StreamWork, the real-time collaboration platform formerly known as 12Sprints, is now available to the general public. SAP's Google Wave alternative, which offers instant messaging and document sharing tools, is free with limited storage and as a professional subscription for $9 per user, per month, with more storage and security features. Web startups Box.net, Evernote and Scribd have teamed up with SAP as technology partners for StreamWork.
SAP March 30 renamed its real-time
collaboration platform
StreamWork
and is offering it free with limited storage or for $9 per user, per month,
with more storage and security features.
StreamWork, profiled by eWEEK in February when it was launched as
a public beta under the name 12Sprints, is a Web-based platform that includes
instant messaging and document sharing.
StreamWork
provides a meeting room where five to 30 corporate
employees can virtually congregate for strategy sessions on projects. Users can
analyze data from enterprise applications, such as a pipeline analysis in a
business intelligence tool or purchase order approvals in an ERP system, and
discuss the app using chat tools.
In that superficial sense, StreamWork recalls
Google Wave, the first major real-time collaboration platform
offered free to consumers. Google has been regularly adding management features
to Wave, which debuted in September 2009, but it's still not as adapted to
enterprise use as some companies would prefer.
Unlike Google Wave, which originally made "waves" available for
all to see, activities created within StreamWork are not public. Participants
upload content, but colleagues only see it if they are invited via e-mail.
StreamWork is more like
Novell Pulse, another collaboration platform that rolls all of
the communication and document-sharing tools into one package, albeit with stringent
security policies for business use.
David Meyer, vice president of emerging technologies at SAP,
revealed on a call with media March 30 that Web startups Box.net, Evernote and
Scribd have teamed up with SAP as technology
partners for StreamWork.
Specifically, SAP is allowing users to
pull research reports, marketing and creative assets and project plans stored
in Evernote and Box.net directly into StreamWork. The Box.net integration is
unique because StreamWork users can also create Box folders directly within SAP
StreamWork and associate them with a specific activity.
Scribd has contributed document reader technology so that StreamWork users
may read documents in formats such as Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel
directly within the SAP StreamWork
environment, without having to download or open the file in a new window.
StreamWork is currently being used by more than 100 companies and thousands
of users. Food recommendation startup TastingTable.com is one such customer. TastingTable.com CEO
Geoff Bartakovics said on the call he and his 14 employees and other
freelancers use StreamWork to discuss editorial, operations, marketing and
sales issues.
Previously, they used the phone to collaborate and e-mailed files back and
forth with traditional document management tools. The TastingTable.com team
also uses SAP StreamWork to collaborate on
strategic analyses, share new product ideas and manage campaigns for key
advertising clients.
Meyer stressed the open nature of StreamWork, which integrates with Google's
OpenSocial specification and allows third-party developers to write or port applications
to the environment through REST APIs.
Users will be able to work with data generated and collected in their SAP
ERP and business intelligence tools. The company will be offering a version in
the second half of 2010 that integrates with other enterprise systems,
including on-premises platforms.
This will be an important part of SAP's
strategy down the road because the company would love StreamWork to be the work
room for users of all business applications.
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