Interview: eTouch CEO Discusses Integrating SamePage with WebEx Connect

A few weeks ago we covered that Cisco/WebEx and California-based enterprise wiki provider eTouch Systems were integrating SamePage, an enterprise wiki, into the WebEx Connect collaboration environment. Since that time, I had the opportunity to ask a few questions of Aniruddha Gadre, CEO of eTouch.

eTouch is very focused on usability and their Same Page wiki allows customers and employees to “access a secure wiki that enables them to communicate, collaborate and organize energetic ventures.”

By closely integrating the collaborative content editing capabilities of SamePage with the application mashup capabilities of WebEx Connect, the new platform is expected to be available to more than 2 million Cisco customers in an effort to allow users to create content and collaborate on the go.

I asked Gadre about the significance of the partnership with WebExConnect, his thoughts about the future of Enterprise 2.0, and the importance of collaboration and workflow.

CMSWire: What sets eTouch apart from the rest?

Mr. Gadre: There are a number of important factors that set us apart from the other wiki players. First of all our wiki is built on top of a solid, enterprise CMS core which allows us to scale up and offer a lot of enterprise features very elegantly. Further, we have focused on three critical aspects that a lot of wiki players ignore or cannot provide:

• Security: Offering granular security, role-based access, LDAP single sign-on, etc…
• Usability: Offering WYSIWYG editing, Integrated Search, linking, comments, plugins
• Support: Deployment, customization, integration etc

We feel these aspects have definitely helped us become an attractive Wiki player to partner with.

CMSWire: Can you talk more about how the collaborative content editing capabilities of SamePage will be integrated with the application mashup capabilities of WebEx Connect? Describe a business scenario or two that would benefit?

Mr. Gadre: The collaborative content editing capabilities of SamePage would be obvious to any user who has used our powerful WYSIWYG editor to create complex wiki pages by interacting with colleagues. The integration with WebEx further simplifies this by allowing any WebEx Connect user to get these collaborative editing capabilities within the WebEx Connect client. For example, a user with the WebEx Connect client can simply add the SamePage widget and then invite any other WebEx Connect user to join his wiki for collaboration.

In terms of mash-ups, our powerful plugin architecture inherently allows you to create mashups with Google maps, YouTube video, Google calendar, etc. We also have plans to develop composite applications with other Connect partners moving forward.

The business potential of such composite applications can be immense. For example, a WebEx Connect user may be able to launch a WebEx meeting; then get feedback and collaborate with the attendees using a wiki application like SamePage; then publish specific content from the wiki into some other application within Connect and so on.

CMSWire: How are you planning to implement an infrastructure secure enough to ensure high volumes are supported adequately? In addition, how will you provide a secure service that combines multiple SaaS applications?

Mr. Gadre: We already have a pretty robust infrastructure hosted in a secure data center to take care of the volumes for the hosted version of SamePage. Our clustered architecture also allows us to expand our infrastructure elegantly as we start seeing more volumes.

Like I mentioned: security is something that we have integrated at every level of our SaaS architecture rather than adding it as an after thought. That allows us to provide a secure service even in a complex environment with multiple applications.

Interview: eTouch CEO Discusses Integrating SamePage with WebEx Connect

\n\nA few weeks ago we covered that Cisco/WebEx and California-based enterprise wiki provider eTouch Systems were integrating SamePage, an enterprise wiki, into the WebEx Connect collaboration environment. Since that time, I had the opportunity to ask a few questions of Aniruddha Gadre, CEO of eTouch. \n\neTouch is very focused on usability and their Same Page wiki allows customers and employees to \"access a secure wiki that enables them to communicate, collaborate and organize energetic ventures.\" \n\nBy closely integrating the collaborative content editing capabilities of SamePage with the application mashup capabilities of WebEx Connect, the new platform is expected to be available to more than 2 million Cisco customers in an effort to allow users to create content and collaborate on the go.

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