Background

With offices in New York and Germany, Open-Xchange has been in the business of creating collaboration software tools for quite some time.  The company works with technology partners such as Novell, Red Hat and Parallels to enable it to bring SaaS (Software as a Service) solutions to providers from around the globe.

Beginning in 2001, Open-Xchange combined forces with SUSE Linux (now a Novell business) to create the Openexchange server – one of the top selling Linux-based groupware solutions around.  Over 3,500 businesses in 65 countries now run Open-Xchange solutions.

Dealing with 1&1 Internet, Network Solutions, Dotster and Hostpoint has brought Open-Xchange over 15 million paid mailboxes this year alone.  This is a quadrupled increase from the company’s previous year.  Open-Xchange shows no signs of stopping now.

Solutions

Because no two businesses are exactly alike, Open-Xchange offers several solutions to fit one’s particular business requirements.  Each offering allows for a free testing period prior to purchasing – the perfect way to figure which solution is the right one.

The Appliance solution offered is perfect for small and medium-sized businesses who require a document and e-mail server without the need for an internet expert on hand.

The Server edition is geared more toward mid-sized businesses and is available in two versions – the standard server edition and the edition built for the Univention Corporate Server (UCS).  The later is perfect for those businesses wishing to combine the CRM tool with an entire IT infrastructure or those already running the UCS server.

For those not wanting to completely overhaul and start with an entirely new solution, Open-Xchange offers the Hosting edition of their software.  This solution allows users to keep their existing e-mail setup without the need to completely migrate over to a new system.

The Open-Xchange Server 5 steps things up from mere e-mail solution to a full-blown collaboration tool – e-mail, documents, calendars, tasks, and contacts.  This CRM offering allows businesses to grow from webmail to complete groupware.

The company also offers mobility solutions and migration services.  Open-Xchange completes the fullness of its software by also including a Mac OS version of its collaboration tool.

What is unique about all the company’s offerings is that a wizard has been incorporated into the software that searches and gathers information from several online sources, including social media sites.  Facebook, Xing, LinkedIn as well as many others are thoroughly scoured and the pertinent data is fed back into the groupware solution chosen.  A great way to gather all one’s social media contacts into one neat package.

Final Thoughts

A good business will not only rely on its standard CRM tools but also social media outlets.  Open-Xchange offers some fabulous open source CRM solutions that combines both of these items into one very powerful and useful groupware solution.

About Joomla

With its original creation back in 2000, Joomla has grown as an open source content management solution to encompass an ever-growing list of extensions, themes and a community of over 200,000 users and contributors all helping make it one of the best bits of programming available.

Joomla is the perfect solution for many different styles of web sites.  Whether commercial, media-specific, government, educational or as an intranet solution, Joomla can easily tackle the task at hand.

The program is very simple to setup and Joomla’s site is crammed with information with regard to how to setup the program and getting started using the program.  Additionally, the company’s web site includes an online demonstration to try out in case of uncertainty.

Social media for business

The latest and greatest medium available for businesses to interact with their customers and clients is social media.  Social media comes in various forms and each form caters to a specific kind of media (graphic, text, video, audio, etc.).  Businesses are quickly finding out that utilizing different types of social media is the key to garnering new customers, keeping old customers and getting feedback from customers.

Two of the more popular types of social media are micro-blogging and blogging.  Sites such as Twitter and Identi.ca are examples of micro-blogging – communication mediums that only allow for small amounts of text to be published.  On the other end of this spectrum is blogging.  Blogging allows for much longer bits of text and allows for incorporation of other social media types such as YouTube video inclusion.

Social networking related Joomla extensions

Among the hundreds upon hundreds of extensions available to add onto Joomla, there are a number of great social networking specific modules to be found.  For those businesses who have Facebook and Gmail that they would like integrated into their web site, Jbolo is a perfect addition.  Users adding this module onto their Joomla site will enable the two sites to integrate easily.  If wanting to embed videos but maybe not wanting to embed those from YouTube, hwdVideoShare is a great little module that is getting quite a lot of reviews and positive feedback.

The list of social media modules and extensions available can be found simply by going to the Joomla site Extensions area and typing in “social network” within the search bar.  At last check, there were 38 different social media extensions available for downloading.

Final Assessment

When it comes to easy web site administration and content management, Joomla has got businesses covered.  Once ready to take the social media plunge, it’s nice to know that Joomla also has businesses covered with its array of social media add-ons available to the public.  Make your business web site social networking savvy and check out Joomla today.

About Drupal

Drupal is a free open source CMS that allows easy publishing and managing of web sites.  There are tens of thousands of web sites online now that utilize the program and include site types such as community web portals, corporate web sites, resource directories and even social networking sites.

The program is designed to allow quick additions of modules that enable a web site to expand its functionality.  Some of these modules allow for newsletter publication, picture galleries, e-commerce and much more.

As Drupal is open source software, it is constantly being checked, debugged and new updates are constantly being released.  The advantage of this is ensuring that the safest and most secure edition is available to its users.

The word from Dries Buytaert

According to Dries Buytaert, creator and founder of Drupal, his software is well matched and up to the task of helping further the platform of an open and transparent government.  He goes on further to state “Drupal’s flexibility and modularity enables organizations to build sites quickly at lower cost than most other systems.”  Dries feels this move to use open source technology and software indicates that governments are realizing that open source does not present any added risks when compared to propriety software.

One important point Dries brings up is the ability for the Drupal-run WhiteHouse.gov web site to allow for open communication and participation.  This, by itself, is worth seeing the new site and checking out what one can accomplish with respect to open participation.

