This week we launched Cleartext.IM our hosted instant messaging services for professionals with business contacts on EIM and friends on Messenger, GTalk & Twitter public networks.
Since we launched our IM platform in 2010 we've had people asking for single accounts rather than whole of domain company purchases so this is thier chance to step up from public IM services and benefit from the security and reliability of an enterprise IM platform.
Our desktop app remains a free download and along with many other Jabber/XMPP software programs works with our instant messaging services. Cleartext Desktop is a good alternative to the vanilla IM programs like Psi and Pidgin, providing a richer end user experiance, especially if you wan tto use Twitter over XMPP.
We're offering a free 14-21 day trial to try out the services and after that we'll expect you to sign up for just $3.25 per month.
There have been many conversations about 'social federation' over the last couple of years and organisations like Vodafone and Diaspora have tried to push out technology pieces that deliver on this, both using XMPP.
There are some other pointers to XMPP as being the preferred underlying technology that could give us 'social federation', the use of this protocol by Facebook, Google, and many other 'chat' platforms that run alongside web (HTTP) based social tools.
If you look at well known microblogging services they've both dabbled with XMPP, Twitter up until mid 2009, but they failed to grasp the correct way to deploy large scale XMPP services and Status.net who still use XMPP.
Other companies using XMPP natively or as connectors into their data streams are for example;
Yammer
DuckDuckGo
Cleartext
Jaiku, Friendfeed, GitHub etc
I'm not saying that XMPP is THE technology stack that will deliver federated social solutions but it's got most of what we need;
IETF standardisation
Federation
Security (inc built in anti-spam measures)
Authentication
Extensibility (via XML)
A rich technology and skills ecosystem
It took email awhile to federate and IM only achieved this via XMPP in 2004 so I guess there's scope for a few more years of startups attempting to 'land grab' using their own proprietary tech (e.g. Twitter) before everyone falls in line behind XMPP, or something better.
Pop over to David Banes' blog to discuss this article.
13 Jul
Charging for cloud services during the GFC
As the Software as a Service (SaaS, or cloud as it's called now) market evolves the global financial crisis (GFC) continues to hit company cash flow hard. I'm talking about two types of company, the SaaS provider and the SaaS user, not our company, we're just fine :)
The SaaS providers imperative is to reduce the amount of work to process a deal and minimise the number of transactions a process requires to take the money. A very large portion of clients will be SMB/E's so the transaction amounts will be small. Accounts departments need to be very efficient otherwise margins will disappear in accounts staff salaries in the blink of an eye.
For many potential SaaS users their imperative is to eliminate capital expenditure and introduce flexibility in licensing numbers and therefore costs as the size of their business fluctuates. Since the GFC kicked off finance options have crept up the vendor selection criteria list.
The problem for the SaaS vendor
The CFO will be applying pressure within the business to get as much cash in up front as possible with the minimum of hassle (read cost). The problem is that the Sales Directors will be talking to clients who don't want to make large up front payments. In highly competitive mature markets where product performance is very similar customers will shop around for the best terms, it's easy to switch SaaS vendors.
What I'm seeing now is a disconnect within some SaaS vendors, almost a denial that purchasing trends have changed quickly since the GFC kicked in. Organisations are moving to SaaS because of the payment regimes, they don't want to pay up front and in many cases just don't have the cash to.
The message has been clear to me for a while now, offer payment terms to [smaller] businesses otherwise you risk not getting the deal or worse loosing an existing clients business altogether when it comes to 'contract renewal' time.
The conundrum here is how as a SaaS vendor do you balance the opposing forces of a CFO charged with 'cashing up' the business and a Sales Director doing everything possible to close new and renewal business in a time when CIO's and IT managers don't have heaps of cash?
It's not that hard really
The solution is to offer payment mechanisms that allow for 'hands free' payments such as PayPal, recurring credit/debit card or periodic bank transfers. If you can, get larger clients to agree to commit to a specific term for example six months or a year with a purchase order. The Sales Director will be happy and the CFO will have recurring revenue and some certainty of advance revenue so the business can re-invest.
