"Open" Means "More Competitive"
Enterprise 2.0 technologies make companies stronger. This is what we read in almost every analytical blog and in many business publications. More and more companies are announcing the introduction of Enterprise 2.0 technologies to their business. One of the recent examples is IBM’s Lotus Connections. It’s an enterprise-wide IT controlled social networking package, which was presented earlier this year. The company representatives called it one of the features designed to take advantage of "real-time presence and communications capabilities." Well, even technological giants are opening up to Enterprise 2.0, having realized that it will drive corporate innovation and facilitate communication from the boardroom to employees and back. Previously closed corporations turn open with the help of new-generation software. But what are the advantages of being open? To answer this question it would be useful to examine the key differences of open and closed organizations.Let me explain what I mean by "open" and "closed" first. I should note that I will depart from the traditional economical definitions. Closed Enterprise Closed organizations usually are hierarchical, strongly regulated and not sensitive to their environment. Hierarchy as an organizational system is often criticized due to its multi-level structure; I mentioned this in one of my previous posts. It can be hard to implement innovation in a hierarchical organization, as its structure is not flexible. Innovations require people and groups to communicate and work together in new ways. Hierarchical organizations are limited in communications and knowledge-sharing between different departments. It can be hard to get necessary information due to the superfluous bureaucracy. Let’s take a situation when an employee desperately needs an answer to some question. He is ready to search, but it seems almost impossible for him to find anything in an enterprise’s closed email environments and file systems where so much knowledge resides. The most experienced workers in organizations of the closed type are often burdened with providing the same information over and over again, year after year. Very often they have to go through complex and time-consuming processes to get information collected in series of files, which can be used by newcomers later. A lot of data is just not being collected, which means the precious knowledge is getting lost. Poor information-sharing can prevent enterprises from successfully implementing innovative processes, rapidly developing and immediately responding to market changes. However, it would be hard to find completely closed organizations nowadays. Apparently, they won’t be able to survive in the ever-changing business environment. It’s much easier, however, to find companies closed in some aspects. A good example here might be market leaders that believe that they are using the most effective technology and producing the products well demanded by the major customers. These companies are confident in their leading positions, and it results in the narrowing of their strategic vision. They don't have to struggle in strong competition; that’s why they stop listening to their consumers. Such organizations are closed for the knowledge coming from outside of the company, and they might miss development ideas produced by consumers. These enterprises support only one-way communication. This one-way communication goes from a company to its customers. This type of communication can result in the slowdown of their evolutionary processes. Here’s an example: Microsoft Internet Explorer has been a market leader for a long time in the browser market. Microsoft had a great market share and almost no competition. At the same time, users were struggling to get tabbed browsing for years, but Microsoft ignored their requests. It switched to one-way communication. Then Firefox entered the market, taking users from Internet Explorer. This fact made Microsoft finally wake up and listen to customers. However, it was too late, and now there’s real competition between two. Another example is searching within e-mail. Outlook users were crying for years asking Microsoft to implement indexing and fast searching in e-mail. Their cry was heard, but not by Microsoft. New search initiatives came from Google (including Gmail and Google Desktop Search) and Apple. Only after that did Microsoft start to pay attention. So big companies become closed in some aspects and turn to one-way communication, when they are pretty happy with their market share and current market position. They can be either too lazy to change anything or afraid of changes. Enterprise 2.0 means Open Enterprise Today top management of many companies realizes that it can be much more profitable for an enterprise to be open. An open organization can be defined as an organization open to anyone who agrees to abide by its purpose and principles, with complete transparency and clearly defined decision making structures, ownership patterns, and exchange mechanisms. Open companies are more flexible and mobile due to their internal organization. Enterprises of this type are democratized and have better communications within a company. Wikis, blogs, social networks and other "weapons of mass collaboration," as Don Trapscott calls them in his Wikinomics, change collaboration patterns in organizations. Now every employee is welcome to participate in an enterprise activity and influence the corporate policy and development of the whole company. This change can be started by the top management, when CEOs in search of the right direction for innovation decide to initiate the creation of social networking systems for collaboration with customers. It can also be started at other levels, for instance, when individuals start using planning or project management software and then involve others into the on-line collaboration process. Mike Sigal, CEO of Guidewire Group, a research firm focused on emerging technologies, said in one of his interviews