Mzinga received a $10 million infusion and rebranded its SAAS enterprise social software as OmniSocial. This brand comprises three applications suites for companies seeking social, Web collaboration and analytics capabilities. Mzinga faces a lot of competitors with similar goals. Jive Software launched Jive Market Engagement, which also blends social media, collaboration and analytics tools. Socialtext, MindTouch, RightNow Technologies, which recently bought Mzinga rival HiveLive, also play here.
Mzinga Sept. 23 banked $10 million in funding and rebranded
its SAAS enterprise social software as OmniSocial, which comprises three
applications suites for companies seeking social, Web collaboration and and
analytics capabilities.
Mzinga Chairman and CEO Barry Libert told eWEEK OmniSocial
can be viewed as a kind of cloud operating system customers can use to manage
their company-wide and individual social interactions, collaborate with
contacts in a network, and provide feedback about those interactions to hone
business practices.
Libert believes future operating systems will look more
like Facebook than Microsoft Windows: based on social interactions in the
Internet cloud, rather than operating systems tethered to individual machines.
The social suite in OmniSocial provides businesses with social
media and networking capabilities to let colleagues and partners connect. Think
profiles, blogs and idea-sharing, among other tools, which Mzinga acquired when
it
purchased Prospero in March 2008.
Collaboration tools include file sharing, team presence,
Web conferencing and other tools to let colleagues and partners work together. The
analytics capabilities help customers pinpoint some of the trending topics that
are core to their business, providing real-time insight into member influence
and engagement.
To be clear, the technologies are not new for the company,
but Mzinga previously poorly marketed its offerings and did not
adequately explain them to customers, press and analysts. Company
product names Mzinga Social Suite
and Mzinga Publisher have been cast aside in favor of the OmniSocial
umbrella.
Mzinga is looking to clear up any misconceptions, and the
$10 million in funding from Acadia Woods Partners BlueCrest Venture Finance
Master Fund and existing investors W Capital Partners and Shared Capital
Partners should help. Mzinga said it will use the funding to boost its sales
and marketing and improve its social software and analytics offerings.
Mzinga, whose customers include Wolters Kluwer,
RealNetworks, and New England Sports Network, is tailoring OmniSocial to
foster better communications and collaboration among marketing, human resources
and customer service and support teams. Libert said Mzinga expects to penetrate
additional verticals in the future.
With OmniSocial, businesses can easily create single Mzinga-powered
Web sites, or multiple instances of standalone sites or integrated
applications and widgets, which can all be managed from one administrator
environment. OmniSocial also supports up to 20
languages.
OmniSocial is available now, starting at roughly $3 per
month, per user.
Mzinga faces a lot of competitors with similar goals.
Jive Software, for example, Sept. 15
launched Jive Market Engagement, which also blends social media, collaboration and
analytics tools. Socialtext, MindTouch, RightNow Technologies, which recently
bought Mzinga rival HiveLive, also play here.
These relatively young companies are angling for slices
of the enterprise social software pie along with incumbents such as IBM,
Microsoft and Cisco Systems.
Though the newcomers would all argue that their
small size makes them more nimble and faster to spot new market trends and act
on them, the larger companies have long-standing customers that tend to stick
with them, making it a challenge for upstarts to gain headwind.
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