Jive Software’s Enterprise IM Server Can Now Chat with Public IM Systems
Newest Wildfire server with public gateways marks new era for interoperable IM
PORTLAND, Ore., Oct. 30, 2006 -- Jive Software is making enterprise instant messaging (IM) more open and user-friendly with a new version of its open source Wildfire server. The product now allows users to communicate with anyone employing public proprietary IM networks, including Yahoo, AIM, MSN, and ICQ.
“Jive Software is propelling the exploding business IM market toward a new era where the most widely-used networks and applications can chat with each other, effectively bridging the IM communications gap that has plagued the market,” said Dave Hersh, CEO of Jive Software. “This natural evolution is reminiscent of the 90’s when e-mail interoperability became a reality and the medium took hold as an integral business tool - although IM is proliferating far faster than e-mail and is poised to be the fastest growing communication medium in history.”
Wildfire 3.1 features public gateway support to enable companies to broaden IM communications among their customers and partners, while still maintaining all the security, archiving, auditing, and advanced management benefits inherent to an enterprise-class IM product.
“Our recent IM tracking survey found that roughly 93 percent of North American organizations use IM in some capacity, and virtually 100 percent will by 2009,” said Michael Osterman, president of Osterman Research. “With an open-source product like Wildfire 3.1 that interacts with public systems without sacrificing vital corporate security features, Jive Software is making business IM more functional and driving it even closer to ubiquity.”
Wildfire 3.1 is an upgrade to Jive Software’s popular Wildfire 3.0 open-source enterprise IM server. Public gateways are easily incorporated into Wildfire 3.1 via an application plug-in, an administration benefit over most XMPP (Jabber) systems that require configuring each external component independently. Also, the plug-in model gives the gateways access to the server, which facilitates features like dynamic changes to users’ rosters.
Wildfire 3.1 and the public gateways plug-in can now be downloaded from Jive Software’s Web site. Wildfire Open Source 3.1 with public gateways is free. Wildfire Enterprise 3.1, a plug-in that delivers a number of business-critical features to the core Open Source product, also archives the public gateway communication and is priced by number of user seats.
The Wildfire 3.1 download can be found at: http://www.jivesoftware.org/downloads.jsp#wildfire
The public gateways plug-in download is at: http://www.jivesoftware.org/wildfire/plug-ins-beta.jsp
Blazing New Trail with Open-Source Spark Client
Jive Software is also rolling out an updated version of its Spark enterprise IM client. Spark 2.0 is officially designated as open source by the LGPL, making Jive Software unique in its offering of both an open source enterprise IM server and client.
Some of the new features of Spark 2.0 include:
Official open source code base
Internationalization for multiple language support
Support for bookmarks and quick links
Message notification preferences, broadcasting, and conference rooms
Fast file transferring including the ability to capture and send areas of a screen
Improved plug-in API, making it easier to implement custom plug-ins
Notifications specifying if contact is online, offline or typing
Charting a Fast Path to CRM over IM
Jive Software is also enhancing Fastpath, a part of the commercial Wildfire Enterprise plug-in that delivers CRM capabilities to businesses looking to provide an enhanced level of customer support by intelligently routing and queuing customer chats based upon language, support level and other qualifiers. Fastpath 3.1, an update to Fastpath 3.0, features a new client interface, easier administration configuration and simplified routing rules. Fastpath 3.1 is part of the install for the Wildfire Enterprise 3.1
About Jive Software
Jive Software is committed to innovation in flexible, practical, open-architecture collaboration software for use in any enterprise environment. Jive Software’s products are designed to connect experts, expose knowledge, and make communication between employees and communities more intelligent and intuitive. Fully J2EE, customizable, and standards-based, Jive Software powers collaboration for customers around the world. For more information, see http://www.jivesoftware.com