that more and more companies are getting “ready to enter in a dialog with their market, as opposed to having a one-way conversation.” With the help of Enterprise 2.0 tools, organizations become open in every way: open to customers, open to new markets, open to new technologies and techniques, open to learning. Perhaps one of the most prominent examples here is Procter & Gamble fundamentally changing of its company culture. P&G turned its Research & Develop (R&D) group to Connect & Develop (C&D) after the company went into a crisis. P&G CEO A. G. Lafley decided to broaden the horizon by looking at external sources for innovation. P&G's new strategy, called Connect and Develop, uses technology and networks to seek out new ideas for future products. The corporation discovered that important innovation was increasingly being developed at small and midsize companies. Even individuals were eager to license and sell their intellectual property. University and government labs had become more interested in forming industry partnerships, and they were hungry for ways to monetize their research. The Internet had opened up access to talent markets throughout the world. That’s why P&G decided to experiment with the new concept of open innovation building and exploiting innovation networks of all kinds. So today, more than 35% of P&G’s new products contain elements originally developed outside of the company. Approximately 45% of all initiatives within the product development portfolio possess key elements discovered externally. Procter & Gamble R&D productivity has increased by almost 60%. Introduction of Enterprise 2.0 technologies allowed to double the success rate of innovations and to diminish the costs of innovations. Investments in R&D relative to sales have been reduced from 4.8 % in 2000 to 3.4 % today. Some other examples: companies like Microsoft, IBM, Google, Sun Microsystems and SAP write corporate blogs on a regular basis. The number of non-technology firms that have their own corporate blogs is rapidly growing too. For example, the vice chairman of General Motors, Bob Lutz, maintains one of the most widely read corporate blogs on the Web. Openness of an enterprise means open communications among employees, partners, customers and shareholders. An open organization is a transparent organization. Enterprise 2.0 software enables customers to closely follow the product development process and to make valuable contributions. That is why one of the global financial services firms, Morgan Stanley, announced its wish to bring the company up to speed with Enterprise 2.0. The announcement was made at the Office 2.0 conference, which took place this September. Adam Carson of Morgan Stanley said that the corporation has 70 to 80 social networking projects underway, many involving creating online communities with clients and wikis. This can be a good example of how vendors and customer relations turn into “peer production” (a term coined by Yochai Benkler), that is when customers and service providers collaborate effectively achieving better results. Open organizations empowered by Enterprise 2.0 technologies unleash the power of collective intelligence. They involve partners and customers in their collaboration process. Collaboration within such organizations is much more efficient and makes the whole organization stronger in the market. So organizations, that are closed even in just a few aspects will most probably yield to a more flexible and innovative company. Enterprise 2.0 culture empowers organizations and makes them more competitive. This is proved by hundreds of companies that adopted the new technologies at the early stage. In the course of time, the number of closed enterprises will gradually decrease, influenced by the new technologies and business collaboration patterns. So if you want to be more competitive, you should think of bringing Enterprise 2.0 tools to your business and empowering your enterprise with the vigor of collective intelligence.
Becoming familiar with Internet Explorer 7. How to import RSS feeds
Today I tried to export my RSS feeds from RSS Bandit into an OPML file and import it into Internet Explorer 7. To my surprise, the import feature is located under the "Add to Favorites" button in IE7. Not the best organization of menus, I’d say. My next surprise was that Import Wizard did not import anything and did not prompt any reasonable error message. It took me 5 minutes to find the source of the problem and create a workaround. Here is one simple step to make your RSS Bandit’s OPML valid for IE7: open you OPML file in text editor and replace [xmlUrl="] with [type="rss" xmlUrl="]. That’s it. At least it worked for me.
Open Innovation and Its Success Stories: Sneak Peak at My E2 Innovate Presentation
. He has a lot to share on how open innovation helps his company be the global leader in scientific and healthcare equipment. Instead of limiting your innovation process to just a few dedicated professionals in-house, you can engage talents from outside the department, outside your organization, even outside your industry and your country. The open innovation model is one of the areas where collective intelligence is leveraged in the most prominent way. In our presentation, Damon and I will observe how open innovation can make your organization more competitive. More revolutionary ideas, increased cost efficiency, new paths to market - these are just a few of the advantages you can gain. In addition to Thermo Fisher's experience, we’ll highlight case studies from different industries, including software, FMCG and others. Whether you're only considering adopting the open innovation model, or you already have your own success story to share – you're more than welcome to join us at the Santa Clara Convention Center! If you plan to attend, drop me a note, and I'll provide you with a promo code for a discount on the conference pass or a free expo pass. If you are a Wrike customer, I also have a limited number of session passes that I could distribute.
