GigaOM » Collaboration

What mobile apps are essential for collaboration on the go?

Simon Mackie — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 16:50:10 +0000

With a growing proportion of the workforce already being highly mobile, coupled with an increasing number of workers are expecting to bring their own devices to work, it’s clear that picking the right collaboration apps to keep workers productive while on the go is vital to business success. But what apps do mobile workers need to get their jobs done? A new Forrester report, Mobilize Your Collaboration Strategy, has identified eight “must have” categories of mobile collaboration apps. Here’s a run-down of all the categories outlined, together with some of GigaOM’s recommendations for apps to use in each category:

Email and calendars. Email is, unsurprisingly, still the most important mobile app. According to Forrester, 87 percent of smartphone workers use email on their devices (which leaves me wondering what other 13 percent use their smartphones for), and collectively, they do 32 percent of their email on a smartphone. While most smartphones come with their own email and calendaring tools most users will use, there are some third-party options worth considering:

Gmail and Google Calendar. If you use Gmail, it’s worth noting that the mobile-optimized versions of the Gmail and Google Calendar sites are pretty good. They are fast and have a great UI, and one of the advantages of using them is that you can seamlessly switch from device to device without having to set up IMAP details in your various devices’ email clients.
Touchdown. Brings superb Microsoft Exchange support to Android devices.

Document-based collaboration. Mobile workers need to be able to access their documents while out of the office on any of their devices. Cloud-based document collaboration tools need to include mobile access to be truly effective.

Documents to Go. Dataviz’s Documents to Go is a popular mobile document editing app. It’s available for a variety of platforms, including iOS, BlackBerry, Android and Palm. When combined with a cloud file sync service like Dropbox or box.net, it enables users to access and edit their documents no matter where they are.
Soonr. Soonr is a cloud-based document sync service. However, it also offers integrated MS Office document editing capabilities , which means users don’t need to use a separate app like Documents to Go.

Web conferencing. According to Forrester, 18 percent of information workers and 34 percent of senior staff use web conferencing at least weekly. Mobile access means being able to attend meetings even while away from the laptop.

Fuze Meeting. Fuze Meeting’s impressive service is accessible with mobile devices. Its new Telepresence Connect service can extend traditional room-based telepresence to iPads and Android tablets.
Join.me. LogMeIn’s simple and easy-to-use web conferencing app is accessible through iOS and Android apps.

Activity streams. Forrester thinks activity streams are becoming a critical resource for organizations that work collectively: sales teams, project teams, and executive staff, for example. Mobile support is crucial as it enables workers to stay updated no matter where they are.

Yammer. Yammer is a popular enterprise social networking tool very much like a private Facebook for the enterprise. It offers mobile support though mobile apps available for a variety of platforms.
Socialtext. Socialtext is another enterprise social networking and collaboration app that offers activity streams. It offers mobile support via an optimized version of the website.

Presence and chat. Knowing whether a colleague is available or not is a killer feature when out of the office. While this category of app lags today, Forrester expects adoption to accelerate. These types of features are often also often included in other mobile collaboration tools.

eBuddy. A multi-protocol mobile chat app that supports AIM , ICQ, Google Talk, Yahoo! and MSN Windows Live Messenger within a single interface. It’s available via a native client for Android and iPhone and there’s also a mobile-optimized website.
IM+. Another popular “all-on one” IM app that supports a variety of protocols, including AIM, iChat, Windows Live Messenger, Yahoo, ICQ, Jabber, Google Talk, Myspace, Facebook, Twitter and Skype Chat, and works on a number of different mobile platforms.

Social collaboration. In this category, Forrester includes access to internal blogs, wikis, community sites, and social networks from a tablet or smartphone. Mobile access allows every professional will remain connected and part of the collaborative process.

IBM Lotus Connections. IBM’s social suite is supported on a range of mobile platforms, including Android, iPad, iPhone, BlackBerry and Nokia.
Jive Software. Jive Software’s enterprise social suite provides mobile access though apps for iPhone and BlackBerry.

Expertise location. Forrester says this type of application is on the rise as firms look for ways to make mobile employees productive by helping them identify experts from anywhere. This type of app brings together presence, notifications, social profiles and data from HR. Many social business tools provide this kind of functionality, including:

Video conferencing. Skype has some 170 million active monthly users, and 39 percent of those people use Skype for work. Web conferencing vendors are also adding video to their products. Due to heavy resource requirements, there are few multi-party mobile video conferencing apps, though.

