Transcript: Bookmarking, tagging, and social software comes to the Enterprise

This transcript is from a PodTech.net podcast at:
http://www.podtech.net/home/technology/1569/bookmarking-tagging-and-social-software-comes-to-the-enterprise

Guest: Puneet Gupta - ConnectBeam
Host: Robert Scoble - ScobleShow

Robert Scoble - ScobleShow
So, yeah. So, who are you?

Puneet Gupta - ConnectBeam
So, I'm Puneet Gupta. I'm the co-founder and CEO of ConnectBeam.

Robert Scoble - ScobleShow
And you just came back from the Office 2.0 Conference, right?

Puneet Gupta - ConnectBeam
That's correct. Yeah, I just spent a couple of exciting days over at Office 2.0.

Robert Scoble - ScobleShow
Now, what is cool about the Office 2.0 Conference, a lot of people were talking about it?

Puneet Gupta - ConnectBeam
Yeah so, I mean one is just the Euphoria, I mean the buzz right, there's just so much excitement, and a lot could be said about that, you can look at it in different ways, but I think fundamentally, there's just innovation is back, people are excited, things are moving. Of course, the big question is like we're just talking about earlier, where all this is going to go and who's going to be out there left standing? all of that has always been there, but I think for us, as a start up, it's just great to be in that kind of environment and see customers come by and check you out and ask questions, how this could work, how this could make sense?

Robert Scoble - ScobleShow
Now, the Office 2.0 industry as a whole, is trying to move Office Apps to the Web Browser, right?

Puneet Gupta - ConnectBeam
That's correct.

Robert Scoble - ScobleShow
What did you see there, that was cool, other than your own product because we'll talk about that?

Puneet Gupta - ConnectBeam
So, always it's little bit different, I mean I think Office 2.0 really is the promise there is taking Office Apps, as defined largely by Microsoft Office Suite whether it be PowerPoint, Excel, Word and things like that nature, in kind of putting them out in the cloud, so to speak, right, and that's really what Office 2.0 Apps concept is and there are bunch of companies out there who're doing that. So, there are a lot of company showcase, PowerPoints and Excel type tools, and of course Editors that you could use in a more of a collaborated manner. So, it was good to see that. We're a little bit different; I'd like to say, we are more of an Enterprise 2.0, meaning we're not squarely related to the Office Apps, we're taking concepts of Social Bookmarking and Social Networking into the enterprise. Again with the specific workflows, there are inherent to an enterprise settings. So, securities, who can see what administrative level controls, rules and relationships, because just to give you an example, there's different categories of users inside the enterprise, you'll have your employees and different categories of employees, you may have contractors, consultants, guests and they may all have to -- different levels of privileges. So that's really what ConnectBeam is, taking some broad concepts like, Social Bookmarking and Social Networking, something like a del.icio.us or MySpace, that has done wonders in the Consumer Space and we know the value add of that, because it can really help build a large community, help in -- bubble information to the top, help you find the right information and the people who are connected with that information. So, those are the concepts, so we're taking that in but really wrapping around in a enterprise specific workflow where it makes sense for the Enterprise.

Robert Scoble - ScobleShow
About two years ago, I read Bill Gates' email saying that, a new Office Suite was being built...

Puneet Gupta - ConnectBeam
All right.

Robert Scoble - ScobleShow
...right in front of him and I was wondering why he wasn't involved and he still largely isn't. But I said -- what Office did back in, what was it 90-91 something like that...

Puneet Gupta - ConnectBeam
All right.

Robert Scoble - ScobleShow
...or was that CES when it came out, was to take a Word Processor, a Spreadsheet and a Database program and wrap them into one box for one low price and have somewhat of a consistent UI across the three. There's somethings that still aren't consistent like Excel still has a different copy and paste functionality than Word or PowerPoint, but for the large point they had the same kind of menus and they had same kind of keyboard commands and same look and feel, where the other ones on the market had completely different. They didn't work together very well.

Puneet Gupta - ConnectBeam
All right.