Wrike's Blog Subscription is Moving! (Your Action Required)
If you're a current email subscriber to Wrike's blog, or would like to subscribe for the first time, we have important news. Current Email Subscribers (Action Required): We're switching subscription services — if you want to continue to receive blog updates, click on this form and add your email address: Click here to resubscribe Interested In Becoming a New Subscriber? If you're not subscribed yet, but you're interesting in getting the latest tips, news, and product updates by email, click here: First-time subscribers click here What will you get if you subscribe? Examples of past posts that we've published on the blog include the following: Thought Leadership, Tips, and Strategies: • So You Want to be a Global Project Manager? • 10 Reasons Projects Fail: Lessons from the Death Star • 9 Phrases to Jumpstart Productivity When Delegating a Task Important Wrike product news: • Productivity Release: 3 New Features to Make Your Team More Productive • Timeline Snapshot: Share Project Plans and Status with Anyone • Our Android App Has 2 New Swipe Functions Subscribe Now Resubscribe Now
Drive the Future of Your Work With Wrike’s New Work Intelligence™
Wrike is thrilled to announce Work Intelligence™, the most comprehensive artificial intelligence and machine learning-based engine that taps into millions of user actions to increase automation, make recommendations, and predict outcomes.
Meet Wrike Zapp: Your Soon-To-Be Best Friend in Zoom Meetings
Wrike is elated to announce that we've joined forces with Zoom, a leader in modern enterprise video communications, to develop Wrike Zapp. Read more about this new extension and how it can help you coordinate on Wrike tasks in real time during your Zoom meetings.
It’s On! The New Wrike Experience Is Here
At Wrike our objective has always been to build a platform configurable and powerful enough to handle any situation and that provides you with the tools you need to do your best work. That's why we'd love to introduce you to the New Experience.
How to organize goals and milestones in Wrike
One of the best ways to organize your project effectively is to interconnect the tasks with the project goals. Thanks to this, tasks become meaningful for your team, people become more motivated and thus you get things done faster. For example, if you manage an online ad campaign, you can create top folders named after your goals: increase CTR, increase traffic, increase conversion rate. If you often create tasks via e-mail, it will be more convenient to name folders with shorter titles and describe exact goals in the folder details. Thus you get an important advantage: you can specify goals with numbers, such as: “Increase conversion rate from 5% to 20%.” Similarly, you can organize your tasks by the project milestones: In both cases, your tasks will include concrete steps to achieve the goals or the milestones. For example, these tasks can be: “try different landing page,” “specify keywords,” "create text ad for the new keywords," etc. As you can see, Wrike is very flexible. You can organize your plans conveniently and easy. If you are intersted in other ways of organizing your tasks in Wrike, you can read about How to organize work of departments, How to customize statuses, How to better organize projects and events, How to organize client projects.
Give Your Friends a Free Two-Month Trial of Wrike's Service
If you like what you see in Wrike, we welcome you to help us spread the word. More colleagues in the system means more value for you. The growth also helps us fund product development to bring you new, innovative features faster. We highly appreciate when our users give us a reference, and we want to help you as much as possible with that. Now you can give your friends, vendors and customers a FREE two-month trial of Wrike's service. How does it work? 1. You get a unique discount code by clicking the special button in your account. 2. You refer a friend to Wrike, and the friend signs up for Wrike, using the discount code. Please note that the unique code is applicable for new users only. 3. Your friend gets a FREE month of the subscription, in addition to a regular 30-day trial. 4. Result: you help both your friend and Wrike. The good deeds will return in the form of the friend's appreciation and new features from Wrike. Thank you for spreading the word about Wrike!
Meet Wrike Analyze: Bringing Business Intelligence Into Wrike
What if there was a reporting option as powerful as a BI tool but more accessible to business users and already built into your collaborative work management software? Meet Wrike Analyze: advanced reports and analytics easily accessible within Wrike. Read to learn more of its features!
