Podio collaborative work platform reaches 200,000

Podio Reaches 200,000 Organisations

 
 

Collaborative work platform, Podio, empowers teams to get real work done on any device, from anywhere; New Podio Share feature promotes easier content sharing

Citrix, the new owners of Podio, announced more than 200,000 organisations globally have adopted Podio, a powerful collaboration platform that enables people to work the way they want to, cut down on email and free themselves from content chaos. Podio can be accessed on the web, iPad, iPhone and Android devices, providing organizations with greater flexibility and transparency than ever before.
Podio by the numbers

• Today, more than 2.5 million Podio apps from the podio App Market have been installed in Podio workspaces. Podio workspaces have reached 700,000.
• More than 300,000 Podio apps have been created from scratch or modified by Podio users using the simple Podio App Builder, representing as many unique ways of getting work done.
• Almost 50 percent of Podio workspaces are 'open' instead of 'private', meaning any employee within an organization can participate. The large numbers of open Podio workspaces validates the growing industry trend towards sharing and increasing transparency in the workplace via social technology.
• Podio users have created 80 percent more status messages in workspace activity streams than private messages, and 50 percent more openly shared tasks than private ones. The way Podio users collaborate and communicate using Podio aligns with the workshifting trend of collaborating through social business tools and moving away from traditional communication silos, such as email or privately delegated tasks.

Podio Share

Citrix also announced today an innovative new Podio feature enabling users to share content, app data and tasks from Podio with teammates, partners or customers outside a private Podio workspace. The Podio Share feature also enables sharing of select content with recipients that are not in the Podio environment without compromising content privacy. Podio Share extends the collaborative power of Podio to anyone, but lets teams stay in control of the content they share.

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Becoming a Digital Business

An organisation cannot become a social business without first, or at least concurrently, becoming a digital business. Delegating digital roles to untrained, unmotivated or unwilling staff does not make a digital business. This common practice yields an inefficient retrofit rather than the transformation required to compete in today's digital world.

Organisations must review their structure, capabilities and resources allocated to all facets of digital integration across the organisation. This ranges from strategy, to development and production, brand, content, and creative, data, analytics, and CRM, media, mobile and social. Redesigning the organisation structure and processes and the change management associated with shifting the corporate culture to adopt to the connected and empowered consumer is an essential step in the evolution of today's businesses. Look upon it as developing a basic digital operating system for your organisation.

Five Reasons Why CRM Implementations Fail

When listening to concerns about CRM solutions, implementation is usually high up on the list.  Yes, it can be daunting, but it is the pivotal point of the overall project. So why do CRM implementations fail?  Below are the most common CRM implementation errors and how to avoid them.

Avoid Training the Trainer
Proper implementation of a CRM solution takes concurrent and complete commitment from your company.  Too frequently, companies tend to underestimate what it takes to get the job done. Having only one or two key people learn the system, so they can train other employees is a recipe for disaster.  All users should have an opportunity to work directly with the consultant or trainer.  Meet with your consultant to get a clear understanding of what it takes to fully implement the CRM system so you can reap the benefits throughout your organisation.

Avoid the temptation to train your staff by department; such as having accounts train in the morning and then have warehouse staff trained in the afternoon.  These sessions usually turn into a demonstration rather than interactive training.  But worse, trainees have no sense of how the software integrates nor how they are affected by events in other departments.

Underestimating Implementation Time
In order to keep costs down to close the deal and make the sale, a consultant might suggest you purchase fewer days than you really need for a successful implementation . This can make you dissatisfied with the service when you learn you must spend more than you expected in order to fully exploit the software, not to mention the cost of a delayed or failed implementation.  Consultants may not guarantee they can get the implementation done with the days they quote, but press them to be up front with what it really takes to get their system up and running throughout your business.  Ask for specific examples of other similar projects and their implementation duration.

Resistance to Change
Culture shock is possibly the most difficult hurdle in an CRM rollout.  Employees are resistant to change for a variety of reasons; usually rooted in some type of fear.  They may be worried that their jobs are at risk or that they will be unable to learn the new system.  Some may just be afraid of computers.  Whatever the reasons; education is the answer.  Try to let them see how the new system will benefit them personally.  They may be less stressed because all the information they need is readily available; they may be less exposed to failure because they have greater control and access to online help.  Once they see how their own lives will be easier, they will actually be excited about the new system.

Choosing the Wrong CRM System
Choosing the wrong CRM system can be devastating.  Don’t be persuaded by a consultant that repeatedly says “Yes it will do that”.  Ask them to show you.  What can happen is the “yes it will do that” turns into “yes it will do that, but it will take more customising at extra cost”.

No Management Buy-in and People Aren’t Held Accountable
Management has to understand that all of the previously mentioned issues can be resolved when they accept the idea that a new CRM system is best for the organisation.  It is imperative that management also buys into the implementation process, and supports the plan throughout the organisation.  They must understand that “training the trainer” to cut costs is not a solid option, and pressing consultants for accuracy in implementation costs and educating employees on benefits of a new system is critical.

Everyone throughout the organisation must believe that management is completely behind the project and will take any necessary action to ensure success.  Furthermore, management in smaller companies tends to be reluctant to holding people accountable for their performance.  Even the best employees can lose their edge when they know they will never be held accountable for sub-standard performance and some less perfect employees will take serious advantage of such an environment.  Sometimes, management must be prepared to make some tough decisions if an employee remains a roadblock to the project’s success.