Robert Scoble - ScobleShow
I'm seeing the same thing now going on in this market. You have to have a Blog Tool, you have to have a Wiki Tool, you have to have a Social Bookmarking Tool and so forth, and a Photo-sharing Tool into that and they all work differently, and they're not really well integrated. Do you think that, we're going to see a period of consolidation where somebody is going to either build their own or buy up three or four companies and build a suite that they can sell to enterprises.

Puneet Gupta - ConnectBeam
I'm glad you asked, absolutely, it's inevitable and let me give you a sort of another analogy, you obviously gave the analogy of Microsoft Office and again this is something that we talk about internally at ConnectBeam, because again like I said, we're coming more sort of from the enterprise play. I started my started my career back in '92, when I graduate -- from my undergraduate degree at Ohio State, my first job was working at a company called Ashland Chemical in Columbus, Ohio, building an in-house Sales Force Automation application. Just, because there wasn't anything available off-the-shelf those days, right. And you look where we have come now, we've gone through multiple iterations of starting SFA, somebody starting a Marketing App, somebody starting a Support App., somebody starting a Field Service App, and then eventually a term called CRM got coined where there was first a handful of vendors that combine all of these together called it Front Facing application or CRM application, one consolidate database that managed the schema all of these applications. Then, the Verticals came and now it's another way, where Salesforce.com has taken again piecemeal and put it in a different model.

So, hands down, I think consolidation is inevitable both in terms of technology stack and I think just also in terms of the economics of it.

Robert Scoble - ScobleShow
Yeah.

Puneet Gupta - ConnectBeam
If you ask us, like I mentioned the Social Bookmarking, Social Networking concepts, we fundamentally believe that this is the next wave of content management and knowledge management solutions.

Robert Scoble - ScobleShow
Why do you think that, why not a blog, or why not something else?

Puneet Gupta - ConnectBeam
Well, one is -- we look, so again, let me take a quick step back. You take -- if you look at Web 2.0 in general sort of the Web 2.0 umbrella, there's three or four new key technologies that have emerged from that. You've already mentioned blogs, Wikies, I would say Social Bookmarking is yet another one. And then, maybe you can look at something like, a LinkedIn or Social Networking, right. So, these are sort of the four key technologies. Why not a Wiki and why not a Blog or why Social Bookmarking? So, we placed our bets on Social Bookmarking versus there's plenty of Wikies player out there -- Wiki's players out there, blogs out there, because we feel for two reasons; one, Social Bookmarking, I could argue is the simplest of this entire technology to use.

Robert Scoble - ScobleShow
You can read a post and then you click on something and...

Puneet Gupta - ConnectBeam
And you save it, right, and not only that, there's also somewhat of a handshake to the past, meaning what. Everybody knows how to bookmark something in a browser, don't they? I mean be it a Firefox or Internet Explorer, so, everybody knows, well they'll go to favorites and save something. So, there's a good handshake to the past. It's not a completely new way of thinking or doing something. Okay, well now I'm still going to do favorites, but I'm doing it in the cloud. Okay, so that's Social Bookmarking, again think back to what Salesforce.com did, the concept has always been there. Everybody knew, all the sales people knew what a Salesforce.com application does, but they just put it in the cloud, right.

Okay, so we placed our bets on Social Bookmarking because, we felt to Drive Mass Adoption, you got to provide that handshake to the past and we're doing that in number of ways. One is just that concept, that awareness is there. Second, something like a Social Bookmarking is really at a superset of all of that, because even Wikies or blogs, they're fundamentally Web pages. And guess what, then you can bring it into a Social Bookmarking framework like, ConnectBeam and then enable collaboration around that. Okay, so that's sort of the number two area, why we feel this is sort of will be at the superset of everything, right. And even beyond that, even if you look at Salesforce.com application or other proprietary application or other static pages inside the enterprise, most of the area is today through a Web browser, your two key tools are email and outside of the email is the Web browser for any kind information. So, wherever you're hitting information be it Internet, Intranet, Extranet, if it's through Web browser then you can bring that into ConnectBeam, and into a collaborative framework.