Presenting: the New Wrike Dublin Office
The new Dublin, Ireland office officially opened today, October 21st, with a fitting celebration involving Minister of State at the Department of Finance Eoghan Murphy TD, our CEO Andrew Filev, and many guests and neighbors from the Dublin tech community.
Our Favorite Highlights From Collaborate Day Two
In the blink of an eye, Collaborate 2021 is over, and we’re reflecting on a dynamic event jam-packed with insightful keynotes, fascinating roundtable discussions, and engaging executive panels. We loved having you with us at the event, chatting with you at our virtual booths, and seeing your amazing selfies. Day two proved to be an exciting day, and we’re taking the time to reminisce on our favorite moments. How we can become collaborative powerhouses One of our favorite sessions of the entire event was from leadership expert Rob Cross on the different ways collaboration supports outstanding teams. With twenty years of research from over 300 organizations under his belt, we were all ears for Rob’s insight into what makes a team successful. We were surprised (and a little shocked) to see how and why teams are breaking down. With real-life examples of teams cracking under pressure, there was plenty of fascinating insight into how to avoid these common blockers in your own organization. How very different teams manage the creative process It was amazing to witness some of the best creative minds in the business — like Nickelodeon and Monumental Sports — share their perspectives on the complexities of today’s work environment and what the best in class are doing to accomplish more with less. Hosted by Esther Flammer, Wrike’s Head of Marketing at Citrix, these creative forces discussed everything from the biggest challenges of maintaining creativity and productivity in digital, remote, and hybrid environments to using technology to increase efficiencies and create work-life balance in the modern workplace. We don’t know about you, but this is one we’ll definitely be watching back. Bringing teams together with collaborative work management We loved hearing Sherrie Besecker, Digital Program Manager at Syneos Health, speak about how they bring together thousands of employees into one platform to connect, communicate, and work together in real time. With hundreds of hours of lost time saved every year, Sherrie showed us how her company uses collaborative work management to manage critical, sensitive, end-to-end workflows that guarantee a great outcome for both internal and external stakeholders. Welcoming you all to Collaborate Our favorite part of Collaborate 2021 was seeing all our attendees engaging with the platform, the sessions, and our virtual booths. You were the true highlight of the event! We can’t wait to bring you to our next work management conference (hopefully, in person!), but in the meantime, you’re welcome to watch Collaborate 2021 back with our on-demand sessions. Whether you were there in real time and want to re-watch something or you couldn’t make the live event, head here for access to Collaborate On-Demand. See you next year!
“Win a Book!” Series: the Collaboration Economy (Review of “Wikinomics”)
" series with it. The second reason is that this book is a perfect way to start your Enterprise 2.0 journey, as it explains the transformation of the business environment by Web 2.0 technologies in very plain terms. The main goal of “Wikinomics” is to draw your attention to the processes that take place and trends that emerge in the present economy. Web 2.0 is how companies innovate, build relationships, market and compete. More and more businesses are harnessing the power of collective intelligence with the help of “weapons of mass collaboration,” such as blogs, wikis, tags, social networks, etc. This helps them to get closer to their customers, drive performance, implement service improvements, create new products and more. The objective of the authors is also to prove that this new way of doing business actually has many more benefits than risks. By providing readers with numerous examples, the authors, Don Tapscott and Anthony Williams, roll out facts that should not be missed by a company that wants to thrive in the new environment, called “Wikinomics”: • Being open and transparent for your customers and partners pays off, as it brings trust to a new higher level. • Peering with your customers boosts production of new and improved products and services. • Sharing some basic intellectual property helps companies bring products to market more quickly. • Acting globally is essential because global alliances, human capital marketplaces, and peer production communities will provide access to new markets, ideas and technologies. Tapscott’s call to companies is to adapt, and quickly – the changes are here to stay and will continue to unfold as time progresses. The book also describes a series of business ideas or approaches that are at the root of rapid, collective change. My favorites are: • Peer production, driven by “Peer Pioneers," the people who brought us open source software and Wikipedia while demonstrating that thousands of dispersed volunteers can create fast, fluid and innovative projects that outperform those of the largest and best-financed enterprises. • Ideagoras – websites or “marketplaces” where businesses