Jive Software recently unveiled the latest series of upgrades to its Summer Cloud release of its two flagship products — the Jive and JiveX communication and collaboration suites.
There has been a slew of improvements to both suites, ranging from better UIs, mobile optimization and third-party integration to new community management tools.
“We are very proud of the momentum we continue to experience with these products,” Clara Liang, vice president of product management at Jive Software, told CRM Buyer.
In particular, there has been a great deal of energy and inquiry around JiveX, she said.
The company earlier this year rolled out its first cloud-based version of this external collaboration application, and the response has been very robust, she said.
One Platform, Separate Products
At their core, both Jive and JiveX streamline and enhance communication, productivity and collaboration. The main difference between them lies in the users they target. Jive is an internal employee product, while JiveX is meant for external customers and partners.
“There are other parallels as well. A discussion among employees can be facilitated in the same manner that a discussion among peers or customers can be, for example,” she noted.
Changes to Jive
A number of changes were introduced to Jive with this release, but chief among them is the native integration with Cisco.
Jive has two new connectors — Jive Connector for WebEx and Jive Connector for Jabber — that enable employees to launch WebEx meetings directly from a colleague’s Jive profile or with a group of individuals.
Users also can initiate a chat session or phone call using compatible Jabber clients.
“This was our first native integration,” Liang said. “We will continue to add additional capabilities as time goes on.”
Other additions to Jive include a “Your View” feature that lets employees personalize their home screens with content most relevant to them using tools to group, categorize and share information.
There is also a new mobile piece with this release, called “Jive Present.” It is a mobile app for sales reps that, among other things, makes it easy to add and distribute content such as sales presentations or corporate brochures.
Jive Present also integrates with Salesforce and calendars.
JiveX Continues to Evolve
The new version of JiveX includes new connectivity and mobile functionality — plus new analytical tools for users, Liang noted.
The JiveX CRM Connector is enhanced with templates that allow companies to offer private support portals for clients from which they can create their own support cases.
The application also has extended bidirectional connections with CRM systems, which shortens customer care response time and allows content stored in the community to be accessed and searched within a CRM system.
Ultimately, these changes “translate into an opportunity to create value and build on a customer’s loyalty,” Liang said.
The mobile functionality makes it easier to navigate and consume content. It’s optimized for easy viewing no matter which device is used to access the app.
The analytics are enhanced with such features as Sentiment and Influencer Reports for community managers. These tools give visibility into the key influencers within a particular community. Using them a company can tease out themes related to products, for example, or simply to communicate with the influencers.
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