Robert Scoble - ScobleShow
Why do you think enterprises are going to go with your tool or with a different tool than say, del.icio.us, which has gotten pretty good consumer adoption so far. Consumer being people who live in their home...

Puneet Gupta - ConnectBeam
Sure.

Robert Scoble - ScobleShow
...Enterprise being people, who work inside companies of at least some size.

Puneet Gupta - ConnectBeam
Certainly, we're convinced of that, that they will have to go for different set of tools like, ConnectBeam's and others like ConnectBeam that are starting, because there's a fundamental different ways of how enterprises behave, and react and treat knowledge and information, and how users do in the Consumer Space. And that works different ways, you can on the intangible side of things, things are even different on what the incentives are, see when you're a consumer, you go the extra mile and you do things because you know you're doing it for yourself, there's that element there. Enterprises often times it is, you're immediate work related, so there have to be some other kind of incentives for you to do that, and so there's a interesting dichotomy there. I mean, if this is a -- you asked a pretty loaded question because just the way enterprises operate, they would still like to have some level of control, they're starting to relinquish that little bit, but it still needs to be within the boundaries of the enterprise or the domain. And then, who can share what the examples I gave you earlier, different roles and relationships. We played in the Consumer Space a little bit before we did ConnectBeam and when we went and started ConnectBeam, we had to back to the drawing board just because the architecture stack really has to be built to support those enterprise specific workflows and hence something like a del.icio.us - - at least in its present form will not work for Enterprise.

Robert Scoble - ScobleShow
How do you make money? You're not going to put ads on this...

Puneet Gupta - ConnectBeam
No.

Robert Scoble - ScobleShow
...because it's probably one and the differences between an enterprise-focused app and a consumer-focused one.

Puneet Gupta - ConnectBeam
That's right, so that's actually easy question for us because like I've said before in some of the other interviews, enterprises have the pockets, okay, and if it makes sense, if the solution makes sense to them, they'll pay and our pricing is quite right, and we're already seeing some good traction in the market for our product.

Robert Scoble - ScobleShow
So, if I looked in -- during the demo when you talked to the camera and give us a demo, what am I going to see that's different from, let's say Del.icio.us or BlueDot or -- and one of those can tell.

Puneet Gupta - ConnectBeam
So, you'll see again a few things are very different, one is like, I said just in ways how, who can do what? that kind of framework you'll see emerge in ConnectBeam and we've taken little bit of a different view of Social Bookmarking, information is organized in topics, and each topic has it's own social network of collaborated framework around it, where I can then just manage my own topics, that is just for me or I can expose it to my group or I can expose it companywide, and certain people inside the company can have the explicit privilege to expose that to their customers or partners. So, if you're working on a project or a new product, you can involve your customers' feedback directly into that, if a sales person is working on an account, they can share information with the partner and they can collaborate that, so it's all on a very secured framework and you have complete visibility as to who is doing what and you can revoke privileges at any given time, things of that nature.

Robert Scoble - ScobleShow
What are you hearing -- are you doing sales calls now, and going out and trying to get enterprises to actually adopt this?

Puneet Gupta - ConnectBeam
That's correct, we're doing that right now.

Robert Scoble - ScobleShow
And what kind of feedback are you hearing from them, particularly not just with your company but the Web 2.0 like suite.

Puneet Gupta - ConnectBeam
Yeah.

Robert Scoble - ScobleShow
Totally, are they open to it, are they resistant to it, are they...?

Puneet Gupta - ConnectBeam
It's been a mixed bag. I think, if I were to normalize it or try to draw some conclusion from that, I think the conclusion can only emerge if we kind of segment the market itself. So I think, we're hearing a set of message from medium to large size companies. They're kind of -- their message is consistent within that framework, and then SMBs are little bit different in how they perceive and react to this technology. We've been fortunate to actually be talking with some large enterprises and it's -- within that also it's little bit varied, but by and large often times, they're not as cozy upto software as a service as yet, okay. Their preference is still, let's do something in-house, anyway lot has been said about that, sometimes some folks are saying, well it is, in a way it's good because you get IT involved, and they have something to take ownership of, so that helps you get all business units aligned that way. And hence, we have an appliance offering that we just dropped in the market and we'll show you a demo of that; basically, it's integrated with a company's intranet search, and that also plays along into our way of how we can really drive adoption inside the enterprise. I don't know if I mentioned, but again it cannot be too destructive for users, you can't just drop something in a silo and assume that the entire enterprise is going to gravitate towards that.