can post their R&D needs to the masses and reward the problem-solvers, or offer up their unused inventions that would otherwise lie undeveloped and in secret. These emergent marketplaces for ideas, inventions, and uniquely qualified minds enables companies like P&G to tap global pools of highly skilled talent more than 10 times the size of its own workforce. • Prosumers — encouraging/supporting customers who participate in the creation and modification of the product, adding new features or offering uses that your company would have never thought of on its own. I referred to this idea in one of my previous posts “Your Customers Can Help You in Crisis,” and gave an example from my personal experience with developing our project management software, Wrike. While building Wrike, we greatly rely on our users’ requests, suggestions and ideas. It helps us make the product better. • Platforms for Participation — opening up your technology to allow others to create or even profit from its use, which may add to your bottom line and/or strengthen your brand. • Wiki Workplace, a new corporate collaborative environment that helps break information silos within an organization and connects internal teams. This idea is the closest of all to Project Management 2.0’s general concept: organizing corporate collaboration in a system that lets employees contribute and modify content in a freeform manner, so that structures (plans, schedules and other related project data) emerge over time. The book itself is a great example of collaborative production. It is an Anglo-Canadian team effort. Don Tapscott and Anthony Williams were separated by the Atlantic Ocean when they wrote the book. These transatlantic roots give “Wikinomics” depth and interest, with numerous case studies from both continents. In addition, one of the chapters in the book was open for edits from its readers for quite a while. The authors work for the same consulting firm, New Paradigm, which marks the book as a client-development project, - but it is none the worse for that. Indeed, the commercial resources mean it is well-researched, well-written and edited with an eye to its sales role. The book is written in easy-to-understand language and makes a pleasant and interesting reading, as it contains dozens of real life wars stories from companies like IBM, P&G, BMW and Boeing. Of course, some of these examples and stories may not be brand new to you, if you read the blogosphere daily. However, while reading them in “Wikinomics,” you get another chance to analyze them and see whether they may be applicable to your own business. One of the best things about “Wikinomics” is the website it spawned, where a blog about collaboration and aspects of organizational change is an addendum more vibrant than the actual book. Though there are some questionable ideas in the book (for example, with all due respect, I doubt that “the participation revolution” will immediately “lift millions of people out of poverty”), “Wikinomics” is definitely worth your attention. “Wikinomics” is an important book for any company or business person trying to understand how to thrive in an age where traditional top-down, command-and-control structures are being challenged. Mass collaboration may sound like a buzz word, but as some have already found out (look for an example in the book), ignoring it could leave you burned. So to those of you who haven’t yet read the book, I strongly recommend it. Those who have read “Wikinomics,” please jump to the comments section and tell us your impressions of the book. By the way, “Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything” is the first book to be given away during the “Project Management 2.0 Books Giveaway”! The author of the best comment to this post will get “Wikinomics” for FREE! Update: The book went to Laura, who commented on this post on Thursday, October 22, 2009. Congratulations, Laura! Hope your innovations journey will be successful!
The Best Moments From Collaborate 2021 Day One
At last, the big event is in full swing! We finally opened the virtual Collaborate doors today to thousands of work management enthusiasts for an exciting first day. We welcomed attendees to our digital conference platform, where they could join our mainstage sessions, visit virtual booths, hop into breakout sessions, attend tailored roundtable discussions, and of course, take selfies in our virtual photo booth. While we prepare for day two, we’re taking a quick breather and reflecting on our favorite parts of day one of Collaborate. The four “shocks" reshaping the future of work Everyone’s talking about the future of work, digital transformation, and reshaping the modern workplace. But what does all this mean in practice? We’re one step closer to understanding what continuous reinvention means after guest speaker J.P. Gownder’s fascinating talk on using research to predict the future of work. As Vice President and Principal Analyst at Forrester, it’s safe to say that Gownder knows a thing or two about what’s going on in the workplace. He identified the four shocks influencing the workplace (systemic risk, automation, workforce data, and employee power) and how companies can mitigate threats and utilize opportunities. How Walmart Canada gets things done Nothing is more impressive than witnessing teams overhaul