Central Desktop News & Articles

Continuing a string of upgrades that came as recent as this past June, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) provider Central Desktop announced today its latest set of improvements, adding professional project management tools to its namesake technology. 

Cloud-based social collaboration platform Central Desktop (news, site) has recently added new features to its collaborative suite. New features include presence detection and polling, which will enhance the way collaborators engage with each other online.

In all the fuss around SharePoint since its release, alternatives are sometimes ove looked, which is a pity given that there are many effective, cheaper options around. Such is the case with Central Desktop (news, site), which has released its Common Ground Edition that offers review and approve components for marketing companies.

Whether it’s wireframes or flowcharts, diagrams can help make the process more visual and easier to understand. Recently, Central Desktop announced the availability of its new Online Diagrams feature which allows users to create professional quality diagrams including flowcharts, organizational charts, wireframes and mindmaps.

It's been a busy week in the SharePoint space with the release of a new tool for integration with Documentum, as well as integration with ComponentOne’s Doc-To-Help for SharePoint library access.

Central Desktop (news, site) offers a helping bridge between the tricky-to-manage islands of your MS Office docs and cloud data.

Central Desktop, a Software-as-a-Service provider, has spruced up its collaboration software platform with the addition of Web Folders, a feature that enables users to more readily manage files and folders stored in the cloud from their desktops.

Central Desktop (news, site), a cheapy SharePoint alternative, recently announced a significant update to the SaaS social technology platform. Central Desktop 2.0 brings an enhanced user interface and new features, including online file viewing, to the game.  

iBook. iPod. iPhone. iPad. Apple’s evolution is astounding. It’s like you can actually see the ape man begin to walk upright.

Right now, in a far off cubicle, someone is designing an e-commerce checkout application. It’s not unusual. There are thousands of existing e-commerce sites with their own checkout applications. And I can bet in the future there will be thousands more.

Some say Central Desktop (news, site) is like a cheaper version of SharePoint. Others of course, do not. In any case, the collaboration tool has turned the heads of a significant amount of people, and the company has a successful 2009 to prove it.

Central Desktop closed the year with a 44% year-over-year growth in revenue and a 50% increase in staff. How has demand for mid-market online collaboration weathered our economic woes? Isaac Garcia, CEO and co-founder of Central Desktop attributes their success and growth to their "comprehensive offering, outstanding customer service and relentless product innovation.”

Product innovation over the last year has included a Microsoft Outlook plug-in that enables two-way task and calendar synchronization, and a microblogging feature that allows users to post status updates within Central Desktop and syndicate them out to Facebook and Twitter. 

Moreover, they've got an impressive lineup of customers: Netflix, U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, Empowered Media, CBS, Powertek, DIRECTV PanAmericana and University of Wisconsin-Madison are just a few.

“As we kick off 2010, our core strategies remain on track as we continue to focus on strengthening our social technology platform with exciting new product upgrades this quarter,” Garcia continued. “Central Desktop remains committed to providing the most complete pure SaaS SharePoint alternative for the mid-market.”

What do you do if you run a small business, need a collaboration environment, but can’t afford SharePoint? Central Desktop (news, site) which provides a SaaS platform for small businesses, is offering such a solution to Intuit's Quickbook users by making it available through Intuit’s App Center.

For those not familiar with it, Central Desktop is a collaboration tool built on Web 2.0 technology for small business that is scalable and gives users a full range of collaboration tools including wikis, document sharing, task management and shared calendars.

Intuit’s App Center is an online market where users of Intuit’s business software Quickbooks Pro and Premier can trial and purchase applications that work directly out of Quickbooks.

While it is not clear how much users will be charged for using it on the IAC, Central Desktop has three different editions: Workgroup, Enterprise and Community.

There are a number of small differences between the three editions, but the only real difference is the pricing, which is based on the number of users. The Workgroup edition, which is for less than 25 users will cost up to US $99/ month, while the Enterprise edition for unlimited users costs US $10 per user/month. The community edition, again for more than 25 users, is US$ 3 month.

This is only the most recent addition to the Intuit platform. Earlier this month it went into partnership with Cabinet NG which extended Intuit’s own document management software.

For those interested in Central Desktop, if you sign up now you’ll get a full free15-day trial.
 

“The biggest problem with traditional Intranets,” begins CEO Isaac Garcia of Central Desktop, “is that they get stale very quickly.” Of his company’s new collaboration solution he peacefully concludes, “These turnkey Intranets are dynamic and living.”

Garcia makes a fair enough assessment of everyday Intranet, which is technically still in its infancy. But what exactly are turnkey Intranets?

Central Desktop expands on its suite of collaborative solutions by developing a strategic liaison with EditGrid, a Teams and Concepts Limited brand. With EditGrid’s honed spreadsheet expertise (rivalling even the untouchable Google), Central Desktop users can collaborate on their beloved grids in real-time within the Central Desktop user interface. They can also edit documents in tandom, audio conference, and create discussion threads and versioned file tracking.

Central Desktop recently proclaimed its alliance with Salesforce.com-supported AppExchange. The company touts its inherent power to simplify project work among two or more clients or partners as one of its flagship Central Desktop’s strongest suits. It makes for a tight integration of diverse applications and its multiple colleagues using each.