Is this 1992 or 2013? Microsoft, IBM, RIM Reinvent Themselves for the Social, Collaborative Enterprise

  Is this 1992 or 2013? Microsoft, IBM, RIM Reinvent Themselves for the
  Social, Collaborative Enterprise

  harmon.ie CEO sees social/mobile convergence triggering a renaissance for
                        traditional enterprise players

Business Wire

BOSTON -- December 17, 2012

harmon.ie,^® the social software company, today released 2013 predictions for
the enterprise social and mobile industry by CEO and co-founder Yaacov Cohen.
Cohen sees social and collaborative processes becoming fully integrated into
business workers’ daily habits, as opposed to being individual silos supported
by a separate set of tools. Specifically, the proliferation and adoption of
Microsoft’s SharePoint and IBM’s Connections place these traditional
enterprise leaders back in the center of the business with key social
collaboration platforms. And RIM’s re-entry into the enterprise mobile market
with BlackBerry Enterprise Server 10 (BES 10) and BlackBerry 10 devices will
signal its renaissance as a secure mobile player in the enterprise.

Here’s Cohen’s rationale. Do you agree we are “back to the future” and beyond?

Why RIM?

  * The desire for secure mobile – The explosion of iPad usage is driving an
    insatiable desire to use the iPad at work. However, data stored on the
    iPad is at risk if the device is stolen or lost, and Apple doesn’t have a
    native solution. But there’s hope…
  * The release of BES 10 - With this release, RIM is going back to its roots
    as the leading secure mobile enterprise solution. Initially it was through
    secure proprietary devices; this time it is embracing its rivals by
    securing all mobile devices: iOS, Android and the new Blackberry 10. The
    strategy of supporting competing devices will not only grow the iPad
    market, but it will also be the impetus for RIM’s comeback.

Why Microsoft?

  * Microsoft’s acquisition of Yammer – “Microsoft” and “cool” are two words
    which normally don’t go together. But with Microsoft’s acquisition of
    Yammer, Microsoft is now in the driver’s seat to deliver the social
    experience to the millions of Office users. Yammer, combined with other
    Office products like SharePoint, will make Office social and for the first
    time combine business processes with social activities.
  * The Microsoft Cloud – Microsoft’s entrenchment in the business world will
    pole vault its new Office cloud to becoming a serious player very quickly.
    All the advantages of a SaaS offering, attractive pricing and a familiar
    set of tools will make it hard for competitors to rival Microsoft in the
    enterprise cloud arena.

Why IBM?

  * Social business initiative – IBM continues to make a push and significant
    investments into helping organizations build a social business.
  * Integration with entrenched products – IBM Connections version 4.0
    presents an exciting new social and collaboration offering with
    out-of-the-box integration with Microsoft Outlook. Like RIM, integrating
    with entrenched competitive products like Microsoft’s will pay off.

“Social interactions and collaboration will become an integral part of
employees’ daily workflow and business processes. Users will not be relegated
to an isolated set of productivity tools,” said Cohen. “The integration
between collaboration/social products and enterprise business software will
breathe new life into old behemoths. Most notably, the emergence of meaningful
activity streams in enterprise applications will become mainstream.”

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the renaissance of #Microsoft, #IBM & #RIM #mobile, #collaboration

About harmon.ie

harmon.ie provides software solutions to advance the social user experience by
aggregating document collaboration, enterprise social networking and other
social tools into the email client and mobile devices. Thousands of businesses
including Continental Corporation, BearingPoint and Amway use harmon.ie to
vastly increase user adoption of applications such as Microsoft SharePoint,
IBM^® Connections, and Google Docs^™ for social and collaboration functions.
harmon.ie is a Microsoft Gold Competency ISV Partner. For more information,
visit http://harmon.ie/.

All trademarks, trade names, service marks and logos referenced herein belong
to their respective companies.

Contact:

Schwartz MSL
Davida Dinerman/Dave Lipson, 781-684-0770
harmon.ie@schwartzmsl.com