their operations to become lean, agile operational machines. And that’s precisely what Francis Lalonde, VP of Transportation at Walmart Canada, demonstrated during an engaging executive panel featuring Karina Fernandez, Chief Information Officer of the American Society of Hematology (ASH), and Amir Younes, Vice President of Client Success, Wrike, a Citrix company. We learned how Walmart Canada uses collaborative work management to strip complexity and set new standards for operations, collaboration, and communication for the entire North American transportation business. One thing for sure, we can all take a page out of their book! Tackling the “dark matter” of work We're not making an obscure sci-fi reference here, we promise. We’re talking about the exciting opening keynote from Andrew Filev, SVP and Wrike GM at Citrix, on the “dark matter” of work — a fitting metaphor for illustrating the newfound complexity of the modern workplace. Andrew says during his session that: “The European Council for Nuclear Research believes that we only see about 5% of all matter in the universe. Yet, the other 95% still exerts its gravitational force on the universe.” “I draw this parallel for our modern work environments. Most of the information related to work travels outside of the visible space of our system of records and instead lives in the dark matter of instant messages and video calls. This makes work difficult to deliver, and even harder to predict and scale.” Andrew discusses how teams can tackle this “dark matter” and implement systems to bring all work into the light. Let’s just say we’re on board! Innovations in work management There’s never been a better time for organizations to adopt new technologies and cloud platforms to support hybrid workforces. On day one of Collaborate, our Wrike product leader Alexey Korotich presented on the myriad of exciting new features and innovations in the work management space. Our favorite launch might be Wrike for Goal Management, specifically designed to enhance visibility for hybrid and distributed teams. Head over to our Collaborate product announcement blog to learn about the exciting innovations and features announced at this year’s event. Showcasing something for everyone While we loved the mainstage presentations, it was great to see attendees jump into our breakout sessions and roundtable discussions, each tailored to different industries from marketing and creatives to IT, professional services, and healthcare. We can’t wait to bring you even more exciting content on day two.
How to better organize projects and events in Wrike
We designed Wrike to be easily customizable. Often we receive messages from our users who say that the product is awesome, so our efforts are appreciated, and we are moving in the right direction. We are sure that you love things that are able to meet your unique needs. However, when you have a blank sheet and a network of tasks in mind, it might be hard to organize it effectively from the very beginning. What is great, in Wrike, you can start with several tasks and make the ground hierarchy around them. You can also have multiple hierarchies for the same project, slicing in terms of client, product, process, etc. Your project organization can grow organically and adapt to changes and new reporting requirements. Here are some tips on how to start planning in Wrike. General suggestions Your greatest benefit is that you don’t need to determine the full plan from the very beginning. You can start with a very simple plan and then gradually advance it. At first, you can keep your tasks in a list in “My Folders”. If a task requires collaboration, you share it with your associates. They will access and contribute to the task from their own workspaces. When you find yourself creating many tasks related to a certain subject or a particular team, create a folder and include these tasks there. Currently, you can do this by including necessary tasks in folders one by one. This way, you don’t miss or skip any task. Very soon we’ll make this process even more convenient for you and release drag-and-drop functionality. When this topic is also full of diverse tasks, you can create subfolders. Vice versa, you can move the existing folder level down and convert it into the subfolder. This can be useful when your areas of responsibility grow and you want to join several folders into one parent folder. We have prepared some examples of how you can organize your plans in Wrike. Let's start from projects and events. Organizing projects and events Then you can extend your plan with additional details, such as promotion channels and so on. You create subfolders for them, so you have a well-structured plan that consists of lists of related, actionable items. You can share the entire event plan with your team to give them the whole picture of the project status. You can also separately share every part of the plan with its responsible party only, your partners and relevant contractors. With project status update examples, you can see how team transparency can contribute to your project's success, with regular updates and reports ready for you in Wrike. ____ You might be also interested in How to organize work of departments, How to customize statuses, How to organize goals and milestones, How to organize client projects in Wrike.
