Enterprise Wiki Solutions and SharePoint Alternatives

What do enterprise wiki solutions, SharePoint alternatives and Central Desktop have in common? They can all be synonyms for the same types of tools, but not all Enterprise Grade Wiki's are true SharePoint alternatives. Enterprise Wiki Solutions are: Wiki Workspaces built to scale easily to the needs of large enterprises.Central Desktop's Enterprise Edition wiki is a SharePoint alternative that deploys faster, easier and at a much lower cost than a typical, SharePoint deployment.

How, Why, and When an Enterprise Wiki Can be Used As a SharePoint Alternative

Why is the easy part. Wiki's are easier to use than SharePoint, they are easy to edit (WYSIWYG) and most Enterprise Wiki Solutions are deployed as a SaaS solution, making it easy to access documents or data anytime and from anywhere. The features that make a wiki solution enterprise-grade include security, scalability and LDAP (single sign-on). It is not hard to find Enterprise Wiki Solutions. Most Enterprise 2.0 vendors offer some form of wikis. What makes Central Desktop unique is its combination of broad features that make it a viable alternative to SharePoint as well as its strong focus on ROI. Features unique to Central Desktop include project management tools, database flexibility and workflow automation functionality. Workflow gives companies the ability to set-up very complex rule sets and streamline their day-to-day business processes.

Easily Setting-up a Hosted Wiki SharePoint Solution

The Enterprise Edition comes with one-on-one time with our Implementation Specialist who will help you think through your business processes and set-up polished, efficient corporate wiki workspaces before you roll-out to your organization. We often recommend that you roll-out Central Desktop to your managers first and gather some feedback before rolling Central Desktop out to the rest of the organization.

If you would like to get started or learn more about using Central Desktop as a SharePoint Alternative contact sales or sign-up for a demo.

Related Articles:

Workflow Improvements: Does Your Work Flow by James Bowler

Enterprise 2.0 for Fortune 500 Companies - Does ROI Matter? by Cheryl Smith

Wikis

Wikis! They are everywhere!!

Did you know that every home tab inside of Central Desktop is a fully editable Wiki? Indeed it is. This means that you can choose what content you have displayed on the homepage. The Project Management workspace comes pre-populated with three application blocks, so you very well may have assumed that this was just the "way it is". While these three application blocks are very useful when managing a project or department so you and your users can see what activities are overdue, upcoming and recent, you may want to remove those blocks, and add different application blocks such as Status, Add Database Record, Calendar, Announcements etc. to the Homepage.  Using the WYSIWYG editor you can also add and format text, images, web links and downloadable documents.  Just locate the "Edit this page" button and go for it!

Note that the navigation bars on the left and right may also have an edit link (this depends on the template that you are using).

Something to note - Wiki editing is addictive! Have fun with it, use the revision history tool if you want to revert to a previous version and make sure to keep the environment clutter free so it remains intuitive. Thanks!

Wiki Software

A wiki is a Web site that allows users to add and update content on the site using their own Web browser. This is made possible by something called wiki software, which runs on a web server. Ultimately, the vast majority of the content - which could be anything from documents to birthday announcements and photos of the last company Christmas party - was created by users. Within a company, those users may be staff or customers.

The term wiki comes from the Hawaiian phrase wiki wiki, which means "super fast." And that's just what can happen to the growth of a company that creates its own wiki. But it's not just because it improves workflow: it's also because you're creating a culture that fosters growth.

Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia created by users, is probably the best known use of wiki software. The site gets over 600,000 visitors every day, and about 175,000 edits or contributions. The percentage of edits to users is impressive, and is an indication of how important it is to create a collaborative business culture.

There are companies all over the world that, even though they don't necessarily pay well, have an intensely dedicated staff. It's because of the collaborative culture they've created. Every one of their employees feels like their job isn't really 'going to work', it's a family, and a mission, and it's fun!

Google is probably the best example. I'm certain many Google employees prefer the office to home.
Not all companies can afford to offer Google perks like onsite childcare, free meals cooked by excellent chefs with offerings like macaroni and cheese with wild mushrooms and truffles, or a $1,000 subsidy if you buy an environmentally-friendly car. And most companies are definitely not set up to allow their employees to bring their pet to work.

But every company can afford collaboration software, and the wiki software and other features and functionality are an excellent start to creating a culture that makes people want to come to work.

