On Feb 3rd, Jive Software is launching the first of what Jive calls Workstyle applications. These specific purpose applications expand, not replace the platform they offer today with Jive (internal) and JiveX (external) community software.

Scroll down to after the pictures to read my thoughts on the announcements.

The first app, Jive Daily, which will be available for download the 3rd week of Feb allows people to share news, web sites and other stories with their colleagues. It's not really intended for short form content like status updates, but rather medium-long term content similar to a blog entry. I think of it as Jive's version of Tumblr or Medium. Jive Daily leverages Jive's knowledge in analytics to provide statistics around the reach and popularity of posts.




Second is Jive Chime. Chime is a 1 to 1 or group chat tool that allows teams to communicate with short messages like status updates or questions. Jive Chime will be available in beta this month and version 1 is expected in April.  Chime is entering to competitive market of "modern team chat clients" such as Slack, Glip, Hall, HipChat, FlowDock and others.  Chime will be available in the freemium:upgrade model, meaning the app is free for people to use, then IT will have to pay for things like directory synchronization and administration controls.




The third application announced today is Jive People.  People provides profiles and organization charts to help employees find their colleagues. People is also going to provide "Meeting Intelligence" which will look at your calendar and display information about the colleagues who are attending meetings with you.  People will start public beta in June.




MyPOV

Jive Software was originally successful by filling a gap that enterprise collaboration software was missing. As the years have passed, vendors like IBM, Microsoft, SAP, Oracle, Salesforce and others have (with various degrees of success) filled that gap, developing their own social software solutions. The announcement of Workstyle Applications shows that Jive, who's leadership has changed a lot in the last year, has the insight and ability to expand their portfolio as they look to grow their customer base. The success of Workstyle Applications is critical component in Jive's strategy to reach new customers and new revenue streams.

For Existing Jive Customers
Jive Workstyle Applications are being targeted at new customers, it is not an expansion play for their current customer base. That is not to say existing customers can not use the applications, but they need to understand that they are not (currently) an integrated part of today's Jive and JiveX platform.  That means the profiles in Jive People are not the same as the profiles people have in their Jive communities. Similarly, the Jive Daily stream is not the same as the activity stream shown on the Jive homepage. So, if an organization chooses to use both Jive/JiveX and Jive Chime, employees will need to think about where they want to post things, in the activity stream or in a Chime group, and they will then have multiple places to keep track of or search in the future.

For Business Partners
The growth and sustainability of any platform is linked to the strength of its partner ecosystem. Jive has done a good job thus far at nurturing partners to resell Jive, consult on implementation and build add-on applications that expand the features of Jive communities. Similarly, Workstyle Apps will need to be extendable so that partners can add additional functionality. One of the greatest strengths of products like Slack and Glip has been the variety of integrations that are available. For Jive Chime to compete, customers will need to be able to integrate the other tools they use to get their work done.

For Competitors
Jive was once the startup that filled the gaps in large enterprise software vendor's portfolios. In many ways, Jive has now become one of those large vendors, with new startups looking to fill the gaps in Jive's offerings. However, Jive has countered this quite quickly, reacting to what's hot in the market and delivering Jive Workstyle Apps. Today's announcement shows Jive is not just going to sit back and rest on their laurels. Coupling that with Jive's strong brand awareness in the social business market creates a challenge for those hoping to capitalize on a gap that may no longer be there.

What do you think?

If you're an existing Jive customer, will you also be interested in these new applications?
If you're not currently a Jive customer, will you be taking a look at Workstyle apps?
 

Resources

The State of Collaboration in 2015