Skype. Skype provides video calling for mobile platforms including iPhone and Android.
Fring. One of the first apps to bring four-way video calls to the iPad, Fring provides native mobile apps for a variety of platforms, and also has mobile browser access.

Personally, I’m not convinced expertise location is really a “must-have” category of mobile collaboration app just yet. Do you agree with Forrester’s categories of “must-have” apps, and which apps do you recommend for each category?

Photo courtesy Flickr user Yagan Kiely

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Four iPhone VoiP Services Worth Ringing Up

Kevin C. Tofel — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 21:00:50 +0000

There’s not much in a web worker’s life that beats a cheap or free phone service. Perhaps a supporting role in one of David Pogue’s next iPhone video musicals might, but odds are slim. Especially for me and my voice. Or maybe it’s because I have a face for podcasting, I don’t know. I do know however, that the iPhone Mr. Pogue sang about many moons ago can be a powerful VoIP tool if you have the right applications installed. Here’s a quick look, complete with links to the iTunes App Store, at four inexpensive or downright free solutions that are worthy productivity contenders.

Nimbuzz – Version 1.01 recently arrived for free and has potential as a Swiss Army toolset since it offers far more than voice communications. Nimbuzz works with your Skype or Google Talk account for voice calls, but it’s still a bit buggy yet. I was able to initiate a Skype voice call with one of my contacts and the sound quality was amazing over WiFi. Unfortunately, I couldn’t start a Google Talk call and even subsequent Skype voice calls wouldn’t connect consistently. Still, the app just hit the ground so it needs time to get running. Definitely worth watching because it provides IM (in landscape mode, no less) with many other platforms such as Yahoo! Messenger, AIM, MSN, Facebook, MySpace and more. In fact, The Apple Blog had more overall sucess with it than I did, so you’ll want to see their perspective.

TruPhone – While Nimbuzz is just getting started in this space, TruPhone is… well… tried and Tru. It’s a service that GigaOM reviewed almost two years ago and Om still uses heavily to call his family abroad. The application is free, but you will pay for calls to landlines or other mobile phones. Calls in the U.S. for example are $0.06 per minute. Why bother with TruPhone when you already pay for an iPhone voice plan? TruPhone works over WiFi, so if you don’t have a signal or you’re out of the country without an international plan, a hotspot gets you talking. Plus, TruPhone calls to other TruPhone users are free. The company also offers their TruPhone Anywhere service which routes as much of the call over the Internet at reduced rates, which is handy for international calls. Our own Jason Harris gave TruPhone Anywhere a spin earlier in the year although that was prior to the iPhone version.

Fring – Just last month Fring appeared in the iTunes App Store and has already seen a large number of downloads. Like the other apps, Fring offers calling capabilities to landlines and mobiles, but leverages the SkypeOut feature of Skype. Using this method means that voice calls aren’t free as Skype charges for their SkypeOut service. Still, I find it to be a nominal charge since rates within the U.S. are as low as $0.02 per minute. Adding to the VoIP functionality, Fring supports IM on various platforms like AIM, ICQ, MSN Messenger plus you can post directly to Twitter. Even better: Fring works with SIP, or Session Initiation Protocol, allowing for use of services like Gizmo, Free World and SIPNET.

JAJAH – Here’s the only app in the list that actually isn’t an application at all. JAJAH offers a web-client at http://iphone.jajah.com/ that you can bookmark on your iPhone and use for low-cost calls. The web page offers a dialpad for numeric entry, but you can also maintain an contact list on your JAJAH account, making for quick calls for as little as $0.029 cents per minute. Two things make JAJAH stand out from the other services. First, the international rates can often be very reasonable, making this a contender if you have clients across borders. Second, only the “middle” part of the call is done over the Internet. When you make a JAJAH call, the service calls you back on your handset and then connects your call recipient through their handset. For all intents: each of you is on your phone, but the voice traffic is routed over the oft less-expensive web. As I result, our test calls were very high quality.

Each of these iPhone apps and services has something to offer, depending on what you’re looking for. But each app has one glaring deficiency, even though it’s not the fault of the software developers: none of them are persistent. That means due to iPhone limitations set by Apple, none of them can run continously in the background. When you close the app, you’re effectively unavailable for VoIP or IM on your handset. That doesn’t diminish the value these services can add, but it’s defintely something worth mentioning. For initiating calls and conversations each offers value, right in the palm of your hand.

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