This transactional method of accepting payment for SaaS has another very nice side effect, it removes the 'contract renewal' boundary that crops up every year. Often these artificial boundaries prompt a customer to look at the market again to make sure they have the best service at the best price.
If a customer is on rolling periodic payments and the vendor is delivering excellent service more often than not payments just continue to roll in. I realise the Sales Director now has a new problem, calculating 'renewal' commissions for inside sales teams but that's easy, only pay commission on up sell :)
My advice?
Make it easy for customers to give you money, don't try and hang on to the 'pay up front' mentality of old skool 'desktop' software vendors, or create minimum deal sizes for terms to be offered otherwise you'll be missing out on significant revenue from millions of smaller businesses that want to buy into the financial benefits of SaaS.
In saturated markets you will always have competitors willing to take someones order, whatever the payments terms they have to offer. If your accounting processes and payment receipt methods need to evolve then push the fast forward button, your competitors already have.
David Banes,
MD, Cleartext.
Disclaimer: I'm not offering financial advice here, just passing on experiance.
11 Jul
An IT Managers Guide to Cleartext
We're in a niche of the managed hosting and security marketed and our pitch is that organisations who have bought into managed email and email security/compliance need to apply similar services and solutions to IM and microblogging that they do with email.
Whilst there isn't a large amount of spam in these communication channels any content control or DLP rules an organisation has for their email arguably need to be duplicated in their IM and microblogging solutions to ensure matching levels of security and legal protection.
On the issue of security there is already a significant threat from URL's passed through Twitter and this is one area that the Cleartext platform excels, we proxy Twitter and apply URL filtering in the same way that email is filtered for phishing links.
In jurisdictions that legislate in a way that almost enforces email archiving the relevant law often talks about electronic communication which again means that archiving and e-discovery solutions deployed for email need to be replicated within an organisations IM and microblogging platforms.
So the message we try to get across to SMB's and SME's is that whilst they may have deployed adequate security and compliance technologies for email many still have holes in their security and compliance polices in the area of IM and microblogging.
Add to this our road map which covers voice and video (all XMPP based) and already includes group chat (think text mode Google+ Huddle) then we're ideally positioned to deliver a comprehensive communication and collaboration platform with the security and compliance pieces baked in, rather than added on via point purchases.
24 May
Microsoft Hosted Exchange®
Sometimes you just can't ignore market forces, espcially when you have customers asking for something you don't have. So we've started offering Microsoft Hosted Exchange® services.
This doesn't mean we're going to stop offering our Exchange equivalent hosted platform based on the excellent Axigen for Linux platform. This means we now have three types of hosted email;
Standard business email hosting with email, calendars, contacts ($2/seat)
MS Hosted Exchange email and collaboration ($12.99/seat).
This enables us to offer an email and collaboration platform for any budget, with or without spam and virus filtering or archiving.
16 May
Fresh Ideas for IT in business
There's exciting news today as we're launching a new business to sit alongside our established Cleartext messaging business, we're calling it Cleartext Systems, a trading name we already own under Cleartext Pty Ltd.
Since 2005 we've come across an increasing number of small businesses looking for help with their IT systems. Typically they aren't big enough to have an IT Manager/Director and outsource their IT to a services provider. This is a good strategy but there's a fair amount of churn in this sector and tech changes rapidly, open source, mobile, cloud etc.
So there's a gap in the market for someone to provide independent part time IT Manager/Director services, and that's where Cleartext Systems steps in. This business is a vehicle for me to use my considerable experience in selecting, building and delivering leading edge IT systems and apply this to smaller businesses.
We'll be keeping it small, offering to complete short term projects to modernise and streamline a businesses IT through the selection of IT systems and services providers that fit their business. I'll also be signing up a few clients on a retainer basis where they need longer term commitments.
I'm excited about this because it gives me way to stay connected to the real business requirements of small to medium businesses which will feed back into our messaging platform at Cleartext. It monetises activity which is already part of what we do in an adhoc manner for clients and takes to market some of what we've learnt building Cleartext, the messaging business.
Of course we've launched a new online presence for this platform, go and take a look at what we managed to put together in 3 working days.
He will be presenting Cleartext's work on real time microblogging over XMPP and making an announcement about Cleartext's technology in this area.
