by Mielle Sulliivan, Janus Networks
Inter-office communication can be complicated. There are lots of messages: messages for you, messages for your team, messages for your branch or company as a whole, interesting articles coworkers share…the list goes on. To often all of these messages can end up in a big pile in your inbox– where they can easily be lost. A new startup, CubeTree, address some of the challenges of workplace communication through a platform inspired by social networking.
In CubeTree, employees can create a profile, send out micro-updates, “follow” other coworkers, share documents, set up wikis, and much more. One particularly useful feature is the search tool– great for finding documents created by coworkers and filed with mysterious logic. The passive sharing of micro-updates for non essential information, like industry articles, is convenient because it helps reduce emails and therefore the chances that an important message will be buried.
Setup is quick and painless. Because CubeTree exists in the cloud, there is nothing to install. Just sign up for one of their three subscription levels and begin. Most employees will already be familiar with the social networking environment, so training is minimal. CubeTree also easily incorporates information from other commonly used office programs, such as Google Reader, Salesforce and Tripit trips.
Of course CubeTree is not the only company to take an idea that evolved in the social space and use if for the workplace. Yammer is already the standard for business micro-messaging. SocialText delivers workplace wiki solutions and LinkedIn is the site for professional profiles. But CubeTree offers it all, on one platform, with superior security assurance because the founders come straight from Symantec, an IT security leader.
For all its functionality, CubeTree is not an office suite. It doesn’t compete with any of the standard business software, but rather stands along side it. CubeTree is a complimentary office tool to help coworkers stay more organized and in better communication–something nearly every workplace could use in today’s hyper-information age.
You can contact the author at press@janusnetworks.com
Read our blog: janusnetworks.wordpress.com
Follow us in twitter: janusnetworks
Small Business Solutions 