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Placeware Inc. and eRoom Technology Inc. are enhancing their respective online collaboration software platforms, addressing some familiar enterprise computing concerns—security, business process automation and application integration.
PlaceWare next week will announce a new secure architecture known as iVault for its communications and collaboration platform. eRoom is adding support for cross-enterprise business processes, integration with other customer applications and real-time capabilities to an upgrade of its namesake collaboration platform, which is due by the end of next month.
PlaceWares iVault architecture adds to the existing security capabilities of the Mountain View, Calif., companys hosted meeting services, used for Web meetings and online presentations. These enhancements include customizable authentication policies for controlling access, seven layers of data security for all stored data and 128-bit RC4 SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) encryption.
The iVault architecture also adds an enhanced fault-tolerant system design, fail-safe backup hardware and software, and advanced load balancing, officials said.
Separately, eRoom, of Cambridge, Mass., is enhancing its licensed software offering, which provides digital workspaces where employees can collaborate with each other or with partners and customers.
eRoom 6.0 adds application templates to help users deploy business processes based on best practices. Those business processes—which include proposal development, change order management and budget planning—are focused on the companys key verticals: manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, professional services, government and financial services.
The new release also supports multistep approval processes to simplify project management and speed decision-making, eRoom officials said.
That technology figures to be a benefit to executive search company Egon Zehnder International Inc., which uses eRoom as a collaboration and knowledge-sharing tool to bring together its 51 offices in 38 countries.
The new business processes and approvals management support in Version 6.0 should allow Egon Zehnder to use eRoom as a project management tool, something that the company has found costly and difficult to deploy in the past, according to Jon Amsler, head of global knowledge management at the companys Atlanta office.
eRoom “has simplified the workflow and processes, which should pay huge dividends for us,” Amsler said. “We can build workflows and integrate them with the [Microsoft Corp.] Exchange task lists, which should speed up the business processes.”