For more information on Sea Beyond go to the events web site.
26 oct
The Adobe 2010 MAX Awards
We didn't win our category (Social Computing) but we did get an Honorable Mention! We're all very happy with this especially as we're only just into release version 1.x of the platform and this award is for one component of it, the desktop app.
The winners in each category of the Adobe MAX Awards will be announced at Adobe MAX 2010 in LA. Check out details of the event and awards here.
12 oct
iiNet deploys a million Zimbra mailboxes
I was just reading this story at Delimiter, when I felt compelled to write a response.
It’s funny how brand plays an important part of a deal. We (Cleartext) looked at Zimbra and decided it was too difficult to manage and unreliable. The add-ons like IM were woeful, using the almost defunct OpenFire XMPP platform. But I will say that Zimbra appears to be getting more traction now that it’s under VMWares wing than it did with Yahoo!.
We were not comparing Zimbra with MS Exchange, I think it’s well ahead of Exchange. No we compared it with several other Linux solutions (@mail, Sun Messaging, etc) of which Axigen came out on top, easily outperforming them all on ease of setup, management, reliability and features.
Axigen has better standards compatibility (FYI MS Exchange still doesn’t have good IMAP support), is OS neutral in both deployment and on the desktop/mobile side and real 24×7 support.
Two years on I can say we made the correct choice as we’re seeing 100% up time year on year. Obviously we’re not counting planned maintenance here, but even that is limited to 30 second restarts node by node.
I’m sure Zimbra will work well for iiNet and having met Greg Bader at iiNet a couple of times he would have done the research to make a selection. But would that research include a fairly obscure product like Axigen, probably not.
What this reinforces is that it’s irrelevant if you have a better platform/product/service if you don’t have the marketing spend to build the brand, only then do you get in front of the decision makers and a chance at landing the big deals.
7 sep
Is Jive SBS still best for web based business 'social'?
I get asked this occasionally as we've worked with Jive for about 5 years. If your main requirement is content creation and management with some social connections then it probably is. I've no doubt there are a lot of 'me to' products now, but Jive do understand the issues better than most in this space.
The other serious option we discuss with clients now is building their own, sounds extreme I know but if you're going to blow a $100k (1200*60 + setup costs) in the first year then ongoing licence costs for years 2 and 3 you'll end up spending half as much.
This is the route we took with CRM, instead of a $15k 3 year SalesForce type deal we spent about $8k building something that was 100% fit rather than an off the shelf product that has to be customised or we'd have to change our processes to use.
I wouldn't have suggested this a few years back but the Web 2.0 revolution delivered some really cool rapid development platforms that can create great Enterprise 2.0 solutions.
If you're cashed up, in a hurry and don't mind fitting in with Jive's workflow go with Jive SBS. If you want to keep costs down, have something that works well for your organisation and can wait 3-6 months build your own.
We made it into the Adobe AIR Marketplace, if anyone wants a trial account on our 'cleartext.im' domain please ask here. A trial account gives you access to our Twitter gateway and our real time Enterprise Microblogging platform. Go to our entry in the marketplace here.
21 jun
Cleartext in ReadWriteWeb's Top 100 Companies
We had no idea that we made ReadWriteWeb's Top 100 Real-Time Web companies last October. Read about it here. William Mougayar of Eqentia, helped put the list and categories together.
12 jun
ISP Data Retention - Your Privacy Needs You
Twitter hosted a storm, well a flash flood (#ozlog), yesterday when ZDNet published a story about the Australian Governments supposed discussions with various ISP's and industry bodies about 'data retention' as breaking news.
I want to make a few things very clear here;
I'm against filtering the internet or tracking peoples activity of any kind*
I was a Director of the Internet Industry Association(IIA) for six years (2004-2010)
I'm not speaking on behalf of the IIA or anyone else, these are my thoughts
I firmly believe that all industry parties involved in this have 'done the right thing'
This is not breaking news if you've been paying attention to privacy issues on the net.
To many in the industry this is far from breaking news, in fact discussions of this type can be seen back as far as 2003, maybe earlier. The current Labour govenment doesn't have a monopoly on internet filtering and tracking. To quote a colleague, "Google is your friend", go do the research and find out for yourself.
