harmon.ie,^® the social software company, today released 2013 predictions for the enterprise social and mobile industry by CEO and co-founder Yaacov Cohen. Cohen sees social and collaborative processes becoming fully integrated into business workers’ daily habits, as opposed to being individual silos supported by a separate set of tools. Specifically, the proliferation and adoption of Microsoft’s SharePoint and IBM’s Connections place these traditional enterprise leaders back in the center of the business with key social collaboration platforms. And RIM’s re-entry into the enterprise mobile market with BlackBerry Enterprise Server 10 (BES 10) and BlackBerry 10 devices will signal its renaissance as a secure mobile player in the enterprise.

Here’s Cohen’s rationale. Do you agree we are “back to the future” and beyond?

Why RIM?

• The desire for secure mobile – The explosion of iPad usage is driving an insatiable desire to use the iPad at work. However, data stored on the iPad is at risk if the device is stolen or lost, and Apple doesn’t have a native solution. But there’s hope…
• The release of BES 10 - With this release, RIM is going back to its roots as the leading secure mobile enterprise solution. Initially it was through secure proprietary devices; this time it is embracing its rivals by securing all mobile devices: iOS, Android and the new Blackberry 10. The strategy of supporting competing devices will not only grow the iPad market, but it will also be the impetus for RIM’s comeback.

Why Microsoft?

• Microsoft’s acquisition of Yammer – “Microsoft” and “cool” are two words which normally don’t go together. But with Microsoft’s acquisition of Yammer, Microsoft is now in the driver’s seat to deliver the social experience to the millions of Office users. Yammer, combined with other Office products like SharePoint, will make Office social and for the first time combine business processes with social activities.
• The Microsoft Cloud – Microsoft’s entrenchment in the business world will pole vault its new Office cloud to becoming a serious player very quickly. All the advantages of a SaaS offering, attractive pricing and a familiar set of tools will make it hard for competitors to rival Microsoft in the enterprise cloud arena.

Why IBM?

• Social business initiative – IBM continues to make a push and significant investments into helping organizations build a social business.
• Integration with entrenched products – IBM Connections version 4.0 presents an exciting new social and collaboration offering with out-of-the-box integration with Microsoft Outlook. Like RIM, integrating with entrenched competitive products like Microsoft’s will pay off.

“Social interactions and collaboration will become an integral part of employees’ daily workflow and business processes. Users will not be relegated to an isolated set of productivity tools,” said Cohen. “The integration between collaboration/social products and enterprise business software will breathe new life into old behemoths. Most notably, the emergence of meaningful activity streams in enterprise applications will become mainstream.”

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About harmon.ie

harmon.ie provides software solutions to advance the social user experience by aggregating document collaboration, enterprise social networking and other social tools into the email client and mobile devices. Thousands of businesses including Continental Corporation, BearingPoint and Amway use harmon.ie to vastly increase user adoption of applications such as Microsoft SharePoint, IBM^® Connections, and Google Docs^™ for social and collaboration functions. harmon.ie is a Microsoft Gold Competency ISV Partner. For more information, visit http://harmon.ie/.

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