Wolfe's Den: Talking Enterprise 2.0 With Jive Software CEO Tony Zingale

If you don't embrace a social platform in the next year or two, you'll probably be out of a job, says the chief executive of the company which wants to provide that platform.

Alexander Wolfe, Contributor

January 10, 2011

3 Min Read

Finally, the company released its Jive Apps SDK to developers, the better to seed broad creation of apps. This seems like a very smart move, analogous to what Google did with Android. It could ultimately position Jive as the top E2.0 product, but in any case it moves them out of the "just a wiki" box and puts them on an even competitive keel with the large, platform-like enterprise 2.0 offerings from Cisco, IBM, Microsoft and SAP, to name just a few. (You will be able to read more on where users think the vendors stand when my InformationWeek Analytics IT Pro report on Enterprise 2.0 applications comes out in a month or two.)

OK, so thus far I've done all the talking. Let's hear what Tony Zingale had to say:

On Enterprise 2.0 In Business:

"I think social is the next massive enterprise app. Organizations will embrace social as a platform and then a series of applications.

"We had to do a lot of evangelism. The IT community has gotten much smarter over the past year -- they know they have to do something."

"A year or two from now if you haven't done this -- embrace a social platform in your enterprise -- you're probably out of a job."

On Jive In The Enterprise:

"We're often the first screen you bring up. Jive is the only other application which touches everyone internally, [other than Microsoft]."

"We aspire to be the application people love to live in."

On collaboration via video: "We do it [video support] through a bunch of partners today. I think we have to get much better at it. It's obvious that Cisco exploits video because it's their strength."

On The Competition:

"Do IBM and Microsoft give up on their bankrupt platforms or acquire [more E2.0 capabilities]?"

On the failure of Google Wave: "I think it's really hard to go in the enterprise."

"Inside the enterprise it's a per-seat price war, [but] I'm not in the business of free. I’m not giving it away."

On The Future

"We've got to execute our ambitious product vision. The other dimension is to evangelize the market."

On the Jive Apps Market: "We think it's going to be hundreds of apps over time."

On growth: "It's never our strategy to be acquired. Our strategy is to go public -- to be the single largest standalone social business provider."

Further Info On Jive

Jive Apps Market, here.

Jive Apps Developer info, here and here.