Jive Improves Its Cloud Apps Game

Windows 10: 11 Big Changes

Jive Software announced a handful of new features and capabilities for its enterprise collaboration platform and JiveX, its external community platform, Wednesday at JiveWorld14 in Las Vegas. Jive's Fall cloud releases include connectors for Google Docs and Outlook Online, collaboration tools for mobile devices, and new features for community managers.

Next month, Jive will launch a new connector for Google Docs, which joins its line of connectors for Gmail and Google Drive, according to Clara Liang, chief products officer at Jive.

Connecting the two platforms will allow people to work simultaneously on a document and sync comments within either Google Docs or Jive. Users will also have the option to create a Google Doc from within Jive, which Liang said will streamline workflows, since there's no need to download a document or navigate to an external system.

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Last month, Jive announced connectors for Office 365, which will help integrate the collaboration platform with Office Online, SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business, and Outlook Online. The first connector of the series -- Outlook Online -- will launch soon, the company said.

"People are moving into a more cloud-enabled world," Liang told InformationWeek in a briefing. "This is the first landmark delivery for us."

The Jive Connector for Outlook Online collects conversations and streams from within Jive and brings them into related Outlook email threads to give users more context. Similarly, content from emails can also be integrated into discussions within Jive.

Both the Jive Connector for Google Docs in beta and for Outlook Online will be available in November.

In addition to the new connectors, Jive made updates to its iOS and Android apps in the Fall cloud release. The Jive iOS app is newly designed, with improved support for custom single sign-on implementations and long comment threads. Updates to its Android app include announcement viewing and following capabilities for people, places, and content, Liang said.

Jive also announced new features for community managers in its JiveX external community platform. The JiveX Fall Cloud release will debut next month with interface changes that include highlighting top and relevant activities and new role badges to denote which members are community administrators, moderators, experts, and champions.

"These customized streams are based on the topics with the most activity and engagement, which will draw people into your community and pique their interest," Liang said.

JiveX will also feature responsive design options for users accessing communities via mobile devices, a "Most Helpful" rating to its Q&A section to help users identify the best responses, and new ROI analytics, which will give community managers insight into how many questions were asked and the number of people that were helped through answers.

"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."

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