Not the only government site

Surprisingly, the WhiteHouse.gov is just the pinnacle of government offices using Drupal to publish their web sites.  The Department of Defense, the Department of Commerce, the General Service Administration and the Department of Education have all been using the Drupal CMS for some time.

Other large business, company and entity web sites currently running on Drupal include the New York Observer, Yahoo! Research, Christian Assemblies International and Sony Music.  The list of Drupal-run web sites continues to grow at a rapid pace.

Future looking open

Going on into the future, the hope is that with Drupal’s latest coup of the White House web site, other government agencies, big businesses and even government entities world-wide will see the awesome potential of open source software and technology.  Further, this may also show the world that open source technology is a huge step in the right direction – especially in the area of cutting costs.  Perhaps this recent Presidential approval will start a web site trend and we’ll begin to see more and more “big guys” realize the advantages of open source.

Forms and style of social media

There are quite a few forms of social media and within those forms there are several technologies involved.  Reviews and opinions, collaboration, communication and multimedia are some of the core styles of social media.  Communication is one of the more popular styles – blogs, micro-blogging, events, and social networking can be listed among this style type.  As the purpose is to “get the word out” about one’s business, the social media style type of choice is communication.

Micro-blogging and Twitter

Micro-blogging is the sending of short text updates, sometimes including a photo or short audio/video clip.  This is an extremely effective way to communicate to a large audience without losing their interest.  It can be used to disseminate news regarding a company, announce the company’s latest products, or even inform the general public of upcoming sales.  By far one of the most popular micro-blogging sites on the web is Twitter.

Signing up with Twitter is an extremely easy process.  The registration requires a full name (a company name would work as well here), a username (this should also reflect the company or business name), a password, and an email address.  Once these are entered, a new Twitter account is created on the fly.  After an account has been created, the next step is to use one of the available “widgets” that can be found at Twitter’s Goodies page.  There is a widget in place that can be used on a web site and the instructions are very easy to follow.

There are quite a few companies on the web that use Twitter and use it very well.  Comcast, Southwest Airlines, and H&R Block are just a few.  Checking out how these companies have used Twitter to inform and excite the public will enable one to figure out the best Twitter “strategy” for their own business.

Events and Eventful

If the business in question is more geared toward events, performers or avenues, a good choice for a social media outlet would be Eventful.  This service allows people and businesses to share information to the public in regards to upcoming events.  Private and public calendars can be created, events can be searched for and tracked and users can even declare which events they would most like to see in their area.

Much like Twitter, the sign up process for Eventful is simple and instantaneous.  Once the account is created, the user can choose from some popular events, favorite performers and event categories.  After all preferences have been filled out, the user is presented with their main screen.  It is here that a new event can be created.  While Eventful doesn’t present a widget that you can quickly use, they do offer a web services API.  An alternative to this is to simply place a link within the business website, pointing to the Eventful calendar created by the business.

Conclusion

There are dozens upon dozens of more social media applications available that could be used in conjunction with a business web site.  The best way to determine which will work the best for one’s own business is by figuring out exactly what information needs to be presented to the public and which social media venue will get that job done in the best manner.  Check out what other companies and businesses have done with social media and put your business on the social media track.

The basics

Once you log into your Google Wave account, you are presented with four neatly layed out panels – Navigation (similar to an email account navigation box), Contacts (emails of your contacts who also have a Google Wave account), Inbox and the Wave box.  To create a new Wave you simply click on the “New Wave” link and you’re off and running.  The first thing to do upon creating your new Wave is to add contacts.  When you’ve added the contacts you wish to be part of your Wave, you can then begin adding text, links, files, searches and gadgets.

One of the best parts of working with Google Wave is the ability to add gadgets.  There are a list of pre-set gadgets that include a Google Map add-in, a video chat and a  conferencing tool.  You can opt to add in some more gadgets by searching for what is available at Google’s Gadget Gallery.  The gallery includes games, more mapping capabilities and even an RSVP gadget.

You can also work with robots.  These are basically email addresses you can add to your contact list and then add them to your wave to perform specific actions.  One particularly handy robot is the Bloggy robot.  This robot will publish your Wave into an online blog.

Usage

The main purpose of the Google Wave tool is collaboration.  As such, the largest practical usage of this tool would be for business intrawebs and the like.  The ability to conference real-time with the gadgets available makes for an excellent way to brainstorm and conduct “live” meetings with co-workers.  Using the video chat gadget, text, links and file attachment capabilities, you have a great way to conglomerate tools that would normally require several different pieces of online technology.

Another great way to use this new product is for event planning.  You can create a Wave with potential event participants while gathering feedback and responses on the fly.  With the “Yes/No/Maybe” gadget you can have a live record of what the participants may want to bring to the event, dates and times that work for all and much more.

More uses for Google Wave can be determined by simply playing around with the tool.  Co-operative blogging, real-time brainstorming, on the fly conferencing are just a few of the many usages of this new product.

Conclusion

As Google Wave is still in its beta testing stage, there has been a limit placed on the number of current participants (at last check 100,000).  This makes it difficult to check out and test the product unless you know one of the other beta testers on board.  To get around this for the time being, using one of the Wave robots could be a temporary solution.  Once past the beta testing stage, it then becomes a matter of how many people will adopt this new piece of technology.

Google’s success rate has been rather high when introducing new tools – Google Maps, Gmail, Google Voice all well-received and highly used.  The company’s past performances may be a good indicator on the future success of Google Wave.