Microsoft Outlook and IBM Lotus Notes users can now collaborate and join social enterprise networks directly from those applications with the announcement last week of harmon.ie for SharePoint 3.0, a platform that aggregates that social functionality within the e-mail interface.
Since many business users spend a large amount of time in their e-mail applications, harmon.ie 3.0 for SharePoint enables users to share and track documents; connect with colleagues; and initiate communications via phone, chat, video or e-mail right from the e-mail application, the company said.
“Enterprises recognize that the way we work today hampers efficient document authoring and editing, and therefore overall business agility,” said Yaacov Cohen, cofounder and CEO of harmon.ie, in a statement announcing the release.
“Business users working on a contract should be able to check the status of a document draft, initiate a phone call, or chat with the person editing the document from one window. harmon.ie 3.0 brings all of these processes into the e-mail interface for improved efficiency and team interaction.”
In the 3.0 release, harmon.ie introduces a People view that provides an activity stream for both document and people status updates, as well as the ability to open documents and user profiles from that stream. Also from within the stream, users can kick off videoconferencing, chat or e-mail; the product supports Microsoft Lync, Lotus Sametime and Cisco UC so users don’t have to change windows to communicate. Finally, the software “suggests colleagues,” according to the company, to help users extend their connections based on contact history established by e-mail, chat or document collaboration.
harmon.ie for SharePoint 3.0—Outlook Edition will be released later this month. A beta version will be available shortly.
