allow users to view announcements and to follow content from people and places.
Rounding out the list of updates Jive Software announced, the company's community platform has been redesigned to better facilitate exchanges between community managers and customers. The community members can now mark comments as helpful and community managers can track analytics as to how effective Q&As are in helping customers.
"When one person asks a question, other people can mark that they have the same question," Liang said. "This allows the support team and advocates to see what the hot things are that people are asking about, and where [community managers] can jump in and provide an answer. You'll be able to see how many questions were asked and answered, and the total number of people you helped."