Robert Scoble - ScobleShow
No.

Puneet Gupta - ConnectBeam
And, that's why you know, so IT is important.

Robert Scoble - ScobleShow
I even said that in Microsoft, -- Microsoft's Intranet had so much on it, and the chances that I was going to adopt something new was very small because there's just so much there and there's thousands of hours of video to go and watch, and pretty good video too, I must say and not just mine, but people accept -- (Inaudible) come and speak on campus; they record. So, the time that I would have to dedicate to learn some new thing on the Internet and try it out was very small, and usually the places I would do that would be to interact very specifically with something like, new benefits form or something.

Puneet Gupta - ConnectBeam
That's right.

Robert Scoble - ScobleShow
I liked it when they put out a better reform, in particularly we like expense reports right, but...

Puneet Gupta - ConnectBeam
That's right, that's right.

Robert Scoble - ScobleShow
Where do you see people using it? Have you deployed it anywhere and where do you -- what kinds of reactions have you gotten from people using this in terms of the enterprise?

Puneet Gupta - ConnectBeam
The reaction has been just phenomenon, in fact just even at Office 2.0 we had bunch of customers come by and say, "Hi!" and appreciate the technology gave us a list of features they would like to see added and things like -- and things of that nature, and again the interesting part as we're seeing adoption from different business units, so you're seeing support staff, in fact, there's one company, we're are talking with, they are -- they were talking about deploying this across the Developer Network, okay. Again, and as you'll see in the demo there's ways, there is a flexibility of that, that I already described how you can share information across different units. So, across various different business units, people are using it. In another company that we're talking with, it was the marketing department that drove the adoption, and they introduced us to IT, and they really got excited about our plans offering and how it integrates with the Intranet and they could see how this could just seamlessly lead the users on to a Web 2.0 Framework without too much disruption. So hence, a conversation with them about their deployment inside the enterprise.

Robert Scoble - ScobleShow
Okay. And this is a service, you've mentioned you had two - one of the service where, where it lives on your servers.

Puneet Gupta - ConnectBeam
That's correct.

Robert Scoble - ScobleShow
If we're talking about big company IT guy, I have to buy into leaving it up on your service sort of like Salesforce.com is that way, right.

Puneet Gupta - ConnectBeam
Exactly.

Robert Scoble - ScobleShow
And or I can buy an appliance, and put it on my Internet, on my own server rack.

Puneet Gupta - ConnectBeam
Exactly, I think we're seeing this sort of emerge not just at ConnectBeam but for enterprises that have Web 2.0, Enterprise 2.0 companies that have been around for a little bit now, I think that's the model that kind of been coming out. Just goes like I said there is little bit of dichotomy between SMBs and mid-to-large size companies, and actually Appliance Model works just great, you package it all up and it integrates comes in and it sits in the Data Center like I said for us, we just dropped this press release about us, Out-of-the-Box Integration with Google's Enterprise Search Appliance, and I'll show you demo of that, it's just very interesting, very beautiful.

Robert Scoble - ScobleShow
Very interesting, all right. Anything else I should know?

Puneet Gupta - ConnectBeam
Well, things are going good, we're very excited, like I said I gave you some of our views of, yes Office 2.0, but really I think where we're seeing the Enterprise 2.0 market I think plenty of exciting things, we're going to see over the next few years, and I won't be surprised on next Office 2.0 Conference is not up in San Francisco, but maybe in Las Vegas.

Robert Scoble - ScobleShow
Okay.

Puneet Gupta - ConnectBeam
Yeah, I think that's where it's headed.