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Enterprise mobile-messaging provider Convo wants to do away with email entirely.
The 3-year-old San Francisco-based startup has taken the internal social network/workflow collaboration concept to a new, more sophisticated level with the July 7 launch of its next-generation Web-based service for desktop PCs. Also made available is a separate Convo for Mac desktop version; a desktop app for Windows will be available at a future date.
Convo provides a Facebook/Twitter-like user interface newsfeed with headshots of users that’s constantly updated as employees and company partners or contractors add comments, images and videos to it.
One of the main differentiators Convo provides is a Retina magnification tool that enables a user to focus closely in on a text or image selection and enlarge it as needed, saving time and effort. For example, if a series of images is being shared in a group to determine a final selection, the magnification tool comes in handy to examine at closer range and in real time which image would be the best for the project.
The magnification tool is also valuable for examining fine print in documents.
Other new features in Convo include the following:
–New design and interface: Users can quickly review all posts with infinite scroll, muting less-relevant posts and highlighting critical conversations.
–Intuitive to use: Users cannot lose track of a conversation, from Twitter mentions to chats to group updates; notifications are instant.
–More than 400 integrations now available: Users can post content from sites such as Gmail, Salesforce, Twitter and hundreds of others.
–Advanced group control: Admins can keep groups public or private based on project sensitivity. Group members can see messages under each category in newsfeeds.
–Retina optimized with extra large previews: Quickly scroll through rich previews of all major document types and easily comment in context.
To see a complete list of new features, go here.
The new Convo for Mac desktop app has a new interface and enables users to start conversations and share files from the quick-post widget. It provides the same features as the Web app, plus
integrated notifications, which now integrate with OS X Notification Center, and easy access from a dock.
Convo has built an installed base of about 15,000 customers in only a short time.
“We have seen significant growth in the last one and a half years, having multiplied our customer base by 3x and company size by 5x,” CEO Faizan Buzdar said. “Organizations like Kaiser, NBC, CBSi, TechCrunch, TheNextWeb now have hundreds or thousands of seats.”
Enterprises require something superior to email, Buzdar said, and more secure and dependable than lighter-weight consumer-oriented solutions. “CEOs have told us that once they deploy Convo, they cannot imagine a single work day without it. That’s because Convo enables critical decisions that make all the difference when closing a deal, breaking a story first, or even saving a life in the case of our healthcare customers.”