Summary Bullets:
- Jive Software recognizes the collaboration market is particularly dynamic and has taken steps to realign and capitalize on that change; consequently, the vendor’s new packaged solutions address specific line-of-business issues and key verticals.
- Demonstrating tangible business value to specific departments and verticals markets is expected to result in an easier sales cycle (and subsequent broader adoption) compared to the wholesale enterprise implementation of social collaboration platforms.
Last week during Jive Software’s FY 2015 Business Update, the vendor announced its end-of-year results and that it will focus on simplifying its packaging and promotion through 2016. While Jive’s full-year 2015 earnings showed improvement (10% year-on-year revenue growth of $195.8 million), the company anticipates a return to profitability by Q4 2016; indeed, the Business Update call highlighted to me that Jive Software recognizes the collaboration market is particularly dynamic and the company has taken steps to realign and capitalize on that change. While it has been common practice for organizations to start their adoption of social collaboration platforms with simple features and small intranet group deployments, Jive’s new packages address specific line-of-business issues and key verticals: namely, Jive for Healthcare Collaboration (capitalizing on the success the vendor has had with deployments at Trinity Health and MD Anderson to support care coordination and enhance clinical productivity), Jive for Employee Engagement (an internally focused solution based on Jive-n for HR departments), and Jive for Customer Engagement.
The vendor has also revised its pricing and updated its two core cloud-based services: Jive-n (social collaboration for internal employees) and Jive-x (social collaboration for external communities). Furthermore, Jive-n now integrates with the vendor’s upgraded mobile apps: Jive Circle (employee directory), Jive Chime (real-time messaging), and Jive Daily, which ensures employees are informed through personal activity streams and notifications from Jive-n. Jive-x has also been improved in terms of search optimization, translation services (including Google Translate, Microsoft Translator, and Lionbridge), and integration with ServiceNow’s support ticketing service.
One major trend we continue to highlight at Current Analysis is the decentralization of the IT budget and the democratization of the IT buying decision; indeed, Jive’s line-of-business strategy appears to align well with this development. Traditionally, customer service departments were incentivized to answer 80% of support calls within twenty seconds and not necessarily on improving customer satisfaction. More recently, chief marketing officers have turned their attention to this area, recognizing that cultivating the end-to-end customer experience improves retention, business revenue, and brand satisfaction. Consequently, Jive-x can be utilized as a community platform to nurture an organization’s ongoing relationship with customers.
I look forward to further announcements and developments when I attend Jive World later this month; indeed as one of the very few vendors uniquely focused in the social collaboration market, Jive Software’s reconfiguration around specific buyers’ needs and use cases will be closely watched by many industry pundits. Personally, I feel demonstrating tangible business value to specific departments and verticals markets will be an easier sales cycle compared to wholesale enterprise adoption.
IT Connection 