Every Startup Needs a Market: The Wrike Story
Every business needs to understand its market before it builds its products. Startups must provide a solution that no one else is providing, to ease a pain point that is real and relevant. Ideally the solution is so meaningful that customers fall all over themselves to pay for it. In an April 2014 Inc.com article, digital product strategist Neil Cabage named this the number one criterion that every new startup must consider. But how? This is where professional market research comes in to help you figure out if there is a real market need for your product or service. And while access to research information may not come cheap, there are other ways to get a pulse on your audience, such as conducting informal surveys and polls. The alternative is failure. If a business doesn't have a market, or doesn't know who it will be marketing to, it will flounder trying to find an audience. If they find one in time, luck is on their side. If not, they will likely close their doors. Answering the Need for an Efficient Collaboration Tool Let's take the example of our own company. When Wrike started out as a small side project of CEO Andrew Filev's, it had a built-in market already: itself. From a recent profile article on Forbes: "We started as a collaboration and project-management vendor and then as we were working on managing our clients’ projects, we realized the need for something bigger. We needed a tool to help us collaborate better. So we created Wrike to solve our own problem,” says Filev. The great thing was, the need for a more efficient collaboration platform wasn't just specific to Wrike and its initial customers. It was, and still is, a common enough problem among fast-moving companies, so much so that customers actually raise their hands to get onboard. Again, from the Forbes article: Most of Wrike’s customers come through word-of-mouth and online. They don’t have to cold-call businesses. And while they have a tiered subscription model to fit any budget, most of Wrike’s customers come straight to their Professional or Enterprise Plans because they already have experienced the pain that comes with project management and are ready to try new tools to make them more effective and efficient. If your startup identifies a market need, and can provide a solution that solves that problem, you're one step closer to success. The only thing missing is: get that product out ASAP! Read the full Forbes article here: Andrew Filev's Wrike Wants to Bring Project Management and Collaboration to the Masses Image credits: "Customer" by 10ch on Flickr.
Latest Twitter News about Wrike
wrike Netbook giveaway went to Jürgen Oschadleus - here at PMI NA Congress all the way from Australia. Congrats! #pminac https://twitpic.com/leb2s varjuluceno Check out Wrike - helps bad project managers become good ones https://www.wrike.com/ bradruben @andrewsthoughts Can users of @Wrike win the Netbook! And can we do it remotely! We love your product! at #pminac andrewsthoughts RT @wrike Come to our booth for the netbook giveaway today! 2pm, booth #933. #pminac https://twitpic.com/ldgsk nderyogi Project Management Software, Wrike.com, Is Now in Spanish! https://bit.ly/bg8fl AliceCWilson Wrike Interface in Spanish: RT @Online Project Management: Wrike Product Blog: Announcements.https://retwt.me/QlOg jimboot @macangel We have merlin but it is overkill for what we need. Wrike has been sugstd by biz coach smallbizasst small business cool tool of the week: https://www.wrike.com/ CollabCloud Project Management Software-as-a-Service Wrike.com Launches Spanish Version - Newswire Today (press release) https://bit.ly/3D1Rri karencurrier @carywood the project management peeps I follow tweet about Wrike for managing projects. philrj @greywolfnz Agreed. I also just discovered Wrike, which may be the solution for my email-focused team. The integration is quite impressive. KayWais Going to the PMI North American Congress? I am. Win a netbook from Wrike https://bit.ly/18Kvqp corneliusficht How easy is your PM software? As easy as using email? Try Wrike & let email be the tool of choice https://bit.ly/c3Tb4 Do you have any thoughts about Wrike you want to share? Go ahead and do it now!
Meet me at Cloud Ave
on the emerging trends in the development of business software, SaaS and collaboration. This “humble blogger,” as he calls himself, moderated the Project Management 2.0 panel at the Office 2.0 Conference this year. Now Zoli is working on a new blog – CloudAve.com. This blog is a joint effort of Zoli and Ben Kepes, the founding editor of Diversity. Ben is an expert in SaaS, social media and user-centric design. Both Zoli and Ben are evangelists for cloud computing, hence the focus of the blog. I was invited to contribute my ideas to this remarkable resource. The result is my article, “Project Management 2.0: Catalyzing Changes in Project Management.” I encourage you to post your thoughts here and at CloudAve.com. I’ll be glad to continue the discussion.
And the Free Netbook from Wrike Goes to…
Jürgen came all the way from Australia to give a speech on the role of communications and leadership in project management. We bet he didn’t expect to get a free netbook as a pleasant side benefit. The winner of the drawing held by Wrike is a passionate project management innovator and an advocate of a new management approach focused on conversational leadership. He travels a lot, bringing his knowledge, experience and insight to global audiences. No doubt that Wrike’s prize will be a useful addition to his traveler’s tech kit. We’d also like to thank all the participants for taking part in our giveaway. We hope to see you all next year at the PMI Global Congress 2010!