As an example the IIA put out a news release in July 2003 'IIA Releases Draft Cybercrime Code of Practice' which talked about 'rights and responsibilities of Internet Service Providers in meeting their enforcement co-operation obligations, while preserving, to the full extent the law, the sanctity of their customers' personal information'.
IIA CEO Peter Coroneos was quoted "we have been at pains to strike what we are convinced is a reasonable balance". In the ZDNet article even Electronic Frontier Australia (EFA) chair Colin Jacobs said "At some point data retention laws can be reasonable, .."
So whilst to some of those following me or the #ozlog hashtag on Twitter yesterday it may have sounded like I was defending policy like this, I wasn't, it's shit policy. But I was slightly annoyed that uninformed commentators were blowing up like this actually was news. Part of this annoyance came from the fact that we, that is the people that have been fighting this for years, could have done with some support well before now.
What I'd say to anyone pitching in on this debate is to do the research first, sure read online 'news' about this, but please go ahead and do some proper research before you start contributing online otherwise you're just making more uninformed noise.
So in summary it's not noise or poorly researched news we need, it's organised communities online and offline that governments will listen to.
So what should you do? Join the EFA, IIA or your preferred industry body, get involved and make a difference, don't just blow up today and blow away tomorrow, your privacy needs you.
by David Banes.
* Obviously I have to exclude organisations doing this as part of compliance activity!
1 jun
Cleartext EIM 2.0 Launched
Today we officially launched our live services and desktop messaging app. We've been in pre-release and talking to clients for a while now and even managed to sign up some early users. Read more here.
30 may
Facebook still failing on privacy
I just checked my Facebook Privacy Settings ‘What your friends can share about you through applications and websites’ and the ‘My Birthday’ was still enabled – That's a real privacy and identity theft risk as fas as I’m concerned and should be OFF by default.
Did you know that you could be recommending products and services to people on Facebook? Check out the ‘Facebook Ads’ section in you ‘My Account’ settings and turn off this feature if you’d rather not be unwittingly promoting advertisers products.
So Facebook is STILL failing on the privacy and safety issues for me, you may want to do an in depth review of ALL the settings in your Facebook account.
6 may
'Re: For whom the tweet tolls'
This article on The Australian’s web site talks about issues around tweeting. Cleartext’s platform can address some of these issues. We believe that enabling 'social' technologies in the workplace with appropriate controls and policies is the way forward.
How can Cleartext EIM 2.0 help?
The article demonstrates why Cleartext EIM 2.0 exists at all. What a great side story to run as the Logies was being aired, if only the news producers had known it was happening, sounds to me like The Age hadn’t a clue until Tuesday!
quote.. ‘Deveny was one of many comedians and journalists who gleefully “tweeted” during the TV Week Logies’, were the news agencies tracking the event on Twitter?
If she was tweeting using Cleartext EIM 2.0 Desktop The Age would have an archived record of the tweets (if it was company policy or a contract requirement).
If a news organisation had EIM 2.0 they could be tracking that conversation as it happened.
It reminds us that journalists have already gone online and Twitter IS being used by them (so some form of policy and technology to enable and control the activity is needed)
Another quote from the article;
‘”Definitely it would serve media organisations well to have a clear policy in place for social media and their uses, considering in the media sector there’s a blur between the line of journalists blogging or tweeting in a personal capacity and the fact they’re associated with the media organisation,” says Blake Dawson media lawyer Jeremy Storer.’
Yes they should, and the technology to help.
And another;
‘”Then from the journalist’s side of things, they need to be aware whatever they’re publishing is going to be read, not only by their employers but by the wider community.”‘
And archived for later eDiscovery if they are using Cleartext EIM 2.0.
And another;
‘This month a British Labour candidate, Stuart MacLennan, was sacked after his “offensive” tweets appeared in a newspaper.’
If they were on Cleartext EIM 2.0 the bad language would have been filtered out.
So in summary, not only does Cleartext provide a platform for gathering, searching and filtering ‘tweets’ we also provide technology to mitigate some of the risks of open social media.