It's true that collaboration software increases productivity and saves money but, if used correctly, it also helps you attract and keep dedicated employees. They feel more like the company belongs to them. And there's nothing quite as motivating as a sense of ownership. 

Business Team Collaboration - Wikis and Web Conferencing

Fall 2006 Release Simplifies Collaboration for Business Teams

PASADENA, Calif., September 12, 2006 - Central Desktop, a pioneer in the business software collaboration market, today announced its Fall 2006 Release of Central Desktop, which features Central Desktop Live. Central Desktop Live is the industry's first web conferencing tool fully integrated into a collaborative, wiki environment. Central Desktop users can now schedule and host real-time web conferences directly within Central Desktop.

"Central Desktop is about making web collaboration affordable, not just in terms of dollars but in terms of the time necessary to get things done", said Isaac Garcia, Central Desktop CEO. "By unifying different collaboration technologies behind an intuitive web interface, Central Desktop users spend more time working together rather than juggling tools."

"Central Desktop provides us with the option to communicate and collaborate with our customers in real-time or on their time without switching programs or logging into other services," said Doug Mitchell, Vice President of Dispatching Solutions, Inc., a provider of GPS and Logistics Software. "Rather than piecemealing tools together to meet our various needs, Central Desktop vastly simplified our collaboration experience. We cancelled our other web conferencing and audio conferencing subscriptions."

Central Desktop's business wiki empowers users to efficiently organize and share information in a flexible, user-centric environment. It unifies traditionally disconnected collaboration tools such as wikis, web conferencing and discussion groups under one umbrella, providing users with tools that accommodate different types of team and project collaboration.

Designed from the bottom-up for business teams, the company provides simple and affordable collaboration solutions primarily to small-and-medium-sized businesses. Central Desktop is delivered 100% on-demand making it affordable to new users and still scalable with their budgetary and technological needs.

Fall 2006 Release
The Fall 2006 Release of Central Desktop is a major step in providing a simplified online collaboration experience for business users. In addition to traditional collaboration features such as project tracking, task management, document management and discussion forums, the Fall 2006 Release includes Central Desktop Live, an integrated web conferencing tool that allows users to schedule and host real-time web meetings directly within Central Desktop.

"Business users don't have time to integrate, configure and track credentials for different applications," said David Coleman, Managing Director for Collaborative Strategies, a collaboration software Industry analyst firm. "Central Desktop aids in productivity by enabling users to use just one product for all their collaboration needs."

Key Fall 2006 Release Features:
· Integrated real-time web conferencing (Central Desktop Live)
· Integrated free audio conferencing
· Email In (Create and assign activities and send files to Central Desktop via email)
· Email discussion groups (Subscription based discussion groups)
· iCal supported group calendaring
· Microsoft Outlook calendaring support for events
· Enhanced enterprise grade search (Full text document search)

Central Desktop Fall 2006 and Central Desktop Live are available immediately at www.centraldesktop.com. Standard pricing starts at $25/month for 10 users with plans accommodating larger teams and companies. Central Desktop Live is available as an option for each plan. A free version of the service is available for limited use as well.

About Central Desktop

Central Desktop, a pioneer in the on-demand collaboration software market, provides affordable and easy to use online collaboration tools to business teams in small and medium sized businesses. Used by more than 10,000 teams and individuals around the world, Central Desktop is an alternative to complex, traditional groupware products such as Microsoft SharePoint and Lotus Notes. Central Desktop clients include groups within Fortune 500 companies, academia, government agencies, manufacturing firms, and software development firms around the globe. Founded in early 2005, Central Desktop is headquartered in Pasadena, California. For more information, visit www.centraldesktop.com.

©Central Desktop. All rights reserved. Central Desktop, Central Desktop Live and the Central Desktop logo are all registered trademarks of Central Desktop. All other trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

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Tags: Central Desktop, wiki, web conferencing, collaboration, SaaS, team collaboration , Office2.0

Central Desktop- Wiki Collaboration

Troy Dreier from IntranetJournals wrote a short piece about us and our undercover wiki collaboration:

"Look around the Central Desktop Web site and you'll never see the "W" word. In this case, "W" stands for "wiki," and you won't find it anywhere, even though Central Desktop is built on a wiki engine and provides exactly the kind of easy collaboration features that wikis are known for."

Click Here to read the entire article.

Thanks Troy!