Citrix Podio Collaboration Platform Integrates With YouSendIt

Citrix, which in April bought Podio to expand its cloud-based collaboration capabilities, is now extending the reach of the online collaboration platform.

Officials with Citrix Online€™s Podio unit announced June 18 that Podio is now integrated with YouSendIt, adding another file sharing and storage service to its lineup of cloud-based file-sharing apps that it supports.

The move creates what Phil Chambers, director of product development for Podio at Citrix, called the most open cloud-based collaborative platform, given the wide range of other services that Podio integrates with. The goal is to enable users to turn to the Podio platform as the foundation for their cloud-based collaboration work and connect to a wide range of Web-based services.

€œWe wanted to be open,€ Chambers, who was Podio€™s CTO before the Citrix acquisition, told eWEEK. €œThis is a testament to our commitment to be open. Whatever our customers use, we want to support.€

The YouSendIt integration follows similar moves with such cloud-based file sharing and storage services as Citrix€™s ShareFile, SugarSynch, Microsoft€™s SkyDrive, Box, Dropbox, Evernote, Google Drive and Google Docs. In addition, other cloud-based business solutions Podio integrates with include Citrix€™s GoToMeeting, Zendesk, Freshbooks, Campaign Monitor and Google Apps, and content curation services such as Google Alerts, Delicious, RSS and Instapaper.

YouSendIt offers collaboration services that enable users to access, share and store data and content on PCs and mobile devices, as well as over the Web. Company officials on their Website tout the growing range of services they offer, from sharing content to signing documents to accessing files from any mobile device or PC.

Podio€™s platform offers real-time status updates, through which teams can manage business processes and workflows via preassembled apps from Podio.

With the new integration, users collaborating on Podio will be able to quickly link to their YouSendIt accounts and share content with colleagues, customers and partners, all within the Podio workspaces.

Online collaboration is being embraced by businesses as they look for ways to grow the productivity of an increasingly mobile workforce that€”thanks to such trends as bring-your-own-device (BYOD)€”are using a wider range of devices in the workplace. According to Citrix Podio officials, they also are looking to be able to use whatever cloud-based mobile and collaboration they want. With its wide degree of integration with a range of cloud-based services, Podio can serve as the platform all workers can use while leveraging their chosen collaboration apps.

“The volume of tools currently available for file-syncing means the chances of one team using the same service as the contractors, suppliers and customers that it needs to share data with are slim,” Tommy Ahlers, vice president of social collaboration of Citrix, said in a statement. “The integration of these services with Podio allows teams and external partners to work the way they want to using their preferred or existing file sharing and storage solution. As a result, work gets done easier, faster and with less logistical complexity.”